October 2007 Archives

What a nice and relaxing day - as Andy is on holiday as well today, we slept in this morning... to the point that we nearly didn't get up before noon.  But we did and headed over to Newstead Abbey to walk around the beautiful autumn gardens with just about no-one else on the grounds. 

A few peacocks followed us from the car to the gates and three women had brought their kids along to presumably get them out of the house.  These kids were loving the outdoors and made quite a bit of noise, as you'd expect. 

Of course there were two other couples as well, but apart from those, I didn't see anyone else on the grounds.

The abbey itself looks absolutely beautiful, but we couldn't go inside, as they close it between the 1st of November and the 31st of March.  The grounds however, were open, and absolutely gorgeous.

This evening we went for a run - yes, we.  Andy was dragged along because it was cold and dark and raining and I was fearing the youths that might be lurking in the bus stops and behind trees and other small buildings.  Its one of those fears that I picked up in South Africa and never quite lost.  Not in areas that are built up.  In the country I could easily run on my own in the dark, but being a woman, that's probably not the safest thing on earth to do.

The run itself was fun - some patches were cold as ice, some were bearable, and some were incredibly wet, but surprisingly, warm.

As we neared mile 2's finish, Andy faked falling over something and as I was about to give him some remark, my left foot hit a tiny little pipe that was sticking out from underneath the footpath we were running on.  Before soon, I was skidding, on my stomach, on grass, towards the tarmac on the other side.  I felt my hand touch the footpath, heard a scratching sound, and came to a stop.

Andy, ever concerned, burst out laughing.  He resisted screaming out 'TRYYYYY!!!!' in reference to my current favourite spectator sport, rugby, but he laughed nonetheless and helped me up.  In return, I wiped my muddy hands down the sides of his naked arms.  (That's what you get for running with a sleeveless shirt!)  The rain took care of cleaning him up, but my legs didn't quite get the same deal.

By the time we got home, Andy was squeaky clean, but I was still quite muddy.  My skirt was properly soggy and my shirt was wet as a sponge at a carwash.

Winter is here, and I need warmer clothes.  Definitely.  But first, I have to go take part in the Lady Godiva Half Marathon on Sunday and chill!

I’m in the mood for a long bike ride. Out on the open road with no-one else around, my iPod tucked into one ear and the other earphone tucked beneath my shirt. Sadly this time of year it isn’t all that safe to go cycling on the road as it becomes dark pretty quick and some drivers find it hilarious to hit and run. Almost like a bad Britney impression.

So, during the week I’m pretty much stuck. I’ll have to make do with my trainer, my What It Takes DVDs and a big bottle of mixed water. The only wind that I’ll feel through my hair will be the wind that comes in through the open French doors that lead to our backyard. Thank heavens we can open both. On nights that it doesn’t rain or doesn’t look like rain I might even be able to put the trainer outside and cycle... even if the only view I’ll have is the fence ....

After a week of stomach aches and pains and plagues that had both myself and Andy cringing when we saw food, I’m ready to get stuck into training again this week – I’m doing the Lady Godiva Half Marathon at the weekend as part of training and am looking forward to another run with fellow runners. Its always fun (not to mention I like the shirt they sent me!)

Tonight I’m supposed to be doing an hour run ... I think. Or is that half an hour? I’ll have to check when I get home. LA is going to sneak up on me before I know it! Its only 19 weeks away now...

What is this?  Yes, its me, shamelessly raising money for Cancer Research UK. What am I going to be doing?  The LA marathon on March 2nd, 2008.

I'd really appreciate any help anyone want to send my way.  After thinking back to my cousin and aunt passing away, I felt that this was the one charity that I could put my heart behind and support.

Weekly updates will follow :P

"I had to stop after 21km and I went directly to the finish line for my clothes and my medal for taking part," Mr Madrazo said. "In sport there are no short-cuts, there are personal challenges."

"My marathon times have been between three hours, 14 minutes and three hours, 54 minutes - never two hours and 40 minutes," Mr Madrazo said. "It would be impossible for a 55-year-old man to do that."

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mexico politician denies cheating

Sooooo, he STOPPED after 13 miles and headed STRAIGHT to the finish line, crossed it... and claimed a medal because he took part.

The medal's for finishing you twit, not taking part. You're a cheat. And if you don't understand that, then its probably a very good thing that you didn't win the election last year because your country would've suffered by your stupidity as Zimbabwe suffers under Mugabe.

http://alanbecker.deviantart.com/art/Animator-vs-Animation-34244097

This is rather clever and cool :)

This morning as the sun rose, I got this view:

Person X : What part did you find confusing?

Person Y: Everything! Its all very confusing.

Person Z : Karin, what do you find so funny?

Only two other people in this world will know why I started laughing.

My Matisse & Jacks Trailblaze bars are baking away downstairs, sending smells of heaven up the stairs and driving me insane because it is going to take another 20 minutes before it is done.  Of course I'll leave some for my ride tomorrow morning, but I want to taste it so MUCH!

I intended to run yesterday, but as life goes, that didn't happen :(  Andy went to play golf and sadly, forgot to take his house keys. As I entered the house I noticed them on the floor behind the front door - he'd dropped them through the post box. I waited and waited and waited and around 8:30pm he waltzed through the door. It was too late for a run then. 

