Number 2

Yesterday was my 2nd event of the year. It was originally planned to be held at Jeskyns Community Woodland near Gravesend but a few days before the event the wardens made the difficult decision to cancel due to conditions underfoot. It's been so wet for the last few months that all the trails were very muddy and they were concerned about the impact of a 100 or so runners on them.

This of course gave Traviss a huge dilemma - to cancel or reschedule the event. Many Race Directors would just have cancelled the event and offered a transfer to whenever it was held again (which can sometimes mean never and thus you've lost your entrance fee) but Traviss is a different RD altogether!

As soon as he learned the news he put out a message to all entrants and then the next day he had offered an alternate route with several options for everyone:

i) Run the new route, which was on tarmac but in the vicinity of Jeskyns, based out of the Cyclopark.
ii) Defer to the rearranged date in June.
iii) Transfer to another of their events.
iv) Save it as a race credit to be used at another of their events in the future.

There truly aren't many, if any, other Race Directors who would do that and that is one of the many reasons why his events are so popular. I chose option i) and I'm really glad I did.

On the morning of race day I looked out of the window at 5:30am and saw a white curtain of snow falling. Worse still, it was sticking to the ground and there was already a 3" covering. As most of the little lanes I'd be using to get to the main road do not get gritted this was a worry and so I checked the BBC website for traffic updates and weather forecast. It looked as if it was fine elsewhere so I set off and within 5 miles there was hardly any snow at all, phew! In fact, my journey took less time than usual.

Of course, I got lots of teasing from Traviss about my snow worries!

As always it was a very sociable event so there was always someone to chat with en route and the support from fellow runners is wonderful. I was feeling strong and had already decided to go beyond marathon distance depending upon the time (the event had to start later than planned which meant the 6 hour time limit took it to 4pm finish and I didn't want to get home too late).

Many of the Usual Suspects gather at the registration tent

Greg, on the left, was in charge of car parking and the man on his right was a Marshall who stood around in the bitter cold for hours

On the face of it the route was not glamorous; running on a gravel track alongside a busy motorway, over a couple of bridges, across a railway line, along a road, but I really enjoyed it. I've grown accustomed to going round in circles or out-and-back and although my heart is in the hills/trails I am happy to do this sort of route.

This route plan showing the route elevations someone uploaded from their GPS device made me chuckle!

I made the decision again not to take loads of photos unless there was something I just couldn't resist so the next 3 photos came courtesy of Gary Groutage who was snapping away as he supported us:

I couldn't believe how much I look like my late sister in this photo

Kirsty had a brilliant skirt teamed with her fluorescent socks

Phoebe managed to sleep through a large part of the run. How Rik managed over some of the trail terrain I really don't know!

I'd decided from the start that I was going to go over marathon distance again, by at least one extra lap, and I'd also decided that I would adopt a run-as-I-feel plan rather than trying to do a negative split (that means that you run the second half faster than the first half) which never seems to work for me. So I just set off at pace that felt right on the day and was delighted that I felt really strong. In fact, people kept commenting that I was running well and I hoped that it wasn't going to be a case of pride before a fall!

There was lots of chatter en-route and I was delighted to share a few more miles with James with whom I ran last weekend. He was intending to do 10 laps so we parted company after a while. This young man has some amazing things planned and the good thing is that I know he will achieve them.

For marathon distance you had to complete 7 laps and 8 laps or more would get an ultra so I was aiming for 8. When I got to my 8th lap I knew I had could easily do another lap but decided against it because the later start (10am rather than 9am due to the Cyclopark's opening hours) meant that I'd be getting home a lot later than planned. Plus, the thought of a nice warm car and Mike waiting for me was rather appealing.

The next 2 photos were taken on my last lap and I couldn't resist because even though I'd run over this bridge 8 times I hadn't noticed the bunnies:

Aren't they cute. I've no idea what the story of them is as I can't find any mention of them but they certainly made me smile.

My finish time was 5:45:04 for 30 miles which is much faster than last weekend so I was both surprised and pleased in equal measures.

The medal was really lovely, I got an ultra badge too, and the goody bag was so full of goodies that Mike said I should give some things away next time or we'll both get too fat from all the chocolate!

I'll leave with a photo of one of our beautiful Amaryllis which is blooming now. It's rather different from the usual ones and is Amaryllis Cybister Rose. I love it's fine petals.

A few things

I have some craft things to show but need to get up to date with the end of year stuff first. I know I often say this but there truly are not enough hours in the day. How anyone can be bored is beyond my comprehension as there are so many things I want to do!

Re-organising

Tilly and I spent a lot of time re-organising my office/craft room space too make it more manageable and relevant.

