Hi Blog followers and welcome to Blog # 10. For this week I have shifted my training from ‘Windy Wellington’ to ‘Quake City Christchurch’.
Last weeks blog talked how my health is the best it has ever been, this time though I was required to assist my mother after post-op surgery where she needed home-care with my brother, sister and I taking a week about at helping her. Whilst I won’t get into her medical requirements, it certainly makes you appreciate the health we have. I was fortunate that in between University and work requirements my nephew played tag to take care of his grandmother for a couple of hours each day, where my mother insisted I went out and did training, not to sure who is the most stubborn one in the family here, but I can see Coach Ray rolling his eyes back on that one.
With taking my mother to various appointments and when I did manage to get out training on the roads, you can see where Christchurch is slowly recovering in many parts of the city and other parts where the infrastructure is slower progress. An earthquake of mere minutes takes many years to recover. Heart-breaking as the family home where I was raised was completely destroyed and fell into the hands of the bulldozer. Christchurch incidentally was where I ran my first Marathon at the age of 13 or 14 for simply one reason, to better my eldest sister who was doing the Christchurch Half Marathon (sibling rivalry or that stubborn factor again). I could hardly walk after it and it took me about 4 and a half hours. It wouldn’t be until I was a young soldier in Singapore before I would do another one. I often wonder where I could of gone with the sport if I took it seriously as a teenager, but then again, I would of never dreamed that I would complete Ironman events later in life, let alone an Ultraman and now lining up more (stubborn streak or a desire to chase my dreams)!
As you are all aware, I am doing another fundraising event after raising funds for the Children of the Fallen at this years Ultraman Australia. My next fundraising venture of 3+2+1=Charity equals 1306 km’s of swimming, cycling and running at the 3 Half Ironman events over 3 consecutive weekends, followed by 2 Ironman events over 2 weeks, followed by 1 Ultraman event over 1 long weekend (plus hundreds of kilometres in training under the careful guidance of Coach Ray). So with fundraising in mind, whilst In Christchurch my brother who is the Manager of the Sumner Colts Rugby Team, invited me along to their fundraising function last night… invited in the sense of bring ya wallet! Making sure my nephew was available to look after mum for a few hours, we attended the fundraising dinner followed by auction of rugby memorabilia, which was hosted by former All Black and Crusaders Head Coach for 2017-19 Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson along with Sky TV Sports Commentator Scotty ‘Sumo’ Stevenson. It was a hilarious night and good chance to take my mind of things with mums health.
This returns me to this weeks photo’s of Day 3 of Ultraman Australia 2016. The first photo is of Race Director Tony Horton having a quiet moment with words of encouragement with each athlete as we prepare to commence the daunting day ahead of us of the double Marathon of 84.3 km’s of running. The second photo is the athletes joining as one before we head to the start line, you can see the focus in our faces, especially of the inspirational Andre Kajilich in his wheel chair. That guy was an amazing competitor at Ultraman Australia and certainly inspired us all to keep going.
Photo’s courtesy of Barry Alsop (Official Photographer of Ultraman Australia 2016).
Take care team – regards John Humphries (Aka Humps, Aka UltraHumps)!