February 26, 2009 at 5:02 pm · Filed under Rambling
I’ve been asked to provide a link to the latest Olympic related scheme launched by British Airways to support emerging British talent. The GreatBritons scheme will look for individuals who demonstrate the values associated with Olympic and Paralympic Games and who strive to be the best that they can be.
There hasn’t been a great deal of talent apparent in this blog of late but I’m sure many of you are still excelling with your sports and may find the scheme of interest.
British Airways is looking for talented people who are ambitious and committed to excelling in their field. Whether their interest lies in fashion, art and design, innovation, sport, community or performing arts, British Airways could help them.
There are 180 flights available to any British Airways destination in the world, to give people the opportunity to follow their dream to the next level.
All they have to do is share a little about themselves and say how they would use this great opportunity to develop their talent. Final winners are decided by public votes, so it is a chance for them to get plenty of exposure too.
Whatever their passion is, it’s easy to take part in this once in a lifetime chance by clicking here to visit the Great Britons website.
I struggled with the running concept again this morning. I was awake from 4am thinking that I might just go out any minute and take in my required 10 mile pootle but I was still flouncing around at 11am throwing anti-running strops on the living room floor.
The new non-runner in my life has taken to questioning my strange obsession with this odd masochistic feature of my life and as a result I’ve found myself slightly bemused by the whole thing as well. I really and truly did not want to run today but at the same time I knew I had to, ought to and should go running!
What’s that about, when did I develop this addiction and do I need to go into rehab?
Sometimes I really want to run just out of the sheer pleasure of bounding around but I think I mostly run to escape myself. It’s much worse at the moment because I’m in the middle of exam stress and so am supposed to sit around on my arse all day studying. It doesn’t take much of that to make me want to run from my own company. I used to be able to sit around just fine without driving myself nuts but this exercise malarky seems to have given me boundless energy and without an outlet it turns me into a serious irritant!
I left the house knowing that a 10 miler was on my schedule but under the circumstances (I’ve no idea what they were) I’d settle for 8. In fact it was actually quite clear that I was open to negotiation and my baseline requirement was that I at least started running and I needed to get as far as Marks and Spencers for biscuits. Not a good start to a long run – I anticipated my inner whiner would kick in at the 1 mile turn off for M&S.
As it happens I seemed to be enjoying myself. I positively bounced past the first turn off point and then it started to pour down again. Rain is such a joy on a run, I love it. It makes me feel cool, committed and vaguely but satisfyingly ridiculous. I got to run past miserable walkers, huddled under the cover of trees, splashing through the puddles and calling out “light weights!”
Why is it that only runners smile in the rain?
I started to remember how great I feel when I run – you can continue forever and ever, meditating on the joys of your life and composing literary masterpieces (or even mediocre blog posts). When you finish you feel so goddamn smug that you can relax on the after affects for at least 3 days. I’m going to have such a productive revision day tomorrow!
The sun decided to put in an appearance over Twickenham Bridge and removed my perverse enjoyment so I turned round and headed back. I did nip into M&S but with my new found runners self-righteousness, I settled for grapes instead of ginger nuts.
October 27, 2008 at 10:38 pm · Filed under Rambling, Travel
I’m as happy as a generally grumpy person can ever expect to be, but occassionaly I get it in to my head that perhaps I’d feel more at home somewhere else – the eternal grass is greener scenario.
This weekend, in search of lush lawns, I headed to Hebden Bridge.
Hebden Bridge is the UK mecca for guardian readers and “alternative practitioners”, and I’ve long held the view that the place would be enhanced by my presence. The “AP” euphemism was suggested by the local lesbian hotel and I’ve adopted it as a subtle way of getting this post past my mum.
I was accompanied by Lynn who was prepared to indulge my fantasy of returning to Yorkshire for a life revolving around yoghurt, communal vegetables, alternative practitioners, real ale and hill runnning (not necessarily listed in order of importance). Given that this weekend was forecast to be the wettest and windiest of the year, and even saw 1500 hardman mountain marathoners evacuated from the area by helicopter, I think it was incredibly public spirited of her!
My new home presented itself well, with a rather fabulous olde worlde railway station but friday night in dowtown Hebden was disappointly bereft of AP’s who appeared to have been replaced by spirit swigging teenagers – my favourite variety.
I’d planned an early start for our Saturday morning hike through the hurricane, but at 11am we were still struggling to swallow the locally sourced alpaca sausage that came bundled with the hotel room. I’d like to blame my sleep loving companion for the late start but I might have delayed the proceedings a little bit by leaving the walking guide hidden under the discarded and pre-requisite guardian on the Leeds train.
