It's almost over...

Christmas day is almost over - kitchen cleaned up, including oven cleaned, food all wrapped and put away in fridge and freezer.
Proper Rock n Roll Christmas here, this is the first year there's just been the two of us in the house and we've consumed about 25% of the alcohol we would previously have had and we've eaten way less than before and we're both sitting here with coke and fizzy water :-)
But we're happy :-) Santa was good to us and I can't wait for the snow and rain to come so I can use my new omm kamleika pants (trousers to us Brits) and my kahtoola spikes!!!  Dead excited!! 

Marcothon is also almost over, we've only 6 more runs and that's us into 2013, it's amazing how many people are still 'in' a few have dropped out due to illness or unforeseen circumstances, but there are heaps of us still 'shuffling on'.  I thought on Sunday I was finished, I woke in the middle of the night with an incredible fever, really shivery and icy cold, then sweating and thought I was coming down with the lurgy which has afflicted some of our friends.  I got up on Sunday morning feeling like I'd been to the fitcamp from hell, every big muscle in my body ached.  However, a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt, a coffee and half an hour hugging a wheat bag and I decided to give it a shot, I stayed close to home just touring the streets near ours and seeing different houses I'd never seen before and I managed to do 26mins worth so that kept my marcothon streak intact.  John on the other hand had set off about 8am to run up to Dunblane and meet me in Bridge of Allan for breakfast before we went to M&S to pick up our Xmas Dinner - not just any old Xmas Dinner...
We'd to wait in a queue for 45 mins and I had another shivery spell, but after a wee nap and 2hourly medication, I started to feel a little better.  On Monday morning I felt a fair bit better and woke at 5.30am so I managed another wee half hour shuffle - and then after waiting an hour and a half in dentist for an emergency filling - it broke on Friday!  I went to work.  It was a quiet day and we got sent away at 2pm so after a quick toddle round the nearest Asda 'just in case I'd forgotten anything' then a stop to deliver Christmas cards to a colleague who'd been on holiday, I was home by 4pm.  I felt wiped then so another wee power nap taken.  Then it was into the Christmas eve routine of wrapping, writing cards for neighbours, delivering parcels and cards then a wee nightcap as we settled down for some chill time and listened to the radio - telly is cr@p and Jarvis Cocker had a great show on :-)
Toyed with the idea of going for run 25 at 00:01 but John was feeling a bit wiped and 'bunged up' so bed was calling. 
Poor soul  he got an interesting wake up call at a 7 this morning lol!  I woke with a really gritty eye and having recently had problems with my eyes, knew that I had a bottle of drops on the bedside table.  Unfortunately I also had a bottle of ear drops - from ages ago!  Guess which one I picked up in the dark and put in my eye?  Yep and it BURNED!!!  Thankfully I also had a glass of water to hand so it was quickly rinsed and the lights were on by then - accompanied by some earthy oaths, so I also used the eye drops... it's fine now :-)
Anyhow, that was us up then so we had coffee and went out for our run with our Santa Hats on.  After the recent foul weather - right up until last night, it was a lovely morning and we were able to get out in shorts and t shirts - and santa hats - much to the amusement of the few car drivers out and about who tooted or waved, and the dog walkers who responded well to our 'Happy Christmas' as we trotted past.
This morning I managed to complete the full 5km albeit slowly but it shows a further improvement in my health so that's reassuring.
Home to open presents, quick breakfast of yoghurt and banana then we dressed up again as Mr & Mrs Claus (for photo see previous post) and went to a Charity fitcamp with the pinpoint crew.  About 30 folk came along to join in, some regular campers and some friends and family, well done to all!
So having had our quota of pre-turkey exercise, it was home for a shower, brunch and champagne.  A gentle (lazy?) afternoon cooking dinner, then eating it, then watching a magical documentary about Killian Jornet - A Fine Line - well worth a watch - even if you're not in to running - the scenery is magical and he is a phenomenal athlete with a wonderful philosophy.
Tomorrow it's off to Ayr for the Turkey Trot 10km, hopefully I will be up for the 10k that I entered us both for but if not I will see if I can change to the 5k.  Nice day out catching up with friends old and new and hopefully the weather will stay fair so we'll have a nice drive down too.
Happy Christmas everyone and hopefully I'll get back before this becomes the 2013 version :-) xxx

15 milliseconds of international fame!

