Britain - AnnaTheApple

May 18, 2016May 18, 2016

It’s a Knockout hen do and Bath parkrun

I dread when I get invited to go on hen dos (bachelorette parties). I fear it’ll involve clubbing, which I detest. I’m too old for that sort of thing now – sticky floors, luminous sugary alcohol, smoke machines and toilets that made you gag. Not my thing. So I was hugely relieved that when I was invited to my university friend’s hen do in Bath it wouldn’t involve clubbing. Hurrah!

I’d taken the Friday off so I could get to Bath at a reasonable time so decided to switch my long run around as I knew Sunday would never happen. I’d planned to run 16 miles but on waking I realised mentally I wasn’t in the game. To try and persuade myself it would be OK I decided, instead of doing a huge 16 mile loop like I usually would, I’d break it down into a 10 mile loop then a 6 mile loop. As it was quite warm this would work well as I could drop by the house to pick up water if I needed to.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. As soon as I started running I knew 16 miles would be a real push. My legs felt heavy and my mind just wasn’t happy running. It was such a struggle. The weather was fine, it wasn’t even that hot, I just didn’t want to be running. In the end I managed 10 miles.

I hadn’t put on any BodyGlide either and my underarms were really sore from chafing. Basically it was a thumbs down experience.

Thankfully I had a fun hen party weekend to look forward to! We stayed in a beautiful three-story house doing fun activities and going nowhere near a club

The furniture and decor were awesome and the amazing Rachel and Charlotte, who organised the weekend, decked it out with balloons and hen party paraphernalia, food and drink.

But first can we just marvel at my amazing parking? This was in central Bath and there was literally nowhere to park but this one tiny space.

My little red Fiat 500

This might not seem amazing to any normal, able driver but to me this was a HUGE feat. A curb might have been mounted in the process but that’s just details…

Eventually Shell, the hen, arrived and the frivolities began. We enjoyed many glasses of Prosecco and finger-food on the Friday night. We all got suitably merry!

Me, Shell and Kate

My friend, Kate, mentioned that she was going to go running the next day. HOLD THE BOAT – what?? This is all very new to me. She doesn’t normally run. She said she’d started the Couch 2 5k programme and was working steadily through it. I tried to persuade her to come to parkrun with me the next day but, understandably, she said she wasn’t ready for that distance yet. She’s also very embarrassed about running, getting up at 5am in the week so no one sees her. This really makes me sad. No one should ever feel embarrassed about running in public. I know there are knobs out there who are awful and heckle people (it’s happened to me many a time!) so I can understand her reluctance, but it still makes me sad that she’s so worried.

I wasn’t sure how my run would go if I’m honest. I’d planned on driving to the parkrun as it was just up the road and I didn’t want to push myself when I felt so rubbish the day before. However I was worried about losing my parking space and that stress all over again. parkrun was only two miles away so I thought I’d risk it and run there. If I felt awful on the two miles I could turnaround.

I felt good during the first mile so kept going. Then suddenly I was going uphill and when I say uphill I really mean UP A MOUNTAIN.

It was almost an entire mile uphill. It just kept going and going. No wonder the parkrun is called Bath Skyline!

Up and up and up

My pace on the first mile was 8:02 and the second mile was 10:26! It was ridiculously tough, especially after the night before. I thought I was going to be sick about 10 times.

Eventually I arrived at the parkrun. I saw some suspect parkrunners so followed them trying not to look creepy. They noticed me though and asked if I was parkrunning. Then we chatted away about the course and running, as you do. parkrun is just so friendly!

I learnt about the course from the man I spoke to, which is also very handy. Not particularly flat as it has 37 steps towards the beginning you have to go up! I wasn’t planning a speedy run (let’s not further encourage a Prosecco-related incident) so I was quite happy to hear it was scenic.

