Marathon Talk Weekend – Part 1

Hi guys! I am buzzing. I had such a fantastic weekend. Ben and I went to the Marathon Talk spring weekend over at the New Forest. It really was a brilliant weekend.

You probably know I’m fairly obsessed with running and spending an entire weekend purely focused on running with fellow runners was just heaven. I have so much to say about it so I thought I’d break it down into ‘manageable chunks’. I’ll try to include some non-running stuff as well because I know running isn’t everyone’s cup of tea…

Ben and me headed to the New Forest with one of our running club friends who was also doing the weekend on Friday afternoon. It wasn’t far for us at all – but some people came all the way from Edinburgh! That is dedication. There was an informal meet and greet style thing on Friday evening. I’m terrible. OK I know Martin Yelling and Tom Williams aren’t celebrities and most non-runners haven’t heard of them…but I was so chuffed to meet them and listen to what they said. I think they’re just great and actually see them talking rather than hear them on a podcast was brilliant. I tried not to be that creepy fan girl but I was pretty much smiling the entire time. They were very welcoming and so friendly.

IMG_5917 Unpacking the essentials in the lodge

Saturday we got up early and got ready for Parkrun.

Parkrun ready Ben loves it when I take random photos – ha!

And we convoyed over with everyone to Brockenhurst. Check out the car we were following.Running number plater

Of course! Not Martin or Tom’s car though.

Brockenhurst Parkrun It was fairly wet and muddy but when has that ever put off a runner?? It’s funny because Brockenhurst Parkrun hasn’t been running since the beginning of December, but when the Parkrun director (i.e. Tom Williams) comes into town anything is possible. An out and back route was set up that avoided the worst of the flooding/fallen trees etc.

I might have had lofty unrealistic ambitious of having a podium finish…but as soon as we started three ladies just zoomed off. Honestly, even if I was in peak fitness and 5k shape I think I could have caught one of them. Those ladies had some serious speed – major kudos to them!

The course…oh the course. It was off-road so nice and soft underfoot, but it was hilly. We ran down one very steep hill which wasn’t as great as that sounds – tough on the quads! And the ever present thought of “I will have to climb that hill on the way back”. Half way I thought I might have to stop, it was so tough. But I finished! My time was 23:11, 4th female, 24th out of 71.

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I am more then happy with that!IMG_5928

Martin Yelling came second (18:55) and Tom William (32:52) pushing his daughter in a pram! There was a great atmosphere and community feel – everyone cheering everyone. I loved it.

Then we convoyed over to a local tea room in Brockenhurst. Can you picture a large number of runners suddenly landing in a tiny quaint tea room? It was rather funny and the staff looked a bit taken back. I kind of wished I hadn’t worn my tiny shorts…I felt a little naked.

I hadn’t had breakfast and I was starting to feel hungry. I checked around with other people and found that others were ordering food. So Ben and me ordered a very satisfactory post-run meal.

Post-parkrun fry-up Well, it was that or afternoon tea…Martin walked past and said he was fully impressed haha.

Then we headed back to the lodges to get showered and ready for a 1pm meet up for the Marathon Talk quiz.

Right I’ll leave it there as I could waffle for ages. News on my knee (I know – exciting stuff, curb your enthusiasm 😉 I think it’s holding up really well. It still aches from time to time but it felt fine during the runs over the weekend and I feel like I’m running strong. Gradually does it.

One last Marathon Talk weekend point. As we were unpacking Ben goes “Where’s my towel?” (we had to bring our own). I said “well unless it’s in your bag, it’s probably in the airing cupboard at home”. Apparently I was supposed to remember it! Ha! So he had to buy one from the little shops on site.

Forgot towel Beggars can’t be choosers!

How was your weekend? Did you do anything nice?

What kind of Parkrun do you prefer? Challenging? Flat? I like a flat one now and again to see if I’ve made any progress, but challenging helps with training.

If you could have anything, what would you eat after exercise?

