Forgive me Website, for I have sinned

It has been 106 days since my last blog-session…

I’m still alive and, well, not doing so well on the weightloss front. Let’s come back to that later…

A lot has happened since my last entry:

• I had my 39th birthday
• I went to Singapore, and
• today I went in the Sydney City to Surf – a timed 14km fun run

A couple of years ago I helped a friend video his sister’s wedding. As a result the bride and groom had given me a red balloons (this link) gift voucher. It was for a tidy sum and I needed to find a way to spend it. I chose the helicopter trial instruction flight (TIF). The voucher itself wasn’t enough to pay for the flight, but it covered almost half of it, so I put in the other half as a birthday present to myself and the day before my birthday I took off in a Robinson R22.

The flight was probably a little more than half hour, and it was certainly an experience worth having. I have long had an interest in flying, having even completed a few hours fixed wing as a kid, and wanted to see how a helicopter felt. It was good, but I don’t see the value in continuing on any further, mainly for the same reason I didn’t progressed with my fixed wing license… It’s too expensive.

Then, a few days later, I went off to Singapore for a week, with a couple of night in Kuala Lumpur. This was my first trip overseas (I don’t count Tasmania), and I was not sure what to get from the experience. We met some fantastic people and I could not get over the amount of Aussies we met over there! The friend I went with is a bit of an electronics buff, and we spent many hours in Sim Lim Tower and Square, but we also did some sight seeing, and some casual lazing about too. We even almost got arrested in one of Singapore’s Casinos (hint: Singapore doesn’t have any casinos – but that’s another story).

All-in-all, it was a fantastic experience, one which I will be doing again next year, albeit for much longer and seeing many more places!

And then today I went into the Sydney’s timed fun run, the City2Surf. It’s a 14 km journey that tests not only your fitness, but your resolve for running up very steep hills for long periods! I walked!

I think most city runs have a “heartbreak hill”, but Sydney certainly puts the “break” into it. Because just when you think you’ve mastered the hill, and every corner you go around, you think it’s going to be the last one… and it’s not! Heartbreak hill climbs for around 2.5 – 3km, and it hurts. Hence, I walked. Actually, it wasn’t heartbreak that made me walk, although it would have anyway. By the time I got to heartbreak I had already “broken”.

This is NOT me… this is Martin Dent

Going up the incline to Edgecliff shopping centre, I suffered an awful tightness in my shins (shin-splints). For anyone that’s experienced them, they are debilitating and it’s like someone is holding a blow torch to your shins, only this hurts! I eventually shook/walked them out and continued on.

Then my second problem hit me about the 8km mark, my shoes. I have three very expensive pairs of shoes, and I have only ever run in one of them, but I thought I would try a different pair today. That was a mistake. The pair has a slightly bigger instep (or whatever that little rise is called on the inner part of the soul of the foot, between the ball and the heel). But it was only ever so slight, and as a result that part of my foot was rubbing profusely… constantly… insessently… painfully…

In the end, the run turned into an extended walk – not a power walk, my legs are too short. But a walk/ho chi minh shuffle. My tubby little body crossed the finish line 2 hours and 15 minutes (135 mins) after I started. That’s over 6km an hour. For someone who’s 5′ 6½-7″ and 100kg, I think that’s pretty good! Especially considering that I haven’t done any exercise since March!

Which brings me around to my weightloss. I have had a set-back. I am not yet prepared to call it a failure, but things haven’t gone as planned. I did a massive effort and lost almost 13kg at one point, but sadly, I have put a chunk of it back on. Not all of it, but I am back to 100kg neat. I will not be rising above that mark and I will be starting all over again. A new regime this time, new methods, more madness. Let’s just hope this time I can stick to it.

BTW, the image above is not me, it’s the guy who beat me by a mere 94 minutes, Martin DENT. The first Australian to take out the race since 1997. Well done Martin.