Sunday 9 December we did our marcothon
day 9 as the Santa Dash in Glasgow...

This is a 5k fun run to raise money for local charities - we've always been lucky with the weather - it's always stayed dry and there is something quite phenomenal about looking up St Vincent Street in Glasgow as you start the race and there is a sea of red in front and behind - 2400 Santas is quite a sight!

Here we are 500metres from the finish and decided to stretch out and race for the line :-)  I wasn't aware of a photographer and certainly wasn't aware of how far off the ground our feet were though it did feel good to be 'flying along'
A friend posted the picture in the afternoon, it apparently made it on to the international 'wires' and got as far as a newspaper in Australia!  It will probably be the only time I'll be in a photo which is in the Getty image bank.  I do feel wee bit sorry for the poor bloke we are just about to pass as he looks absolutely done and we went zooming past laughing.  We met our friend Paul before the race, though he finished before us - John could have finished way before me too but he ran round with me which was really nice, it keeps me honest and makes me keep running so I clocked my second fastest 5km time which was a bonus, given that it was a fun run and has a big hill at the start then we met some other friends, Colin, Brian and Hannah who was taking part in her second Santa Dash and who managed to run the whole way round this year - she's 5 :-) 
We then bumped into Janette and Gregor (10) doing their second Santa Dash, then went to meet up with Paul in The Counting House for breakfast.  It was fun to see the pub full of Santas, but it was probably the worst breakfast I've ever had, and we'd to wait at least half an hour for it, then when it did arrive it was disappointing to say the least...
John and I stayed in Glasgow overnight as we had the day off on the Monday so we had a very pleasant afternoon watching the world go by with a bottle of prosecco followed by a very nice dinner in Arisaig in the Merchant City.
More later about our Monday off...

It's that time of year again... it's marcothon!

 

 Yep, Saturday was December 1st so not only was it parkrun, it was day 1 of marcothon!

After the rain/sleet and ice of Friday night's firewalking adventures, Saturday morning dawned bright and cold, we headed off to Falkirk to meet up with our parkrun buddies, and to catch up again with Sue, Jim, Jordan and Keira who had driven up from Ayr specially to watch the firewalk then stayed overnight to come to parkrun.  We had a great run, the boys shot off at the start and us ladies followed at a more leisurely pace, the paths were icy and the grass was icy, hearbreak hill was icy, but the sun was shining low in the sky and it was a beautiful morning to be out...
Keira did brilliantly, she finished the 5km with a blistering sprint and earned her hot chocolate in the tearoom afterwards :-)  Running with Sue was great fun, it's always nice to finally meet a 'virtual' friend.
Special mention too to a friend whom we met during last year's marcothon, Alan and his 'dug' Islay ran every day and we all looked forward to his daily photo of Islay out on their run.  It was fantastic to finally meet him in person after a few failed attempts through the year.

For those of you who can't be bothered to follow the link to find out more, marcothon is a personal challenge to complete 5km or 25 min running every day in December.  We did this last year and I wasn't sure at the start if I would manage it but I did and it gave me a really good solid base to start my Spring training from.

The biggest difference between marcothon 2011 and marcothon 2012?  By day 5 I was stressing about getting a run, stressing about not being able to do a run fast enough, stressing that John was being a hero and putting up with my stresses and coming out with me so I would go... This year?  I am loving it and looking forward to and (so far) enjoying every run!

There is a wonderful community growing around marcothon with runners from "a' the airts" logging their adventures online and it's great to read what everyone is up to, where they are running, what the weather is like etc...
There are blizzards forecast tonight so given that we still have some ice and snow from Monday, it should make for an interesting day tomorrow, but you know what?  I've got my wee spikes for my shoes and I'm really looking forward to it - I'd run in this weather any day before the rain :-)
So, happy running fellow marcothoners!  Time for a bath to ease out the aches, and to hang up the washing - you know when you first buy a dishwasher you realise you need more dishes?? Running every day you realise you need more kit... ;-)

It's over :.-(

But it was awesome :-)

We had a fantastic holiday and I ran my two fastest marathons so far, had good weather, good food, good wine and met good friends - not much more I can ask for really (apart from being able to stay and not have to come home!)

