Watching promises kept?
This is merely a short piece to commend an idea and recommend that we all try to contribute to GetUp’s latest initiative - to log promises made by politicians hopeful of being elected on 24 November. The evil plan is to collate and then quote those promises back at the perpetrator and ask for follow through should they get elected (if they don’t get elected we won’t really remember their name, anyway, will me?)
So keep them honest by contributing to the wiki at getup.org.au/promisewatch/
(At the time of blogging 292 promises had been contributed)
The Honorable John Howard, Member for Bennelong
4 out of 6
With six months more training since my last time out, a flatter course and a pair of $30 socks I felt pretty confident about the Melbourne Marathon.
Thinking about it in the lead up, I had set myself the following goals
- Start
Sounds a bit silly, but making the commitment to attempt a marathon is actually quite a mental hurdle. - Finish
Complete the course, even if injured or dehydrated, before they close the race- about 6 hours after the start. - Don’t stop
Run the whole way. I’ve learned the hard way that my body doesn’t like running in the heat or the wind but even if the weather’s nasty I don’t want to walk. - Improve on last time (3:30:31)
Conditions permitting this felt pretty doable (what with the new socks and everything). - 3:15:00
A stretch, but not outside the realms of possibility.
- 3:00:00
A dream.
There is a moment when a freakish combination of traffic snarls, toilet queues and a clothes drop-off point located in the bowels of the MCG conspire to make even goal 1 seem unlikely. We make it to the marshalling point just in time only to hear that the start’s been put off by 15 minutes as they haven’t fully closed St Kilda Rd yet.
The course starts just outside the MCG, goes down St Kilda Rd, around Albert Park Lake, along the beach to Sandringham and then back. We start at the back of the pack of something like 8,000 entrants in the full and half marathons. Simon takes off quickly; it’s very crowded for the first 10km and I find it difficult to settle into a rhythm as I run around slower runners while skirting tram tracks and using the occasional footpath.
Once we hit the bay the field has opened up a bit and I move past the 4hr; 3:45 and 3:30 pacing groups. The turnaround point at Sandringham comes up sooner than I’d expected but having seen the 3:15 group on their way back I know it’s going to be a struggle to catch them. It’s not overly hot but very bright and exposed and I think the loss of fluid is starting to take a toll.
Richard and Penny are waiting on St Kilda and give me a welcome cheer and pep talk. It’s also a relief to be running in the shade for the first time. Then a final burst gets me up William Barak Bridge, around the outside of the G (where Em and the girls, who’ve made it in after all thanks to delayed flight [a long story], are waiting to give me a wave and a cheer) and then onto the ground for a final lap finishing in front of the Members’ Stand.
The clock shows 3:28 as I cross the line. Will get the official time on Tuesday but I reckon there was about 5 minutes beteween the race starting and my actually going over the starting line so it’ll be around 3:23.
I have a blood blister on my left foot that is the size, shape, colour and texture of one of those chewy rasberry lollies.
Burma petition
Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. Last month Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in — but they’ve been brutally attacked by the military regime.
This petition calls on Burma’s powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma’s rulers to stop the killing.