Team Hamada

Song Hong means ‘Red River’ in Vietnamese.  It was chosen as the race event name for the Red River Runners as it summed up both our Running group name and reminded us that we live next to the Song Hong in Hanoi.  Clever eh?  This week has been a very busy week for me as I have been the main organiser for this race this year.  I have worked with a great team, but it has been a long week checking my lists and re-checking my lists, and as always you find that you forgot something important after the race – oh well… there is always next year.  So last year we had about 100 runners, and this year we had over 240 registered runners, so a big day for us as a running club.  We were very excited to see so many line up on the start line and head off into a beautiful blue sky Hanoi day (we couldn’t have asked for anything better today weather wise!).  We had a 10 Km race which Clint entered, finishing with a respective 56m47s (goal was under an hour, so very easily achieved!) and I ran the Half Marathon, backing up from last Sunday’s Angkor Wat effort.  I admit that I really hadn’t thought about my race this week, more focus on the event itself, but I was very happy to run with the fast legs and to not miss the start… and run a very happy PB 1.33.43 taking another two minutes off from last week (which makes me really wonder about what I could have run last week on fresh legs and less lethargy…hmm).  The kids then ran in their 1.5Km race, with Scarlett having a carry from mum (she then ran around all over the place when the race was done… typical).  Oscar and Ophelia did a wonderful job running around the course, Oscar was pleased with himself and they all got medals for their efforts.  We then enjoyed brunch together with others from the race and had a very lazy afternoon.  A great morning – hoping for a repeat performance next year.  Next project – blue berry picking, enjoying the beach!  And then the next race in Bangkok in January… off we go again!

Tags: 10 Km, Half Marathon, Hanoi, Red River Runners, Song Hong, UNIS

Anyone who knows me could tell you that I am passionate about running.  I think that this passion has really been fueled by having a strong support base both in Team Hamada but also in the local running scene in Hanoi.  I love knowing that other people are out logging their long runs on Sunday mornings or squeezing them in between Saturday soccer and the Saturday bath time with their kids, it is all a matter of balance.

So, the Angkor Wat ½ marathon was advertised way back, and I had heard from previous years’ participants that it was one not to miss.  I talked to Clint about this, the early mornings up and me running on weekends, and once he gave the green light, I was off.  I developed an 18 week plan thanks to a great book by Chad?  About coaching yourself, something that I do anyway, but great to read about things that I am doing that he is highly recommending and also new ideas about training that I have been embracing.  Since this was a whole body effort, I decided to try going vegetarian for this training period, which has been a great challenge in itself, but I have to admit that it has made a great difference for my body.  I now have to wean myself off the sugar, I have also lowered my carbonated drink intake and have trialed race gels and power bars/drinks to see if they would help me fuel up early in the mornings and out on long runs.

I registered for the run, booked the tickets, got training.  And was running well.  [well except for after the Vertical marathon I got sick and found motivation lacking, but things picked up 2 weeks later – will have to remember this for next time]I left for Siem Reap on Friday 2^nd Dec, uneventful trip, arrived and felt like I had walked into an intimate town, very lovely locals, quaint hotel and the town was laid out all within an easy walk.  I was very fortunate to come with my good friends, Meg and Drew, who I have been doing longer runs with and moaning about illness and all other race related issues!  (Thanks for letting me enjoy this weekend with you two!).

We met for pasta and pre-race nerve calming at L’Orsa ? an Italian place that had been recommended to us, the food was pretty good, but we were all a bit nervous about the night/morning ahead.  Early to bed, and a long night turning and waiting, anxious about missing the alarms or not getting a wake up call.  But I shouldn’t have worried, my body does nervousness well, I was up at 4.45am, having had a long night checking my watch every 1.5 hours.  A quick bite to eat and then off we go in the Tuk Tuk (arranged driver failed to show up) to pick up M&D and then out to Angkor Wat for the big race!  As soon as we arrived it was clear that this was a BIG event, people everywhere but the temples and the scenery just made up for all of the negative things that come with big crowds.  I of course needed the toilet and made my way for the queue.  And waited.  And waited.  And pushed ahead of the 10Ker’s in the line… 15 mins went past, it is getting clear to me that I am going to have to miss my warm up… and then I finally waited so long that I missed the start of the race.  Yes. MISSED IT.  18 weeks of training… but I had a race timing chip on my foot, so I made my way to the line, fought with the officials (not just me had had this issue) and I decided (quite clear headed really) that I would go over the chipping mat and just go.  So I did, (this sounds easy, but acutally it meant running through 400 runners who were lined up for the next race start as their race went the opposite way to ours…) so after pushing people aside left and right, I was off.  Free and running.  Nothing like it.  Adrenalin rush.  And I was loving it. 

