More Awesomeness

Every so often someone new appears on the marathon circuit and then you see them so many times that you notice them and you wonder what motivates them.  Some people run for charity as I do, others are running away from things (eg bad relationships/divorce, alcohol/drug addiction, depression) or perhaps to lose weight and/or get fit in the process.

One of the people I noticed was Lesley Morrill who only started running in middle age and completed her first marathon when she was 62 years, 4 months and 25 days young. That's very precise isn't it; and there's a very good reason for that which will be revealed in due course.

Here's a bit of background: Lesley is a horsey person and has a gorgeous 20 year old Dutch Warmblood dressage mare named Risabella, a fellow redhead.

Gorgeous girlie!

But her passion goes much further than just owning and caring for horses, she's a Sports Coach specialising in teaching physically disabled children, from 3 yrs to young adults, to ride.  She told me she has always felt the need to challenge herself especially as she puts these children on top of half a ton of horse and expects them to get on with it!  Her challenges have included tough events such as being part of a team completing The 3 Peaks Challenge and climbing Mount Toubkal (she doesn't like heights and had just 4 weeks to prepare!) to raise money for Riding for the Disabled & Cancer Research.  So we already have a picture of a very gutsy and determined lady don't we.

Then back in 2014 she decided she needed a new challenge and mentioned this to her boss David, himself an accomplished  runner, who suggested she try the Brighton 10k which was taking place before the Brighton marathon.  So the seed was sown and has lead to some magnificent achievements.  There was a sense of inevitability about it especially with David to chivvy her along.  As he was injured at the time she kept him company walking at the back which is how she just happened to complete an accidental marathon in 2016 at the beautiful Ranscombe Nature Reserve which has featured on here so many times as I can't help stopping to take photos of the plantlife whenever I run there!

That was it, she was hooked and after she'd completed a 30 mile event a colleague at Hope in the Valley RDA Group suggested she complete a 50 mile event to raise money for their group which would be 50 years old in 2 years time.  Well Lesley is clearly a girl who cain't say "no" and so she started booking lots more marathons.  A girl after my own heart she prefers trail marathons for the stunning views, plantlife and dogs as she loves seeing different breeds.  Like so many of us she was encouraged by the wonderful Traviss who has pushed me way beyond what I thought I could achieve and she sent me some of his words of wisdom that had inspired her:

It’s not about the shoes, it’s what you do in them that counts.  

It’s about not breaking, when you’re broken. 

It’s not about glory at the finish, it’s about belief at the start.  

It’s about endless hard work, when nobody is looking.  

It’s not about entering events, it’s about committing to them. 

It’s about going as far as you can go, and then taking another step. 

 It’s not about having the courage to fail, it’s about having the patience to succeed. 

It’s taking what you have been given, and making something better. 

It’s not about the medals, it’s about the memories.  

It’s about measuring yourself in miles, then marathons and finally, in character.... 

Traviss Wilcox/RD/Marathoner.

I have seen first hand the amazing support and encouragement David Brett has given her and she has been very lucky to have such an incredible Boss and friend to help her achieve her goals.  As his injury began to heal they didn't run/walk together as much but he still gave her lots of support, pushing her that bit further than she thought she could manage.  I should mention that David has completed over 340 marathons, which include 100 or more ultra marathons and he's very modest about his amazing achievements.

Lesley realised that by pushing herself that little bit more she could achieve so much to link in with her charity (50th marathon, 50k, 52 marathons in 52 weeks, 50 miles.....) and she hasn't stopped there as she's on the cusp of completing 100 marathon in 100 weeks which is a phenomenal achievement.

Lesley is on the left sporting her 52in52 shirt with David 3rd from the right wearing a black top

Whenever Lesley is struggling during a marathon she thinks about the youngsters she coaches.  They have pain and live with great difficulties all the time and she uses their strength to motivate herself to get the job done.

A short while ago she finally got her hands on the coveted blue and yellow top and joined the 100 Marathon Club as a full member.  But that isn't all - she also set a new Club record for being the oldest woman to run her first marathon and get to 100 marathons!  She will be 65 later this week and I think she is a shining example of what we older ladies can achieve.

