World Championships Await

I fly to Holland for the World 24 Hour Championships tomorrow to run for New Zealand. I’m getting excited. I love a good party.

My mother and father have flown over from New Zealand to crew for me. Okay, so they've flown over for my wedding and the race just happens to coincide but they’ll be there nonetheless. Olivia has decided that she’s a fan of Red Bull and has signed herself up again. Scott has saved himself the trauma of watching me smear my face with coke and then pee myself. Wise man.

Below is a breakdown of my training schedule for those who like to follow a thorough plan:

My food box is ready which is the most exciting part of this whole experience. There’s enough scroggin to provide three meals a day for a week. I’d love to see the security guard’s face when he checks out the bag going through the x-ray. The plastic cutlery has been packed in check-in luggage just in case it’s deemed an offensive weapon. That’s also an exciting part of this experience; check-in luggage.

Panic buying has been occurring daily. Usually it’s a trip to a supermarket where I buy yet another variety of custard. Yesterday I couldn’t match any socks. Today I can only find one arm warmer. I STILL haven’t decided on the exact outfit for the occasion (although at the moment it’s looking like it won’t contain both arm warmers). I did get my vest, t-shirt and shorts sent over. The intention was to open the parcel in the office in front of lots of people, generating excitement and pretty much just showing off. Unfortunately, the uniform arrived on a Friday and there were about two of us in the office. Not quite the impact I was hoping for. I did a trial run with my shorts whilst engaging in a bit of sweeping at the Highland Fling. They required a trial run due to their length. They are running shorts from the eighties and leave little to the imagination. Possibly not a great idea when I am going to struggle to pull them up properly ten hours into the race. Although I might get a decent tan if the weather stays fine. I’ve packed my rain jacket (I could dedicate a blog post to my rain jacket alone as it gets so much coverage in this blog) but there’s no way I can get the vest on top of it due to its bulk. And I have to step into it because of the dodgy zip. And in a 24 hour race I would rather not step any further than necessary. So if it rains, I’ll need to harden up. It’s a free swim after all and a lot cheaper than a session with Edinburgh Leisure.

You can follow the New Zealand teams progress on the following Facebook page or by following me on Twitter @PetiteFeetRun. There’s also a live streaming page on the IAU site which will likely update with progress of the leaders. You’ll not find anything for me on this page but I’m hoping that you’ll be able to follow some of the GB runners here J

I’ll see if I can get photos of famous people. My mum’s job is to get photos of famous people just before they are lapping me so it looks like I’m in front. Classic.

Now all I have to do is check I’ve got enough party food, try on my tracksuit and get some last words of wisdom from Keith Hughes. The job is easy really; run really slowly for 24 hours. And enjoy it, you’ve got the weekend off work after all. I’m hoping on a 2.314km lap that navigation won’t be an issue.

In other news, I get married in FOUR WEEKS. Let’s hope I manage to think up some vows during the race because we are currently being piped up the aisle and then straight back down again.