I finally got to sleep in - thanks to my wonderful oldest son. We all know what happened on Friday night and Saturday night was a bit of a bust sleep-in wise because the dogs get mighty hungry around 6:00am (and yes, there'd been a little accident on the laundry floor). But this morning Sam had to be up just after 4:00 so he did the early morning toileting, feeding and clean-up (if it had to be done) and I got to sleep till 7:30. Bliss!!

Saturday's long slow run was quite a pitifully small group compared to the norm. A lot of the squad had gone down to Sydney to run the City to Surf. Apparently it's the world's biggest fun run. There were 85 000 entrants this year. I didn't go because the size of it just freaks me out. You have to start lining up around 6:00 am but your wave may not kick off till 9:00 - so what do you do if you have to go to the potty? Our guys all had a wonderful time - especially our elite runner, Clare who ended up coming third.

But having said that the group was pitifully small doesn't mean that it was a pitiful run. We ran 21.5k on a gorgeous crisp, cool morning. I got to trial some new mid-run nutrition and I didn't have any gastric complaints. My new gel-replacement? Jelly beans. 14 jelly beans are the equivalent of 30gm of carb. They tasted good - except the blue ones (but I found a taker for them) - and they're pretty cheap in the scheme of things. I didn't eat them while running, though - just when we stopped for a drink AND we weren't running particularly fast so I'll have to do a trial run where it's more a tempo run to see if my stomach still stays happy. But so far so good.

Sunday I watched the telecast of the City to Surf and got all inspired so decided to run to Sam's soccer match that afternoon. It was around the 10k distance but it was early afternoon and our days are just starting to warm up so I decided to wear shorts and a singlet. The only thing is I forgot to lube up since I don't have to worry in Winter when I'm wearing tights. Chaff much? Today I have scabbed up inner thighs and last night there may have been whimpering and some tears shed in the shower. Ouch!!! And the stupid thing is that I bought some Body Glide just last week.

The soccer match was fun to watch - probably because we won. But also because of the conversation I eavesdropped on. There were a group of 12 year old boys talking about school - what's cool and what's not (apparently riding a scooter can get you beaten up in some schools but an expensive bike or skate board are perfectly acceptable), who's cute and who's not and which teachers are mean. There was one teacher in particular who was getting bagged for hating ALL the boys and only being nice to the girls. One of the boys had an eye-opening observation about her. She COULD be nice to you but ONLY if you gave her respect. Really?!! Well surely that's problem solved right there. Give her respect (which you should be doing to every single person who walks the earth) and you'll have a happy peaceful co-existence. But by the scathing way the boys were talking about respect I didn't think that was about to happen. I think they've got a lot more learning to do - and I'm not just talking about the book-type of learning. All the teachers out there - you have my undying respect for what you have to put up with.