Whipsnade Zoo 10k Stampede

You know how sometimes you book things a long way in advance and you spend ages talking about it and being excited for it but without actually twigging that it's getting closer and closer until you go "Jesus I'm supposed to run 10k around a zoo this weekend!"?

No?

Well anyway.

After talking about The Stampede way back in March (you all suck by the way, nobody was brave enough to come and join us) the weekend finally arrived for Lucy and I to make our way down south for a little adventure.

Our hotel was a bargain that Lucy had found, costing us £25 each for a night in the middle of Luton about a 2 minute walk from the train station, and although our hearts sank when we walked up to possibly the ugliest building alive...

 ...we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the hotel was really nice inside. Even better, we had free access to a gym including a pool, sauna, steam room and jacuzzi.

We ran onto the streets of Luton to discover what there was to say and ran smack bang into a store that has changed my life. Why have I never heard of Tiger before?! I can't even describe it, just go on the website and look. (Although be warned, you can't actually buy anything from the website it just shows you what they sell. The swines.)

We also learned that Luton doesn't like you to feed pigeons, handily drawing a picture of a pigeon in case you didn't know what one was.

But you're not here to learn about what there is to see and do in Luton. And anyway I've basically covered it in the above few sentences.

You are here to find out about The Stampede.

This was long awaited for more than one reason for me. I was looking forward to running around the zoo but, after the disaster that was the Hull Not 10k I was looking forward to actually giving a 10k race a proper go.

I wasn't in the best of shape for it. In the week leading up to the race I'd been unable to do any running/training at all because work has been a gobshite lately and my diet left little to be desired as I comfort ate to make myself feel better about work being a gobshite. I haven't checked but I'm pretty sure that Runner's World don't have those in their Top Ten must-dos for race preparation.

I was pleased Lucy was there though - that girl just ran a half marathon, I would be able to harness her running ability somehow and get myself through the race. I hoped. I decided it was a sign that we had the same trainers - these trainers got Lucy through a half marathon, they could get me through a 10k!

For anyone interested they are Mizunos. And you need to be a mega flat footed freak to wear them

In the run up I was a little worried about how hot it might be when we ran the race - I didn't want to overheat and pass out half way round - but I needn't have worried as the weather was outrageously cold on Sunday 9th June. It was almost a joke how cold we all were, hopping about on the spot trying to keep warm.

Before long the hooter went and we were off, we were officially Stampeding! The first big animal we came to was this rhino...

 He looks a peaceful chappy doesn't he? Well he was not peaceful on that first lap. As we came up to his paddock we saw him running and charging about, going up to the fence before retreating and then turning and charging again - he was stampeding with us! Maybe he heard us all running and thought we were a real-life Stampede? I was a little worried we had distressed him but it turns out he does it every year and he seemed happy enough when we went past him on our 2nd and 3rd laps so I think he's ok.

Yes. Laps. Not sure they're a fun way of running 10k. The first lap was brilliant - I was shouting out animals as I saw them and smiling and everything was lovely. Then came the second lap and I got a little quieter. Then came the third lap and there wasn't a word uttered. By the time the 3rd lap came around I was like "Yeah. Whatever. Flamingos. Good work being pink"

The other not fun thing about laps? Getting lapped by the leaders. A bike with a bell ringing behind you going "Move over to the left for the race leaders!" was not a comforting sound. I contemplated throwing an elbow but apparently that's not sportsmanly. I don't need a reminder that I run slowly thank you very much.

I had developed an irrational fear that Whipsnade Zoo would be full of nasty hills, not helped by the fact that in the taxi ride to the zoo we appeared to be going up and down mountains. But thankfully, although the zoo is set on a hill and offers some spectacular views, the course wasn't too bad. There were some inclines but they were pretty gentle really - at least they felt like it compared to some of the hills I have to run up and down near me.

I was so thankful I had Lucy to run with. I had a better deal really, she kept me going whereas I just slowed her down! But having someone to run with who asked if I was ok was a huge help even if the answer was "No, I hate this!"

When we got to 7km I was still feeling not too bad and actually thought to myself that I was ok and was definitely going to be able to do this, but things went rapidly downhill from there and 8-10km was a real struggle. I retreated well into myself and started focusing on following the yellow lines on the road we were running on, I felt if I just kept running on that then everything would be ok. What can I say, I'm not entirely sure running is good for your mental health.

After the race we discovered that we both were pretty sure that 9km was never going to come once we'd passed the 8km marker. I swear it was longer than 1km between those markers. But hilariously, when I checked on Endomondo the other day, that lap was our fastest, we were obviously desperate to get to the marker!

