3 marathons in 4 days part i)

St. George's Day marathon

I was very excited to be taking part in this event as I'd seen photos of it last year and it looked tremendous fun - dressing up, running by the sea for a few hours and then getting a medal being my idea of a jolly good day out!

But what should I wear? I searched for red and white things associated with St George's Day but I didn't want to wear anything with an image of a dragon being killed or anything that could be deemed to be racist in any way. Finally I found just the right thing which you'll see later on.

First I needed a cap and this cap from the Kent 50 back in 2007 was white once, before I started using as my gardening cap, so I decided to use it. Out came the trainer whitener which I applied using rubber gloves as it was rather messy procedure and it was really smelly until it dried.

 

Then I needed some nice red crochet to form a cross on the top. Tilly helped enormously by plonking herself on my chest which meant I had to crochet around her! I think she must have sensed that something was going on, bless her.

Then all I had to do was stitch it in place; not too firmly though as it had to be doctored the next evening for my 2nd marathon.

I went to sleep quickly but was awoken at 11pm by a vehicle outside with flashing lights and men wearing fluorescent jackets running up and down the lane flashing torches. As we live on a quiet country lane this was rather unusual. After about 5 minutes the vehicle with the flashing lights disappeared and we settled down again only to be disturbed by the same thing a few minutes later. They parked right outside our house and the flashing lights lit up the whole room. Then it got even worse as the men with the fluorescent jackets started to scrape the ground against something metallic, which we've now seen is some sort of drain cover, which must have been hidden in the undergrowth and their movement kept setting off our security lights so we had to turn them off. This nonsense went on until about 1am so when I got up at 4:30am to prepare for the marathon I wasn't feeling especially refreshed! 

Mike said the next day he had 2 phone calls from elderly neighbours along the lane who'd been very worried by the disturbance, poor things. One of them had even got his shotgun at the ready!

Here's my final outfit. The photo was taken at 5:30am just before I left to drive off to Deal for the marathon.

I'd worn vest and shorts as the forecast was for the weather to be warm later but when I arrived it was really cold and windy and I'd forgotten to pack a long-sleeved top just in case. Silly Susie. Thankfully I carry an emergency jacket in the boot, just in case I break down, which happens to be red and white so I wore that for the first couple of hours.

I managed to take a few photos before the camera refused to stop juddering and work at all, despite being shaken and shouted at!

View along the seafront

A show of red and white. There were several men wearing chainmail costumes and lots of flags too

Bonnie the dog chose the union flag to adorn her harness - she's doing her excited, please stroke me dance for me…….

…...whilst Caroline, her human, chose a child's dragon outfit together with her kilt

Can we go yet? Can I eat that?

Waiting patiently for my camera to stop shaking!

At the start there were the usual announcements and then we all sang Jerusalem to celebrate England and St. George

Then we were off and boy was that wind cold and strong. Brrrrrrr! It was exactly the same route as for my 39th marathon  last November so you get a feel for the place, but add a grey sky and some strong wind to get a feel for how it was onThursday.

I didn't have a specific finish time in mind and I wasn't going to push myself as this was just the first of 3 marathons so I set off at a comfortable pace and just pootled along. Well not quite pootling as there was a lot of head-down-into-the-wind going on until after a couple of hours the wind dropped and the sun came out whereupon I took my jacket off and caught the sun - with lovely lines across my legs where my shorts had reached and criss-cross marks on my back from my sports bra - how very attractive!

There were quite a few supporters out and about wearing red and white. We also got filmed by several people using their mobile phones. A convoy of tarmacking (sp?) wagons went past us twice and each time they beeped their horns and I saw one of the men filming us so we'll probably appear on You Tube.

So what kept my mind occupied as I couldn't take any photos? All sorts of things. The more I looked around me on each lap, the more things I spotted which only served to highlight how much I missed the camera! Shapes, patterns, colours, birds, people, smells, sounds were all around me. I watched my fellow runners, some running strongly, others forcing themselves onwards, all pushing themselves towards their own personal goals. At theses events there are many people who want to become members of the 100 marathon club and I've watched several people reach the magic number and realise their dream; what an amazing achievement.

I must mention that as it was a long drive to the venue and as I'd been up at 4:30am after little sleep I really hadn't felt like anything to eat first thing (naughty Susie!) and realised at the start that I'd left my drinks bottle at home (stupid Susie!) thus breaking all the rules of marathoning. Anyway there was a well-stocked aid station with water and juice to drink plus biscuits, cake and crisps etc.

