Anyone visiting will have noticed that this site has been pretty quiet for a couple of years. 😎
While I’m still focusing on my health & fitness goals, I’ve been mostly off the running due to the plantar fasciitis and re-focused my creative energies into my Youtube Channel: The Tech Doctor Network & Associated website.
Most of the personal/family stuff has moved over to my Facebook page
Official time for the Ned Kelly Chase 1/2 Marathon: 2:23:26 (1 minute 54 seconds outside my PB)
Whilst I missed my original goal of a 12:00 finish which would have given me time of 2:15 and I just missed my PB, I was completely happy with my result, given the preparation I had been able to do.
I had run a total of 20Km in the 9 weeks before the race. Proper preparation would have seen me running 15-25Km per week, but sickness and a heel injury made that simply impossible! Thanks to Caleb, podiatrist from Freedom Sports Medicine for getting me in the best shape possible in the time we had. I’m hobbling a bit today and intend to give my foot plenty of rest for the rest of the year while I keep stretching and strengthening my feet & calves.
For the race itself, huge thanks to Justin & Sharon Scholz for putting on an amazing and unique event. The premise of the Ned Kelly Chase is that the runners are the Kelly Gang, being chased down by the Troopers (cyclists) with everyone (1/2 Marathon (21.1Km), Marathon (42.2Km), 50Km & 100Km runners and 50Km & 100Km cyclists) picking their own start time with the goal of finishing at midday. I was really happy with my judgement finishing at 12:08:26. I would have loved to be fitter, hit the 12:00 mark and score a PB, but that was just not possible this year. As for the race itself, the weather on the day was perfect, the course was simply fantastic: winding it’s way through Wangaratta and along the banks of the Ovens River and 1 Mile Creek, and the Volunteers and aid stations were encouraging and well stocked. I thoroughly recommend this race to anyone looking for a great fun race day. There is also a 10Km even earlier in the morning for those looking for a shorter distance. The Dinner and presentation night was great (and in my case early enough to let me attend and still make it back to Melbourne at a reasonable time.) I will be back next year, it might even be my first Marathon!
Thanks to my wonderful teammates from the Up n Active running group! It is great to see everyone out on the course, give them a high-5 and pant a few words of encouragement as you pass by. As you can see from the Jail photo, we had a huge contingent present including 3 podium finishes, Matt 3rd in the 50Km, Mak 2nd in the 100Km and Kylie 1st in the 1/2 Marathon. Special mention to Mak for his 5th straight 100Km Ned Kelly Chase, the only person who has run all 5 in the 100km distance.
Further thanks to my big sister Jen who put me up for a couple of nights so I could attend the race, and mega huge thanks to Bernie and the girls for releasing me for the weekend to attend!
2 weeks ago, I completed my first ever Half Marathon! (21.1km). Overall it was a fabulous experience and the culmination of 5 months hard work after my knee surgery.
The morning started well with my lifts in getting us there in good time and with great parking only a few minutes walk from Fed Square. There was a fair bit of hanging around and chatting while we warmed up and waited for the 7am start.
I started out with my nephew Zach and our friend Sue, but our longer legs left Sue behind at the first hill. We looped around the front of Etihad, along the docs and back past the Polly Woodside. At that point Zach looked at his watch and mentioned we were doing 5-6min/km, which was a fair bit too fast for me, I’d been planning on closer to 7min/km.
I lost Zach when I stopped for a loo stop at 8km and powered on past the 10km mark, realising I was a) Half Way and b) beyond where I’d ever run continuously before. I kept up a solid pace right through to the 14km mark, where I started to walk/run. About this time I spotted both Sue and TP (a friend of Bernie’s from School) while we were on a 2-way section of the course, but I never saw them again, despite the fact that TP must have passed me at some stage, as she finished a few minutes ahead of me. (She also did a lot more longer training than I did.)
As I ran past the front of Vodafone Arena, I was starting to get some cramps in the top of my calves, but there was a lady in front of me on the bridge across to the MCG that was doing jumping high-knees, and I asked if that helped… She said it was great to stretch the legs differently, so I changed up my stride a bit, was able to relax the calves and keep going. I was about that time that a woman in a Wonder-Woman costume passed me, and I made it my goal to beat her, if I possibly could. My pace picked up to 6, 5 and even nearly 4min/km as I powered home, beating Wonder Woman by a few seconds.
Final time was 2:21:32.1 well inside my goal of 2.5 hours.
Overall, it was a great morning out, topped off by brunch with the guys at Huxtaburger in Rungwood. Lots of fun, I’ll be back next year.
My Strava Page has a great interactive view of the run.
Some gratitudes to finish: Huge Thank you to Ross Kinsella for all his efforts and rehab exercises to get to and through my knee surgery in Feb. Leigh Stamation for being my Rehab encourager and trainer!
Everyone from Lillydale Lake Parkrun and Up ‘n Active – Further * Stronger * Faster for putting crazy ideas like a Half
Marathon in my head, especially those there on the day: Sue, Geoff, Mak, Eron, Dodge and my chauffeurs on the day Zach & Kylie
Huge thanks to my sweetheart Bernie for love, encouragement and post race massage!
Thank you everyone!
#RunMelbourne2017
Yesterday was a big morning for me at Parkrun.