I didn’t get to run with the fast legs, but it felt so good to pass people all the way around.  I didn’t get over taken but I also had to fight my way through the whole crowd.  So, the race was amazing around Angkor Wat and through 2 archways it as just so beautiful, a great green jungle lives around the temples and it smelt amazing.   I stuck close to my race plan but had another major setback when I ran out of music.  Dead battery on the ipod shuffle, really I hadn’t planned this so well. But I had a great run, my goal was to keep under the 4.30min/K mark and I almost did that, I wanted to get under 1 hour 35 mins as I felt this was a good goal for me.  The disappointment set in for me at the end, I didn’t get to run with faster legs (always a bonus when racing as they pull you around faster) and I didn’t get to start on time and I am not even sure that my time registered (did the chip work?) and I am waiting in the airport with M&D to see if our results are true and up (am I there?) and we have already decided, we will be back next year – this was an amazing race and I am not done yet.  Oh, and yes a PB for me 1.33.50 (by my watch).  I have a new plan for next year, I just hope for a better execution of it.  Damn toilet lines.

Next weekend – the Song Hong (Hanoi Red River Runners) 10K and ½ marathon – I am co-organizing this event, and yes we have lots of toilets!

UPDATE: Results are in – official time is 1.33.57 and 6th Place (out of 631 Women )

Every school year, UNIS ES and ECC students are invited to join in a Walkathon to raise funds for Blue Dragon, a charity that uses its money for underpriviledged youth. We are big fans, and as always, we have made a film to try and encourage our friends and family to support this worthy cause. If you do have the spare funds to donate, please do let us know so that we can write you up on Oscar’s sponsorship table for school. Thank you again.

Tags: Blue Dragon, Sponsorship, UNIS Hanoi, Walkathon

Bitexco Vertical Marathon

I have had an extraordinary weekend.  The story begins in April, over the swimming pool of Hua Hin, I met a mother of 2 who was incredibly fit and asked her what she did – she must have a secret – and she told me that she was a runner and had recently decided that she would compete in Vertical Marathons.  What is a vertical marathon?  Well, in its basic form, stair case racing.  Running up sky scrapers, one floor at a time… so inspired to try something different I started reading and researching – what kinds of races are there?  How far do I need to run?  What are the issues?  Could I train for this and the ½ marathon at the same time?  After talking to some people and making time to do some training, I made the decision to race in Vietnam’s first vertical marathon in Ho Chi Minh City.  I entered.  I booked flights.  So fast forward to the beginning of Oct – I have been running stairs 1x week; I am doing hill sprints (as best you can in Ha Noi) and I am working hard for Angkor Wat which is in December.  I get an email from the organizer of the event, he has seen my name in the paper because I won a local race and he asks me if I would like to run in the Elite category.  Elite?  Really?  More research – what time would I need to run?  He says that the women’s winner would run it in about 6m30s (men in under 5mins!).  I do some quick calculations and decide that it would be great for me to meet some Elite runners, and I wouldn’t embarrass myself too much if I could run 7.30-8.00.  So I agree!  Then, stress… kids are sick, we are so busy at school, and did I make a good decision? 

Sat 29^th Oct – Elite athletes briefing at the Bitexco tower – the World’s best vertical marathoners are here, including the current World Mountain running champion.  I am a small fish, but loving meeting the big fish and finding out about them – they are so passionate about running, so good to hear!  We go over the course, apparently stair cases are not universal – there are no governing regulations on height/width or how narrow/wide they need to be – all news to me (well, actually it’s all reassuring, I did know this, this was part of my research) and this race had a walking section at the 28^th floor – great!  I will need that to recover I think to myself.

Sunday 20^th Oct – race day.  Party style atmosphere in the lobby, very loud music, girls in cheerleading outfits with pompoms, flags and banners and a big score board….  I have a race number (13) that has my name on it!  Never before has this been the case – so exciting.  I have met the 3 other Female Elite runners, and guess what – that mother from Thailand, Bridget Robertson, she is in this race too – so we are thrown back together, life is funny like that.  I meet Melissa Moon (current World #2) and Valentina Belotti (World #1) as well as the top 4 Men’s Elite.  We are running off first, the atmosphere is great!  I warm up outside around the building, and these famous people are doing the same warm ups and stretches as me – I am not doing anything different, I feel very calm that my preparation is not so different to these very fast and fit athletes. 

9.00 – Men’s race begins – off they go!  It is scary to think that their race will be finished before I begin mine at 9.05.