After each lap I had some water and ate 2 crisps and 3 jammie dodgers (they're biscuits in case you haven't heard of them) during the course of the marathon so you could be forgiven if you thought my performance would suffer. On the contrary, I finished in 4:52:01 which is the first time I'd gone below 5 hours since the Kent Roadrunner marathon last year which I completed in 4:55:03. I was very pleased with that, although rather surprised. I suspect the faster time was partly because I wasn't stopping to take photos and just concentrated on running!

The super medal - photo pinched off Traviss's website

I headed home to fall into the bath, eat, celebrate with a glass of wine, catch up with Mike, decorate my cap anew and then head off to bed in readiness for another early start for marathon number 2 of 3.

A promo for Join dementia research and Guinness World Records

I couldn't think of a snappy title so I went for the 'it does what it says on the tin' approach!

There are quite a few photos, some from my camera (which died and then was resuscitated briefly and is to be replaced asap) so I've divided my updates into 4 so they are easier to get through. This first update just covers Wednesday last week.

The London marathon EXPO

First I must start at the beginning which was Wednesday. This was the only day I had available to go to the EXPO (that's the exhibition held at the Excel centre where everyone has to go to collect their number and timing chip) to collect my running number etc. for the London marathon.

I had a presentation to make on the main stage at 3:10pm and then a radio interview after that so I didn't need to leave home too early in the day. However, I abhor tardiness and so always factor in plenty of time to get wherever I want to go, plus I wanted to have a look around the exhibition beforehand so I allowed an extra 2 hours as contingency.

Well thank goodness I did!

I checked that the trains were running OK several times before I left home and everything looked fine but when I arrived at the railway station I heard an annoucement that the train heading in the other direction had been cancelled. Even though it was going the opposite way it set off alarm bells in my mind.

Anyway, my train arrived on time but you won't be surprised to hear that there were problems. As we left the station the train seemed to be going very slowly and then it stopped and I sat looking at this view for 20 minutes whilst the driver and guard kept announcing that they didnt'know what the delay was but we were being held in that position for the moment.

It was actually rather interesting to see this up close as it's part of the work done to try and control landslip, which caused  major problems on our line last year

When we finally moved off they announced that a vehicle had collided with a bridge and that this was being inspected to ensure it was safe for the trains to pass under or over (I can't remember which). Well, at least we were moving again; until we ended up sitting in a station for another aeon until they finally announced that the train would be terminated there and we should get off and catch another train into central London. 

I did however use the time to hand out some leaflets for join dementia research to everyone in my carriage as I had a captive audience. I was wearing my JDR tee shirt in readiness for the EXPO so that was handy.

Taken on my computer before I left home as the camera was misbehaving

I won't give  a blow by blow account, suffice to say that a journey that should have taken 2 hours 15 minutes took 4 hours 30 minutes door to door, some of which was spent standing crammed into a carriage like sardines in a tin. At one point Mike phoned to check as I was OK as he was worried I hadn't phoned him to say I'd arrrived safely. This brought much hilarity in the carriage as I had to jiggle around to reach into my bag for the phone and I apologised for disturbing everyone in the process!

When I finally arrived in London it became a race against time to get to the EXPO. I had a tube journey then ran to catch the Dockland Light Railway to the venue. I found that I could shake my camera into submission to stop it buzzing and juddering sometimes and when I managed it I took some photos from the train to give a feel for the area:

Interesting patterns formed by railing and windows

A pretty church surrounded by modernist buildings

It was nice to see some greenery amidst the rather industrial landscape

I've no idea what this building is but I liked the patterns and colours 

A massive complex, part of which was a hotel

There were huge cranes everywhere - there was so much building work going on

Looking towards the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - you can just make out the Arcelormital Orbit structure to the left of the centre

What are these armadillo-like structures? 

Hoorah, my final destination at last!

Crossing the walkway from the station you are left in mno doubt who is sponsoring the London  marathon

This is the Sunborn Yacht Hotel which looked amazing and very luxurious.

This year marks the 35th running of the London marathon and they were asking everyone to hold hands with a fellow runner as they crossed the line which is what happened at the first ever event. A lovely idea.

As you enter the exhibition you are greeted by a bank of booths and you have to find the one corresponding to your running number. As I'd arrived with only 30 minutes to spare before my interview I had to do a whistlestop tour of the exhibitors.

I found the running medal stand and in his photo you can see 4 marathon medals I'm hoping to add to my collection very soon - from the left i) the Tolkien marathon (September), ii) Kent Road Runner (May), iv) Battle of Britain (August), viii) Cakeathon (May)

One of the small stages where experts were giving tips on nutrition etc

I was there with Guinness World Records, as a charity fund-raiser, and because I've run with them 6 times in the past.  I was delighted that they asked me to speak even though I was just running this year rather than going for a GWR.

