Just A Word

I thought I might post something while I’m off running for a while. This year I have had more colds than any I can remember! I have just got over one that took me out of work for a few days and now I have a sore throat that makes my breathing feel like I’m trying to suck air through a drinking straw. This is not a good start to my training. Last week I got some good quality miles in which made me feel like I was back on track after my last cold. I won’t run again until I know for sure this time that it’s completely gone. I don’t want to take any chances. I will spend my time now preparing for Christmas and planning the route I’ll take along the canals for my fifty mile run. The software I’ve used to mark out the route is Anquet’s excellent mapping software. I downloaded the Ordnance Survey map covering the area from Stoke On Trent to Kinver and plotted out the route along Trent & Mersey Canal to join the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Great Haywood. This canal will take me to my home village of Kinver finishing at the Vine pub at mile fifty. I’ve saved the route as a GPX file so that anyone can import the route into Bing/Google/Anquet maps and study the route themselves.

My next task is to reccy the route by bike. My two best running mates Stewart and Graham will be joining me after Christmas when we will cycle the whole route. I will be noting suitable joining/drop-off points for friends to splice in and out of the journey along the way. Most of those points I’m assuming will be pubs. The amount of people that have said will join me is really appreciated and of course has put a little bit of pressure on me too to make sure everything is planned out correctly. I was going to name and thank everyone via this blog but I thought better I think. It’s still six months away and people may get themselves tied up with other commitments or have an opportunity to do something much more interesting than to plod along a canal on their bank holiday weekend with me.

I have a new follower/s to the blog. http://gornaljogger.blogspot.com/ . This is put together by Paul and Jo who I first met at the Kinver 10K race. This was their first race and what do you know? They get themselves in the local newspaper! I next met Paul and Jo at their excellent Halloween party which they arranged to raise money for a great charity Well Child. Well Child is a UK national charity for children. They help sick children and their families throughout the UK to manage the consequences of serious illness and complex health conditions through their programme of care, support and research. Paul and Jo are training for the 2010 London Marathon and will do a grand job of raising more money for this worthy cause. Please visit their blog or the Well Child site to find out more about what these selfless people are trying to achieve.

A highlight to last week was my interview on the Runner’s Round Table with Steve runner from the Pheddippidations podcast along with two others: Lisa a nurse that works horrendous hours and L.J. a Wild land Fire-fighter who is on constant stand-by and can be called away to work from home at the drop of a hat for weeks. You can listen to the podcast at The Runners Round Table episode 59.

Since I’m not running at the moment I don’t have any running related photographs. So, here’s some I took at the Christmas Market in Birmingham on Saturday.

 

A Late Post

This is a very late post. I can’t believe I didn’t post a blog for this very special day. In May this year I met and made some very special friends. Through podcasts, blogs, twitter and Facebook a group of us got together here in England to run a half marathon across the picturesque landscape of the Peak District. I think for me it really started with reading Drusy’s blog or watching her video on Runcast TV about running the Swift Half marathon the previous year. All I said was that it is one of my favourite parts of the country and Drusy suggested I come up for the next race this year. It snowballed slightly from there. I think Drusy’s invite to us all was what led to the birth of the Euro Run-Net Striders. Of course we didn’t get that title until after we ran the fantastic World Wide Festival Of Races put together by Steve Chopper in Oxford and Nigel came up with the great name and the Euro Run-Net Striders blog site.

Anyway. I was just reminiscing when I found a video on Runcast TV that I’ve not watched (sorry Phil). So, here it is. It might not mean anything to some of you but it was filmed in May on a nice day which you might appreciate if you’re going through some Brass Monkey weather like we are in the UK at the moment.

Thanks to a real diamond geezer Phil Moneypenny for putting this video together along with some excellent footage from Billy and a great soundtrack too.