Tick Tock

Doesn't time seem to pass slowly for those who wait.  Yet if you want a moment to last forever then it's gone in the blink of an eye. I am waiting and hoping that when a certain magazine lands in our letterbox it says 'You're In!" rather than "Sorry!"

Yep, it's nearly October when all the people who entered the ballot for the London marathon get to find out if they've been lucky enough to get a place.  If I don't get a ballot place then I have to hope that I get a Gold Bond place from the Dementia Revolution (the alliance between the Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Research UK).

It would feel really strange if I don't get a place as for the last 14 years I've dreamt that one day a dementia charity would be the chosen charity for the London marathon. Fingers crossed anyway.  In the meantime I'm busy plotting new challenges to raise money for dementia research.

Alzheimer's Research UK have just pledged to commit £250m by 2025 for research into dementia.  You can read about the pledge here.  That is one heck of a pledge isn't it.  This latest campaign is called 'Make breakthroughs possible' and there is a video about it here.

Now for a bit of running that isn't a marathon or ultra, a nice local 10k starting in Northiam and going through the lanes I know and love down to the grounds of Bodiam Castle.  This was the second running of this event which I did last year and as it's so close to home it would have been rude not to do it again.

I chose a hilly 6 mile route to get to the start so was nicely warmed up ready to push a bit harder during the race.

A few brave souls did an aerobic warm-up beforehand.  You can just make me out on the left of the photo wearing my 100 Marathon Club top.

Unfortunately the start was delayed because there was a massive queue for the toilets because the Railway station wouldn't allow people to use their toilets even though they'd told the Race Director they could.  This meant there was a 10-15 minute delay before we set off!

Finally the race started and as usual I positioned myself near the back only to find I was overtaking people almost immediately.  Take a look at the course profile below and you'll see why:

Just a few hills to run up!

I suspect some people didn't realise it was such a tough route.  As I train on these lanes all the time there were no surprises for me though.

There seemed to be a few issues with traffic this year with confusion over which side of the road we should be on with cars coming really close to us on the main road at the start then a dangerous instruction to run on the righthandside of a busy road approaching a blind bend where I would always cross to the left. I emailed the Race Director afterwards to mention this as the runners in front of me had a near miss with a car driving close to the edge at that point.

The other thing I commented on was that 2 people were wearing headphones which are banned in road races.  However, apparently they were bone conducting headphones which I'd never heard of before, nor had the RD!  They don't fit inside the ear so presumably the users were still able to hear external noise/instructions.

I chatted with several people throughout and had lots of comments about my club vest.  Some runners commented that a 10k must be easy for me as I've run lots of marathons but it's a completely different type of running - I could never run a marathon at my 10k pace! The marshalls were all lovely and I joked with them and thanked them all for their hard work and encouragement. As I ran through our village some of my neighbours were out supporting so I stopped for a few hugs which was nice.

Mike said he'd walk down to Bodiam to watch me finish so we could have coffee and cake in the tearooms afterwards so I was looking out for him as I neared the entrance to Bodiam Castle.

Catching up with Sally who lives nearby and often runs past our house

I was quite pleased with my time of 1:03:55 given that I've put on a bit of weight recently and had already run 6 miles beforehand (I managed 1:02 last year so need to lose this extra weight).

Horsey Guests

Heather asked if she could turn out her brood mares on our fields for a few weeks whilst they separate their foals to wean them.  Yes please I said as I'm missing my horsey hit!  Her stablemaid was poorly and so I offered to help lead them over and rather than going the long route down the lane I decided we should bring them down the drive.  Mike waited patiently to take some photos!

As we lead them away from their foals, who were indoors in a large barn, there was lots of neighing and squealing as they realised their mummies were being taken away and at one point one of the mares became quite agitated, poor love.

Heather leading Full Bloom

Notice how I'm leading from the right rather than the left.  This is because she's blind in her left eye and tends to walk into you because she can't see you!

The gorgeous Serene Grae and I think that's Quayle Landing with Heather

There were 7 to bring over and they were really skittish for a few days before they settled down.  I'll take some photos of them in the field when the weather bucks up as it's too cold, wet and windy at the moment.  Heather was asking if I missed my horses, which of course I do, and Mike said he thought she'd offer me one of her older mares if I wanted one but I don't want to commit to caring for another; not yet anyway............At least I get my daily horsey hit whilst they're here with us.

It's a horrid wet and windy day today so Tilly and I are settling down to some serious sleeping and knitting.

My Allie shawl is growing slowly but surely and I'm awaiting my copy of Laine magazine number 6 so I can make a start on a lovely jumper in there.  

I loved doing the mosaic stitch section and extended it by one repeat

I'm having to limit my knitting time because the arthritis  in my hands  and wrists is really bad now and I need to write a separate post about some of the adaptations I've made to make my life easier (hopefully) and the therapies I'm trialling.  I'm struggling to hold a crochet hook at the moment because my really sore index finger can't cope with it but I'm sure it will quieten down again soon #arthritishurts!