Lesley, you rock and I can't wait to see what your next challenge is; be it running or anything else I know it will be suitably challenging!

Bits and Bobs

Some of our Winter visitors have arrived:

This pretty Grey Wagtail was pottering about on the patio when the ducks arrived and chased him off!

They have so much yellow about them that I always find it difficult to distinguish them from the Yellow Wagtails!

The Green Woodpecker has been busy searching for grubs in the orchard.  We didn't see any babies this year.

The young Moorhens are very brave this year and are coming right up to the house.  I chuckled when I spotted this one trying to reach up to the nut/seed feeders.  Sorry it's a bit blurry - I must clean the windows!

We took a walk along one of the footpaths near Bodiam Castle the other day and I loved this view showing the turrets just peeping out of the trees.

After our circuit we ended up outside the Tea-rooms which were open so we had to have coffee and cake to sustain us for the walk back up the hill to home.

I don't think I've shared this driftwood horse before.  It's been there for several years now and still looks beautiful in all seasons.

On the knitting front, I've just started a new jumper but wanted to share this photo of me wearing the Allie shawl.  It had its first outing in Tunbridge Wells the other day and 3 people stopped me in the street and asked me where I'd bought it (haha!) and a lady in the Yarn shop took a photo of me wearing it.  I loved wearing it although I'm not very good at styling it properly and kept getting the pointy end tangled in my hair!

I treated myself to a copy of the latest Laine magazine, issue 6 as I really liked the look of several jumpers.

This is the first one I've started; Hryggir by Helene Magnusson

I have more than enough yarn in my stash and after a rummage around I found 4 balls of a laceweight yarn from Fiddlesticks knitting that I'd bought to make a Wedding shawl for my friend about 10 years ago.  Why is is still in my stash?  Because the wedding didn't happen as no sooner had they become engaged, her fiance did a runner with her best friend.  Good job I hadn't started the shawl then!

Further rummaging revealed several different balls of Kidsilk Haze as options to use in the main body.

My test swatch worked out perfectly despite Tilly's attempts at sabotage (top left!).

Not me mum!

I've just finished the neck ribbing and am about to start the lace pattern for the yoke.

Big badda catch-up time!

Oh my goodness, I've been so lax in my updates and now there's too much to go in one post so I'll have to split into bite-sized chunks (and not necessarily in the right order).

First we have the long-awaited ballot results from the London marathon:

Oh no, I hear you cry!  You haven't got a place and it's all about dementia charities in 2019.

But fear not dear friends, the lovely people at The Dementia Revolution (the partnership for 12 months between Alzheimer's Research UK, the charity I've been supporting for the last 13 years, and the Alzheimer's Society) have offered me a Gold Bond place so I will be there - well I could hardly not be there could I!

This of course means that I have to raise £2000 for the cause which is going to be jolly hard work as everyone I know has supported me at least once and some many times more.

I've raised over £54,000 for research already but I'm going to have to be super-creative to find new ways to reach my fund-raising target this time - as usual I have a plan brewing inside my head and it's  a very scary and suitably testing challenge for 2019 which I can't share just yet.  Suffice to say it will be tough and will take me right out of my comfort zone (yet again), especially since I will be 62 when I undertake the really tough part of it (gulp!).

My fund-raising page is now up and running and full details of my challenge will be revealed in due course.  I might also do something special at the London marathon just for old times' sake..................

A short while ago Dame Barbara Windsor very bravely announced that she is living with dementia and she sent this lovely message:

Now what else is there to catch up with?  There have been a couple of marathons:

The Tolkien Challenge

Back to beautiful Samphire Hoe again for my 4th running of the Tolkien Challenge.  I wasn't sure whether to do marathon or ultra distance at the start but settled for marathon in the end as the motorway traffic was bad due to roadworks and I wanted to get home at a decent time.

It was the perfect weather for a little jaunt by the sea and I'll let the photos do the talking:

The Highland cattle and sheep were sharing the grazing in different areas.

I always love seeing the cliffs.  They make me feel small and humble.

