Fancy Footwork...Fun!

Vibrant community... I think so.

I was really hoping to write a post before Fancyfootwork for Hope Fun Run happened on the 19th January...mmm that didn't happen! There are seriously only so many hours in a day! haha and right now sleep is becoming somewhat of a priority.

I really wanted to share why, how and the results of my first grand scale (in my reality!) charity event. On my journey to Ironman I wanted to remain grounded and not let it totally consume me, so I decided early on that I would make this challenge bigger than me by choosing a charity to raise awareness and funds for.

Find out more about the beginnings of this adventure and the charity in my previous post, Bigger than me.

Along with raising funds and awareness for a unique cause, I wanted to create an event that would bring a vibrant community of people together, whilst being active. I'll let you in on a secret....I had no idea what I was doing, nor what I was getting myself into, but in order to make anything happen you have to put yourself and your idea out there! Before long I had rallied an amazing team around me and got the right people to see the possibility. 

Coffee - before, during and after... why not!

Registration on the day, nothing like last minute fun.

My initial conversations about hosting a fancy dress fun run were quite entertaining. Most responses were along the lines of, 'oh that's a nice idea' what they were really thinking, 'damn she's crazy and she wants me to help her out.... as if this is going to float!' Well that's what I put together from the tone of their voices :)

However once I secured the venue, Woodleigh School, got public liability and created a logo, flyer and online registration page, people were getting the jist that my team and I ment business! Before long we were in the local Leader paper and on the local airwaves RPP FM; I stuck to my word and made it happened! 

Now that's a fancy start line :)

I set my sights high: 200 people and $5500 raised! 

Our morning resulted in 60 people dressing up and galavanting past the sheep and kangaroos around the gorgeous course, and we raised an awesome $2,350 for Send Hope not Flowers!

Nothing ever 'Grand' happens when you stand alone....
this was the amazing team behind an amazing morning!

Yep I could have been down hearted with this result after setting myself such a big goal but where would that lead me? Instead I stayed in the possibility of a vibrant community whether that be 10 or 100 and for that we had an amazing morning. This whole event was beyond my wild dreams just 6 months ago. However with the support of the community, our sponsors: Woodleigh School, Trispecify, Mornington Peninsula Magazine, Lilly Belle, King Creek Hotel, Hydralyte, I Do Aircon, Coles, Main Street Mornington, and C Max Communication and a superstar team of 14 friends and family who took ownership of the event. This resulted in the transformation of a crazy possibility to an incredible reality.

We also want to make a huge shout out to Lucy and Nathan from Fraklin Coffee and thier adorable caravan for donating their Sunday morning, Daniel Wormell from Calibre Entertainment for supplying the mornings soundtrack, Start to Finish for donating an impressive Gantry and Tully's fresh fruits for donating copious amouts of oranges and apples!!

This is what it's all about, puts such a smile on my face.

It going to happen again, bigger and better! So keep and eye out for us Fancy Footwork for Hope and get your thinking caps on!! Again we couldn't have done it with out our incredible sponsors who believed in us from the get go! 

Xx

Catch up - Grape Run

This last week has just flown by and I need to fill you in!

pre race hustle and bustle 

So last weekend, Morgan and I ventured up to Healsville to run the 30km Yarra Valley grape run (we clocked in 31km). Coach Clinton wasn't too keen on this, as it really doesn't complement my training at the moment, so ' take it easy peasy' were my orders. These instructions were a blessing in disguise. Even though it was going to be the longest distance I have ever ran, by 10kms, I really didn't give it a thought until we got there.

team M & M before the run

I would be lying if I were to say I woke excited the morning of the run. I had worked until 10pm the night before, not getting to bed til 11:30pn with the alarm going off at 5am! I'm only human.

Once we got to Healsville Morgs and I went for a quick warm up jog, that was all I needed to get in the right frame of mind. There were roughly 400ppl out that morning running the 30kms. Amazing to see so many people out there challenging themselves :)

Morgs gave me the plan of taking an energy gel at the 8, 16 & 24 km mark and to run, roughly, 5mins kms. This set me up really well in terms of pacing myself and to also break up the run into manageable pieces.

The scenery was beautiful, green rolling hills, wineries and paddocks of roaming live stock. Hang on, did I mention the roll hills? Yes, beautiful to look at, yet they're not so attractive when you have you use all your woman power to get up them!

I have never run any long distance ‘fun runs’ with a partner. This was a whole new experience. It was great, because we were taking it easy Morgs and chatted most of the way and he kept reminding me of the ‘easy peasy’ I had been given. I am prone to getting a tad over excited and speeding up…a lot!

We got to the 11km mark and I felt like I could easily do another 11km. Then we reached the 19km, this mark was nestled amongst the rolling hills. I was feeling strong up the hills and still felt like I had another 10kms in me at this pace we had set.

afterward legs were feeling a tad heavy, yet the spirits were high

I was so happy to finish the 30kms along side Morgs in 2hrs and 33mins. And to top off what was a great morning, I ended up placing 3rd in my age group :)

the delish 'ginger ninja' from Veggie Bar

Now you always need to hydrate and nourish the body after a run of this distance. We couldn't go past Veggie Bar in Fitzroy. Sooo good, the nachos and the burrito hit the spot and I had the hydration covered with the delish ginger ninja cocktail ;)