Saturday 14 May

Great walk today. We got a taxi to Keld then started walking back towards the hotel. This went via some spectacular scenery as well as Great Dunmow Fell which was pretty high and very windy. I did try and fly my kite, and for once it was windy enough, but I found that the strings were tangled. The spirit of Charlie Brown lives on! I will try to unpick the string and try again on Sunday.
Near the end of the walk we came to a pub called the Green Dragon. This was good on two counts. There was a folk music festival going on, and the pub has an impressive waterfall called Hardraw Force in it's grounds. I think that it is the highest drop for a waterfall in England.
The folk festival meant that there were lots of interesting characters around, and that the pub held a raffle. In which I won a bottle of wine!

Sent from my iPod

Friday 13 May

We had a good drive up without any delays, and sat in the pub waiting for everyone else to arrive. Matt and Jonathan came along. We then found out that the pub had stopped serving food. Jonathan went out and found Steve in the cafe where he'd been for the last hour or so. On reflection this shouldn't have been a big surprise as that is where we had planned to meet up!

13 miles today. Keld to Hawes. Hopefully not too wet.

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Daniel at camp!

Daniel is off for a couple of nights camping with the cubs.  It is very odd not having him around.  I dropped him off at the campsite and he seemed very relaxed about the weekend ahead.  I hope that he enjoys it.

That was very tough!

Well, I finished the 2011 London Marathon in 04:33:47.  I found it a lot more difficult that I expected, but this was probably due to pre-race over-optimism on my part.  With about 6 miles to go, my right leg was really sore and I was really quite worried that I might pull up and have to stop.
There were people seeming to collapse all around me the more miles that went by.  A stark reminder not to go for a big finish!  The weather was very hot and this probably made it harder work than it would have been otherwise.
Overall very pleased to have completed the Marathon.  The support from Lynda, Zoe, Daniel and Hannah and other friends was great.
I'm not sure that I will do another one.  It was a big demand on mine and the family's time.

But then again.  It is the London Olympics next year and the ballot for next year's Marathon opens before the end of the month!
Full times for each 5km..
Split     time             diff     min/km     km/h
5K       00:28:08     28:08     05:38     10.67
10K     00:58:40     30:32     06:07     9.82
15K     01:30:38     31:58     06:24     9.39
20K     02:03:03     32:25     06:30     9.25
HALF   02:10:06     07:03     06:26     9.34
25K     02:35:58     25:52     06:38     9.05
30K     03:09:18     33:20     06:40     9.00
35K     03:43:25     34:07     06:50     8.79
40K     04:18:15     34:50     06:59     8.61
Finish  04:33:47     15:32     07:05     8.48

Two days and it will all be over!

Well, my final training run is complete.  A few niggles, but no injuries so far.  I have collected my running number, booked parking at work and have tomorrow to pack and load the car.


Quite looking forward to it now.  Hope that I get to the finish!

Not as tiring as last year...

Half Marathon went well, time a little quicker than last year.  About 1h 52m.  The training must be having some effect as I felt tired but otherwise ok at the end.  At my pace there were people of all shapes and ages. Many running on behalf on "mum" or "nan" or somebody else they were remembering. Quite touching really.
On a lighter note, and I have to say with rather mixed feelings.  I overtook a man with one leg a few hundred metres from the end!  :-)

Lakes etc.

I went to visit the new BBC building at Salford Quays in Manchester a couple of weeks back.  This did mean a rather early start, but I managed to prevent Oscar from going upstairs and waking Hannah at 5:00am with a few cheesy treats. Although I am sure that Hannah wouldn't mind, I doubt if she would get back to sleep.

Since Christmas the children have become pretty self sufficient in the mornings. They often have finished their breakfast before I or Lynda are downstairs. Although it is great that they are becoming more independent, it does feel like we are missing some quality time together. We do still have time to talk in the mornings, although this tends to be more about getting ready for school.

We had a good few days at Cathy's during half term last week. As ever, the weather was a bit hit and miss, but what did we expect in the Lake District in February?

There were some very young lambs in the field outside the kitchen, which the children all enjoyed watching. As well as feeding the mummy sheep with Cathy's wild birdfood!
I took my running gear as I couldn't really afford five days with no training. I found that it is a lot more hilly than the towpaths near home.  Of course I knew this already, but 11 miles felt a lot harder work than normal.