On Open Letter for MOvember

So, you’ve seen me around, you’ve laughed, I’ve itched...

Or maybe you haven’t, you’ll just have to trust me :)

You’ve hopefully asked me what on Earth I’m doing with that thing on my face?!

I’ve hopefully told you that mens health issues don’t just affect men, and hence I’m standing by the men in my life in order to raise some awareness (and hopefully some money) for MOvember.*

If you do nothing else, please visit

http://www.nibmanmuster.com.au/health.php

And learn a little about some of the issues that you (or the men in your life) may face, and how to keep on top of your form.

If you have an extra few minutes (and that’s really all it takes) then please donate something (everything helps) to a very worthy cause:

http://au.movember.com/mospace/994690/

These things don’t just affect men, they affect everyone they know and everyone they care about. The Woodie Woodie team (Woodie Wooded Wizards) are aiming to raise at least $2000, and but if we can beat the West Perth team that would good too!
Remember, you can donate from anywhere in the world!
Thanks for reading this far!

The Mo will remain around ‘til the end of MOvember, so feel free to keep laughing at me!
(as long as you promise to consider the serious side too!)

Ellen



*The more detailed answer to “what on Earth I’m doing with that thing on my face?!” is that my friends father passed away from complications to prostate cancer, because he didn’t get checked until too late. As a result, we’re prowling the minesites of WA with the aim of stopping others going through what her family went through. So for the last week, and until the end of the month-formally-known-as-November I am sporting different yet equally attractive (and itchy) Mos, in styles such as “The Scoundrel” (top), “The Bandit” (bottom) and todays special, “The Casanova”.

MoVember

http://au.movember.com/mospace/994690/

:(

My fiancés father is having some trouble at the moment;  He's been signed off work since mid October, had a transient ischemic attack (a mini stroke) that put him in hospital last week, and he had an appointment with the surgeon yesterday, with the surgery happening on thursday. I don't really know many details about it. unclogging his arteries I think...

He's in England, we're here, and to make it even worse we both work away, so I'm in one place and he's 800km away from me. My fiancé is mostly pretending to be tough, but he's also very worried, upset and not sleeping.

I don't know what to say to him, apart from "I love you and will always be here for you", and I feel guilty because I was the one who originally 'dragged' us both over here, though he was more than willing after a little persuasion. I keep feeling upset (tears in eyes etc) when I think about it because its my worst nightmare pretty much realised. But I need to stay strong too!

We're planning a trip home at Christmas now, but at the moment that seems such a long way away.

Pink Triathlon 2010 - A whole year of blogging!

So, I started this blog with a post about the Pink Tri, and I'm happy I did as I now have something to go back and compare to!

So last years course was 300m swim, 10km cycle and 3km run.
I finished in 1:02:44, with some dodgy timing that didn't separately record transition breaks, so it all merged together. But overall that put me 302nd  overall and 29th in my category (I jumped up a notch this year!).

So then this year came, and I knew I wanted to do it again, but what with everything else that has been happening I didn't get much training in...

The day started OK, we got The Boys bike into the car, got there with time to spare (though they'd already set the kids off before they'd closed registration, so they were trying to get us all out of transition before there was time to set up) but I realised as I was waiting for the race briefing that I'd left my goggles in transition. NIGHTMARE! So I sent they Boy off to get them, and he got back just in time for kick off despite having to haggle for entry to transition :)
Then came my turn to jump in the pool and I instantly got mild cramp in my right calf, so swam the first 75m with only my arms, trying to stretch my leg out without stopping! It came right again eventually. The swim is my weakest point, so I was happy to complete it in much less time than last year- 7 minutes! (and 8 seconds)

Then on through the longest transition in the world! The pool they used this year was well away from the racks, so there was a long waddle through crowds and over gravel and sand and some attempts at matting. At least by the time I made it to transition I was quite dry :) 5 minutes was pretty bad time-wasting though!

Onto The Boys bike, which was awesome. Compared to my hybrid, his road bike felt like it was powering itself. I wooshed up and down the 9km at ridiculous speed, only to loose balance and nearly drop the bike on the way back into transition! It was all good though; the bike was fine and so only I was left with scratches and bruises down my shin...

On to the run and... I got a stitch. My best leg, and I got a stitch. I was pretty gutted to be honest, but at the same time I wasn't really doing it as a race-race, more a fun-race so it wasn't too bad. 3 laps around the new athletics stadium and it was all over, in a massively improved 53:26!
Even when you add in the extra 1km on the bike, thats only another3 minutes, so 6 minutes chopped off in real-ish terms. Not bad over such a short course.

179th overall (down from 302nd, with similar)

34/89 in my category (29/58 last year)

My First Dress

My First Dress!

For our engagement/residency/birthday party soon.

Dress code is bright, and this sure is bright :)

http://www.burdastyle.com/projects/kidsplay-coffee-date-dress for more details