Bath parkrun is a very varied course. The terrain pretty much has everything from trail, to grass to pebbles. When the marshal had explained the course she mentioned being careful of cows and I thought she was joking but we ran through a field and had to dodge cowpats! The steps were tough-going and, like many people, I walked up them.

(Photo credit: Phil Wyatt)

At one point there was a spectacular view of Bath. I wish I could have taken a photo. I got stronger as the run continued and started picking off people towards the end and was chuffed at overtaking a few ladies, though one speedy lady I just couldn’t catch and she finished two seconds ahead. It was nice to feel a bit of speed again!

My time was 23:50 which I was quite pleased with. The first male finished in 15:58! It was more busy than Netley but it never felt crowded.

And then I had the glorious run home. The mile downhill was amazing (6:49 mile!)…to start with and then became a bit of a pound session for my feet. They were tingling when I got back.

Kate’s run had gone well too. It was surreal talking to her about running. Normally my non-running friend’s just think I’m a bit mad. Kate’s going to do a parkrun with me hopefully in June when they come down for my birthday so this is HUGELY exciting.

Anyway the main part of the hen do was going to It’s A Knockout in Bristol. It was like hen and stag do central there. There were 24 teams in total (each hen/stag do was a team). Many were dressed up in crazy outfits (the best being a stag do dressed as Apple – the stag was an actual apple whereas his compatriots were all dressed as Steve Jobs wearing black turtle necks and glasses).

The day involved several different games trying to win points. The games were things like dressing in a huge giant costume and then trying to get across mats that were moving, to wearing vision-changing goggles and kicking footballs at blow-up targets. We’d been told we might get wet and I had visions of that previous hen party I’d been to involving a freezing lake… But thankfully there were only two wet games. One which involved standing in a line on buckets (above photo) and throwing wet sponges to each other to the last person who had to squeeze the sponges into buckets in order to get the most water to win. I was the ‘runner’ by which that meant I ran backwards and forwards collecting the dry sponges to bring back to the person dipping them in the bucket. It was like interval training!

Another game involved trying to pull ourselves over that blow-up slide (above photo) using a rope while there was soapy water all over it. Only two of us managed to get over (me being one of them – thank you, gym!) so the two of us just went over and over again (each time we’d get a point). We won every single game but one and sadly we used our ‘Joker’ (triple point enhancer) on it (the 24 teams were split further into 4 groups against each other for each game). We came 5th at the end which wasn’t too bad at all!

It was fairly exhausting but such good fun! We had such a laugh. It was gone 4pm when we got back and we hadn’t had lunch so a few of us high-tailed to a local burrito place and got something to eat.

I went for a salad as I was planning on having quite a big dinner but the salad was actual massive! I had pulled chicken, cheese, sour cream and guacamole and it was delicious.

After showering and getting dressed up we were ready for some more fun and games that evening. We played more drinking games and watched Eurovision (I’ve never actually watched a whole Eurovision, this was an experience!). We got food delivered using the Deliveroo app, which is amazing! Most of us went for Grillstock (probably due to my squealing about how excited I was about the food…).

I went for wings and ribs (are you surprised?). It rocked my world. Not the best ribs I’ve ever had (bit dry and not that meaty) but the wings were awesome.

We had a great evening watching Eurovision while playing drinking games and just generally having a laugh. This even included the cereal box game (you have to pick up a cereal box with nothing but your mouth and nothing touching the floor but your feet, and the sides get chopped after each round so it gets lower and lower).

I came second to the amazingly flexible Charlotte. Anyway a good night was had by all! The next day it was Operation Tidy Up and then off home!

If you drink, what’s your alcoholic drink of choice?

Are you competitive?

Did you watch Eurovision?

May 16, 2016October 28, 2016

The worst race of my life?

[This was meant to go out last week but I had Blog issues annoyingly]

Alton 10 on Sunday was fairly horrendous, and sadly I wasn’t alone in that opinion. I hasten to add that this was nothing to do with its organisation, the lovely volunteers or the race itself.