A late Christmas recap and running update

Hello! How hard is this week? I was back at work Thursday and Friday last week but it didn’t feel ‘proper’ if you know what I mean… What with the horrendous weather, RUBBISH commutes and just general fog of depression hanging over everyone it really does feel a bit gloomy round these parts.

I missed out on doing my Christmas recap due to not blogging over the festive period. And if I’m honest, I don’t really fancy doing such a late recap now. It’s a bit depressing. But I’ll do a quick version…

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Ben holding the bean bag looking like Father Christmas

My parents and Ben’s parents came to ours. We had a traditional British Christmas dinner. My parents cooked the turkey that we’d bought from M&S as our oven was too small. So all we had to cover were snacks, drinks and all the trimmings and carving.

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Nothing too crazy. Honey roasted carrots and parsnips, sprouts, broad beans (my favourite!), runner beans, sausage stuffing, apple and sage stuffing, roasted potatoes, red cabbage, cranberry sauce, gravy. Heaven.

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Afterwards there were profiteroles, Christmas pudding and mince pies. I enjoyed a lovely heated mince pie. I forgot to take a photo but it was an unusual puff pastry one. I quite liked the change from the usual thick pastry ones. I love Christmas cake but I find Christmas pudding very rich.

Obviously I had Christmas cake later for supper 😉 It’s my favourite part of Christmas (well, favourite food part).

We spent time opening presents, listening to Christmas music and playing board games. Good fun all round. Apart from my dad not feeling well and then subsequently passing it to Ben and me. Merry Christmas to us.

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Lovely little photo of me ill in bed. Thanks Ben!

Anywho, despite being ill we had a lovely Christmas and had lots of lovely presents. I must mention these as I am SO excited to try them.

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My parents got me these popcorn flavour toppers. I have popcorn every day with my lunch at work that I pop myself from plain kernels. I sprinkle salt and pepper over it. My dad found these in Lakeland and got them for me as a stocking filler. AMAZING.

And, though I do say so myself, I love this present I got Ben.

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Along the side it has markers and half way says “13.1” and then at the top it says “26.2” and along the markings “Pacing yourself is everything”. Ben loves his wine and I just thought this was a perfect way to mark his achievement. Especially because he gave up alcohol for a portion of his training!

I did my first workout at the gym on New Year’s Day as we had a quiet evening in the night before. I felt raring to go and ready to get back into things. My physio had OK’ed spin so I was happy to not have to motivate myself on a machine! Honestly though it was hard work.

In terms of running – ahh the saga of my life. I’m up to 2 miles. Good Lord, I’ll have to start carb loading and properly fuelling myself soon 😉 I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s running efforts but personally for me this is such a change from the mileage of last year. I just hope I won’t have lost too much when I’m fully back into it. But at this point, as long as I can run without issue I DON’T CARE.

My knee seems to be calming down with the intense ultra sounding that’s going on and the little runs are helping in a weird way to ‘break it down’ to build it back up again stronger. It’s a cautious and slow approach but it’s what I need.

My decision about the Paris marathon will happen in about two weeks. My ultra sound will have ended and I hope the runs increased a bit. If I’m still struggling with the knee and it needs longer time off (come on, seriously??) then Paris is a no-go. Ben has agreed he won’t do it either (bless his socks). But if all things are OK…then I’ll have 10 weeks to train. Obviously this is not enough in the ideal marathon training world BUT I think I can do something with it. I won’t pre-empt things by going into more detail yet though!

 What’s your on your plate at Christmas?

What’s your favourite Christmas dessert/treat? It’s all about the Christmas cake for me.

What was your favourite Christmas pressie?

Mexico – Part 2

Hi guys, so I thought I’d do Part 2 of my Mexican holiday. (Catch up HERE for Part I)

Ben and me did a few excursions while we were out there. I’m not one for just lying on the beach the entire time and this was a great way to see a bit more of Mexico. One of the things we decided to do was go parasailing.

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That’s not us, but it’s what we did!