We turned a corner and there it was the finish. The end has never been more welcome and I sped up to get there as quickly as possible. I like to think that the people lining the sides and cheering us on were fooled into thinking we'd run that fast all the way around but given the time I'm guessing they probably wouldn't have been fooled.

Ah yes. The time. The time that I should be really proud of and should be shouting from the rooftops because three years ago I literally couldn't run for 5 minutes on a treadmill without having to stop. The time that I shouldn't care about, but do because I'm an idiot who needs to learn to stop comparing herself to others, especially when people can run further and faster than she can.

My official time was 1.09.26 and I am proud of that time. This is only the 2nd time I've run a 10km race. The last time was in September 2012 and it took me 1 hour 18 minutes so I've knocked a good bit of time off that.

So yeah. Sorry I'm not a super fast runner but I run as fast and as hard as I can and I will never in a million years get below 60 minutes and actually I don't want to. I want running to remain fun and something I enjoy doing, not become yet another stick I can beat myself up with.

I RAN 10KM WITHOUT STOPPING IN 1.09.26 - IN YOUR FACE!

I'm done.

Even better than the euphoria of finishing a 10km is the euphoria of then getting to spend the rest of the day looking at animals, and although we had to get changed in a toilet and try and wipe the sweat off with some baby wipes, it totally made it worth it.

I have celebrated my victory by immediately stopping running. Much as I do enjoy it when I'm doing it I have learned to accept that unless I have something to run for I'm not going to run.

So I have signed up to my next 10km - the York 10k on August 4th.

Time to dust off the trainers, get out Hal's training programme, and start running up those hills again...

The News

Good lord, we're in June - how did that happen?

People kept mentioning it to me at the start of the month and every time they did I felt a bit of a punch to my stomach.

Half the year gone already. This was not the plan. How can I have been living here in the Midlands for this long already?

How have I been living in my sister's box room for this long?

How have I been travelling back and forth from Preston most weekends to see The Person?

How has it been this long?

It didn't make me feel good. Whilst I knew it may take a bit of time for The Person to find a job I don't think either of us appreciated how long that would be, and it had been five long months without even the hint of an interview, much less an actual job.

Stress levels have been high and have snapped more than once, but the edges were starting to fray a little.

So it was with a certain amount of nervous excitement that we made our way back to the Midlands together  on the last Bank Holiday Monday for The Person to have an interview.

I kept it pretty quiet and didn't really dare to hope. We didn't even speak about it that much that weekend, despite our rolling down hills and our trip to Blackpool, we enjoyed ourselves but didn't really talk about what was going to happen at the end of the weekend - the big potential game-changer.

I'll not beat around the bush, there's little point.

He got the job.

And with that everything has changed. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

In fact the light is heading towards us at full speed.

It seems that this was a situation where we just had to wait for the right thing to come along. And it really is the right thing, The Person has got a job in pretty much the only town that would allow us to live together in my town without transport. It is not a transport hub by any stretch of the imagination but the only public transport available runs between our towns. Lucky or what?

I am in the process of finding somewhere for us to live (no he doesn't need to look at it, don't be silly) and now the process of packing up and throwing out begins.

And in one more month I'll get to live with my boyfriend again.

Here's to the next six months.

Overheard

Many moons ago (or 3 if you prefer people not to exaggerate) my Stitchette friends and I held an exhibition called Embroidering the Truth. We basically embroidered/cross stitched those random things you overhear when you walk past someone on the street or sit behind someone on the bus. You know, the things that make you go, "What on earth are they talking about?"

It was great fun and it would be lovely to be part of something like that again, but what it has left behind with me is an uncanny ability to overhear things wherever I am. Most of the time I just smile to myself or maybe send a text but sometimes the things you overhear are too good not to share.

Like a conversation I overheard when I was at the castle the other week.

As you may well know I'm from Hull and a bit of a fish out of water because the middle class in Hull is pretty small. Where I live now is very firmly middle class and there are all manner of hilarious things I hear on a day to day basis. Nothing has been funnier than this conversation between three boys, aged about 8-10, who were playing among the grounds of the castle:

Child 1: I'll be French!

Child 2: Good idea. John? You and I will be English. Max, you can be Napoleon.

Perfect.

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Yeah...10 days into June and I've only managed 3 posts. After I did BEDM and everything. Unfortunately for me, the end of BEDM coincided with basically the worst week or two of my work life leaving me with neither the time nor the energy to do anything, especially blog. 

I did manage to eat a lot though.

Anyway. Don't expect it to get better any time soon - I'm off for 2 days with work now and it's terribly annoying because I have ALL the exciting things to tell you. 

I know. What a tease.