I’ve done the Alton 10 before, two years ago, and it was pretty much the same course. Funnily enough when I went back to read how it went it was from a post where I also claimed to have experienced the “worst race of my life” (I’m nothing if not dramatic I suppose). Though the race I was talking about was one of our club league races, an RR10, and not actually Alton 10.

It’s handy having a blog where you document your training and races because you can go back and refresh your memory on what a race was like. From my memory and the post, it sounded like I quite enjoyed it, though I wasn’t racing it then either. No the thing that made this race hideously horrendous was the weather. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved how beautiful and sunny the weather was all weekend but for running a 10 mile race that began at 10.30am it was tough indeed. I’d also eaten a small farmyard the day before at that BBQ restaurant…

Because the Cakeathon is looming ahead (last Bank holiday in May), I’m trying to get my long runs up again so I can attempt to do a fair number of laps (it’s a three mile lapped race where you have 6 hours to do as many as you like; laps = cake as well). Last weekend I did 10.5 miles so this weekend I wanted to do 13 miles so I got up early and ran three(ish) miles before leaving for the race.

It was handy to have these three miles beforehand so I could a) test the weather out and b) test my stomach out. I’d slept awfully and that was probably mostly due to the excessive quantities of meat eaten the day before. I felt like a BBQ was happening in my tummy all night. Anyway, the three miles went well but I realised quickly it was going to be a very warm race.

I decided to don the old crop top on for the first time this year, though I was a bit apprehensive as I didn’t feel quite my best after my few weeks of greediness indulgence post-marathon [side note: no I’m not saying I’m fat, I’m jut saying that I personally felt a bit fluffy].

I thought I wouldn’t fancy any breakfast before we left but I was actually really hungry. HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK? Bizarre. So I had a nice bowl of steaming porridge – perfect for the weather, I thought and my dad drove us to the race. I picked my bib up easily, went to the loo (an actual loo; hurrah for no portable toilets) and met up with some of the club while my dad headed off to a spot to spectate.

I chatted away to my friend, Sarah, on the start-line and realised I was thirsty already. She kindly gave me some of her water. And then we were off. My intentions were to use this simply as a long training run, aiming for a pace between 8-8.30min/miles. I knew the course was hilly so wasn’t going to stress if my pace edged closer to 9min/miles.

The first mile was pretty standard. I got into a nice groove and overtook a number of people. It was chip-timed but tricky to work out where to stand at the start so after a fair amount of overtaking I found a nice spot of people running a similar pace to me. The first mile is downhill so it was all very comfortable and la-di-dah.

(Photo credit: Alan DenmeadPhotos)

I saw my dad and he gave me a quiet “hello” which was slightly underwhelming, but given that the race was sparsely spectated and in the middle of some lovely, idyllic country roads on a Sunday morning I’m fairly glad he didn’t go mad with the cheering.

My dad actually made a GIF of me running – how cool is that?? I find GIF’s quite mesmerising…

Mile two hit and I was feeling HOT. There was limited shade and the sun was beating down hard. Urgh this was going to be a long old slog.

I managed to slowly crawl my way past a few people and tick along, but inside my head I was in my own personal hell. My face was hot, my quads were burning from the hills (not the sun thankfully) and I remember distinctly thinking “my legs never felt like this during the marathon”. And then later thought, as the sun seemed to sap every happy thought I’d ever had, “this is worse than the marathon”. I heard one girl really struggling saying to her friend, “I can run 10 miles no problem, just not in this temperature”. There were no happy vibes around.

My dad said even he noticed that the race felt very flat and people looked dejected. The heat was just making the race such hard work. The hills were relentless but that was to be expected. Downhills still sucked because of the sun. There were only three water stations which ordinarily in a 10 mile race wouldn’t be that bad, but in that temperature it wasn’t enough. Sensibly I stopped, literally stopped, at the water stations to drink a full cup of water and then take another to dump on my head. It revitalised me for a moment until I was hot and dry again.

