Juneathon 2010 logo and prize unveiled!

8 comments

Woo hoo, how exciting. Today I have:

a) the new Juneathon logo to unveil, thanks to the mega-talented [rich] (aka Joggerblogger); and

b) details of the prizes. (Ok, prize. Singular. (Actually, there will be another prize but that remains secret and not just because I don’t know what it is. I do know. So there.))

Here we are then, courtesy of that JB bloke, the new logo.

Feel free to copy it onto your own blog posts. In fact, I insist.

Ok, so you’ve scanned to see what the prize is. I’m getting to that bit now.

Today I got an email from a man called Andy from Fitness Footwear. Actually, his name is Adam but as he addressed the email ‘Dear Carly’, I thought it only fair to call him a similar it-starts-with-the-same-letter-and-has-the-same-number-of-letters-in-it-but-that’s-where-the-similarity-ends name.

imageAnyway, Adam asked if I’d like a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Classics to give away as the winner’s prize* and so I said ‘yes please’.

In case you don’t know what they are or what they look like, that’s them on the left. Yes, I know they look weird. But runners look weird anyway, so it’s not like anyone’s going to laugh at you more than they do now, is it?

I’m going to keep the roll call where it is, so if you want to join in, add a comment to the Juneathon 2010 FAQ and Roll Call and I’ll add you to the list.

(p.s. Today I went for an interview for a job in a running shop. Can you all send either a) positive vibes my way; or b) a big bribe to the owners of my local running shop please? Ta.)

*Legal stuff:

The winner is entitled to choose one pair of Vibram Five Fingers Classic shoes from FitnessFootwear.com. Prize cannot be exchanged for cash. The judge’s decision is final.

Juneathon FAQ

33 comments

What is it?

It’s a month of exercise. Running, cycling, walking, rowing, weights, whatever. Just do something every day in June.

Then what?

Then blog about it on your blog, on Twitter, or on the Facebook page.

Why?

Because you’re a fat lardy bloater and you need some exercise. Because it’s fun.

Who’s idea was this in the first place?

Joggerblogger is the man to blame.

How long has it been going?

This will be the fourth year.

Who else is doing it?

So far, the roll call is as follows:

Me
Phil – http://www.sorelimbs.co.uk/
Andy – http://andystriblog.blogspot.com/
Travelling Hopefully – http://www.travellinghopefully.wordpress.com/
Ash – http://run-bootsy-run.blogspot.com/
Caspar – http://www.uneducatedguess.org/ @caspararemi
Sheri – http://runningawayfromthegrownups.blogspot.com/ @sheri3004
Tom Roper – http://www.roper.org.uk/marathon2005/
Iliketocount – http://iliketocount.wordpress.com
Adele – http://fitartist.wordpress.com @adeleprince
Jo – http://irunbecauseilovefood.wordpress.com
Run DMT – http://deniseisrundmt.com @denisermt
Gene – http://www.genesoboleski.blogspot.com @boutdrz
Hauling my Carcass – http://www.haulingmycarcass.com @haulingmycarcas
Eating Trees – http://eatingtrees.wordpress.com/
Sam – http://www.runningandthinking.blogspot.com
Adele – http://fitartist.wordpress.com/
Shunning Running – http://shunningrunning.wordpress.com/
Breandán – http://www.aroundtheyearin24pints.blogspot.com/
Emma – http://emmavinyard.blogspot.com/
Pete – http://peteschallenge.wordpress.com/
Trying to Run – http://www.tryingtorun.co.uk/
The Red Bucket – http://www.theredbucket.co.uk/jogblog/
Ev – http://seasidestrider.blogspot.com/
Joggerblogger – http://joggerblogger.wordpress.com/
Highway Kind – http://runningmatters.blogspot.com/
Jay McNeill – http://bigmanruns.wordpress.com/
Kirsty
Carl & Claire – http://carlsjogblog.wordpress.com/

How do I join in?

Post a comment here and say ‘I’m in’ or something.

How do I win?

Juneathon was originally meant to be a month of running, so if you’re the only person to run and blog every day, then you’ll be the winner. If there’s more than one person who runs and blogs every day, then one of those will be the winner. If no one runs and blogs every day, then someone else will win. Yes, I just made that up.

What do I win?

Last year Eating Trees won a little monkey. This year I haven’t a f**king clue it’s a surprise.

Where’s the new logo?

Coming soon. Be patient.

Two weeks(ish) ‘til Juneathon 2010

18 comments

It’s a sad time.

The lovely Joggerblogger can’t be Juneathoning with us this year so he’s put me in charge.

This obviously makes things a bit less sad though, as it means that I’M IN CHARGE AND HAVE TO BE OBEYED.

Yay.

We all know what to do, don’t we?

Starting on 1 June, we all promise to exercise every day, whether it’s running, cycling, gymming, walking, or, um, going to the pub (well, if Joggerblogger’s going to bugger off, I’m changing the rules). Then you have to blog about it, either on your own blog, the Facebook Juneathon 2010 page, that I will get going later or on Twitter (although that’ll be quite hard to keep tabs on).

The winner is then decided by an independent adjudicator (I’ll get iliketocount to do it) and the winner gets a prize.

Last year Eating Trees won a cool bronze engraved Monkey statue thing.

