Monkey Bars

26 August

1...

25 August

2....

24 August

3 days to go

23 August

4 days to go

20 August

1 week to go!!

The big day has nearly arrived. Oxfam Trailwalker 2010. At 5:30 am next Friday Monkey Bars will be up in Brooklyn, hearts racing, butterflies pounding and monkeys smiling!! awaiting the start gun at 7:00 am. So this time next week we’ll be well into the swing of things! You can follow our progress live on the day via the tracker at the top of our team page. A huge thank you to all of you who have supported us in the journey so far. We greatly appreciate it!! Many of you have donated your hard earned cash to Oxfam via our team page and have provided words of encouragement or have gobbled up many a chocolate bar for the cause. This has helped inspire us to get out in the cold, wet, early mornings (and some nights) and train hard, again and again. Your words of encouragement and money donated will also be a great source of inspiration to us when out on the trail. We’ll be thinking of you and your support whilst we are out there. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We’ve currently raised over $2500 (website donations + chocolate fundraiser) and hope to reach our pledge of $5000 before the cut off of in October. Nearly $2 million has already been raised by the teams in this event, which is fantastic! I can assure you we’ve pounded the trail many many times over, have had our fair share of challenges and are thoroughly prepared for the event. Not to mention excited!!!! We’re very sad that Green Monkey Lisa is unable to run with us this year due to injury but are very grateful for Susannah stepping up to the challenge and joining us from Brisbane for the day. I’m sure we’ll know her life history by the end of the event and her, ours. (Yes, we are chicks and we do manage to keep the conversation (blatant banter/gibberish really) going the whole way :-))

20 August

cont..

All that is left to do now is rest up, feed up and set up. - no more long runs or hard sessions - consume plenty of carbs and hydration - finalize logistics of food parcels, extra equipment/clothing etc. We have an awesome support crew lined up consisting of Rod, Robert, Graham, Paul, Andrew and Lisa who will take care of us all day and night. Thanks guys! So, now we’re ready to get our shoes on and RUN! We’ve set ourselves an ambitious goal of 16 hours but one can never know what challenges will be posed on the day. Whatever they are we’ll be sticking together, supporting each other and crossing that finish line 4 very elated, tired, tender and thirsty Monkeys (am looking forward to that beer already!!) Once again, thank you very much for your support. Keep well, xx Money Bars xx

19 July

Saturday 17th July

Blessed with the weather yet again! It was a great day out on Saturday - ran from the Sphinx Memorial through to Berowra Community Centre and back - 43 km and still feeling pumped at the end!

16 July

Just under 6 weeks to go

Just under 6 weeks to go now - we're getting excited! Poor Monkey Lisa is nursing a rather frustrating foot injury but will be back on track monkey-ing around very soon. As for the rest of the troop, we’ve been increasing the intensity and distances; working ourselves up to a BIG one at the end of the month. We’ll then have 4 weeks to tapper down and be in tip top shape for The Day! Thanks for the ongoing support everyone!

16 July

Saturday 12th July

It was a perfect day for being on the track on Saturday!! Thanks to Paul (our trusty chauffeur) we were in situ for a nice early start. Having left a car at St Ives Paul took us up to Cowan. It was rather cold but there’s nothing quite like an icy chill to get you moving quickly once you’ve taken the brave step of removing the snuggly and warm protection of the tracky top and pants and the warm car has sped off. To begin with we wondered whether we would ever see the sky, but the cloud gradually lifted and revealed beautiful blue sky. It remained a cool day but we were working hard and certainly kept hot enough. We saw many fellow Trailwalkers as we made it from Cowan to Berowra then charged on to Apple Tree Bay. We powered on through to the Sphinx Memorial (nice to be on some flatter terrain!) and finally made it to St Ives! We were out for 5 and a half hours and felt great to the end! More food and a refreshing shower then became our priority!

17 June

Anna, Helen, Sal

Sat 12th June @ CP1

07 June

A bit of everything...

Oops, no updates for a while :-( The Monkeys have been off doing their various things – Lisa: pounding the pavements (see below), Sal: up north adventure racing, Helen and Anna: in amongst the trees/bush. So, we have been training hard I can assure you all. The last few weekends have been very wet and wild indeed but that certainly hasn’t held us back. (It’s actually nice to have the trails practically to yourself). It has however, meant that we’ve been running through kms of mud and water, hurdling/clambering over some trees obstructing the trails, crossing mini rivers with rapids (previously trickling streams) and finding our stepping stones fully submerged. Basically having a ball! (aside from the very water-logged feet with entire patches of skin threatening to fall off at the end of it all) Thankfully, after 3 weekends of training in the pouring rain we finally got some sunshine this weekend. Such a treat was this that we managed to get out for some training on both Saturday and Sunday! Anna left the car in the middle and did some out’n’backs (Kamboora – St Ives – Kamboora – Davidson – Kamboora) whilst Helen took to the hills near home. Helen and Anna then enjoyed a glorious run on Sunday morning (Berowra – Apple Tree Bay – Berowra), getting back just in time for the skies to open and deposit yet more heavy rain. Here’s hoping for more sunshine next weekend!

02 June

It'll pay off in the long run..........

Green Monkey Lisa has been training on the roads for the past few weeks to prepare for a 24 hour track race, before she ramps up the off-road training for Trailwalker. She clocked up 400 km in May, including one 50km and one 60km long training run. Her friends and family have stepped up to the mark with some fantastic donations. Many thanks and keep 'em coming!

07 May

Saturday 8th May

We'll be heading up to Cowan early on Saturday morning for some punishing hills. 30 - 35 km.

30 April

Sunday 2nd May

It's great to see the donations starting to trickle in - THANK YOU! This weekend we're heading up to Brooklyn for 33 km of killer hills. No, we won't be sprinting up them (or down them) but we'll be running as much as possible and walking fast when we can't run. Forecast is looking good and the views are always spectacular!

25 April

Monkeys are training hard

Team Monkey Bars are very hard at work getting fit for the event. Last weekend Anna and Lisa completed at 50km training run in the Blue Mountains. On the Anzac weekend they ran two laps (26km) of the notoriously tough hills of the Quarry Road firetrail near Hornsby. The team are now planning a number of fundraising ideas - but in the meantime, can you please help with a donation to Oxfam Australia? All donations are tax-deductible and benefit people and fight poverty and suffering around the world. Many thanks, Lisa, Anna Helen & Sal xxxx