I managed to get through the race by counting up the miles to mile five, and then counting back down again. The course goes out and comes back (albeit a different route) so you know when you’re heading back, which helped. I stared in wonder at a man running in a cotton t-shirt. Poor guy. Side note: I also saw a woman with four gels attached to her belt. Do you need four gels for a 10 mile race? I can sort of understand one if you really think you need it, but FOUR?

Not sure how I’m smiling…and the photographer was handily just after the water station, just after I’d poured water all over myself! (Photo credit: Alan DenmeadPhotos)

I didn’t push the pace, not that I could have done if I’d have tried! I felt comfortable with the pace but in terms of motivation and general happiness I was struggling. The last mile was horrendous. It was like someone had popped my balloon and I was slowly deflating. My legs were like blocks, which is odd because I hadn’t suddenly got faster or anything. I’d maintained a similar effort. I felt like I was crawling to the finish and the final hill right at the end all but ruined me. Then there’s a glorious little downhill and round the corner to the end.

Another GIF; a bit shaky and tricky to see me!

So yeah it was pretty tough. I couldn’t have imagined trying to race it. I think had I run at home I would have run slower and I’m chuffed with the effort levels involved because of the hills but realistically this race felt awful. My time was 1:20:20, with an average pace of 8min/miles. So not too shabby at all.

Everyone I spoke to found the race just as hard. There was a feeling of Post Traumatic Race Disorder floating among us as we all agreed it was the hardest race for a long while. It was nice to have people to share my pain with as sometimes in a race you have a bad one because of your own pacing or training, but to have everyone agree was nice – though obviously I’m not pleased everyone suffered like I did!

Kudos to the Scouts who were earnestly filling up people’s cups left, right and centre afterwards as well. You can see one behind me (IN A JUMPER AND FULL TROUSERS) in this photo. Bless him.

My hair is lovely and slick back due to the water I threw over myself during the race and obviously the sweat. Nice

But despite it probably being ridiculous hard, I’m glad I went. It was nice to be on the ‘racing scene’ again with my club mates. It made for a more interesting long run and would have been jut as hot at home anyway.

Nothing like getting a medal for a training run after all!

How do you stay cool during summer?

Have you ever suffered from ‘Post Traumatic Race Disorder’?

What races do you use gels in?

May 5, 2016

Rants and Raves #30

Well I haven’t done one of these in a while! And boy do I have a lot to get off my chest No not really to be honest. If only my life was that interesting!

Rave: After a successful second year of half marathon and 10k fun, Southampton ABP are considering hosting a full marathon in the future, possibly even next year. They’re getting feedback and seeing what the interest is like to begin with. This is very exciting. To have a road marathon so close to where I live and through a city I know so well – I love this idea. Some people are unhappy that it might be a two lapped course, but realistically I can’t see it being a full 26.2 mile loop. The cost and mayhem of road closures would probably prevent this from happening. Personally I don’t mind lapped courses (to some degree) so I’m not too bothered, even if it does mean twice over the Itchen Bridge and up Burgess Road.

Source

Rant: I can understand that as a non-runner the thought of having the city being disrupted for even more races in the centre of Southampton may not sound that appealing, but it’s only one weekend. Why are people so bloody grumpy? This was a comment on one of the local newspapers online:

For goodness sake, there are more marathons than just London. Thank God, because the chance of getting into London through the ballot is almost impossible! (Has anyone entered??) This just reminds me of the idiots at Littlestoke parkrun trying to charge for the use of the park. Let’s not pour water over ways to encourage people to exercises and get healthy.

Rave: Sunshine! But of course. Finally good weather seems to have arrived. It’s glorious. I don’t even mind being woken up super early by the sun streaming through my windows (I tend to keep my blinds slightly open so I’m not in a total blackout).

This was on n early morning walk with Alfie. I didn’t even need a coat!

