Half Melbourne Marathon

16 October 2016

The Melbourne Marathon was my first ever marathon - I ran it in October last year (2016) and that's a story for another post - but having ran the Sydney Marathon in September I wasn't planning on entering for Melbourne this year... That is until Ina Graham asked me to run to raise funds for the Lentara Asylum Seekers Project. Ina can be very persuasive and, while I prefer not to run to fund raise (I don't like the idea of always asking my friends and family for donations, when I am running because running is just something I enjoy doing) this was a really important and worthy cause, so I signed up for the half marathon (too close to the Sydney Marathon to contemplate having a crack at the full 42kms) and got my fundraising webpage set up....

Joel also joined me in the fundraising efforts, taking on the 10k course....

Starting in Batman Avenue, we headed up into Flinders Street, theninto Swanston Street, over Princes Bridge and then south along St Kilda Road. At St Kilda Junction, we turned  into Fitzroy Street then into Lakeside Drive and do an anticlockwise lap of Albert Park Lake, Then headed up St Kilda Road into Southbank Blvd, Sturt St, under the St Kilda Rd, along Alexandra Ave into Linlithgow Ave loop[ing back into St Kilda Road. Then turning for home at Princes Walk through Birrarung Marr overf the William Barak Bridge, to take a hairpin turn on to Jolimont St to Brunton Avenue for final turn into MCG and do a lap of "The G" to finish.

It was quite windy during the race which made some sections quite challenging, particularly around Albert Park Lake, but overall very enjoyable and I managed a pretty good time of 1:41:21.

Joel comfortably finished the 10k in 51:02 then went off to play premier cricket in the afternoon (taking 3 wickets too). Between the two of us we raised over $2,100 for the Lentara Asylum Seekers Project - big thanks to all our supporters!!!