Mission accomplished! (Message from Richard)

It was hard with waves at 3 to 4 metres high at times but we did it in a quick time (thanks to a friendly current) in just under 3 hours, having started at 6.45am, and my GPS pointed to a distance of just under 12 km.
In short the conditions were very rough indeed and I had multiple calf cramp episodes but the last hour was a little easier with the waves and current right behind us, taking us home. At times I thought I was in a washing machine – I have been well and truly pummeled! This is the windy side of HK Island – none of this wimpy calm ocean swimming around Repulse Bay etc!

Please find some evidence attached.

A group of asylum-seekers, originally from Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, welcomed us at Shek O beach and I managed to talk to them about their stories – what these two charities are doing is amazing!

Again, thank you so so much if you donated. If you haven’t managed to donate, please do! I’m really keen to get to my goal and we are so close. Have a look at the pictures attached – surely a donation is deserved?! Big or small, it all counts!

Here is a link to the donation site again – http://bit.ly/crowdfunding-ocean-swim-for-refugees

Done and dusted! It was a gorgeous morning for a run. Melbourne turned out its best for us this weekend. The weather was quite warm, and a headwind on the back half made for more challenging conditions. But, I had a solid finish of 3:37:59, eking out my third fastest time.

Thank you all so much! The money raised from this campaign will fund 3 refugee athletes for an entire year. I’m thrilled to be able to support these incredibly brave and inspirational people in this way.

Less than 48 hours to go! The weather here in Melbourne is gorgeous, if a little warm for racing. But I’m anticipating a great run through a beautiful city on Sunday morning. Thanks to everyone again for their generous support of my RUN HK campaign!

Less than 48 hours to go! Once again, thanks to everybody who has supported my campaign for RUN HK. The weather here in Melbourne is gorgeous, if a little warm for racing. But I’m anticipating a great run through a beautiful city anyway.

I'm so thrilled with the response to my campaign. I cannot thank everyone enough. The past week has been a difficult one for training because of the massive typhoon that swept through Hong Kong over the weekend. Before the storm, we had several days of scorchingly hot and humid weather, and then the terrible winds and rain, none of which is good for long distance running outside. So, I've been on the treadmill a lot - BORING! But, I'm going to attempt my last long run this week. Fingers crossed for cooler evenings!

Wow! I'm blown away by how quickly and generously everyone has responded. Thank you so much!

You all were on my minds last night at the weekly track workout. It was a super steamy night (again!), but our Coach Charlotte had a planned a fairly lengthy workout anyway, 4 sets of 200m/200m/400m. It's been a few months since I've done 400m repeats, and I never do all-out sprints like 200m, it was a much more challenging workout for me than I was expecting!

You did it! Congratulations, Alex and THANK YOU from all of us at RUN.

You did it! Congratulations Karen and Ally and THANK YOU from all of us at RUN.