It was my 50th Parkrun (earning me the shirt to the right), and at the same time I’d set myself a goal of running the 5km in less than 25 minutes, despite the fact that my PB of 25:22 had stood for over 12 months. In fact that 12 months was beginning to feel like a lifetime ago, before my failed snorkeling experience off Mystery Island in July 2016 and before tearing my knee in December and having surgery on it in February. That said, I knew I’d done a lot of work, and as recently as last week, surprised myself by getting to within 7 seconds of that PB. The thing is, I’d set a goal to break 25 minutes a number of times, and never made it.
I was buoyed by the offer from Tony to pace me through the distance, a ready eye on his watch the whole time. I was not helped at all by the fact the I had a shoelace come undone about 200m in and the other at about the 1.5km mark. I deliberately decided not fix the second shoelace at the first stop, as it would mean I would end up further back in the pack, there was a chance the lace might last, and my fingers were too cold and numb to tie properly. 😃
In the end all was well, though in giving my all to get across the finish, I didn’t manage to grab my finish token and had to go back for it a minute or two later once I’d caught my breath. Position #41, definitely my best position number, but I had to wait a couple of hours to get the official time:
Lillydale Lake parkrun results for event #168. Your time was 00:24:40.
24:40! I’d sliced a whopping 42 seconds off my PB, made it under 25 minutes and survived!
Thanks Tony, and all the people who cheered me on on the day.
I’d never heard of
She may have squealed when I told her I’d bought tickets, and that it was in 2 days time… We had an awesome day, but the highlight by far was Lizzie meeting Jazza and both of us getting to watch him draw.
I even caught a t-shirt, but something happened and by the time we got home, and it was gone.. I blame the #ZombieBanana 🙁
So,
I’ve been so inspired that I’ve binge-watched maybe 150-200 episodes of both the Daily Jazza and Draw with Jazza. I even picked up a pencil and found that with the help of your “How to draw – Facial Construction” video I can, in fact, draw more than a gender-specific stick figure (which is what I’ve been saying for the last 20 years…)
I also really enjoyed the Pictionary episode, and totally commiserate with you
I watched FUNDRAISER: Jazza Studios needs your Help! and We can’t believe this happened… ❤ and,
I’m also really impressed by the bits I get to see of the real
I was somewhat of an absent father in the younger years of my kids’ lives, and I so totally regret it (and try and make up for it with memories like the comic con trip). I was building a business and working upwards of 90 hours some weeks and making a mess of my life. I’ve since got my act together and now have a job that leaves me some family time, but just wanted to reinforce with you how important family is. 🙂
The point of this post, other than to share my man-crush of you with the world, is to say how sad I am that I really can’t contribute to the funding project. At some stage, I’ll find a way to contribute, if you ever need some man-power, let me know, we are only 1.5 hours away.
Also if you need a tech crew for something like comic con, so you can spend less time setting up and checking cameras and more time interacting with your fans, let me know. Jazza,
Your community is awesome and I guess I’m now a part of it. Thank you for being you. Stay cool, stick with that beautiful blend of braggadocious humbleness, keep Mrs Jazza close, she’s clearly a keeper and
Mark
I shared in the Five months post surgery knee update that I’ve been whittling my parkrun times down over the last month, (though not nearly in the same way as my nephew who has recorded 13 PBs in a row, go Zach!). Tomorrow will mark my 50th Parkrun, which is an exciting milestone, 2 years and 4 months after my first run on 21/3/2015. That first run was 36:47, and I’m hoping to celebrate my 50th with a new PB under 25 minutes. My current PB is 25:22 and best for the year is 25:29 so I think I can do it. Tony, a running coach and fellow member of Up ‘n Active Lilydale Lake Running Group has offered to pace me at 25 minutes, so we are going to give it a red hot go.
Wish me luck.
The knee is now basically as good as it’s going to get, which is pretty good but still a little painful when I run. It’s amazing how much difference there is between running on concrete, running on asphalt and running on gravel. There is noticeably less impact on the gravel especially. My time has been taken up by other priorities on and off over the last couple of months but I’m trying to get two to three runs in every week. I did my first Parkrun for the year in late April with a time of 35 minutes and and have progressed through 32, 28, 28, 26 and last week finished in 25:29, just 7 seconds outside my PB!
It would be safe to say that my knee has now healed to the best it is going to get. There is less shock absorbing material between the bones and I just have to live with that. I’ve been given some extra hoops to jump through by the Sports Physio, Ross, from Freedom Sports Medicine, so I’m keeping up the Bulgarian Lunges, added in some Pistol Squats and a bunch of Spin bike work. It’s all about building the strength back up in the Quadriceps and Hamstrings to give the knee the support that it needs.
My goal now is to complete a spin class on the 1st of April and then see Ross again on the 3rd where he will put me through a series of tests and hopefully give me the all-clear to start running again.
From then I’ll have just a little less than 17 week to prepare me for my first 1/2 Marathon on July 30. I’m supporting Beyond Blue, and I’d love if you helped me by supporting them: https://runmelbourne2017.everydayhero.com/au/mark-s-first-half-marathon.
Thank you for your support
Three weeks on and I’ve done hundreds of exercises, seen the Physio twice, seen the surgeon once and had the stitches taken out. Basically it should be as good as it will get now, I can do pretty much anything except run/impact, and I’ll be able to that again in another 3 weeks.
I’m really happy with how it’s all gone, I’m doing a bunch of specific exercises in the gym (mainly Bulgarian Lunges) and trying to get my hamstrings and quadriceps back into shape.
Knee Surgery was done on Feb 3 and was a complete success. The surgeon did come in and talk to me afterwards, but I’m not really sure what he said, but he did leave me with some pictures to look at.
The good news is that I’m not in any pain.