We got a map, which promptly disintegrated in the downpour and headed off with the plan to stick to the right handside of the river. A cunning plan, almost immediately rejected as we found ourself on a path, flanked on our right by a raging torrent and a strangely spotty youf holding a bottle of empty red wine. I thought he had puss coming out of his pores but apparently he’d just stuck his head in the river. A tick in the box for staying in London methinks!
The walk was random, preciptous and extraordinarily muddy but I enjoyed it immensely. My enjoyment always seems to be enhanced by adverse conditions. Seeing other walkers approaching me with a hang dog, god isn’t this awful expression, always makes me smile, and I think Lynn may have been cast in a similar mould.
Here’s Lynn, striding off in the wrong direction – in fairness the visibilty was somewhat impaired.
6 miles later we were sitting in the local cream tea house, being served by some of the local sullen teenagers – “What dya wan?!”
It’s a strange accent and in the mouths hungover teenagers it doesn’t go so well with the concept of “customer service”. Another tick in the box for London I’m afraid.
In order to swing the balance in favour of Hebden Bridge the hotel decided to throw a lesbian disco in our honour and although we did our best to miss most of it, we caught the tail end and were introduced to the hip and happening alternative practioners from the North Yorkshire vicinity. I have to say it was an eye-opener. My fashion sense clearly needs an overhaul if I ever hope to fit in, but I was pleased to discover that they still play the tunes from my early years at women only discos. 4 non blondes most definitely needs to stage a come back on my running playlist!
My dreams may have been shattered this weekend, but I’m not bitter. It ranks as one of the best weekends of the year and has given me a new found passion for running in wet and boggy conditions. I’ll be spending this weekend searching for good ole London mud and hills.
I’ve been quiet for a while but I’m still out here, running and swimming a bit.
Swimming is still my biggest concern, I made it to the pool on Sunday thinking I’d sneak in a mile but I got bored and bruised after 1 km and called it quits. I was trapped in an anticlockwise convoy and every time I made a move to overtake the breaststroker in the group she would wait til I approached her shoulder and then dislocate her hip in order to give me a good sharp kick in the tits. I suppose I should prepare myself for much worse in the open water melee.
No more time for prep though, I’m just packing my bag for the long trek up North to the start of the Great North Swim. I’m a little apprehensive but that’s no surprise, I’m always in a state of dread before the big day.
The event report will follow but in the meantime I’m going to share the latest “Here I am” video from NikeWomen. They are publishing a series of animated films highlighting the mental and physical journey of a series of high profile athletes. The one below is of the triple jumper Simona La Mantia, it’s pretty good – moving, strong and it quite makes me wish I could jump above the clouds.
I’m looking forward to the one from sprinter Nicola Sanders which will be released shortly.
August 14, 2008 at 10:01 pm · Filed under Rambling
Kelly Sotherton makes her bid for Olympic gold at the Heptathlon starting this Saturday. If positive thinking is anything to go by she is going to bring home the gold for team GB.
Nike interviewed Kelly about a month before the big event, nothing too unusual about that except this time she was connected to a lie detector to have her ultimate self-belief tested. Here’s the Nike promoted video, explaining the test:
Pretty convincing I think, the full test can be seen here, it’s worth watching just to see how to answer the question “do you ever hope one of your opponents chokes?”
February 18, 2008 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Rambling, Running
The weekend was supposed to be slothful and despite a few forgivable false starts I am still left wondering what the heck went wrong. How could I arrive back home and find myself sitting here on my sofa with multiple athletic injuries?
I arrived at Rach’s house on Friday and was immediately forced aboard the cross trainer to build up an appetite for the evenings festivities. A whole 4 calories later the Chinese take away arrived and I was allowed to kick back and enjoy my crispy shredded beef. Later, under a drunken haze I was introduced to the Nintendo wii and challenged to a ten pin bowling showdown.
Now, I have read books on ten pin bowling so like to think of myself as a bit of a bowling rockstar, you can’t just challenge me and expect to be let off lightly. Three hours later I was still calling for a rematch and was only persuaded to lay down my plastic bowling ball for a showing of the latest L Word episode (a particularly good one I have to add!).
I was up again at dawn practising on the alleys, Rach didn’t know what had hit her. Unfortunately she still beat me so I practised more while she slept. The next morning I had perfected the technique, I could get my ball to stay out of the gutter and actually managed to topple a few skittles. This perfection came at a cost though. By this point I could barely carry the weight of my own arms, I would yell out in pain every time I sent the ball bouncing towards her tv screen and even managed to pull my left hamstring as I adopted the power crouch position. I was glad to go home for a rest!