I was so excited about this. We got to go on a jet ski as well! We were escorted at top speed to the boat where we’d be launched from. I jokingly said to Ben as we were whizzing along “We’re going to have to jump onto the boat while it’s still moving like James Bond, ha ha ha”. Yeah, we actually did. We had to stand up and jump onto the speeding boat and be grabbed by the guys on board. James Bond I was not.

After getting all harnessed up and sorted, three seconds before we were launched up the guy goes “if you want to come down move your arms like this…” and whoosh! we were up. I was left wondering what the hell the arm movement was!!

It was amazing. Looking out at the ocean, the hotels and beach. Incredible. But then I looked down. Jeeze I was scared. I remember saying to Ben “If we fall we’re going to break our legs and die!!” It was so high up. I thoroughly enjoyed it; it was so exhilarating, but I was terrified.

But we survived. Thankfully we didn’t die or break our legs. Hurrah.

One night we decided to go out and boogie a bit We went on a crazy night out to a club called Coco Bongo.

IMG_5345Basically it was a nightclub with a show that went on from 11pm to 3am. And what a show it was! So many different acts and performances by all these dancers. They did songs from Chicago, Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge…they did recreations of the Batman and Tron fight scenes…songs from Madonna, Beyoncé, Elvis…

Coco Bongo

It was crazy! And we had our own bar waiter who supplied us with never-ending drinks all night!

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Pina colada

We got home at 3am…I was shattered. It was very good though. A feast for the eyes!

Another excursion was going for a romantic dinner on a boat from Cancun. P1000152

We both got all dressed up and set off in the afternoon. In retrospect, a longer maxi dress would have been more suitable. Damn it is windy on boats.

Mexican boat trip

There was a saxophone player on board to set the mood

The ladies were given a flower, drinks were on tap and the music was beautiful. But yes it did feel somewhat cheesy!Cheesey romanceBut the sunset was perfect.

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And so was the food!

Romantic boat meal

For starters it was Caesar salad. I love Caesar salads so this was perfect. Yum.

For mains, we had the surf and turf: lobster and steak. I’ve never had lobster proper before (I’ve had lobster bisque and lobster in things, but never on its own) so I was quite excited. This came with a jacket potato (in the foil), vegetables and a random bread roll. I ate everything but the bread roll. Though I must admit I finished off Ben’s steak (and vegetable). Amazing. Like I said previously, I am a machine when it comes to food. And for pudding it was cheesecake with raspberry sauce.

All in all, fabulous. And the best part was we saw it cooking on the boat!

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Such a lovely night out. If not a little windy! Winking smile

And some random photos that I just had to share:Holiday Extras

The free booze in our room//Elephant towel//Furry friends around the hotel//More towel fun

A truly brilliant holiday with lots of memories made Smile I’d definitely recommend it!

Now business as usual…the holidays (or ‘vacations’– I’m not giving up Christmas!) are officially done and dusted for this year!

What makes a holiday special for you?

What day-trips do you like to do on holiday? We had a bit of everything: thrill-seeking, cultural, bit of partying, food and romance Smile

What’s does romance mean to you? Ben and me are simple people. I don’t need flowers and candles (though that is nice, don’t get me wrong). I just need Ben to listen to me talk running for hours on end and me together, relaxed and having a giggle at something stupid, coming up with our own in-jokes and sayings.

What I Ate in Mexico

Hello! So for this post I thought I’d show some of my very tasty eats from my Mexican holiday.

And as it’s Wednesday, I’m linking up with Jenn’s WIAW post:

Thanks Jenn!

Ben and me stayed in a fabulous all-inclusive hotel. I’d never been to one before! I was a little worried that the food would be rubbish, bulk-made and the options would be limited. But I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I was hugely surprised at the sheer volume of food and the amount of choice there was. There were several restaurants; some of them you had to book for, some you could just rock up to. We often went to the more casual one where we didn’t have to book. This was because it had the most choice and was a buffet rather than ordering off a menu.