After my last grumpy post on 21st Sept, things did get slowly better...
I still didn't manage to get back to my full training but I did manage to get some running done, managed a long steady run that weekend then the following weekend we went to Strathclyde parkrun where I managed to set a new 5k PB of 29mins! This was over 2minutes off my previous best so I was chuffed to bits and somewhat reassured that the previous couple of weeks of bugs and stress hadn't taken too much of a long term toll.
We got through the remaining days of work and headed off to sunny Toronto on morning of 10th October - and yes it was sunny :-)
Arrived safely at lunchtime which gave us heaps of time to find our way to our apartment and get freshened up before meeting up with the first group of the ever growing group of friends and fellow runners whom we meet every time we go.  First evening was a quick visit to the opening of a new running shop followed by dinner with friends, managed to keep going til 'normal bedtime' which meant we'd put in a 22 hour day but it helps to alleviate the jetlag.  Up early next morning and out for a nice gentle wee 8km run, it was supposed to be a 5k but John hadn't got his internal satnav quite tuned into the new time zone yet and missed the road sign, and because I was comfortable and enjoying myself I didn't think to question him - not that I would ever...
Next couple of days were spent quietly socialising, nothing raucous we had a race at the weekend! Weather stayed nice and crisp and sunny so we ran a little each day then spent time just chilling and catching up, it was great.  Weather forecast was threatening to turn for the weekend and there were really strong gale force winds and heavy rain on the way - this filled me with a little bit dismay as a long stretch of the race kms 10-20 head out along the Lakeshore and if the wind came it was going to be a real tough fight to run into it :-(
Sunday morning dawned wet and grey but seemed reasonably calm and true enough when we left to go to the start it was torrential rain but there was no wind - guess you have to take the breaks where you get them, and the rain was preferable to the gales in my book.  We warmed up by jogging gently to the start, got changed and dropped our bags - offering a silent prayer of thanks that we had managed to rent a place that was only 5minutes jog from the start line.  John's corral were off pretty quickly, but I had to wait about 20mins before I crossed, at which point the rain stopped! (another silent thanks sent heavenwards!)
Micro report of race - started off to fast had a great first 30km then struggled to 35km picked up again after that but was done and hurting at the end - however it was all sooooo worth it to cross the finish line 27minutes quicker than I'd ever done before!  Very happy bunny indeed!
Ice bath, shower and out to meet up with our fellow runners and supporters - no wild partying for me though by 9pm I was in bed and out for the count! Slept til 0630 like a baby!  Very gentle 3km recovery run first thing Monday morning then our friends Eric and JuneAnn who had taken a couple of days off came to get us and we went off to hunt down specialist running shorts which unfortunately the shop no longer stocks, had a nice Indian buffet lunch, home to change and out to spend the evening with more friends in their beautiful new home and meet their daughter who was born just after we visited last year.
Tuesday morning a better and further early morning run - 5k this time then lunch with E&JA and chilling and dinner with them in their home, we spent the evening watching US presidential debate which was interesting!  Wednesday was pancake day - pancakes for breakfast is part of the thrill of a trip to Canada or USA and I hadn't had any yet however I also didn't want to be too naughty and eat stuff that I wouldn't eat at home however I did want to have them once.  A little bit of internet searching found a place highly reviewed and not to far to walk from our appt - just over 1mile so that was our exercise for Wednesday we walked there and back.  Luck was on my side too the pancakes were made with oatmeal and banana so were reasonably clean, and they were delicious! It was a quirky wee place too so was fun to visit it was called Aunties and Uncles and I'd highly recommend a visit if your ever in Toronto.
Thursday morning we jumped(!) on the streetcar (tram) and took a trip to The Beaches - this is an area of the city which has only been part of the marathon route for the last 2 years and it was nice to go back and see where we'd run.  Another find for lunch and another evening out with friends.
Friday we picked up the hire car and drove to Niagara Falls to get ready for race 2 - guess I should do another post about it as this has probably bored the pants off you by now :-)