Back at home today I planned to sneak in my long run between meetings at work, they were held 10 miles apart and I thought I could probably pull off the distance quicker if I avoided public transport. I was aware of my rather tender arm situation and knew that carrying a water bottle was off limits so packed the bladder into my backpack. Setting off on a light trot down the canal I was reminded what a gruelling weekend it had been. I had to tie my arms into my rucksac just to hold them up, my triceps and deltoids were completely shot and I would have signed myself up for a full body cast at the drop of a hat.
Just to add insult to injury or even more injury to injury, my toe nail has started to peel off again. I sellotaped it up this morning in the hopes that it would help but I think I over tightened it. Even before I started running it felt like someone had dropped a darn bowling ball on my toe, I could feel every beat of my heart pounding through my nail bed. It’s like Japanese water torture.
My long run turned into a rather lame short run with a very long walk attached and I blame Rach and that silly little console.
January 19, 2008 at 4:23 pm · Filed under Rambling
For those folk that enjoyed the tale of the early morning wake up call by the nearly naked runner, here’s a quick update to show you that she still hasn’t learned her lesson.
I was out of the house early this morning as I was volunteering at the running (RPTT). My plan was to do a minor sweep of the neighbourhood collecting food scraps for the allotment compost bins so I rang Shakti to make sure her bin was at the front of the house as I passed. She was still sleeping and I obviously flustered her a bit. As I passed by with the trailer I found her hovering on her doorstep, wrapped in a towel and pushing on her firmly shut door.
At least she had the foresight to take a towel with her this time, you never know, she may take the house key next time. I refused to hand over my spare key til I had taken photographic evidence. It’s a tough life having a friend with a blog – no privacy.
Oh dear, I’ve been had, EatDrinkWoman tagged me the other day and although I did my best to ignore it, I now notice that Kathy got in on the act and tagged me too. Clearly no escape, I have to answer a list of questions, boring you all senseless in the process and then make folk like JogBlog and NoWetsuit Girl repeat the chore – I’m sure they’ll love it.
Jobs I’ve Held: Newspaper gal, fruit picker, sandwich maker, factory worker, care assistant, packer, merchandiser, van driver, supply chain assistant, SBO analyst, SBO manager, data analyst, web master, personal tutor, management accountant. A little eclectic selection of jobs many of which all of which have been carried out between studies. So in addition I’ve been a medical student, a chemistry undegrad and a postgrad astrochemist.
Movies I Can Watch Over & Over: None, I can’t imagine anything more torturous than watching a film I’ve already seen. I might come back to this though, there is perhaps something I’d be prepared to watch again. I’ve been to see the musical Blood Brothers 3 times if that counts?
My Guilty Pleasures: Gadgets and Stella, and for a very guilty pleasure I might combine gadgets, stella and a box set of the L Word – joy for a week!
Places I have lived (in order): Aldershot, Cyprus – Larnaca & Limassol, Bridlington, Sheffield, Nottingham, London
Shows I enjoy: L Word, Desperate Housewives, The Apprentice
Places I Have Been on Holiday: Good grief, I can’t imagine anyone would be interested in this stuff! Cyprus, N. Spain, S. Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland (I know, I should have just put W. Europe and be done with it), San Francisco, Madeira, Borneo
Favorite Foods: Chilli, Spag Bol, Curry, chilli prawns, listen I’m salivating now and this list could go on for ages, how about we say I like every type of food except Celery!
Websites I Visit Daily: The pages that open automatically on my browser are: admin pages for my blog, iGoogle,Bloglines which then leads me to read as many of your updated blogs as I can manage, Flickr, Facebook, Runnersworld and PhysicsDiet. I couldn’t live without Bloglines and facebook though.
Body Parts I Have Injured: Skin and right side from hip to toe. Nothing to really moan about though.
Awards I’ve Won: got a few judo medals in my prime and the odd consolation academic award
Nicknames You’ve Been Called: Deathwish, warriorwoman and Wolfie – take your pick!
Well I’ve resisted announcing it for a few days but I’m afraid the magazine article is now out. One good thing about it is that I reckon I am completely unrecognisable in it. My dad managed to find the relevant page in the magazine and then flicked past it as he didn’t think it was me.
The article is a bit non-descript, it doesn’t exactly say anything. I was under the impression it was aiming to motivate people to get out and exercise but I can’t say that it did anything for me. Mind you I’m just pee’d off because the fitness instructor claimed I had no upper body strength and said I ought to take up rock climbing AND they didn’t put a link to my blog! The only reason I agreed to put myself through this humiliation is because I thought it would be fun to see if that sort exposure would drive any traffic here.
This post is surely asking for trouble but here goes. A recent plugin – Firestats – has opened my eyes to the wonders of google searches and more specifically the search terms that lead visitors to this site.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!