Breakfast: I always get a bit worried about breakfast because I’m so particular about what I normally eat for breakfast (have you noticed??). I eat porridge (oatmeal) pretty much every single day. (Yes I know: snore!)

But on holiday I decided to push the boat out and go for something different. Seriously, I could have had anything. We’re talking cereals, yogurt, fruit, toast (huge variety of different breads!), crêpes, pancakes, doughnuts, smoothies, eggs in every way humanly possible, sausages, bacon, burritos, tortillas, guacamole, salad, cheese…honestly, it was quite overwhelming.

Hotel egg breakfast

I often went for an onion omelette (you basically requested whatever flavour you wanted and the chef made it in front of you), with different ham, tomatoes and guacamole.

Some mornings though the lure would be too hard to stay away…

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Not quite to my strict requirements of stodginess but good nonetheless!

And one morning Ben and me got up early, took a walk along the beach (40 minutes in the sun – this was quite hard work even at 7am!) and had breakfast at a lovely little restaurant called 100% Natural in the town.

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It was amazing. They had all fresh ingredients and organic options. And on the menu they gave you the nutritional benefits of the different meals. I went for a spinach, beetroot, carrot and celery smoothie. Maybe a crazy choice but it was very refreshing.

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For breakfast I chose oats with chopped banana, raisins, nuts and amaranth. Deeelicious!

And we may have gone back there for more smoothies another day…

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This was apple, carrot and beetroot (I like my beetroot!).

Lunch: Lunch tended to be a less of an elaborate affair than dinner. Usually it involved taking a break from sunbathing and going into the nearby restaurant for some quick food from the different buffets.

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Fish paella

Towards the end we preferred going to the Italian restaurant for lunch as it was a bit cooler (the other place was more open and not air conditioned as it was right next to the pool).

The Italian restaurant had a great salad selection.

Italian lunch

Roasted vegetables, tomatoes with mozzarella, beef Carpaccio, smoked salmon, bruschettas, antipasti selections…and steak, buttered fish, chicken, meatloaf, pizza, pasta, soup… and you could still order of a menu as well for ‘mains’. We stuck to several trips to the salad bar as that was enough!

Dinner: This was by far my favourite meal of the day. The selection was phenomenal and some days they’d have themes. One night it was Japanese-inspired.

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This was one part of the salad bar. Sushi! Honestly, this was like 1/10th of the options. They’d always have a range of salads, roast meat, Mexican selections (quesadillas, tortillas, fajitas, bean stews, guacamole, salsa…), fish, actual meals like curries and casseroles, pizza, chips, burgers, pasta… literally everything.

IMG_5086 Basically I’d pile my plate high with salads and vegetables and then choose a few different ‘main’ pieces that I liked the look of. Mainly I’d go for one serving of many different things, work out what I really liked, then go back for more of that.

Mexican dinners

So much tasty food…fish casserole, fish fillet, ribs, chicken skewers, ham and pineapple cocktail sticks…loads of fresh vegetables and salad.

For our anniversary dinner we booked to go to the Steakhouse. Steakhouse

For starters I had prawn cocktail. This was very tasty. In fact I loved being able to eat so many prawns (shrimps?) during the holiday. For main I had spiced chicken with corn on the cob, broccoli and roasted wedges. So good. For pudding I went for mango ice cream (this was almost like mango soft serve or sorbet – so fresh tasting) and fruit salad.

After finishing this I still had a bit of space (I know, as Ben says, I’m a machine) and because it was a special occasion I persuaded Ben to go to the main restaurant and have a second few more puddings…just because we could!

I mean, seriously, check out the selections! Mini puddings!

Mexico puddings

It was different every night

So I went for a mini selection Winking smile

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I have no idea what I ate (I’m pretty sure the right-hand square was a brownie?) but it all tasted good! Hey, if you can’t be indulgent on holiday when can you be!?

Other puddings that were enjoyed…

Mexican puddings

That is a carrot on top of the cake!! Phallic-shaped puddings ahoy!

