COCO BUTTER: From scary movie runs to flying high (and everything in between)

Boot camp in the morning of Twilight

Hallo!

Time to update with some of the stuff I keep saying that I'll write about!

Firstly, probably the most full on event I have ever done so far - the Brisbane Twilight Run. This was an event that had a 5km, 10km and half marathon and I signed up for the 10km.

Mish! <3

Before I go on I would like to pay my respects to the man who lost his life in this event. My sincere thoughts are with him and his family. I have no comment about what happened other than to pay my respects. This blog post is about my personal experience in the run and nothing else. But as a fellow runner, and a fellow human, my heart breaks for him and for the victims of the recent Boston tragedy. I am only new to this running thing but I feel that unity thing already: whether we're marathon runners, learning to run, or somewhere in between. My love goes out to them. This story however is just from the point of view of some blonde chick in Brisbane who's trying to lose weight and train for a half marathon. Absolutely no disrespect is intended.

So this was my 1st 10km run - I had done 11km in January but officially I hadn't done 10km. And there was also that whole self belief thing going on - yeah I pulled it off in January, could I actually do it again? Let's try it and see.

Fun with Courts x

During the day Court and I went to boot camp and to see an instore appearance of Mish and the Commando <3 It's hard to decide who I love more :P

And then it was a race to the start line. The 5km event started and finished - it was sunny and basically sunscreen weather. Mother Nature had other things instore though. The 10km and half marathon runners lined up together, and we were off. I ran alongside the amazing Nic. Our goal was just to run the whole thing - I just wanted to not stop and feel good. We kept a nice pace together and just ran comfortably - I was really enjoying it.

Nic and I gearing up!

Then - about 20min. into it, the weather suddenly changed and a storm started to loom. And I mean it was sudden. I had brought a plastic zip lock bag to protect my phone from sweat - I had time to put my phone and iPod into the bag, but I didn't even have enough time to zip the bag up, before the most torrential storm I have been in, started.

Before we knew it, Nic and I were in the middle of what felt like a scary movie. It all happened so quickly. One minute we were jogging in the sunlight, and within probably 5 minutes, we were suddenly thrust into this torrent. The rain was manic - it was coming sideways. The roads started to flood - I can't believe how quickly this happened. The power must have gone out around the area because we had to wait for lightning bolts to be able to see where we were going. It was black until lightning would happen and we could see again for a split second. I guess it didn't matter that we couldn't really see though, as we were in flood water regardless. People were calling out and there was screaming and yelling. It was really scary. I started running sideways so that I could breathe as the water was hitting my face - my mouth, nose, ears and eyes were taking a battering.

Nic and I afterwards

Nic and I kept going. We had to. We went from running 10km for fun to suddenly running to safety. We were running through a flooded road - the fact that it was pitch black probably didn't matter because I couldn't see anyway from all of the rain. I tried to wear my sunglasses to protect my eyes. We had to get out of there. As we got further on we saw heaps of trees down and the sounds of ambulances everywhere. The scary movie feeling just got bigger and bigger. We heard a rumour that they had cancelled the event midway through but didn't know for sure until we were about 8 or 9km in. We had to get back to the start line anyway, so we just kept running. I didn't realise how serious it was at this point and was determined to run our 10km, whether the finish banner was still up or not.

They kept it up - and we ran through it in our best time - and we got a medal. We got to calm down at the finish line and the weather had subsided a lot by that stage. I'm proud of us for continuing - not that we had much choice. We could have knocked on some strangers door and asked for shelter, but retrospect is a great thing - I didn't think of this at the time. At the time it was just a one track mind. Get us out of here - and to do that we had to finish what we had started. It was an experience alright - and not something any of us could have been prepared for.

My most deserved medal to date!

The gorgeous Tracey braved the elements to cheer us across the finish line!

Step 1, 2, 3...

Completely opposite to that event, last weekend I got the amazing opportunity to do some very cool stuff. One thing was to go on a trapeze! And to do floor acrobatics! And weight lifting! And eating fire! And Parkour! And I did cartwheels for the first time since I was a teenager! I went through a phase as a young teenager where I used to do them more often than walking. My Mum said she'd turn around and I'd be cartwheeling behind her instead of walking like a normal person. I got scared as I got older. But last week I did it again! And heaps of boxing! And I did my Round 2 Week 2 goal, mega early and went on the Wheel of Brisbane! And I went on the back of a Harley! All this stuff was amazing. But the thing that got to me the most was the acrobatics. I had to stand on another person. Put all of my body weight on their knees. When you

Step 4 and 5 and I'm up!

have been 141kg there is usually a certain fear factor surrounding doing this. In the past I've had

people make me change which side of the car I am sitting on to even out tyre pressure. So understandably I have a little bit of a reservation about putting my weight on a fellow human being! But I did it. :) And as far as I know, they survived it! Trust is such a complex word....

Trust...

A little nervous

My cartwheel!

Braving my fear at the top of the wheel :)

Katie, Leisa and Court supporting me on the wheel :)

There's always time for playing-it-up selfies

ANZAC Day

This morning being ANZAC Day, some friends and I did the Kokoda Track and another track here in Brisbane. At the top of the mountain we played the Last Post and all stood, silent, listening to it. Even some other people who were exercising there at the time, stopped talking while we played it. :) Lest We Forget.

Today

Oh and last weekend I did parkrun with a fellow 12WBT new friend, Bek. This amazing girl was visiting Brisbane and we caught up so that we could meet and do a run

The awesome Bek

together. She is the most beautiful person and I feel so thankful that I got the opportunity to meet her. From reading each others blogs, to running a 9 seconds off a PB run together was really cool. And then I was lucky to have dinner the next night with another lovely 12WBTer who was visiting Brisbane, Jodie. I love when you meet some people and you feel like you've known them forever. There's so much going on in life and I love being reminded so often at the moment that there are special people around me, and that I can push myself in ways I never dreamed possible.

Lotsa love, Coco Girl xxooo