15 minutes there on train, 3 hours 45 minutes to walk back…

I have about 4 weeks until I’m doing the half marathon in Blackpool and whilst I’ve trained more for this than any other run …doing 5k a week isn’t gonna get me around a half marathon track! So after watching Eddie Izzard’s Marathon Man last night, I was all motivated to see how long it’d take me to walk 13 miles and build up over the next few miles from there.

I’d planned the route online and it should have been about 12.6 miles, but I figured allowing time for crossing roads would give me a good idea of my half m time. What I didn’t realise was the Silk Road isn’t designed for pedestrians! This meant I was walking along the grassy verge between the first 2 roundabouts and then noticed a path starting at the next one. Not being sure where it led, I decided to carry on along the dual carriageway, until I could get no further. So I climbed over a fence and brambles on to the path below and followed it until I realised I could no longer hear the traffic! Luckily I found my way back to the main road easily enough and this detour increased my mileage up to offical half m status.

The first 5 miles were easy enough, concentrating on where I was going seemed to make the time fly by, so when I reached the Legh Arms, I was sure I’d almost reached the half way point, until I saw the sign for Adlington railway station and a distant memory from my map planning gave me the uneasy feeling it was the 5 mile point rather than 6. On the plus point popping into the pub for a toilet break and to get a new drink seemed to reinvigourate me, so I strode on hoping Poynton would be around the next corner!

The mile between Poynton and Hazel Grove was the hardest for me. My relief at reaching Poynton and civilisation disappeared along with the proper footpaths and I was seriously beginning to consider hopping on a bus the second I got to the Rising Sun.

However, as soon as I reached the Hazel Grove border, and knew exactly what lay ahead, rather than a vague idea as had been the case for the past 9 miles, my pace picked up and despite the growing pains in my legs and back, I knew I’d almost made it and each step was another closer to a nice warm shower!

So that was the first attempt, the plan is to do the same (although I’ll start the footpath at the start!) next week and run for parts of it. We’ll see how sore I am tomorrow!

Make sure the boys spoil you rotten!

Having missed the last 2 week’s runs, we decided to stick with the plan from last week and give Platt Fields a go. The theory was that as a flat race, we’d be able to get better times than at Bramhall. I made the ultimate mistake for a back of the pack runner and started off way too fast, being pulled along by the crowd. At Bramhall, as I know the course so well now, I know where to push myself and how far it is to the nearest hill, as in walking point. Whereas at South Manchester, the course was completely new to me, so even after studying the map beforehand, I still felt unfamilair with the route and had difficulty getting to a pace I felt comfortable with. This meant I would run for bits and then feel worn out and walk for bits, so I guess after all the slating of Bramhall’s hills, I did actually miss them! I think if we do South Manchester again, when we’ve both got back into the running routine (I was amazed at the difference the 2 weeks off made!), then we’ll find the second go much easier than the first. Still it did feel good getting placed in the top 100, even if it was only because there were only 73 runners

lots of hugs and kisses xxxxx

Can’t believe my baby is now a teenager!

So at least I’m keeping up with the updating part of the project!

1/. Get more out of Parkrun

The cold, lack of money and my sinuses have hampered this one. I’ve managed 2 runs this month, so have 34 to go for my 50 club t shirt. I had planned to do Heaton Park for the love run, but then we didn’t have petrol to get there and the online entry had closed, so then planned to do South Manchester this morning instead, but after a night of tossing and turning I woke up with a blocked nose and feeling like hell, so went back to sleep! South Manchester is a much flatter course than Bramhall, so am thinking it will give us both a motivational boost if we can beat our pbs, as I haven’t improved this month and Gra has had a while since his last, hopefully we’ll make it next week.

2/. Read and review at least 2 books per month.

Definitely done this one! I’ve read 5 out of the 6 of the set Donna has given me, I need to update the reviews for 3 of them, but will do that in the next couple of days when I finish the final instalment.

3/. Do at least 1 new thing a month.

My favourite for this has to be going to see Peter Kay, something I’ve been wanting to do for years! Well done and thanks to Mum for getting the tickets x

4/. Go swimming regularly.

Way too cold here to think about this one yet, hopefully if it warms up in the next couple of weeks I’ll have a go then as part of my training for the half m which is getting way too close!

5/. Keep in better contact with friends and loved ones.

I think I’ve done well at this one. Me and Anna have visited Nan this month, I’ve seen Claire twice, and have plans to meet Kath and Pete next week. I’ve not physically seen Bert buty have txt him a lot and Batty has started coming round at weekends now he’s back at work, so all good

A young girl, who has been murdered, watches over her family — and her killer — from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

I was expecting this to be like an episode of Ghost Whisperer where the deceased helps the living find out who killed them, whereas this is more the soul of the dead girl is watching over her family, and her killer, but its the love the family feel for their lost relative that leads them to find out the truth. Stanley Tucci plays the murderer almost too well and his performance will definitely give you the creeps!

Tonight me and mum went to see Peter Kay in his first show for over 7 years. As a warm up to the Tour-that-doesn’t-tour-Tour, Peter is playing 5 nights at Bury Met with proceeds going to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

We arrived outside the Met about half 6 expecting there to be a large queue already, so were very suprised to find we were at the start and as such managed to get front row central seats Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to keep the tickets, we literally collected them from the box office took a few steps to the stairs where they were taken off us again and not even given a stub to keep

Peter was a bit rusty, but that’s understandable with the amount of time he’s had away from touring. The gig kicked off literally with a member of the audience throwing 2 beachballs on to the stage with questions written on them. The unrehearsed parts of the show and especially the question and answer section at the end were the highlights for me. Peter stated that he was using the Met gigs to try out his new material and then work out where to put what in the actual tours, but the beauty of such a small audience (only 300) was a more intimate atmosphere alllowing him to interact with the audience.

If tonight’s performace is anything to go by, the tour when it actually starts properly will be amazing!

Trouble-prone Percy Jackson is having problems in high school – but that’s the least of his challenges. It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus seem to have walked out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. Percy has learned that his real father is Poseidon, god of the sea, which means Percy is a demigod – half human, half god. At the same time, the powerful gods on Olympus are feuding, which could launch a war enveloping our entire planet.

Not quite sure how well this fits with Greek mythology, but it was entertaining enough to keep me quiet on a cold afternoon!

We had a change of course this morning, possibly due to the amount of falls on the bridge last week and the anticipated freezing conditions again. As it was, I found it to be much warmer than previous weeks, hopefully the weather will continue in this direction! I wasn’t too happy with the new course, although the second big hill had been cut out, I felt like more of it was up hill (not that I’d previously thought that to be possible!), but didn’t seem to have a downhill to compensate. It could just be that I’ve become accostomed to the usual course and as such have points where I aim to run towards knowing where the hills and as such the walking bits will be! Gra joined me this week, but didn’t manage to be caught on camera.