I had two of those churros in chocolate one night. I would have had three but Ben managed to drag me out in time. It was touch and go though. SO GOOD.

Chocolate fondue

They always had a chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows to dip. AND an ice cream bar. Oh I miss Mexico!! The first night I felt very saintly just having fruit for pudding…then the floodgates opened when I tried my first marshmallow with chocolate. Every night then involved melted chocolate and mini puddings haha.

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Though the fruit selection was excellent. I ate a lot of fresh watermelon and pineapple!

I enjoyed some other tasty treats and drinks as well throughout.

Mexican treats

From left to right: my first ever snow cone (lemon flavoured – I loved this), a Baileys coffee, first ever pina colada, blue lagoon cocktail and ice coffee.

So I definitely had my culinary treats this holiday! These all fuelled some hot and taxing runs (OK, the cocktails didn’t obviously…).

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I tried not to get despondent when I was running at least one minute slower than normal and still finding it really tough. Here’s a typical run:

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[Please don’t be offended by me getting a bit miffed about these times – this is purely comparing against my normal times. It’s all relative. I’m not saying that people are ‘slow’ if they run this speed!]Morning Run

Sweaty, mid-run selfie

Despite finding it hard and typically running an average of 9 mins/mile, I enjoyed getting out there and being active. I can’t lie on a beach all day. That’s not me. I ran a few 7 miles as there was a perfect 7 mile route, one day I did a 4 mile with Ben and the first day I ran 10 miles because I got lost!! (This involved a panicked text to Ben and several awkward conversations with locals who had no idea what I was saying).

What I’m most pleased about is that I maintained my usual 30ish miles/week. I didn’t want to lose that on holiday. But speed was a different story!

Mexico running

Seriously, with views like that in the morning, it was so worth it.

I could go on… but I’ll stop! Basically, the food was amazing. The puddings were outstanding. And the running was sweaty.

Buffets or ‘proper’ restaurants on holiday? I would never normally say buffets, but when the selections are that good I’m definitely swayed!

On holiday do you usually stick to your usual breakfast or do you try something new?

What’s your favourite holiday treat? I loved the puddings. I dream about churros at night. It’s that crunch and the soft doughy insides…and the sugar Open-mouthed smile

I’m back! Mexico recap–part 1

Hello! Wow it seems ages since I last blogged. Yep sadly, my holiday is over. 

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I am back in the UK. Well, I’ve been back since last Wednesday but needed a bit more time to normalise back into reality. You know what it’s like. Blissful time in the beautiful sunshine…then bam back to the real world.

Honestly, the holiday was amazing. And do you know what? We had half a day of rain. The rest of the time it was HOT, HUMID and sunny, sunny, sunny. So my fears of rubbish weather were unfounded. Hurrah!IMG_5182

Gosh, I don’t even know where to begin with my recap. I will save all the food yumminess until Wednesday and focus on what we did instead for this post. Though I will say, the food…oh wow, it was so good. So much, so good, so yummy.

We left at 5am on Friday morning to get to the airport and have some breakfast.IMG_5041

Very excited, but a bit tired and dishevelled looking

OK, OK I will show one meal! If you’ve been a long-time reader (kudos to you Winking smile) then you know how I adore Jamie Oliver restaurants. So we had to go to the Jamie’s Italian for breakfast. It’s just a holiday essential in my eyes. And believe me, you cannot start a holiday in any better way.

Jamie Oliver breakfast

I umm’ed and arr-ed for about five seconds before thinking “sod it” and ordering this beast of a meal. Go big of go home Winking smile And how I love my husband. He got the same but he hates black pudding so I got his. Amazing. I’m not ashamed to say I cleared this plate all except a few spoonful’s of beans and a couple of fried potatoes. Embarrassingly I wasn’t hungry at all for our in-flight meal (how unsurprising) and had to have it in sat front of me on my little table for so long a flight attendant thought I didn’t want it! I was like “hold up lady, I will eat this. But give me a little time!”.