I have a couple of bookcases in my room which have been used for paperwork and business things for many years but are now being used to store some of my craft things. We found these plastic boxes complete with lids for a bargain price and they were a perfect fit for the shelves.

Tilly helped by playing in her cardboard box!

I already had some larger boxes which will remain in a cupboard but it was really inspiring to gather things together in groups with the added bonus of being able to see at a glance what's in each box. I am going to stick rigidly to my pledge to use only things I have already with only charity projects being the exception.

I was especially pleased to be able to group small things such as sequins/beads/buttons together so I can access them  easily

My bunnies sit on top of the lower unit and watch what I'm up to. The rather dog-eared looking peachy-pink coloured one has been with me since I was a baby. I've tried washing him but he still looks grubby. The only one which isn't a bunny is at the back on the left. It's a cat which belonged to my mum and it has a wind-up mechanism to play a sweet little tune - the cat moves it's head as the music plays and I was mesmerised by this when I was a youngster.

Mike made me a medal rack when I first started running but I need an extra one now as I've got quite a few medals! He's promised to make me another one to go above my desk when I've finished re-organising everything.

My custom-made medal rack complete with hearts

Random bits

Our pretty Amaryllis has excelled herself this year with the first spike producing 6 flowers! I think it's a variety named 'Flamingo' as it's a very pale and delicate shade of pink. These flowers are starting to fade now and the second spike is growing daily so I expect we'll get another show soon.

These dried flowers are all from the front garden. When I prune I save flowerheads, seedheads and sometimes just foliage as they are so attractive. There are over 20 different varieties in this vase.

Although very sweet, not all creatures are a welcome sight in the garden, especially when they've managed to climb into the seed-feeder on the window. Tilly brought this young rat to my attention when she suddenly leapt off my lap whilst I was knitting and launched herself at the window. The rat was undeterred and continued nibbling the grain!

At first I was surprised that the rat had managed to get up the wall into the feeder. Then I realised he must have climbed up the branches of a potted shrub nearby. That has now been moved well out of the way.

Right, I think that's 2014 finished so my next post will be about my last trip into London for an interesting meeting about dementia research held at the Royal College of Physicians.

New Year, new focus

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you enjoyed the festive season and haven't put on too much weight. I have to confess to feeling somewhat rounder after all the scrumptious Christmas food.

I can't believe it's over 2 weeks since I last updated my blog but we've just been really busy and the time has flown by. I've got my first marathon of 2015 this weekend and the weather forecast is not looking good at the moment. I'm hoping it all changes by the time we get to Sunday!

What's been happening? I'll start with a brief recap of Christmas (and I use the word "brief" loosely). There was a large jigsaw which we started after lunch on Boxing Day. It's massive and took over half of the dining table. It was a Charity Shop find which was brand new and only cost £2.

Tilly helped enormously!

Our pretty Amaryllis flowered well and is still flowering with another flower spike growing before our eyes which is an added bonus.

I should have written about my Panettone beforehand so that people could try it for themselves. For anyone who has never heard of it, Panettone is that wonderfully decadent Italian bread bejewelled with candied peel and dried fruits that you see packaged in boxes before Christmas. I've been making my own for many years now and always use a recipe by Linda Collister whose recipes are always reliably good.

Often a recipe will tell you that you need a special Panettone tin which has really high sides (and costs a lot of money) but this is what Linda Collister suggests and it works a treat. In Italy bakers take great pride in producing the tallest Panettone.

You grease the inside of a loose-based tin and then line the sides with a double layer of grease-proof paper which protrudes about 3-4" above the top of the tin.

Then you add a double layer of silver foil around the outside of the tin and  attach it to the foil with a paperclip.

When your Panettone has been proved and been shaped and placed in the tin it will be quite low down in the tin but after its final rising it will have come a long way up.

This is what it looks like when it's just come out of the oven

It's quite fragile whilst still warm and so you lay it on its side to cool and firm up.

This is what it looks like just before we attacked it. Oh my, it was gorgeous! We had it for breakfast for 3 days and then the remainder was used up in a bread pudding which was equally scrumptious - I can't think why we put on weight over Christmas!!!

Mike's given me permission to share his Christmas project on here. He decided that he wanted to do a portrait of me based on this photo of me sitting in a green chair (you need to scroll down the page a bit). He's been experimenting with oil painting for a few years now and he has a natural talent for drawing and painting and he's just getting better and better.

Here I am in a few stages. Each day he brought it into the lounge and we looked at it to see if it needed tweaking. I found it odd staring at myself but we both agreed that it's his best yet and I feel honoured to have been captured like this.

Thanks Mike xxxxx

I think that's enough for this post so in my next one I'll write about what I've been up to and my plans for 2015.