Bristol Half Marathon

Me at 9 miles...

Bristol Half Marathon

It's done! The training paid off and I did a Personal Best (PB) for a half marathon - 1hr 37mins and 9 secs.
Just for fun, I quickly did a spreadsheet to calculate my split times and so graphically, you can see how I did. Generally a poor start and slowed up at the finish (mainly because that's where the course went uphill and downhill and also where the cobbled sections started...


It's amazing how you can quickly make a blog boring by the addition of graphs!
OK, for some amusement here's some video footage of the morris dancers who morris danced 13.1 miles!

Training run

Went running today... Apparently there's an iPhone app which uses the phone GPS to track your movements. Just waiting for the iPhone app which actually burns the calories for you.
I plotted my route today manually. 2 laps of the Downs in Bristol is apparently about 9 miles.
I got passed by someone while running, but then tweaked my running style and passed him again. I think I run a better when I've got some competition...

Running (again)

Well, I'm running in the Bristol Half Marathon on 6th September.

Been training fairly solidly for the past couple of months.

Raising money for a charity that I'm a trustee of: For-Ethiopia

GROPOs

I've been doing a lot of GROund POunding these past few weeks as I train for the Bristol Half Marathon. I'm up to around 6-7 miles now and running a rather circuitous route home.

My flagging motivation levels were boosted this week by the arrival of a fresh pair of trainers and free socks. Apparently these socks are part of an 'Integrated Shoe and Sock System', with a Y-Heel construction to provide superior fit and 2x2 mesh ventilation provides added ventilation. Apart from the issue of using 'ventilation' in a sentence twice, I'm not sure whether I've got socks or the latest Sports Utility Vehicle. Well, if it doesn't make me run faster by 10% I'll demand my money back. Oh, wait a sec, they were free. Darn...

In between running, went to see Ice Age 3. I know a lot of people panned Simon Pegg's character, but me and the missus loved it. Not entirely sure what substances he'd been ingesting the night before doing the voice overs, but we thought it was worth watching just to see what would happen if you made a cartoon version of Jack Sparrow and crossed it with a raving rabbid and plonked right in the middle of Jurassic Park. We went to see it in 3-D too, which was the first time I'd donned 3D glasses in the cinema since going to see 'Starchaser, The Legend of Orion' when I was about 10. I found it particularly ironic given the Simon Pegg character has no depth perception. Yet can still pilot a But the music for the chase sequence was quite reminiscent of Star Wars...

It was our wedding anniversary last weekend. Feels kinda like it was only yesterday, yet at the same time feels a long time ago because of everything that's happened in-between. We even got cards. Which makes me feel bad, because I never remember to send out anniversary cards. It's bad enough trying to keep track of birthdays.


Anyway, as the photo shows, flowers were purchased, I remembered to buy an anniversary card AND remember to give it to the missus on the day. We then went off for a photo shoot (which we'd won a £99 discount off by filling in a form at their stand in Cabot Circus shopping centre). That was a laugh and a year on, Ally found herself having her hair done and wearing makeup. Unlike last year though, I got some makeup to cover my shiny nose and even out my skin tone. Well, we'll see if it was worth it when we get the pictures in 6-8 weeks time...

3 mad ideas come up with on holiday

Well, it's been over a month since Gazman and I have been on holiday. Here are three random thoughts that have sprung up during the holiday.

1. (Food Court in shopping mall beneath Twin Towers, KL) While playing with Timmy, the game 'mapo-slido' was invented. Simply take fold up map of KL and insert in it's plastic protective wallet and proceed to slide it across the plastic laminated table towards one of the other players seated around said table. Points given for number of spins map makes on way to recipient or speed of pass. Bonus points may be awarded at start of go by resting half of map on table and flipping map up in air with hand (palm facing downward) and attempting to catch it with the same hand before map hits the table. Map should make 180deg flip (min.) before being caught. several minutes of fun if with children (or adults with appropriate childish mindset - that would be all of us)

2. (When on tram going past Melbourne Aquatics Centre) How come the you have so many different medals for swimming when surely you should be able to use any stroke you like to cover 50M / 100M as quickly as possible. Either that or maybe we should have more medals in running. So we can have the 100m running backwards... Just imagine the olympics with the 4*100m medley - the first leg is running forwards, the 2nd leg runs backwards, the 3rd leg has to hop and the 4th leg has to roly-poly...

3. (Gourmet Cafe in YHA Sydney, having been given a Hawaiian pizza when I asked for a vegetarian pizza) While wondering at the 'interesting' service at the YHA cafe / restaurant, Matt, Jules, Gaz, da_tonester and I thought you could inject a bit of excitement into your meal by creating the 'Extreme Dining' restaurant. You go into the restaurant and place your order and that's what you're billed for. However, inept waiting staff will come round with the wrong order - so you can either choose to wait for your meal, to go for the food offered or to wait in the hope that another meal which looks better comes along... It can even be spiced up with the addition of dishes like octopus tentacles, tripe, fugu, dishes made entirely from soya products which will come out at the end. So if you wait too long for a good meal to come by, you might end up with one of these dishes... Not recommended for anyone with food allergies.

Happy New Year. Pictures of New years in Sydney to follow!