We were on the large stage in front of lots of picnic tables and seats where weary folks could take a break and listen to a wide variety of speakers plus fun games and a troopo of dancers.

We were interviewed on-stage for 10 minutes and I was asked to explain my reasons for doing it etc and it was an excellent opportunity to introduce JDR, which of course I did. I left some leaflets on the tables afterwards so perhaps someone will take a look. I also left some with the girls on the Alzheimer's Society stand who sadly didn't know anything about JDR so I must mention this them. ARUK didn't have a stand but maybe they will in the future as they have more and more runners joining them each year.

There will hopefully be some photos of us on-stage eventually but the nice people from GWR will be taking a few days off to recover from their involvement at the London marathon

Bye-bye exhibition. I hope my journy home is better…...

View of cable cars  I bet they have a fantastic view from up there. 

The O2 stadium

So what about the journey home? I have to confess that I was rather anxious, bearing in mind I had to get up really early the next day to travel to my marathon. I managed to get good connections from the EXPO to Charing Cross where I was dismayed to find that the train I was expecting to catch had been changed to stop only at the larger stations so I had to wait another hour for the next one. At least when that arrived everything went smoothly.

In the end I'd spent 7.5 hours travelling which is almost twice the time it should have taken!

And so begins a very busy week

I'm trying desperately not to think of what's coming up; I mean, 3 marathons in 4 days? Really? What was I thinking!!!!

In the meantime there have been interviews and conference calls aplenty. My favourite interview so far was with Jules from BBC Radio Kent. She's lovely. We had a nice chat about how special the London marathon is and that this will be my 10th running of it, which means it's 10 years since mum passed away. I can't believe how those years have flown by and yet here I am, still banging on about the need for more investment in dementia research and still running marathons. You never know where life will take you do you.

I've been concentrating on crochet and gardening to keep me sane with some community work thrown in as we've entered our pretty village into Britain in Bloom in the small village category. I'll share some photos of what we've been doing over the next few weeks. I love the idea of it as I am a keen conservationist  and spent a happy few hours on Saturday creating a stumpery behind the village pavilion whilst helpers brought old stumps and branches for me to create a perfect habitat for invertebrates and small mammals.

Here's a sneaky peak but I haven't got time to show everything we've been doing at the moment. Someone found an old roller in the undergrowth and gave it pride of place at the end of the stumpery!

Eat your heart out Andy Goldsworthy! He's actually one of my favourite landscape sculptors and I have many photos of his amazing work.

My crochet blanket grows and grows and I'm still enjoying it enormously. I'm up to week 12 now and the CAL is on week 15 so I'm catching up slowly but surely but after today I will have neither the time nor inclination to do anything other than eat, sleep and run!

Nearly a square again

Corner detail

She may look all sweet and sleepy but this little lady has helped my crochet efforts enormously by playing football with my yarn whenever she spots it. She's a very good dribbler!

The only thing for it was to make centre-pull balls from my hanks of yarn. I know you can get snazzy machines to do it but I rather enjoy the process of preparing the yarn by hand. I just used an empty toilet roll, dangled one end through the hole, wrapped the hank of yarn around my knees (Mike was busy or he'd have held it for me as he's well accustomed to this sort of task) and wrapped the yarn around in a figure of eight, turning the toilet roll as I went along. When I'd finished I just tucked the outer end under the outer threads, gently eased the ball off the roll and squished it down. Easy-peasy and not as pounceable as a ball.

Sitting and crocheting by the window is always enjoyable as there's always so much going on in the garden. The white posts are marking the area in which I grazed the horses last week and have been left for a while so Mike has a guide line to mow along.

Mr Pheasant with his harem. Mr and Mrs New Duck haven't produced any ducklings yet.

Which reminds me - this is what pheasants love to do; create a dust bath in the flowerbeds. They don't care if there's a plant in the way either!

This pair of moorhens seem to be building a nest in the pond at the moment. They always make me smile when I see them flying as they have really long legs which dangle floppily below.

The first batch of apple blossom appearing from the hairy buds

Glorious, pristine white flowers of the cherry set against the coppery coloured new leaves which turn green when mature. Just look how blue the sky is: perfect!

Yesterday ended with this swoosh of clouds. There was an almost violet tinge to everything.

Last week I had a good deep-tissue massage with Mary Massage Lady who worked into the knotty bits of my muscles, including my neck which had seized up again. She gave me strict instructions not to do any knitting or crochet for a couple of days and I was very good and did as I was told for once.

