Moo to the Beat

I get a lot of emails from charities, asking me to promote their event or campaign. I mostly ignore these (unless they’re from Cancer Research UK or other vivisection-funding charities, who get an email telling them why I won’t support them) but last week I got an email from Rebecca Moore from the World Society of the Protection of Animals and included in her email was a picture of a cow

which obviously automatically made her my New Best Friend (unless she’s the Rebecca Moore who was mean to me at school, but she assured me she isn’t).

The WSPA are currently running a campaign called Not in my Cuppa trying to stop the introduction of US style mega dairies into the UK (where cows would spend the majority of their life indoors in very unpleasant conditions).

They’re looking for people to take part in Run to the Beat for them. Unfortunately, I’m doing Folkestone Half that day but if you want to do the race and want a worthy cause to run for, what better than cows?

(Posted also on Planet Veggie)

Congestion

Today’s effort was my feeble little three quarters of a mile route. I saw more people than I usually do in a proper run though. There was a man taking his dogs into the park, two people sitting on a bench next to a man in a wheelchair, then I passed an old lady and a girl with a baby and a woman trying to cross the road with a man in a wheelchair.

You can tell I’ve been out of London for too long, when I start thinking eight people is busy. I’m off to Camden on Thursday where I’ll probably see more than eight people.

Stats
Distance: 0.77 miles
Time: 8:15
Pace: 10:43
Calories: 80
People seen: 8
People I will see on Thursday in Camden: more than 8

Return of the dressing gown dash

Had I not had a friend stay over last night that we escorted to Headcorn this morning, and had I not gone to the supermarket afterwards, I would probably still be in my dressing gown, so the title isn’t actually accurate.

But today’s effort was a run round the garden. But at least I did run it this time, despite what the pace says. I started off doing just the back garden, then went back inside and asked Shaun if 291 feet counted as a run, but he said no, I’d have to run round the front garden too, so back outside I went.

Did I feel like a total tit running round the front garden? Oh yes.

Stats
Distance: 0.11 miles
Time: 1:45
Pace: 16:30
Calories: 8
Back gardens run round: 1
Front gardens run round: 1
Mes feeling stupid: 1

Wind and rains is cold

I was going to go out for a run in the rain but when I got outside the rain stopped and the sun came out and I ran in the sun but then the rain came, along with the wind and I ran past the lake and the water was very very high and I ran past some fishermen and I hoped I disturbed all the fish so the fishes swam away and didn’t get murdered and although I did actually run most of the way, my time was very very slow.

Stats
Distance: 6.31 miles
Time: 1:17:16
Pace: 12:15
Calories: 626
Sun: some
Wind: some
Rain: more
Murdered fish: none I hope
Juneathons completed: 18/18

Old soak

This week’s diet has consisted of this:

Monday: Smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, BBQ fillet thingy, potatoes and cabbage for dinner

Tuesday: Smoothie for breakfast, pizza and garlic doughballs for lunch at Pizza Express with Helen, beer for dinner

Wednesday: Smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, wine for dinner

Thursday: Smoothie for breakfast, salad for lunch, wine for dinner

If you swap the smoothie for a cigarette and swap the salad for a sandwich (except for the weekend when I didn’t have lunch either), this was pretty much my diet for the whole of my 20s. Now I’m a bit older, I am aware that this diet isn’t very conducive to, well, anything really but especially running.

But it’s Juneathon and so I have been out for a run in the rain where I got soaked in a different kind of way.

No alcohol is involved next week until Thursday, so I should get my mileage back up again then.

Stats
Distance: .77 miles
Time: 7:45
Pace: 10:05 m/m
Calories: 80
Healthy diets: 0
Juneathons completed: 17/17

Run run run run, run run run away

Psychokiller by Talking Heads is currently playing on the radio and as I can’t be arsed to think up a decent title, that will have to do.

I suppose I’d better start by apologising to Hal Higdon, as his schedule said I was supposed to do 4 miles today but due to drinking Tuesday and Wednesday, I was too tired and so just did my little .75 run. Oops.

I am off out tonight too, so don’t expect any major effort tomorrow either.

Stats
Distance: 0.75 miles
Time: 8:02
Pace: 10:39
Calories: 79
Psychokillers: 1
Schedules stuck to: 0
Nights out in a row: 3
Juneathons run: 16/16

Killing calves

Don’t worry, I’m still vegetarian, even if the house is not very vegetarian-friendly at the mo due to Shaun’s three day meat festival (I’m out three nights in a row this week so he’s unloaded Tesco of their meat aisle, by the looks of the fridge).

Although Helen made me drink beer for about eight hours yesterday in Tonbridge (I think we made it to all the pubs in the High Street; we won’t be going back to the one that charged £4.90 a pint though), I did Juneathon today by doing my little .75 lap and my legs still haven’t recovered from Sunday’s hilly 10k, as my calves were very painful at the end.

Ouch.

Stats
Distance: 0.76 miles
Time: 7:57
Pace: 10:28
Calories: 80
Hours spent in pubs yesterday: 8
Pubs visited in Tonbridge High Street: all of them
Meat festivals: 1
Killing calves: 2

Don’t f**k it up

That’s what Shaun said to me when I announced I was going to the shop to buy some wine. Well, what he actually said was ‘if you fuck up Juneathon because you’ve drunk too much wine, you’ll never live it down’.

But my Juneathon integrity remains intact as today I went out for a run. I decided to do the very short route today which is just as well as when I got back to the front garden gate, my calves seized up, probably due to the hills in yesterday’s race.

Ouch.

Still, that’s 13 out of 13 Juneathons jogged, logged and blogged.

Stats
Distance: 0.73 miles
Time: 7:33
Pace: 10:22
Calories: 63
Wine: lots
Juneathons f***ed up: 0
Juneathons completed: 13/13

Hamstreet 10k race report

The official website said “The course will be run along quiet country lanes and we’ll be looking to set a flat or slightly undulating course to enable some fast times to be posted.”

Hmm, nice, I thought.

But…

The Runner’s World page said: “A first-time race around the tracks and trails around the village of Hamstreet, and, primarily, through Hamstreet Woods.”

Run Britain called it ‘Hilly

Hmm, I thought. Who is right? Surely, the official website?

No.

THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE WAS LYING ITS LITTLE HEAD OFF! BAD OFFICIAL WEBSITE! BAD BAD BAD!

It was muddy and hilly and hilly and muddy and muddy and hilly and hilly and muddy and, well, you get the picture. This picture, in fact.

You can see from my splits that the hills may have slowed me down a tad.

I’m glad the official website was wrong though, as it was great fun and definitely a challenge, as I’ve never run that far through woods before.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a touch too challenging for one poor chap who I passed as he was lying on the ground being attended to by marshalls (who tried to block my view of him; I wasn’t being a vulture, I was making sure it wasn’t Shaun [who passed him on the course and upon seeing he was in trouble tried to help him]).

Shaun was there to meet me just before the finish line and told me to give it one last big push but I had nothing left in me and I shuffled around the lap of the field and to the finish line where I was given a generic medal

instead of one engraved with ‘Hamstreet 10k’ on the back of it. Presumably they’d run out of those by the time I finished. They’d also run out of goodie bags too, but apart from those two minor points and the major point that the official website described the route in a way they couldn’t have got more wrong, I went home weary and happy and headed for the pub for lunch.

Stats
Distance:  6.25 miles
Time: 1:15:41
Pace: 12:07 m/m
Calories: 628
Lying official websites: 1
Hills: All the ones in the world ever
Flat bits: None
Mud: Lots
Generic medals: 1
Roast lunches: 1
Boats of gravy: 3

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