Climbing into Adventure

On October 10th this year, I will be running in the Melbourne Marathon as part of the Lonely Planet team, helping raise awareness and much needed funds for Motivation Australia.

Motivation Australia is a not for profit charity that works to enhance the quality of life of people with mobility disabilities in the Asia Pacific Region. People without a wheelchair are virtually prisoners in their own homes. They are denied their right to mobility, independence, access to employment, the ability to participate in family, community and social events.

As a team, we are hoping to raise $20,000. If you can help with a donation, please click here to go to our fundraising page.

Thanks for your support.

Variety, the Children's Charity is dedicated to enriching the lives of children in need throughout Australia. As a fundraiser, the inaugural Santa Fun Run took place on Thursday 10th December at Albert Park, just south of Melbourne.

For me, the main attraction to this fun run (other than helping raise funds of course), was the fact that upon registering at the HQ, you were given a 5-piece Santa suit to wear for the duration of the race! As a sea of red and white began to fill the grounds of Albert Park, my friends and I got together and realised how fantastic we all looked.

As the clouds started to build, Chris and I lined up ahead of the others as we were doing the 10km run (they were doing the 5km walk). The 'real' Santa dropped by for a visit as the starting gun went off and the running began. Immediately the Santa suits were flapping in the wind as the not-so-efficient belts began to break. About 10 minutes into the run the heavens opened with horizontal rain, thunder and lightning. Laughing at the fact that there were now many soggy Santas running/walking around a lake, I felt for the organisers who previously postponed this event in November due to bad weather.

But like any good Santa, our work had to continue and Chris and I kept on going. I jokingly said that it would probably be sunny by the time we reached the finish line, and in true Melbourne style it sure was! Walking to the car and driving home through St Kilda in full Santa suit, we certainly had some strange looks - it must have been my big bright rosie cheeks!

Day 2

A late night last night and with a wake up call of 5.30am I suprised at how much energy I had this early in the morning - which was lucky as I had a 'warm up ride' from Elwood to the Docklands as the trains don't run that early on a Sunday!

With our our map covered in post it flags & instructions highlighted, we started the day at 7.30am with a run around Harbour Town which helped split the 200 person pack. A navigation challenge was next which involved looking at photos and finding where they were in Harbour Town - this helped you solve a puzzle which in turn allowed you to pick up your bike and head off for the rest of the day. Although we came in towards the back of the pack in the run, we blitzed this challenge and made up quite a few places.

Racing out of town towards the MCG our first novelty checkpoint was pushing Sal around in a rubber tube. Down to the bike tracks along the Yarra, Sal found herself in a long, dark, muddy drain pipe with no torch to get the next one. A quick climb along the Burnley Rock Climbing wall saw us riding towards St Kevin's boat sheds. As Fe and Sal went for a quick paddle up the river, I studied the map and spoke to the locals. This proved to be very handy as I discovered a short cut to take me to the next checkpoint I had to collect on foot.

Collecting random checkpoints along the Monash Trail, we came out at the Velodrome in Hawthorn and on to the Hockey field where we had to get a goal to continue (it's harder than you think). The previous day's rain meant that we didn't have to complete the planned swim across the river, instead, we stayed dry for a little longer and made our way to Caulfield Racecourse.

Bikes were parked and after a quick abseil down the side of the grandstand, the next hour was spent collecting checkpoints on foot around the Racecourse. Back on the bike and we headed to Princes Park in Brighton, before the rain started pouring again just as we entered Brighton Cemetery. I had some luck at this checkpoint and found it immediately which allowed us to overtake a few teams.

Collecting checkpoints on our way towards Elsternwick, we were soon at Elwood Fish & Chip shop for a compolsory potato cake and chips. The ride down Acland Street in St Kilda must have been entertaining for the public as we had to find the 'Rat' having coffee somewhere along the road. Up Canterbury Road and we were soon at MSAC. Arriving we were told to go to the Basketball courts and we were releaved that this meant no getting wet in the pool. A quick shot at goal and we went to our next clue .......... which told us to make our way to the diving pool! Off we went and Sal raced up to jump off the 7 meter platform. Fe and I were soon asked what we were doing just watching and instructed that we each had to jump off. Now i am not afraid of heights, but standing up there was really quite scary!

Back on the bikes and again it didn't matter that we were wet from the pool as it was pouring rain. Up Beaconsfield Parade we made our way to Westgate Park and the long stretch down Lorimer Street heading back to the finish line. Racing as hard as we could as we knew we had a good chance of winning, we came into Harbour Esplanade just as the sun started shining.