Rant: People in the gym being inconsiderate. I mean this is a post in itself but specifically people not putting weights back after using them.

Four 25kg plates (plus a 10kg) on both sides of the leg press machine! This is just so ridiculously rude. To use that machine, as I’m actually not the Hulk, I have to take each of those plates off to then put the weights I want to use on. It was a bloody workout in itself!! Why can’t people just put things back? It really isn’t that hard – especially if you can press over 160kg (the machine already has 46kg default before you add any weights).

Rave: My parents have a furry little friend living in their garden.

They’ve been spotting this rabbit on and off for a few weeks now. Apparently it’s not that bothered by the dogs – or it has a great hiding space. We can’t work out if it’s wild or lost. My parents checked with nearby neighbours for any lost rabbits but no one is. It seems quite content for now anyway.

Rave: When I was at my parents house on Saturday evening I really needed to do some foam rolling but I’d forgotten to bring my roller or tennis ball with me. I hunted around but the only thing I could find that might be useful was a ball-shaped candle. My mum said I could use it but not to make a mess (i.e. ruin the candle) so I covered it in foil.

It worked perfectly! It was more firm than my tennis ball – a bit like a cricket ball. It manage to survive my rolling as well so my mum happily received her candle back in tact.

Rave: When I was working from home the other day I decided to put the Boston Marathon TV coverage on in the background (you can find it online). It was fascinating to watch the elites, especially when one of the females picked up a water bottle from a supporter at the side and then passed it around the entire elite group. It was a really nice show of comradeship despite everyone competition.

It was also amusing to see the volunteers on bikes high-fiving the crowd.

Rave: How talented is my friend Lou? She painted the entire wall of her son, Jacob’s, room.

You can see Jacob photo bombing at the bottom right

His furniture and shelves are all pirate-themed too. She’s so creative! Jacob is very lucky. As will be her little one on the way

Rave: Game of Thrones. Enough said.

What are your rants and rave this week?

Are you watching Game of Thrones?

Would you be interested in the Southampton Marathon?

May 3, 2016

Running in sunshine and jumping in lakes

I only actually realised we had a Bank holiday weekend on Wednesday, so as you can imagine it was such a lovely surprise to know we had a three day weekend coming up! I definitely needed it. Despite only just getting back from my holiday the other week I was still so tired from the jetlag that it was nice to know I had an extra day to catch up with life.

Saturday was pretty full-on as it was my friend’s hen do (bachelorette party). Thankfully it was a day thing rather than a night thing so didn’t involve going clubbing and excessive drinking, which I’m not a huge fan of. The activities were due to start before midday in Bournemouth. I could have gone to parkrun in the morning but it would have been rushed so I decided to give it a miss, which handily works out well for timing my 100th parkrun with my friend’s 250th (I’m three away!).

Instead I planned to run three miles on my own. The weather was lovely and sunny and I slightly regretted wearing long-sleeves (though it was my new Lululemon top which I adore). I ran alongside the beach and in the distance I could see the Lee-On-Solent parkrun going on, the runners running in the horizon like dots. I got my route wrong and it came to 3.7 as I got home so then had to run up and down the road to get 4 miles, as you do

The run felt really good. The day before I’d seen my physio and told him about my niggling hamstring. He did some very intense deep tissue massage on it and I woke up with it feeling a bit tender but so much better. He said I was OK to run the next day though he advised leaving it for a few days…but I just really wanted to run (famous last words? I hope not…). Anyway I finally felt like my running is back to normal post-marathon. All my runs previous seem to have felt quite tough and laboured, so I’ve kept the pace easier. I know this is to be expected post marathon! Saturday’s run felt a lot better though.

New Lululemon top

Then my friend, Lou, picked me up with some of the other girls and we headed to Bournemouth. We only vaguely knew that there would be some outdoor activities, quad biking and an obstacle course (which I was really excited about).