The flight was fine (movie watching makes everything good in my book) and then we got a coach from Cancun airport to Playa Del Carmen. Instantly the heat hit us. It was unreal.

The hotel was beautiful. It was just amazing. We went to bed quite early Mexico time as it was six hours behind British time so we were pooped! Then we got up early (5am!! Thank you jet lag) and decided to go for a run. Might as well!

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This was the hotel lobby at 6am. It was still really hot but the sun wasn’t out yet so it was much ‘easier’ to run in the morning. Plus the beautiful sunrise along the beach definitely helps!

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We didn’t do any actual beach running. It’s really not my thing. Sand in trainers and way too much hard work…so we stuck to the roads. We weren’t alone in our running – there were a fair few locals and other tourists out and about so it didn’t feel strange at all. But the heat. Wow it was oppression. Within one minute of running I was sweating and tired. It added at least one minute on to my usual running times. There was just no way I could go faster. Plus it was nice to just run at a slower pace.

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You might think I’m mad running on holiday but I loved it! I feel weird not running and it’s such a big part of who I am that I couldn’t not run. At times it was tough (when is running not??) but it felt great being out so early and seeing Mexico wake up. Getting back all invigorated for the day as well was brilliant.

Ben and me enjoyed a lot of chilling by the pool time…

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Chilling by the beach time…

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And chilling by the bar time…

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The bar was right next to the pool and a great place to take a break from the sun. I’m not a big drinker so I stuck to tomato juice (where have you been all my life??), iced coffee and diet coke (my absolute addiction). Ben enjoyed the local beer Winking smile

I quite enjoyed putting a podcast on and walking along the beach as well (I’m not overly good at sitting and doing nothing for long periods of time), which I didn’t realise would be quite a work out for my calves!

And lots of swimming in the sea!IMG_5330

Ben and me were so cool, we had goggles (damn you contact lenses)

The sea was perfectly refreshing, not cold but not warm. And so, so clear.

We also did a few excursions. One day we went to Chichen Itza which is a city that was originally built by the ancient Mayans where we saw the Temple of Kukulkan – a seventh wonder of the world!

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We had an hour long tour and found out so much interesting information – there’s a smaller pyramid inside that one! And the Mayans used to sacrifice people at the top of the temple (if you’ve seen Apocalypto it’s similar to that).

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We had such a hilarious day. Our tour guide was a hoot. He wasn’t even meaning to be. He was just was hilarious. We still do impressions of him now. Yep, we’re that couple.

From there we then went to the ‘Sacred Blue Cenote’. Here we got to swim in a crazy underground pool of fresh water (there’s a small hole in the ‘roof’ and that’s it). It was freezing but so refreshing considering the humid heat.

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Another day we went speedboating. We had our own little speedboat and there were about 4 others and we followed the speedboat in front but we could speed up and zig-zag which was quite terrifying. Then when we got so far out we stopped and the instructor gave us snorkels and we went snorkelling and saw some amazing coral reef and fish.

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Terrible photo sorry – it’s a photo of a photo we bought

Unfortunately the afternoon of our anniversary saw a major downpour of rain. But we didn’t really mind – it was quite a nice break from the intense sun. And we had prime positions at the bar.

Mexico rain

For our anniversary meal we chose to go to one of the restaurants that you had to book for in the morning. We chose the Steakhouse.

Anniversary meal

I enjoyed a lovely glass of Sangria with fresh fruit!

It was perfect. Not to get too mushy, but I do love my husband and it’s been such a truly amazing first year Smile

Right, I will leave it there. I have a few more excursions to talk about which I’ll save for another post. Wednesday will all be about FOOD (and a bit more about my running). And as an all-inclusive holiday, there was a lot of food. And puddings. Open-mouthed smile

Have you ever been to Mexico before?

Have you ever been to an all-inclusive? I had never been to one before and I was just amazed (and a little shocked) at how much food was available ALL THE TIME.

Running/working out on holiday – do you take it easy or carry on as normal? Or have a break entirely?