I capture the castle

This weekend saw me staying at 'home' for a change. I try to set aside one weekend a month where I'm not on a train/bus with a bag in my hand. It gets wearing after a while and five months is a long time to be doing all the travelling to Preston.*

The sun was shining and I'm no good at sitting still so there was only one thing for it - pack up and have a wander down the road to my favourite and my best thing about where I now live...

THE CASTLE!!

Look at it in all its ruiny, stony glory. And even better, I got in for free as my sister has an English Heritage card. 

I've been a few times before but stuff like this never gets old for me I'm afraid and this time I decided to take an audio tour (which is free my friends) and actually learn something about it. It was ever so slightly cheesy and cringey in places but I happen to enjoy cringey cheesy things so it suited me right down to the ground.

My favourite parts are all the little details you can see when you stand and look closely for a while. Take that top picture in the left - can you see the fireplace? Mental. I can only imagine how massive that is as you can see it from where I stand when I walk past it on my way to work. I do love an ornate fireplace. In the bottom right you can see another example.

If you make your way into the kitchen you can stand in the fireplace if you so wished and you can even see the oven, plain as day. It all fascinates me and I lap it up like the history loving nerd that I am.

I mean look at all the details - look at all the different kinds of windows and archways there are to be seen. Look at the flowers growing out of places they have no business growing out of!

It is a shame it's so ruined, I would love so much to have seen it how it really was, but that's history for you and that's what happens when you back the wrong side in the Civil War.

What is mega cool is that you can actually climb up the steps to the top of the tower - unfortunately for me it was closed for maintenance so I had settle for going down into the cellar and getting a little freaked out about it and turning my audio guide on early for company.

And then I had a nice sit in the remains of the sunken gardens (which had some excellent banks for rolling down, but I refrained. I didn't want to be that person) and tackled my main challenge for the weekend, that of getting The Woman in White finished.

I'd been reading it for what felt like forever, it's a beautiful copy that Lucy kindly got me for my birthday, and I had really been enjoying the story but it just felt like it had been going on for my whole lifetime - probably a product of the fact that it was originally published in serial format. But it was lovely to sit in the grounds of a real life castle and read, whilst vaguely hearing all the footsteps of those that have tramped those gardens before me.

I wish you could all have a castle near your houses, it's so much fun. But I'll go back when I can go up to the top of the tower, yeah?

*The Person isn't an awful person who refuses to come and see me by the way. I go up to Preston because it gets me out of the way of my sister and her family who probably appreciate having their own home back, rather than The Person coming here and adding to the melee.

The "Best" of BEDM

I've felt all weekend as though I've been missing something and forgetting to do something. I only realised late on today that it's blogging. I'd got so used to needing to have a post scheduled every day and now I didn't need to blog.

It was quite nice actually - for a start I've actually been reading some blogs instead of just focusing on writing my own - and I've spent the weekend reading like a demon to get The Woman in White finished. It's a great book but it is a long book and I was starting to feel fatigued by the end of it.

I don't want to fall back into not posting now that I've done BEDM, I need to follow my own advice and just get the frick on with it and so I'm getting an easy post in.

The trouble with posting every day meant that I wasn't concentrating all the time on what I was posting and I've actually gone back (because I'm massively narcissistic like that) to see what it was I wrote about every day for a month.

And I thought I'd pull a few posts out that I liked - either because I was proud of them or because they made me laugh - and I'd like to stick them in this post for posterity in case they get lost in the big bad month of May.

9th May - Swimming - I recently discovered swimming as a way of getting some exercise in and I forgot how much I loved it.

11th May - Why you should read books - contains a hilarious mis-spell. It will make you smile at the very least if you read it.

15th May - What I need to learn - and I've failed at this at least 20 times this past week and weekend.

24th May - A Day in the life - if you ever wanted to know the kind of things a PA does in their day-to-day work this is a list of some of the things I faced that week (please note it's not a complete day, it's a list of some of the things I am asked to do, I'm not super-woman).

28th May - Beside the Seaside - This was such a lovely day and it may not mean much or interest anybody else much but I'm glad I have this blog to record days like this.

29th May - Morning Ritual - mornings suck.

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Six is a weird number to have picked isn't it? Sorry.

End Game - BEDM Day 31

Ok. Hands up. Who didn't think I would make it all the way through?

 * raises own hand*

Can we all just take a moment to savour the fact that this is my 31st post in a month?!

I blogged every day in May!!

I'll tell you what though, it wasn't as tough as I thought It would be. It's just a vase of being organised isn't it, and I'd be pretty much the worst PA ever if I wasn't at least a little bit organised.

