Another busy day here. Exciting, as the house has been full* of carpet fitters putting lovely carpet down. The carpet’s looking fab, they’re coming back tomorrow, and I managed to sneak out for a run whilst the sun was still shining. 3 easy miles: Done.
And today’s gratuitous kitten picture is brought to you by Lunar’s ridiculously fluffy toes. Enjoy.
* There were 2 of them, but it felt like more.
Whenever my brother visits from the North (land of pies) he always comments on how many more uncomfortably large people he sees here in Wiltshire compared with at home. I’ve lived here for too long to notice either way, but I think I might have found the reason why. My brother was popping over today with my Mum and Dad for a quick cup of tea, and I realised I didn’t have any cake or nice biscuits to offer. Fortunately our local pub has the loveliest owners and they happily agreed to package me up what was basically a takeaway cream tea. They even popped the scones into the oven so they were warm and included cartons of jam and cream. These were delicious, but what was amazing was the scones were as big as my head.* I’m thinking maybe this explains the size of people in Wiltshire?!
After such an enormous elevenses I couldn’t manage my lunch until about 4pm, but this was perfect pre-race food timing so actually worked out very well. I then headed out to the first in this year’s series of the Heddington 5K races. These races are quite informal, you can only enter on the night, you park and finish opposite a pub, they have chip timing and only £3. Last night was full of club runners because it’s basically a downhill, PB course. At one time this would have been intimidating, but for the first time ever I too was a club runner, proudly sporting my (borrowed) Chippenham Harriers shirt. ** It was so different to my usual race experiences to be with a big group of people, and to have lots of runners to chat to both before and after the race. *** It was also a novelty to hear people shout “go Chippenham!” and realise they were shouting at me!
A scary downhill charge of a start**** led to a fast race and a new 5k PB of 25:27. There are two more races in this series so with a warm up, and less wind on the night, my goal of going sub-25 looks like it could be achievable. I think eating a pre-race scone-as-big-as-my-head is going on my list of ideal race prep as this was obviously what made the difference.
Whilst I’m talking about weight, a top tip. If you have any concerns about your own size, hide them by making your brother look like he’s heavier than he actually is by ‘helping’ with the scale.
*There is no photographic evidence of this because I didn’t want to let the scones go cold.
**Thank you for the loan of the shirt, Lucy!
***To quote Luna Lovegood “It was like having friends” 😉
**** I’ve never had a mile split beginning with a 7 before which is amazing
Quick update for tonight. Busy day here painting painting painting before carpet arrives on Wednesday. Much emulsion, then cooking tea, then eating tea, then doing the shopping, and THEN squeezing in a little down-and-up run in preparation for tomorrow’s 5K race.
Phew! Time for feet up and relaxing with these two:-
Yesterday was the Chippenham Harriers 5 mile race. I was there, bright and early, but I wasn’t running. Oh no, for the first time I was shouldering my new found responsibilities as a club member and I had volunteered to help.
It was a beautiful hot sunny day, but I was helping give out running numbers and chips so I was inside the cool of the rugby club. It was a busy morning, I didn’t see any of the race, but I saw the red faced runners returning saying what a good race it was and how hot it was.
Much later on, husband asked if I fancied going to the pub. I’d seen runners supping on cold pints of lager after the race and had fancied one since then. Then I remembered I hadn’t yet run for the day, so I snuck in a quick run with a small hill, and then really enjoyed my beer.
Cheers!
Random kitten update.
It’s Saturday so it must be parkrun day, yes? Erm, actually I had told a friend I probably wouldn’t make it to parkrun as I was thinking of having a lie in. However Juneathon laughs in the face of lying in, and I was wide awake at 8am. What’s a girl to do, but to get up and parkrunning.
So 5k done and back home in time for second breakfast. Juneathon lives (as does the smug feeling) which lasts most of the day).
Today’s Kitten News. Big cat has been trying to hide. Unsuccessfully.
You really don’t want to see what happened shortly after this second photo, but I can promise no kittens were harmed. Just a little bit biffed.
So today was the first day I didn’t want to go for a run. Busy day, over excited kittens, cheesed off big cat – you know how it goes. Got back home and put on my trainers at 8 pm. It was still light, and gorgeous to be out. A slow and easy 3 miles, my legs soon shut up and plodded along so my head could enjoy the space. I’m glad I didn’t give up today.
So a run isn’t very sociable when you run 6.5 of the 7 miles on your own. However I did chat to several people beforehand, and afterwards which was definitely sociable. I also found I ran faster, and for longer, knowing I had people to catch up with (I didn’t). I also surprised myself with how well I ran in the heat (yesterday was summer). Therefore I’m declaring this run a success, sociable or not. (I chatted to a guy at the end who said guiltily “we do all tend to get a bit competitive on Thursday runs”. I’ll not argue with that).
In Kitten News, the boys have been showing they have no concept of gender sterotyping by both squeaking girl-ily whilst running around with, respectively, a small pink fabric mouse and a pink fabric ball in their mouths.
Day 3 of Juneathon called for something a little easier on the legs after last night’s speed session, so I decided to hark back to Juneathons of old, and incorporate some allotmenteering. I ran the three quarters of a mile up there, sighed quite a lot at the state of my small jungle, and dug weeds for 50 minutes. I then gratefully put away my garden fork and set off for home. I’m not sure if it was the unaccustomed digging, or just being out in the sunshine, but the ‘scenic route’ home again (just over a mile) felt so much harder. Actually, the several inches of mud clumped onto the bottom of my old trail shoes from the allotment could have had something to do with it.
Anyone want some shocking kitten news? The kittens had their first vet visit last night for their vaccinations, and on giving them both a check over the Vet declared that our pretty girl fluffy Luna … is actually a boy. Oh.
I guess we need a new name for her him now -any ideas?
Well it was an effort to get out to running club tonight, with this attachment to my trainers:-
But I made it. 600m fast followed by 200m jog recovery, repeated 7 times. Phew!
Juneathon? Feels more like Janathon today. Never mind. At least I got my first run in today, an easy 3 miles. As I predicted, kittens made getting out difficult. This is what I was greeted with as I said good morning:-
Anyway day 1 done. Roll on the next 30!