We got into some super sexy camouflage to begin with.

Thanks to Ashley for the photos

And then we got down to some quad biking. I’ve done quad biking before and loved it but this was a little different.

The quad biking I’ve done was over a relatively smooth track so you can get some speed up but this was really bumpy and off-roady. You couldn’t exactly zoom round it. It was still really good fun though, just required a bit more technical skill and more of a risk getting stuck or rolling!

Lou sadly couldn’t take part in all the activities as she’s pregnant but she took lots of photos and was able to join in on some of the welly throwing (yes really) and other fun less-strenuous activities.

The obstacle course was so much fun but also a little insane. We had the usual climb under, and jump over things, and monkey bars…

I was chuffed at getting over the wall myself! And then the last section was literally stepping into a shoulder deep lake and getting to a boat to pull the team across to the finish.

Let me tell you, that lake was bloody freezing. In the end we all had to swim because the lakebed was just sinking beneath our feet. I thankfully kept my head out of the water but it was still horrendously cold. As we huddled waiting for the rest of the team to swim across my friend goes “I have deep empathy for Kate now. I wouldn’t have shared my door either” which was a perfect summation of how it felt.

Though my friend had told me we needed a spare set of clothes because we might get wet I had no idea we’d get absolutely soaked. Some of the girls had sensibly brought towels but I had brought a tea towel at the last minute as I assumed I’d just need something to ‘dust off’ some dampness or mud. We all then huddled in an outdoor sheltered hut thing to get changed. It was horrifically cold but quite funny. My tea towel was somewhat useful!! Thankfully I did have a spare set of clothes with me.

And then it was time for refuelling…in the best possible way.

Afternoon tea! That first cup of tea was SO needed. Though I had nice warm and dry clothes on (not a warm and dry bra however…), I was still very cold. Lots of sandwiches, two scones with jam and cream, crisps and a cupcake helped though. Good grief. So much for eating a bit healthier post holiday! I had intended on eating my second scone instead of the cupcake but then there were cupcakes left-over and it looked to good to miss…

The hen do was such good fun and the hen had a great time

I stayed at my parent’s house that evening as it was easier. The next morning I wanted to run 8-10 miles, depending how I felt. As soon as I started running I knew I wanted to run 10 miles. I just felt strong, happy and relaxed. The sun was shining and it was a little *too* warm but it was just nice to be outside in a tank top for once (another new Boston-themed Nike top). I got to the beach at about seven miles and wondered if I’d see my parents. They often take their dogs down the beach when the weather’s nice. And funnily enough I saw them and the four dogs in the distance (Alfie was with them of course).

It was lovely to stop quickly and say hello to them and Alfie mid-run. Though they had to hold Alfie when I ran off as he wanted to join me, bless him!

The run, despite being very warm, went really well. I felt good speeding up so I kept a tempo pace towards the end. Apart from needing to some long runs for the Cakeathon at the end of May, I have no goals or direction for my running at the moment so it’s nice to go with the flow.

And then my parents and me went to Gunwharf Quays for a bit of shopping (hello Adidas outlet shop) and Jamie’s Italian for lunch.

I had the vegetable plank to start (so tasty, lots of roasted vegetables, cheese and hummus), followed by my usual turkey Milanese and then a white chocolate cheesecake. I’ve never had a bad meal at Jamie’s (though I do tend to order the same thing…).

I’ve had this meal so many times now

Monday was a rather chilled day of doing some chores, catching up with life (and Game of Thrones – the latest episode, OMG. SO much happened) and just generally chilling. Perfect bank holiday weekend!

What did you get up to?

Is there a meal you keep going back to?

What kind of hen dos/bachelorette parties do you enjoy?

April 4, 2016

Rants and Raves #29

Instead of doing my usual weekend catch-up post I thought I’d start off Monday right with a good old rant and raves post.

