Happy Friday! My Friday is all about packing- again! I’m really excited, as we’re doing the Perth Kilt Run tomorrow! It’ll be great, as I won’t be running alone, for a change!
For those who aren’t sure what the Kilt Run is, it’s a world record attempt to have the most kilted runners in one run. The current record holders are Perth, Canada!
The only other activity I have planned for today is some light reading….
Today’s stats:
Run: No, it’s a yoga and stretch day for me.
Time: 30 mins yoga, 15 mins NTC Shawn Johnson Stretch Guide
Most relaxing yoga track: some Groove Armada
Well, to round off another week, I thought I’d let you have a sneak peek into some of my good (and bad) eating habits this week.
In Dublin, I had a few naughty treats:
We had dinner on Saturday night in Hard Rock Cafe, which is becoming a bit of a pre-race ritual!
Positives: good expo, great course, excellent organisation, friendly runners
Negatives: lack of support around the route, pacers (what pacers?), goody bags
As @TheWelshWookie and I were making a weekend of it, we flew into Dublin on the Saturday afternoon, giving us plenty of time before the race on Monday. We headed to our hotel which was on the outskirts of the city, as we had a hire car.
After we checked in and organised ourselves we headed into the city itself, to find the expo. We took the Luas, or tram:
We headed to the expo, which was well organised, busy, and had lots of stands. I had to pose, of course:
I collected my bib, my race pack and Tshirt. The goody bag was a bit rubbish- but that’s not hugely important to me anyway. I then collected my World Rocker medal, albeit a bit premature as I hadn’t actually run the second half yet!
We then browsed the stalls, and I treated myself to some Yurbud earphones, which lock in place and don’t fall out. They also allow you to hear what is going on around you, for safety when out running. And the sound quality is great I LOVE them! I also bought some CEP calf compression sleeves, in neon green!
We spent Sunday sight seeing, shopping and scoping out the start of the run at St. Stephen’s Green so that we knew exactly where we were going, and where would be best for parking.
On the morning of the race, we were up at 5am, had breakfast at the hotel, and drove into Dublin. We were greeted by some motorway signage 😉
We parked right at St Stephen’s Green, so we didn’t have to walk too far. @TheWelshWookie headed off at 7am to find where he’d be doing the gear check, while I waited in the car for another half hour getting more excited just chilling out. At 7.30am, I headed onto St Stephen’s Green and took a walk around, just to soak up the atmosphere, and to keep warm- it was a little chilly, given that I was wearing shorts and a vest!
The facilities at the start were great: loads of portaloos, and the gear check was easy to use, spread out well, and manned by the wonderful @TheWelshWookie amongst others!
The start itself was really good. From 8am, we were advised to go to our corrals, which was ideal. The build up was pretty slick with a very brief warm up, and the excitement built to the sounds of U2. I was in the last corral, so anyone slower than 2:20 were all lumped together- all slowbies together!
Here’s the map of the race:
The race started at 8.30 sharp, and the final corral (including me) headed off after about 10 minutes. We were notified that the pacers would be wearing coloured balloons, and I was hoping to track the 2:15 balloon, at least for part of the race. I only saw one pacer for each time- there were more in Edinburgh- and for some reason, the 2:30 pacer started in the corral BEFORE us? Huh? That made no sense to me, as I was running 2:20!
A sea of neon green!
Anyway, we headed out of the start, and the support for the first kilometre or so was really good. Within about 10 minutes, I had caught up with the end of the previous corral, which was great, and I caught sight of the pacer. But, before I knew it, they had raced away on ahead! So much for running at 2:30 – I’m pretty sure they must have come in much quicker than that, as I didn’t see them again! So, after such a great pacing experience at Edinburgh, I was disappointed that this pacer didn’t seem to do what was needed for us slowbies, anyway. 😦
As we headed towards Phoenix Park, the support dwindled, and that made the course pretty quiet. A large part of the race was in the park itself, which was gorgeous. It also meant that you could run on the grass, if you preferred. We ran past the zoo, and there were some families out, showing support. I got a high-5 off of a boy of about 3, at mile 4, which was great!
At the 10k mark, we began to head slightly uphill, which was a shock as it was the first hill of the race, but wasn’t too bad. There were sensors at 10k, but I haven’t been able to find my 10k split anywhere on the website. Hopefully, I’ll come across it!
