lightbulb

so my main idea for fundraising during the race is starting to come together...

I had thought ages ago that I would like to do something in each stopover to encourage folk to donate to my charities and generally raise their profiles all around the world. my biggest worry was that they were too UK based to get foreign donations, but each charity I am supporting is dealing with stuff that happens everywhere and as most of the world is online, they all have online profiles which offer support and information regardless of location. 

the world is becoming smaller :D

when I moved to Oman I started doing triathlon. this has been the first time I have had the luxury of staying in one place for any length of time and I found lots of sport to do. I am in no way fast - I did my first sprint triathlon on a mountain bike - I just enjoy it. this has led on to doing open water swimming and a lot of running. this was my weakest discipline and it is definitely getting easier. I am even starting to enjoy it! I have now done two half marathons - Abu Dhabi was my first in 2:25 and the Muscat road runners winter series half I finished in 2:19 - I hope my times continue to get faster.

on the race, we have around 15 stopovers spread over the year we are at sea. obviously while we are sailing, I will be working hard but not getting any running or swimming (insha'allah!) in. this will be all good core stuff on board, which I am working on just now with crossfit. it is definitely helping - it knocked 6 minutes off my half marathon time!

I've decided I would like to do something in each stopover. either a 10km run, open water swim or sprint triathlon. this is going to need a lot of organisation and support. I won't have access to a bike so I'll need to hire one for each sprint tri, also I won't have a wetsuit and chances are I may need one for a swim somewhere...

I am struggling to come up with a name to join it all up. my mate reckons I should call it 'watch claire die' but I think my mum may have some objection to that one. I can't think of anything catchy and to be honest, I'm wracking my brains thinking who would sponsor me and how to sell it. this race is teaching me all sorts!

anyway, I am off to mess around on a boat this morning. I am going to try to keep this more up to date, as I only have 5 months left in Oman and 7 months before we leave!