I shall be heading off into London tomorrow to collect my running number and do a bit of leafleting for join dementia research, then there's just the small matter of 3 marathons to run in 4 days!

A cornucopia of pleasures

I'm really enjoying the weather at the moment. The sun is out and it's been dry for a few days now (not throughout Easter of course when it was cold and rainy for 3 days!) and everywhere looks so beautiful that I just want to spend all day outdoors drinking it in. The birds and bees are doing what they do best at this time of year and the lambs are busy gamboling so the best thing I can do is share some photos from my runs and other outdoorsy things along with progress on my afghan, which has slowed a bit due to sore hands from too much gardening.

It's a pattern full of interest and makes a refreshing change from granny squares and ripples. Not that there's anything wrong with them it's just that I have a plethora of both plus I really like overlay crochet.

I'm very glad I took this photo as I've made a mistake on the dark navy round I started late last night - I've made the first flower into the wrong part of the stitch - bother! Although it also looks as if the flowers are slightly to the right of the stems that will be corrected on the next round when the stitch is anchored.

I've created the cluster inbetween the v stitch, ie in the body of it ……..

Rather than into the top of it where I've inserted my hook here:

At least I'd hadn't got too far to rip back. Serves me right for doing it when I was most likely too tired and not concentrating.

Hairy Horse

You know that Spring has finally sprung when the horses start to moult. I took this photo of Esther through the kitchen window. There were 5 rooks pecking away at her bottom, getting rid of any bugs but then taking away some of her hair for their nests. A mutually beneficial act!

Esther has a very thick coat and only needs a rug when the temperature stays low for a long period. I just rubbed my hand across her back and look what came off:

As the farrier was due yesterday I took the opportunity of giving her a really good brushing to help speed up the process of moulting. She looks all sleepy and mellow doesn't she.

She just investigated what I'd got on my hand in case it was something to eat and then let me get on with it.

After about 5 minutes of brushing I'd got nearly a bucketful which I left for the birds to use as lining in their nests.

Which reminds me, the pampas grass flowers I put by the compost heap are getting smaller and smaller with a convoy of birds taking them for their nests. Plus, all the dead plant stems and small twigs left on the flowerbeds are being tidied for me by pairs of birds which is exactly what I'd hoped for.

Time for some Nature

The sun has brought some butterflies out. So far I've only seen Peacocks, as seen below, and small tortoiseshells but there are plenty of bees buzzing around which is why it's so important that there are nectar-rich flowers available for them to build up their strength.

The lanes are bedecked with primroses.

The deciduous woodland is full of wood anemones with the promise of bluebells and wild garlic to come very soon.

Another beauty is the Lesser Celandine which is often spotted along the hedgerows. Its cheery buttercup-yellow petals shine out from the undergrowth above its pretty, marbled, heart-shaped leaves. 

You might think that William Wordsworth’s favourite flower was the Daffodil, but it was actually the lesser celandine about which he wrote three poems. Here is a verse taken from my favourite:

To The Small Celandine

Pansies, Lilies, Kingcups, Daisies, 

Let them live upon their praises; 

Long as there’s a sun that sets Primroses will have their glory; 

Long as there are Violets,

They will have a place in story: 

There’s a flower that shall be mine, 

‘Tis the little Celandine. 

You may be familiar with the gorgeous purple flowers of Viola riviniana aka the Dog Violet which, unlike many other violets, has no scent. You can make a Violet tea using the fresh leaves but I'm not fond of the flavour even though I believe it's renowned for its demulcent properties and might be good for me!

What you may not have seen before though is a white version. I'd never seen it before we moved to our village where there's a large patch growing in a verge. They look so delicate and fresh. Native wild violets are an important food plant for Butterflies such as Fritillaries.

This next beauty is one of my favourite wild flowers. It is Cardamine pratensis but it's common name is Lady's Smock or the Cuckoo flower as it usually appears with the arrival of the first cuckoo (although we don't get nearly as many cuckoos as we used to).

This is another plant that has been used for it's medicinal properties as it contains a high level of vitamin C and was used to help prevent Scurvy in olden times.

I still have lots more to write about and loads of photos to share but I can't bear to be away from the garden too long as there's so much to do.

The main reason I'm writing this is now that there are very high levels of pollution across the UK at the moment and there has been a horrible thick smog lingering over the valley all day. Health warnings have been issued for asthmatics and people with lung problems.

I spent a couple of hours outside this morning but was sensible and didn't run today which turned out to be the right decision as a massive coughing fit sent me scuttling back inside. I shall just have to get on with some crochet which isn't such a bad thing after all.