As we headed out of the park, I noticed that we ran along whole streets, with no one out supporting. I thought that was odd, but maybe support isn’t as good as elsewhere? What it did mean was that I really, really appreciated the support that we did get- it was greatly appreciated!
The route wound its way back towards the city centre, and at mile 9, we came to The Hill. Now in most races, it would probably have just been a hill, but for this lovely, flat course, it was THE hill. Pretty steep! But, at the top of the hill was a water station- whether that was by luck, or by design, I was happy to see it, and to fill up my water bottle.
From about mile 10, the support began to pick up a little, with some fantastic crowds over the last mile. One of the great things about this route was how quickly we seemed to come cross the finish line- it just appeared, out of nowhere!
What made up for the lack of support were the brilliant bands at every mile marker. They were all really great, and this time, there were only two finishing songs as I came past, so I got to hear lots of them! And, unlike Edinbugh, the mile markers were all present and correct!
As I crossed the line, I was handed my fab medal, and I managed to bag a bottle of water and a powerbar: the isotonic drinks were all finished 😦
I had to wait for @TheWelshWookie to finish giving back gear bags, so I headed back to the car, got changed, then came back to the square, where I found a wee spot to sit and listen to the bands. It was brilliant!
My stats: 2:16:04 only 5 seconds short of 2:15!! I have no idea how many participants there were, but I finished 3990th. Here’s the only stats I could find:
The Medal: Really good, fab, sparkly and heavy!
I also had my brilliant World Rocker medal:
Goody Bag: money off vouchers, leaflets, blister plasters & a packet of crisps
T-shirt: It’s a fab. neon green number!
After a quick shower and change, @TheWelshWookie and I headed first to the Guiness Storehouse, where we enjoyed a Guiness, for it’s restorative powers only, or course 🙂
And we finished our evening partying in the Temple Bar area, listening to some fantastic music.
All in all, we had a brilliant weekend, and can’t wait to visit again!
Positives: great course, brilliant atmosphere, well organised
Negatives: it was hot! ‘jump’ photo queue was a bit of a disaster
As the run was late afternoon, my sis and I caught the red eye from Glasgow to London, Gatwick on Sunday morning. We had breakfast at the airport, but as we were flying British Airways, we also had breakfast on the flight: result!
Fortunately, we’re pretty comfortable with travelling around London, and as the race was at Wembley we knew exactly where we were going, as we’ve been there several times for the NFL games. We headed straight to our hotel at Wembley, had a 15 minute chill-out while they prepped our room, then we took our time getting changed and getting excited for the run! Here’s the view from the hotel room:
Pretty handy, huh?
We were able to see others heading towards the start at around 2pm, so we grabbed our water, and headed around the stadium. As we walked around, we could see the crowds beginning to gather in the muster area:
The facilities at the start were great: loads of portaloos, clearly marked information stands, merchandise stalls, check in desks, etc. We headed for the sunglasses pick up, as we were getting them as freebies as part of a LivingSocial deal: there was no queue, and the staff were lovely and friendly. As the event is sponsored by Dulux, there was an opportunity to have your picture taken with the Dulux dog!
In the muster area itself, there was a ‘start’ line, but the actual start itself was under the Wembley arch. Here’s some pics of the pre-run build up in the muster:
The MC was pretty good, keeping the crowd entertained and trying to keep them distracted in the heat! Here we are, before the run:
That’s my sad attempt at a MoBot….
After baking in the sun for about 45 minutes, the crowd moved towards the actual start. The MC told us that we’d be running in waves, with about 7 minutes in between each group. As we were pretty near the front, we were in the second group, which we were very grateful for, as there were apparently 15,000 runners! I would not have wanted to stand about for one of the later groups! 😮
The start itself was really good. The staff were throwing freebies into the crowd, Nicki Minaj (yeah, I know) was being played and runners were jumping around with excitement!
It was a great way to start the race: spectators were able to line the walkways, and stand on the bridge above the runners: they were waving, taking pics and enjoying it as much as the runners!
We started off by running pretty slowly: as you can see, the crowd was pretty tightly packed, so the first k was more of a walk/shuffle. I wondered why so many people had their phones and cameras inside plastic pouches, or wrapped in cling film: as I saw the first k marker in the distance I realised why:
I could see a cloud of pink shimmering in the sky, and I had an instant realisation- if I keep my phone out, it’ll be clogged up with dry paint! Doh! So, I’m afraid that this is the only picture I took en route!
