10km fun run.

Today was the Hunter Valley running festival that includes a marathon, half marathon, 10km, 6km and children's marathon. My friends Delena and Dale signed up ages ago and I kept putting off registering for the even. I went to the website this week to register and I saw that the price had gone up and I wouldn't get a t-shirt. So, being the thrifty person I am, opted not to register! But we didn't want to miss out on supporting fine runners so we still planned to go. Then yesterday I met up with Delena's brother in law Bill who said that he wasn't going to run the race so I could use his bib! Which meant at 7am this morning we left Cooranbong to drive to the beautiful Hunter Valley in considerable thick fog. It was very cold and we got there in plenty of time. We ended up waiting in the car for an hour or so keeping warm. You can see in the first photo the dense fog.





About 20 minutes prior to our 10km run the fog lifted and sun came out and everthing warmed up! The scenery was picturesque as we ran through the Hunter Valley Gardens, vineyards and quieter back streets. There was a few hundred people in the race and quite a steep, long hill in the first half of the run. Took me about an hour to do the run and I felt good. A little stiff now but nothing a few more days in my hot tub won't cure!


Colin and Benny came along and hung out for the morning. I love that about my husband. He supports me unconditionally. He looks after Benny so that I can do a run or triathlon or go shopping with the girls or clean the house. He doesn't begrudge me or guilt me. Colin wants me to be happy and content and he is amazing.

I like that both Colin and I want to lead healthy, active lives so we can pass this on to our son. We both know the benefits of being fit, being strong and enjoying movement of our bodies. We want Benny to be happy moving his body in ways that benefit him and surprise him! And what better way to lead by example. My Mom and Dad lead active lives and lead by example and believed in sport and this has lead me to believe in exercise too.

Benny holding my medal.

Dreadock update:
Today was hair washing day!! What sweet relief! I was amazed that my head didn't start to feel itchy until yesterday. The recommendations that i had read was to leave my dreads for a week or two before washing. So I waited as long as possible and today I got to wash. I have dread shampoo which really is shampoo without a lot of additives. I'm not to condition as this will make my dreads harder to lock up! My dreads have started to loosen a bit so they are a longer which I rather like. There are about 2 dreads at the back that are quite loose and I'm waiting patiently for my loctitians to return from the snow to fix them up!! I"m still loving them. I feel a lot less like I have to "do" my hair and just leave it the way it is. Most reactions have been positive and no one has said anything negative to me. I've noticed some not so sure facial reactions and that's fine. It's been interesting and lot less "out there" than I thought. After all, it really is only a hairstyle!