The hour wait for presentations was quickly filled with drying out our shoes and socks, drinking a well earned beer and trying not to get too excited at the fact that we may have come first. Soon enough though, we heard TEAM SAFIKI announced in first place and we were extatic. A new pair of Merrell shoes and a magazine subscription to Outer Edge - what an amazing way to complete our first ever Rat Race.


View Rat Race 2009 in a larger map

Tips for Climbing into this Adventure:

• if you have the time, use Google maps to become familiar with the areas where checkpoints are located
  
• clearly mark out checkpoints on your map for easy reading on whilst on the bike
• give one person the responsibility of navigating. One person the responsibility of collecting checkpoints. The other person can be an assistant to both, keeping and eye out overall
• be prepared to do things that you wouldn't normally do
  
• try not to get too caught up in 'race mode'. Make sure you enjoy the scenery and the time with your mates
  

Day 1

Rat Race 2009 certainly put on a fantastic show.

Starting at 4pm Saturday afternoon, we were handed our maps and clue sheets and planned our attack of retrieving as many of the 33 checkpoints we could between the hours of 5pm & 8pm.

The starting gun went off before we knew it and 150 people started running down Harbour Esplanade and around the Docklands. My team mates (Sally & Fe) and I went to the footy challenge first where Sal was a star and scored an easy two goals. A quick climb up the rock tower in the new Anaconda store in South Wharf and we found ourselves running into the heart of the city. The rain started pouring and our next check point of ‘finding the rat’ turned into finding a 'drowned rat'. Some checkpoints in the city were only available during certain times within the three hour period, and our strategic planning at the start of of race saw us successfully retrieving many of them. Heading north to the City Baths we expected that at least one of our team would have to get wet at this checkpoint, but as they told us that all three of us had to go for a dip, we were a little suprised. Jumping in almost fully clothed, it didn’t matter too much as running to our next checkpoint was done in the pouring rain and you wouldn’t have even known we had been in a pool.

Back towards the Docklands we had to be at the “Say Cheese” checkpoint between 7.15 – 7.17. Having a group photo taken earned us 100 points and we ran back to Waterfront City to get as many of the remaining checkpoints we could in the final 30 mins. Eating a spicy pizza, tightrope walking, a bit of ice skating and pushing a 4WD car around a rooftop car park filled up the final time.


Checking in our time card at 8pm, we were told that we achieved a total of 850 points out of a possible 1050, putting us in FIRST PLACE in the womens teams (and 9th overall).

Before we left for the night, we received our maps and instruction booklet for the following day. It was going to be a long night studying the info and picking our route, but I knew it was going to be worthwhile.

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Tips for Climbing into this Adventure:

• take your time in the planning stage - read instructions very carefully as you can easily miss things when you are out running
• clearly communicate to both team mates directions and ideas
  
• know your team mates strengths and weaknesses. Work together to ensure everyone has a great time
  

Sunday 11th October staged a gorgeous day for the 2009 St George Melbourne Marathon.

Starting by the banks of the Yarra on Batman Avenue, Zeljko and Jason were the first to set off at 7am for their Marathon (42.1km) run. At 7.30am, myself, Charity, Glenn, Hunor, Chris, Ruth & Howard started our 10km race and were the first group to run to the finish line in the MCG around an hour later. 8am saw the half marathoners (21km) start and Ed, Caroline, Bryony, Adam, Jasna, Lorna and Tom made their way to Albert Park before merging with the returning Marathon runners on their way back to the MCG. At 10.30am whilst Jason and Zeljko were still out on their marathon course, Jen, Sam & Lilian set off for their 5km walk. We also had 9 friends of LP staff who ran various distances.

As a team, Lonely Planet performed extremely well with the following results:
Half Marathon - 7th out 24 (in the social category)
10k race - 8th out of 26 (in the social category)


We were even more excited about the true nature of this event – raising funds for the Angkor Children’s Hospital in Cambodia. We are proud to announce that with the Planet Wheeler Foundation’s matching contribution, we will be donating $14,547 to this children’s hospital. This is such an amazing result and we have you and all the runners’ family and friends to thank for this.

Supporting the Angkor Childrens Hospital - Cambodia

My next race is running 10km in the Melbourne Marathon and as part of the Lonely Planet team, I am helping raise funds for the Angkor Childrens Hosptial in Cambodia. This is a free hospital for children, of which most are treated for Pneumonias and respiratory diseases. The need for oxygen tanks for the simple treatment of helping a child breathe costs approximately $1000 per month.

I am aiming to personally raise $300 to help support this hospital. If you can help with a donation, please click here to go to my personal fundraising page.

Thanks for your support.