I think that's the main thing I've learned from BEDM - just sit the bloody hell down and get on with it and write the damn post. Too often I'm thinking 'Ooh I could write about this... oooh though wait, his will I say it? Yeah I'll just come back to that one." Or I'm fannying about not taking photos. Having to post every day meant that I had to just sort my shit out, sit down and get on with it.

 Yes it took some time but eventually the words came and I'm glad I've learned that lesson. I need to trust myself more that I can get the job done if I just give myself time. Set aside at least one night in the week and focus.

 I've found some great new blogs as a result of the BEDM hashtag on Twitter - that was a cool side effect. I need to find a hashtag that I can use on Twitter all the time that will help me find cool blogs. Easier said than done though, I don't feel I fit into the hashtags that are currently used on Twitter.

Which brings me onto the next thing I feel I've gained from BEDM.

It's a cheesy one I'm afraid.

I've gained confidence in my blog. I've said a billion times now at I cont know where my blog fits in in e grand scheme of things a d that I'm not sure where I belong or if I'm really doing the right thing. This experience has shown me that I'm doing a good job of blogging. For as many of the new blogs that I found and enjoyed reading as a result of BEDM there were 10 that saw me roll my eyes and want to scream "That's not blogging!"

 But who am I to judge that?

What I mean to say is I'm comfortable in my blogging skin, doing what I do.

And the main reason I know that is because of all you guys who have taken the time to comment and let me know what you like and that you enjoy reading. I'm giving you all an awkward stranger hug right now.

I should wrap this up before you a) vomit and/or b) think I'm a self-obsessed arse.

So things I have learned from BEDM in a nutshell?

a) Set time aside to just sit and write and stop procastinating

b) New blogs to read yay

c) I like my blogging and writing style

d) I like it when nice people leave me nice comments

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A huge thank you needs to go to Rosalilium for organising BEDM and keeping everyone motivated and most importantly for providing a topic to talk about every day. I may have gone rogue quite a bit and done my own thing but I did do quite a few of them and I think I'd have been quite lost without the topics as a guide to go to.

I'd have had to have resorted to a lot more pictures of cats for a start, let me tell you.

May Project 365 Round-Up

"Woah. What's going on here then? You can't post a round up of May's Project 365 photos before May's even finished!"

Well yes I bloody can. It's my blog and I'll do what I want to. Especially when I have blogged every. single. day in May and am feeling fatigued and need an easy post.

If today and tomorrow's photos are really amazing, I'll give them a post all of their own, I promise.

May

Clockwise L-R: Blackpool baby yeah; Rosie on a wall; crocheted elephant; Coke bottle with my name on it; Lily cat; Hull 10km that wasn't

26th May - Oh I do like to be beside the seaside! Especially when it involves eating fish and chips, gawping at people, getting accidentally burned, freezing my feet in the Irish Sea and drinking a bucket of gin. Read all about it here.

1st May - Rosie is a funny old one. She doesn't really enjoy being on four legs you know. She can always be found up on her hind legs at the kitchen counters, up on her hind legs asking for a hug, and here, up on her hind legs on the wall that overlooks the castle when I took her for a walk.

13th May - I crocheted an elephant everyone! Aren't I a clever monkey. Not the people who wrote the pattern they're not clever at all, but I am the clever one for following it correctly and producing an elephant. That doesn't stand....but let's not dwell on that.

8th May - "Oooh look at me, I'm all sneery and so sick of seeing Coke bottles with people's names on them" - is something you will hear me say never. I think it was a great idea and it makes me smile and I don't even feel bad about it. Instead I feel bad for the souls who cannot find the joy in anything in life. The one drawback to Coca Cola's idea? People like me who are a bit weird and now can't buy the bottle unless it has either my name on it or someone who is connected to me's name on it. I don't want to drink Amy's bottle of Coke, that's just weird.

18th May - It is hard to get a photo of Lily where she doesn't look either deranged, massively overweight or as if she's descended from bats. It turns out the secret is to take a picture of only head, from side on so you can't see the size of her ears or her crazed eyes. I like to think this is how they take pictures of Kate Moss too - I bet she looks deranged from certain angles too.

19th May - How could I not include this photo? Let us all revel in the delight that was the Hull 10km that actually wasn't a 10km. I've pretty much given up complaining about it now, mostly because I've run out of people that haven't heard the story. However this t-shirt is wonderful - it's a good size it's a nice colour and doesn't make me feel all gross when I run. I'll take my good t-shirt with lies written all over it and go and run a 10km somewhere else thank you very much.

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This is quite the achievement. Not only have I got to the end of May and managed to blog every day - I've also managed to make it 5 months taking photos every day when I actually haven't got a life at the moment. 

High five!

All Project 365 photos can be found here on Flickr. Don't let the new layout throw you out and give you a headache like it did to me.