Running into the arch was so much fun: the volunteers at each side of the road were having a great time, using squirty bottles to cover the runners in colour! As it was warm, dry and humid, the paint was almost hanging in the air, so as you ran through the cloud of colour, it was a little difficult to breathe, but no real problem at all. My legs were covered in pink!
My sis realised that, despite being 15 years younger than me, she was definitely not able to match my slow running (that’s saying something, huh?!) so we did a walk/jog for the rest of the course. That as actually ideal, as we got to really enjoy the event, without pushing for a time. We could soak up the fun, we weren’t pushing past families or kids, we could talk and just make the most of it.
At the purple marker, a lady very kindly hit me full in the face with purple paint, so in all of my ‘after’ pics I look like I have a purple beard! 😮
The race ended just outside Wembley stadium, and we could hear the music, and the DJ, but being in the second wave, it was still pretty quiet. We were handed bottled water, and a VitaCoco drink, which were both very welcome!
The crowds, partying!
We made our way to the crowd, and started to queue to get our photos done doing the Color Run ‘jump’ but the queue rope was too short for the number of people waiting, and no one was supervising the queue, so it dissolved into chaos. Instead of getting upset or bothered with people jumping into the queue, we just left it, and just as we started to head to the merchandise stalls, we heard them call all tutu wearers to the stage! I grabbed my sis’ hand, and dragged her behind the barrier, where all of our fellow tutu wearers were dancing and jumping about to Katy Perry’s Call Me Maybe:
I decided to take a quick pic of my sis and I here, and we were photobombed. Possibly the best photobomb I’ve seen:
Well done that girl! Love it!
Here’s our after pics:
After we had finished jumping about, we went back into the crowd for a bit, and did the finish line colour cloud: we had yellow paint for the end.
We then headed to the merchandise stall, and I treated myself to some socks, which are pretty cool:
Elsewhere in the finish area, there was a guy, soaking everyone with a hose, and there were plenty of food stalls, first aid staff, and volunteers for anyone needing help at the end.
We headed back to the hotel, where we got some really weird looks, sitting at the bar, enjoying a beer:
As we were heading out into London, we headed for showers, and clean clothes! On our way out that evening, we could see the aftermath!
My stats: No official time, but we finished in around 39 minutes
The Medal: None, but that’s OK!
Goody Bag: None, but water and VitaCoco was available
T-shirt: I love the shirt, but as it’s cotton I won’t be wearing it for running. I didn’t run the race in it. I’ll be wearing the sweatband, though!
I’ll be planning on doing more than one of these next year: I’ve heard that there’ll be one in Glasgow in 2014- cannot wait! 😀
I had planned to head out for an early run to beat the heat, but I’m afraid that the sun and the heat beat me to it!
Today’s stats:
Run: 7 mile ‘long’ run: definitely tapering now!
Time: 1:10:57 Given the heat, that’s Ok with me.
Trainers: LunarGlides
Weather: Sunny, hot, humid
First running track of the day: Jimmy Somerville- this reminds me of a teacher I had at school, who loved him!
As it is the Tarbert Traditional Boat Festival, I thought that the village would be busy, but it was much busier than I expected, for 9.30am! As I ran along the harbour, past the pontoons, there were lots of walkers, people heading for breakfast, walking dogs, enjoying the early morning sun. There were also lots of people setting up their stalls for the festival later today: the whole area was a hive of activity!
As I headed off of the path, and up onto Garvel Road, I managed to take this picture, and when you see it you wouldn’t know that the village was busy:
Gorgeous!
As I headed back toward the harbour for the second time, I saw that the pontoons had filled up with lots more traditional boats than there were on Thursday night when I was last down by the harbour.
Last week I asked, is there always something going on in Tarbert? Definitely yes! 😀
There are loads of activities planned for the day, including climbing the greasy pole. The prize for the highest climber is a bottle of whisky: I’m not even sure I could do it with it still laying flat!
By the time I reached home I understood for the first time ever what is meant by the phrase ‘sweat pouring off you’. It was! But I’ve showered, rehydrated, and refuelled on some Thai red curry:
I hope you all have a good run today, and a fab weekend!