Rave: I never really used to be one for buying stuff around the house. But now that I live on my own I’ve really gotten into the swing of making it a home and somewhere cosy and that I love being. I’ve really been enjoying buying bits and pieces. My recent purchases have been cushions. Now I never used to be a cushion person because, let’s be honest, they don’t do anything. You don’t really use them on the sofa (well I don’t…I kind of move them out the way) and you certainly don’t sleep on them. They are purely for decorative purposes (some may say superfluous home items…but then, what’s a picture on the wall?)

So I went a bit cushion mad and bought a load from Next Home no less (!!) and some really fancy bedding.

Incidentally the rectangular cushion is actually from M&S and my mum gave it to me. She loved that I was getting so into sprucing up my home and wanted to help, bless her. I mean, the bed would clearly look awful without that final small rectangular pillow, am I right?

Rant: The bed now longer to make in the morning.

Further bed-related rant…: I washed the bedding and my bottom sheet so it would be all lovely and fresh for that night. However my stupid washing machine-come-tumbler dryer did a half-hearted dry (or what really happened is I didn’t put it on to dry for long enough…) and parts of the bottom sheet were still slightly damp and I didn’t realise until I was making up the bed just before I was going to go to sleep.

So I had to improvise a bit…

It worked but it took bloody ages.

Rave: My Boston pack came in the post!

This is all very exciting. I pick up my bib when I’m out there at the Expo (which I guess should be quite good!). I go to Boston with my mum in less than two weeks – Friday 15th to be precise. The marathon is on the Monday. NO PANIC. So far I’ve survived marathon training (*touch wood*).

Rant: I know runners aren’t huge fans of dog walkers and dogs during a run. Even I, a dog owner, get annoyed at some people’s lack of awareness and control of their dog. However, as a regular runner and a regular dog walker I do think there should be a bit of give and take from both parties. No one owns the pavement – it’s shared. When I walk Alfie I try my hardest to keep him under control, pick up his poo, and not be the annoying long lead person. I just wish that a local runner near me would also be as considerate.

She runs every single morning in loops around the park where a lot of dog walkers walk their dogs. When I first moved in I tried so many times to say good morning and engage a bit of smiling and politeness. She point blank ignored me. So I’ve given up. She gives Alfie such a look of disdain as well – like how dare he be there. This morning I was walking on the left side of the path and Alfie was on his long lead also to the left (normally he’s running free but it was a bit wet). I saw her coming towards me also on the left and, because I had Alfie on the left too, I assumed she’d move to the right WHERE THERE WAS ENOUGH SPACE TO PATH. She just ran at me and then tried to run past me on the left and then saw Alfie’s lead and had to do a big arc around it on the grass. She looked so annoyed. It’s not like she couldn’t have seen 100 metres ahead of her and moved slightly to the right to make life easy for herself. It just annoys me that she expects all dog walkers to give her priority. It’s a shared park!!

Rave: parkrun at Netley Abbey was beautifully sunny this Saturday.

And we were on the normal course again – with only three hills! I was glad to have my shorts and t-shirt on (arms out for the first time in ages!). Sadly my legs felt rubbish during the run. This was probably because I was too busy chatting rather than doing any sort of warm up before.

(Photo credit: Ken Grist)

I got 22:06 and third female which is the best I’ve done at Netley in a while (August last year!) – though it is the easier course. I did manage a fairly good negative split though so I’m happy with that!

Rave: Seeing some lovely little ducklings in the little nearby lake near my home.

Where I walk Alfie is just full of wildlife and birds, it’s lovely.

Rant: This is how my work deal with health and safety issues:

Potentially trip risk due to cables coming out of the floor? Totally fine, just put a chair with a printed out sign over it. It’ll be fiiiiine.

It concerns me that this entire post has nothing about food in it…this is odd for me. I did enjoy some good ribs at the weekend, but are you surprised…?

How was your weekend?

Dog walkers and runners…opinions?

Do you enjoy decorating your home?