Thankfully today was more successful. I got out for a run!  And it rained!  We ran around the neighborhood for 30 minutes and apart from one incident where a few yobs yelled a few sentences of inaudible nonsense after us, it was relatively nice. The winter weather is arriving in leaps and bounds now and I'm starting to wish that I had more long running pants in my closet. (Like I need another reason to go shopping).

Tomorrow morning I'll get out on my bike and go for a swim - it should be fun :)  I have a timetrial scheduled and heaven knows, I'm going to enjoy it.

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Mexico Pol Stripped of Marathon Title
By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
(10-09) 07:47 PDT MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) --
After a humiliating defeat in Mexico's presidential election last year, Roberto Madrazo appeared to be back on top: He'd won the men's age-55 category in the Sept. 30 Berlin marathon with a surprising time of 2:41:12.

But Madrazo couldn't leave his reputation for shady dealings in the dust. Race officials said Monday they disqualified him for apparently taking a short cut — an electronic tracking chip indicates he skipped two checkpoints in the race and would have needed superhuman speed to achieve his win.

According to the chip, Madrazo took only 21 minutes to cover nine miles — faster than any human can run. "Not even the world record holder can go that fast," race director Mark Milde said.

As the countdown to our trip to the US continues, so does my new-found fondness of training. Indeed. The fact that for the past few weeks I hadn't run an inch over 7 miles during any one run, didn't stop me this weekend. Jeff was in town and with his contagious inspiration and motivation and cheerfulness, I was not going to have a tough time :)

On Friday afternoon I picked Jeff up at his offices and we took the scenic, hilly, green, twist-and-turn-until-you-feel-like-you're-going-in-the-direction-from-whence-you-came route back home. It only took about an hour and a half before we reached the safety of home. A quick walk and some supper later sleep was my calling, but Andy and Jeff stayed up and watched some film - I think it has Star Wars somewhere in the title.

After a leisurely late lie-in, myself and Jeff readied ourself and tried to convince Andy that he WANTED to ride his bike and carry our water. Andy unfortunately didn't feel like playing along, but then again, he was on call and couldn't really leave the area and be more than 20 minutes away from home.

So out to the Cloud trail we went. Never before has 12 miles felt so short. Between various jokes involving various names I tried to catch my breath, but as soon as I did, the next one arrived and I would once again try to control laughter. It had more of a wheezing sound to it than laughter in the end :)

The run reminded me that that trail was there and I seriously do need to get there more often.

For the evening we headed out to a Mexican restaurant and a movie. Run Fatboy Run was a great feel-good movie that made me laugh ... its definitely worth the watch :)

Early this morning we had to say goodbye to Jeff. I was sad to see him go, but we'll catch up with him again in Feb.

Right now, I'm snoozy, sleepy, and in need of a night's rest.

Congrats to Juls that finished the Chicago marathon!

PS. South Africa beat Fiji in the Rugby World Cup earlier! Woo!

Jones admits drug taking

It was never easy keeping up with the Joneses and yesterday the reason became clear. In one of the most seismic confessionals of a sport long tainted by liars and cheats, Marion Jones admitted she had taken steroids before her five-medal haul at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000. She faces up to six months in jail. She attended the US District Court in New York yesterday to plead guilty to charges of having lied to federal agents about her doping and another matter relating to a counterfeit cheque.

Rick Broadbent, the Times

What a pity.

Two days in a row now I've run. On Saturday morning I woke up, feeling like a train had hit me and left me with a clogged up head and coughing and spluttering. So I headed over to the festivities at the Quayside and handed in my number and timing chip to defer.

Then I remembered that Paula Radcliffe was going to do a signing somewhere around there and decided to stick around for it. An hour later, clutching my signed shirt and a few pictures, I headed back to the hotel where I slept. And slept. And slept.

On Sunday morning I woke and after catching a very full Metro train, headed to the finish. We found a nice comfortable spot at the end of the race and waited for the women's race to finish. Kara Groucher put up a great race, but as it was the return of Radcliffe to racing, it seemed that the press and everyone else was waiting for her and completely forgot that there were other women in the race.

We didn't stick around for the men's finish, instead choosing to get out of Newcastle earlier and head home. I still wasn't feeling well and it just seemed like a good idea.

As soon as we hit the road, I fell asleep and woke up a good three hours later as we approached home.

Monday morning I woke up and although a tad shaky, feeling a whole lot better. I waited until the afternoon and planned to do a 30 minute run, but ended up doing a 36 minute one.

Then yesterday arrived and it didn't look like I was going to be able to run as I had to make a trip down to London.

I got nearly 2 hours down the M1 when an unfortunate breakdown made sure that I wasn't going to be able to make it to my London appointment. The friendly RAC helped me out and a few hours later I was back at home, my car not about to be used until it got to a garage (incidentally, that'd be on Friday).

So, late last night, I took my frustration out and ran for 40 minutes. And now I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the same tonight.

Quote of the Day:
I’ll note you in my book of memory.
--William Shakespeare