Today’s life lesson: jogging in and out of walkers, saunterers and cyclists is not a good look, when you have no co-ordination 😉
Sweet chilli drizzled salmon and saladNachos with low fat cheese, quorn pepperoni and jalapenosWholewheat tortilla pizza with quorn pepperoni, low fat cheese, red onion, peppers, chilli flakes and balsamic vinegarwholewheat tortilla pizza with salady stuffTotal Greek yoghurt with melon, pineapple, grapes, chia and flax
But I haven’t always succeeded……
Today’s Life Lesson: double-check your text before you accidentally send it to the wrong person….
Well, I made a bit of a silly mistake tonight: Usually I go for a wee run as soon as I finish work, mainly because if I didn’t go then I wouldn’t bother that suits me best. Tonight, it was overcast, and about 22 degrees when I got home. I thought I‘d be smart, and wait a couple of hours before running, in the hope that the temperature dropped a little. Big mistake. The sun actually came out, and was beating down on me for all of my ‘speed’ session, and the temperature had actually increased! 😮
Oh, well.
Today’s stats:
Run: 5K slow speed session.
I did: 1K warm up jog; followed by 6x 300 metre sprints/200 metre recovery walk. I finished up with a 1K so-called ‘cool’ down
Time: 32:56
Trainers: Lunar Racers
Weather: bright and very sunshiny! Again! Woop Woop!
Best running track of the day: Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. It kicked in just when I needed it!
So, as we head towards another weekend, there’s another event on in the fantastic village where I live. It’s the Tarbert Traditional Boat Festival, which kicks off tomorrow night 😀
There are quite a few boats in already, and while I ran along by the pontoons, I could hear fiddle music filling the air, which was lovely!
The village was pretty busy for a Thursday evening, with people eating at tables outside the cafes, and strolling along the harbour, enjoying the view and the weather. It looks like we’re in for another cracking weekend!
Today’s life lesson: Sometimes I say things to try to make things better, and end up doing the opposite. Mental note- think through what I say before I say it!
Hope you’ve all had a Happy Hump Day today- here’s some Wednesday Wit in case you haven’t… it sums up how I feel after a weekend of excess! 😀
Today’s stats:
Run: Nope, not today. It was a strength day, so I did NTC’s 45 minute Intermediate Get Strong. It was tough! I’ll do a 15 minute stretch later, too.
Time: 45 mins
Best track while doing high-knees: Soak Up The Sun, Sheryl Crow. Very appropriate today!
As the warm, sunny weather is continuing, I headed out for a walk after dinner. Tonight, I took a stroll around Tarbert Castle, which overlooks the village. Would you like to see it?
It has recently undergone quite a bit of restoration work: it dates back to Robert the Bruce’s time.
Here’s a picture of the harbour through one of the windows:
Here’s the views across the village and out towards Loch Fyne from the Castle:
I did: 1 mile warm up jog; followed by 7x 30 second sprints/30 second recovery walk. I then walked/jogged home, but I’m not too sure how far that was!
Time: 28:56
Trainers: Lunar Racers
Weather: bright and very sunshiny! Again! Woop Woop!
Best running track of the day: Matinee, Franz Ferdinand. I love this. It reminds me of a former boss I had 🙂
I’d had a meeting in Helensburgh today, so I’d spent about 4 hours cooped up in the car, driving, so it felt great to stretch my legs tonight. I knew it would be hot, after last night, but I think I was better prepared for it tonight! I think it was around the 25 degree mark again. Hot (for here!)
I fancied a change of scenery, so instead of running along the village harbour I headed out to the West Loch, and ran down to that harbour instead.
It made a lovely change, but is quite a short run, on its own. The first mile is downhill, then it flattens out a bit to the harbour itself, and the final mile home is back uphill, which was tough, but what I needed! I felt great, hence the *squee* in the title, even though I was icky and sticky with suncream….again! 😮
I also took a pic of this old sign, which I thought was quite quaint:
Today’s life lesson: carry your camera, or have your iPhone to hand when you’re driving, ready to pull in and take a snap. I saw the paddle steamer The Waverley today, but didn’t get a pic of it 😦
A taste + rate / debate of gluten free dining in Glasgow Scotland. By newlyweds team The Murphy’s. Want the latest on her fashion updates too ? Join writer/ blogger @cityslickerinthestix.com
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