Traviss made the usual announcements but this one for Nick, my favourite nutty American, was extra special and I need to give him his own post.  Suffice to say he is shattering and setting so many World Records and is absolutely amazing (note to self - don't forget to write about Nick asap!)

I tried to be really good and only took photos on my last lap (although I did spend about 10 minutes chatting with a bird watcher at one stage.  He was watching a Peregrin Falcon on top of the cliffs but was interrupted when someone flew a drone overhead which scared it off.

As we stood chatting this small murmuration of Starlings took flight and flew down the side of the cliff right over my head - the noise of their wings was amazing!  They performed some fabulous  acrobatics before settling back on the cliff-face.

Dungeness power station in the distance

For some unknown reason, I was captivated by receding lines that day.

Jon striding out along the sea wall.  His mum & dad were there too.  He's got his whole family into marathon running and his mum has been an absolute treasure during races, handing out ice-lollies and sweeties when needed (more receding lines).

The day-glo orange Sea Buckthorn berries look unreal don't they!

There was lots of Sea Lavender along the sea wall

I don't recognise this plant and must look it up

The obligatory lichen shot!

The rust-coloured reeds against the green water drew my eye

Sea meets clouds, meets multi-coloured sky

Bye-bye sea.  See you again soon.

Another fab Tolkien medal

My finish time was around the usual taking into account chatting and taking photos - 5:39:44.  That was number 157.

The Kanga-Roo Kanter

Back to Ashdown Forest for another challenge event in Traviss and Rachel's Winnie the Pooh series - for the past 2 years I've done both days and earned suitably themed medals at the Winnie the pooh Wander, Eeyore Expedition, Tigger Bounceathon & Piglet Plod.

This year it was the Kanga-Roo Kanter and the Owl Amble but I could only do the first day as life got in the way.  The other issue is that I had a camera malfunction and so all the photos I took were lost.  I couldn't work out why until I remembered the start when we were all setting out.  I was going over a short, sharp grassy mound when Dee was taking photos and I waved to her - a man behind me pushed into me and I stumbled and fell flat on the grass.  The rude man didn't even say sorry, nor did he stop to check that I was OK!  I think the memory chip in the camera must have been dislodged in my fall hence non of my photos were saved.  Ho hum.

So this is the only photo I have, taken right at the start by someone else.  I'm on the right, wearing my pink flamingo crochet cap, chatting with James and plotting adventures for 2019 (as you do!).

I had a very pleasant run despite the tumble and the weather was perfect with a gentle breeze to cool us down.  Everywhere looked wonderful as the bracken was changing colour to shades of rust and lemon.  There were lots of dog walkers and horse riders out and I had some lovely chats with fellow runners en-route.

I hadn't decided whether to stick at marathon distance until my last lap when I decided I wanted to get back home for Strictly come dancing (Mike and I have become strangely addicted to this programme which is odd because we are rubbish dancers!).  For those of you who watch this I was sad to see Katie Piper leave this week as she is such a lovely lady but sadly she wasn't the best at dancing.  I met her years ago on the This Morning programme and I was humbled by her amazing attitude to what had happened to her (she had acid thrown in her face by an ex-boyfriend).

Sorry, I digress.

Before I set out for my last lap I paid a visit to the aid station for the first time as my water bottles were empty.  They're those soft, squishy bottles which fit into my ultra-running vest.  I topped one of them up and tried to get it back into its pocket but I couldn't get it back in so Kirsty very kindly took pity on me and came to help.  This resulted in much hilarity and squirting of my drink and I must have wasted about 5 minutes there for no real reason!

Never mind, I trotted around my last lap without falling over so that was a bonus and even better I finished faster than day 1 last year so was very happy with that.  So that was marathon 158, completed in 6:04:09 which is a couple of minutes faster than last year and would have been more if it hadn't been for the squishy bottle debacle (oh and the chatting and photos)!

To finish here's quick showing of my completed Allie Shawl which has been blocked and just needs a few finishing touches (I'm feeling the need for pompoms for some reason) before I do a write-up about it unless of course I get distracted by something else as is my wont!

