.: kerrilee.net :.

Not sure how this will turn out, but getting up to pick up Mom and Dad, saw this sunrise and the balloons over the city.

Well, after 6 gruelling days, we finished the Mark Webber Challenge. A truly great experience, but real credit goes to the team for pulling me through!

Unfortunately both the camera and a 3G phone couldn't handle the gruelling conditions, and so I will be light on photos for awhile until we start getting them sent through.

Will post them up when I do! Off to sleep, and to dream of warm dry clothing and not having to climb mountains.

Here are the two Telstra teams chatting with Mark Webber while we waited for dinner on Bruny Island Thursday night. From left to right, Kylie, Vic, Mark Webber, Holly, Mark Comer (foreground), me, Mike, Richard and Phil.

Before this photo, we kayaked 7km, MTB'd 15km, ran 6km, and MTB'd 2km. After, it was a 12km MTB, 7km run and kayak (in the dark!) of 12km.

One of things that has been the weirdest to adjust to is the constant media attention. Wherever we go there are helicopters, cameras and tv cameras. We had our photos in the launceston papers, and here's another one with the boys. On a good note, the locals are very supportive and often there are little kids waving from the sides of the road. Mark webber met with some school kids yesterday who he said knew more about his driving career then he did!

After a 530am start, a 44km trek, a 7km MTB ride, and some very cold and wet white water rafting, we got to camp for one of our two showers and found there was no hot water....ice on the tent this morning and a 5am start, plus a 2 hour drive but we made cradle mountain. Here's Vic, Holly and Kylie running to Dove Lake. Off for MTB ride. Physically and mentally exhausted....

This picture is way too early yesterday on our way to a Tasmanian 33km @ 44km. Day one was tough. Running, kayaking, navigating, and riding through Launceston for 35km, then a 60km hill climb on the bikes, where we gained over 1200m in elevation. It was windy, sleeting and 2 degrees at the top!

Hate instant coffee, so enjoyed my last decaf long macchiato . . .

Thought I would post the rough course schedule so you'll know more where I am when I'm posting (as I will be posting from a mobile phone so there won't be alot of text).

There's a rough course map here

Friday night (3 November) -- Fly to Launceston

Saturday -- Race briefing, equipment test, clothing and bike fitting.

Sunday (Day 1) -- Start of race. Launceston to Liawenee. Urban challenge in Launceston (35km), Mountain bike (MTB) to Bracknell (37km), MTB to Liawenee (56km)

Monday (Day 2) -- Liawenee to Mersey River. Walk Lake Ada to Wall of Jerusalem Carpark (33km), MTB to Mersey River (7km), Raft Mersey River (6km)

Tuesday (Day 3) -- Cradle Mountain. MTB Cradle Chateau to Interpretation Centre (5km), Run to Dove Lake (7km), Kayak Dove Lake (4.5km), Walk to Cradle Mountain Summit (15km), MTB to The Chateau (10km), MTB Montezuma Falls (30km).

Wednesday (Day 4) -- Strahan. MTB to Ocean Beach (6km), MTB ride to Hells Gates (8km), Walk Cape Sorell (15km), MTB to Swan Basin (5km), Kayak to Strahan (5km), Rail Ride to Queenstown (28km)

Thursday (Day 5) -- Bruny Island. Kayak to Lunawanna (10km), MTB to Lighthouse Jetty Beach (20km), Walk to Cloudy Bay (28km), MTB to Neck Beach (25km), Walk to Porpoise Head Beach (7km), Kayak to Peppermint Bay (13km).

Friday (Day 6). Hobart Urban Challenge (45km).

Saturday. Fly back to Melbourne.

And that's it!!

Here's a very exciting (not) picture of a grey day in Melbourne with my new 3G phone. This is from my desk at work. A couple of points here.

1. Thank you Telstra for my new phone. This is a present from them to thank me for doing the Mark Webber Challenge .

2. Thank you Flickr. This wonderful online photo sharing application (which I have been using for my blog for many years) also has a great application whereby I can email, from my new 3G phone, photos and post text up on the blog while on the move. Finally, more frequent updates. Therefore you should be able to check up every day and see how we are going. While the Telstra teams have a joint blog here, this will be a more personal one.

3. It is a rainy, cold day in Melbourne, and Tasmania is even rainer and colder. Next week's forecast is wet.

Sigh