9.05 – off we go – by the time we go from the start to the stairs, it is clear that we are in order – Valentina, Melissa, Bridget and me… and we stay here – the challenge is to keep them close and I think that my goals for this race are to go through the experience, to find out what it is like to race 49 floors (my building is 20, and so I get to rest between each 20) and it is hard work!  The first 25 floors are quick, then I start to get very lactic-atastic in my legs, I am getting dizzy as the blood rushes to my legs and my arms are flailing as I am not used to using the railings to pull myself up.   Floor 40 and I get a new boost, I can hear that Bridget above me and I know that I have 2 mins or so to go – I can do this.  And at floor 49 I am finished.  I am so excited about this – I have completed my first Vertical Marathon.  I didn’t win (I ran 7m28 and Valentina ran 6.20ish).  I didn’t get a prize or a trophy but I came 4^th overall – I would have won my age group category (and a new pair of adidas shoes).   But I got more than that; I got to meet the World’s best and share ideas with them. I got to try a new experience (how many of us can do that?) and I got re-motivated to get into my training, looking at how I can get the best out of my body for Dec 4 Angkor Wat ½ marathon and Dec 11 10K in Hanoi.  I am not sure yet if Vertical racing is where I am going to focus but I do want to repeat it all again in Bangkok on January 22 (if I can secure an entry) and look at whether I could compete in Taipei in June.  I loved this event, so thank you to everyone who encouraged and inspired me, especially Clint, Meg, Richard and my children and also to Elite athletes: Melissa, Bridget, Omar and others who I spoke to at the race and lastly to David Shin who offered me an opportunity to race with the Elite’s – please let me come back again, it was spectacular. 

This is actually a post from my other (work related) blog, but I thought I’d share it here to since it gives a good idea of our daily lives!

I love this idea from Jess McCulloch, who I got to meet at Learning 2.0. (Thanks Kim for tagging me!)

The idea is to share your commute to work with your network. I live about 800 meters from the back gate of the school. Almost every morning I walk the 12 – 15 minutes to school with my wife (PE teacher), my son (grade 1) and my daughter (Discovery/Pre-Kindergarten). Sometimes my other daughter doesn’t want to be left out and she joins us for part of the walk!

At first I thought this was just going to be for fun, but as I was thinking about it and then actually taking the photos it made me realize how use of images was really making me stop and take notice of things that I might otherwise take for granted. The act of trying to capture the essence of my ‘commute’ really made me think long and hard about what was important and what I wanted to share. I could definitely see creating a similar project for students. What a great way to bring students together from around the world!

I live on the third floor of a 20 story apartment block. If you know where to look, you can actually see my apartment in this photo!

There are plenty of places to stop and smell the flowers if you are looking for them.

Besides apartment blocks, there are some nice villas on the housing estate.

There are even some nice tree-lined sidewalks.

The choice of monuments around the place is… interesting.

Although it is a ‘modern internationl city‘, there is still plenty of old Hanoi to be seen.

The back gate of the school.

The Elementary School courtyard. This is usually teeming with kids running around and wreaking havoc!

One of the initiatives that has started at UNIS is a community garden. This one is right in the middle of the ES courtyard so that all the students can watch it grow and flourish.

The library (2nd floor) and canteen.

Finally. My door. Anything look familiar?

Yep. That’s me!

It’s a simple commute and one I usually take for granted. Not this morning though!

Tags: commute, UNIS

So, it has now been over a month since I handed over sole parent duty to our nanny, Su, and returned back to UNIS Hanoi full time. I have to say that it was not too difficult to begin with to head back to the classroom and to enjoy seeing my students and engaging in some great faculty conversations. However as the weeks went by, the addition of extra responsibilities and more work piled up and this week I have been just keeping my head above water and have missed my first Scarlett bedtime (I didn’t get home til after 7.30pm!) which has been very difficult to justify. I wanted to send a big shout out to all those who have moved on and to say – it is hard! – but to hang in there and remember why you made the changes and keep true to your goals and inspirations. I am trying to stay straight and keep the stress at work – some days are much better than others.  I look forward to downloading to some of you in the near future.

Tags: guilt, Mel, mother, UNIS, work

This year marks the start of Oscar’s fourth year at UNIS Hanoi. This year he is in Grade 1 with Ms. Julia and is his first year in the Elementary School!

It is also Ophelia’s first year at UNIS! She is so excited to be in Ms. Heidi’s Discovery class. Needless to say, she is already making an impact!

Tags: beginnings, ECC, ES, school, UNIS

How things have changed…

BTW, this is my first movie ever using iMovie. After working exclusively on a PC, the jury is still out.

Tags: iMovie, lunch, Scarlett

Since Mel was out sorting the final details of Hanoi’s first triathlon tomorrow morning (which she, along with others, is organizing), I had the kids for the afternoon. To help burn off some energy, we did a little macarena before hopping in to the shower:

By the looks of these pictures, maybe we should have been dancing to some Willow, whipping our hair back and forth!

Tags: dancing, Ophelia, Oscar, Scarlett

You might remember Ophelia’s art show last year. She’s at it again!

Tags: art, ladybug, Ophelia, tiger