In an English Country Garden (plus bits and bobs)

Did you read that and start singing the song?  I certainly did as I typed!  This is a mish-mash of a few garden visits and other random stuff starting with a tank:

Traviss likes to stick a small tank somewhere on any of the girly type medals to make them more manly so Rachel let him have a whole series of different coloured tanks for this event!

Traviss and Rachel had organised a 10in10 event which meant people could choose to run as far as they wished within the time limit each day for 10 days.  Yes, of course it's bonkers but there were nearly 40 takers who achieved epicness.  I was not that bonkers and had planned 3 days of ultra marathoning until life intervened and I ended up doing just 1 marathon on a very hot and humid day which I found quite tough as my breathing was rubbish.  It was nice to catch up with some friends though and it took me to marathon 155 in a sluggish 5:42:59.

I've been doing a lot of work in the garden which has caused the arthritis in my fingers, wrists and ankles to flare up with a vengeance but I'm determined not to let it beat me so I made a start on my next knitting project of the Allie Shawl which I mentioned previously.  There isn't much to show yet but as a 'process' knitter (I actually enjoy the knitting itself more than the finished article!) I'm enjoying the mosaic stitch enormously.

This is the right side - I used an i-cord cast on, rather than the picot edging in the pattern, as I noticed someone else had used that and although it takes longer to do it looks so neat and I'll do an i-cord bind-off too.

Wrong side

I'm trying gypsythedog's (great nickname!) 3 stitch edging as I thought it looked nice

Now for some glorious gardens we've visited recently.  I'll have to keep the words to a minimum or I'll never get through them all:

Great Maytham Hall

These gardens are famous for inspiring Frances Hodgson-Burnet to write 'The Secret Garden' and we've been meaning to visit for ages.  I also took part in a mystery KAL back in 2014 when I produced these mittens inspired by the story.

If you click on the link in the heading you'll see that it has been divided into luxurious apartments and you get some views of the gardens from above.

Converted stables and outbuildings

Entering part of the beautiful walled garden which was the inspiration for the novel

A very friendly cat, obviously used to seeing strangers in his patch

Oooh, I could have a sewing room there!

The walls were smothered in massive Wisterias and I'd never seen to many huge seedpods before

Look at the thickness of that trunk!

What a fabulous pergola walkway

I haven't grown Limonium, aka Sea Lavender, for many years and I took this to remind me to sow some for next year as its great in dried flower arrangements

These Anemones were nearly as tall as Mike grown in this protective environment (I had wall envy after this visit!)

The back of the house - there's a miniature golf course on the lawn!

There were 3 brick columns which looked as if there should have been a sculptures on top

I took this to remind me I liked the contrast of the variegated Iris against the dark Bugle underneath

There quite a few areas marked 'private' and I loved peeping into intimate areas such as this one

Two local gardens open under the National Garden Scheme

There were 4 gardens open in a village nearby; 2 of them interested me very much whilst the other 2 not so much and as it was a very hot day we just did the most interesting ones.

Our first visit was to Frewen College which we've visited to hear classical music concerts but had never seen the gardens.  It's a beautiful building, see below from the rear.

The gardens weren't exceptional, but it was nice to explore them, however, the next garden most certainly was!  To reach it we had a short walk along the main road and then we entered a garden I've peeped into each time I've run past there but I had no idea just how gorgeous it was:

What a beautiful lace-cap Hydrangea with florets bigger than my hand

Viburnum Opulus, the aptly-named 'Snowball tree'!

This Rhus typhina, aka Stag's horn Sumac, stopped me in my tracks

Isn't that gorgeous!  The leaves turn a brilliant red in Autumn too.

I've got serious conservatory envy here!  I also got Greenhouse envy later on but didn't take a photo of them (yes, they had more than one and they were beautiful).

There were fabulous touches like this everywhere - just a small recess in a close-clipped hedge

I managed to catch this Dragonfly ovipositing her eggs on some pond weed

I took this to remind me to transplant our Thalictrums in Autumn as they aren't happy where they in the front garden.

That was a real gem and I'm so glad we got to look round it at last.  There are more to come but this post is getting far too long so I'll save them for another day.