Leave a comment here if you’re in, with your blog URL or Twitter username and I’ll do a roll call nearer the time.

Stupid bloody poxy snow

11 comments

My plans for an outdoor three miles this morning were scuppered by the stupid bloody poxy snow that made a reappearance yesterday, continuing through the night and leaving me with this view

snow 003

outside the front door this morning.  Pretty, it may be, but it was snowing pretty heavily and I didn’t fancy my chances of staying upright in it, so I took myself off to the gym instead.

The gym was empty but there was a man walking on the outside treadmill and I didn’t want to go on the other outside one as it’s in kilometres, not miles (although the one he was on was in kilometres the other day too, which it never used to be, so I hope they’re not going to also change the one remaining treadmill that counts in proper money) so I went on the one next to him and told it I wanted to do three miles and off I went, quite slowly as I was tired today, and then a pikey woman started walking on the treadmill next to me and her fat pikey child was on the elliptical trainer next to her and I thought what’s a child doing in here, it’s not a playground and then I wondered if maybe the school was shut due to the stupid bloody poxy snow and it was probably better that she brought her little porker with her to the gym instead of taking it to Starbucks across the road and fed it pastries although that was probably where they were going next and I’m running and running on the treadmill and the pikey woman is walking and walking and I eventually do my three miles and I go on the rowing machine and then I do some weights and the only other person in the gym by then is a man doing weights and he’s left his towel, diary and water bottle on the seat of one of the leg weights machines and I wonder if he thinks it’s a table and I don’t want to ask him to move them and so I only do upper body stuff and then I go home and have broccoli and stilton soup which was voted for over potato and leek by some Twitter friends.

Stats:
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 32:42
Pace: 10:54
Calories: 311
Men walking on treadmills: 1
Women walking on treadmills: 1
Kids confusing gyms with playgrounds: 1
Men confusing weight machines with tables: 1
Music:
Detholz
Cardiacs
Blur
Julian Casablancas
White Rabbits

Two on the treadmill

4 comments

I went to the gym today to do my two miles and I thought it’ll be busy in there as it’s Monday and everyone will be panicking about the half a glass of wine and packet of crisps that they consumed over the weekend and will be cycling furiously trying to burn it off but when I get there, there’s only two people in there and I wonder where all the Monday people are and I also wonder if all the New Year newbies have fucked off now and I think yay, I get the place to myself then, result and I go to the changing room that only I seem to use and I put my stuff in the locker that only I seem to use and go back into the gym and there’s a man walking on a treadmill and so I do the British thing and get on a treadmill further away, leaving a respectable gap between us but the screen’s in kilometres and I don’t want kilometres, I want miles and so I get on the treadmill next to the man and this one’s in miles and I think hurrah and I do my two miles and then I decide to go on the rowing machine and the pacing man is doing his pacing round between weights thing that’s really annoying and I wish he’d just sit down and count to thirty or whatever in between sets instead of walking around the gym and two women come in and they start walking on the treadmill but after about ten minutes lo! they actually start to run on it and I’ve only ever seen one person run on the treadmill in the gym before and the old man who showed me how to use one of the weights machines comes in and sits on his favourite machine, the back machine or whatever it is and I wonder where the old lady who I used to talk to in the New Year is as I haven’t seen her for ages and I used to see her every time I went to the gym and I wonder if she was just a New Year newbie and has lost interest and then I go on the bike even though the bike is very very boring and although I haven’t got my glasses on, I can just about make out that prick Gok Wan or whatever his name is on the telly and I finish on the bike and I go into the changing rooms and someone’s left their stuff on the bench and I wonder why they don’t use the lockers, they are free after all and then I go home and tomorrow I will go back to the gym and then on Thursday, I will run outside for three miles in my new running shoes.

Stats:
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 20:44
Pace: 10:22
Calories: 207
Men walking on treadmills: 1
Women running on treadmills: 3
Men pacing about between weights sets: 1
Old men on their favourite machines: 1
Old ladies who used to go to the gym every day: 0
Pricks called Gok Wan: 1
Pairs of new running shoes: 1
Music:
Detholz
Cardiacs
Silvery
Blur

Return of the slacker

One comment

As you know, I hated running in Headcorn.  I hated running in the stupid country lanes with their stupid no pavement thing and stupid holes in the roads thing and their stupid sharp bends and so I practically gave up running there.  Now we’ve moved to Ashford and although there are country lanes if I want them, there are also miles and miles of pavements and cycle lanes.  Miles and miles of pavements might sound a crap place to run, but it’s not London and there’s not a side street every three feet and there are a lot of fields around so it means I get the scenery and I get to have my ipod up as loud as I like without worrying about the traffic.

Result.

More specifically, the result is that I have been running on a regular basis.

As I’d practically given up running in Headcorn, my fitness was down a massive amount but when we moved, I found a gym just five minutes’ walk up the road where the membership is only £20 a month.  Yippee.  So with my fitness building up in the gym, I got myself a beginner’s schedule from the Runner’s World website and have been sticking to it for the last three weeks and I am now up to a comfortable(ish) four miles.  I’m even going to be doing the Isle of Oxney Hot Soup Dash in two weeks.  And I’m not only doing it for the free soup (even if I did email the organiser to ask if the soup would be vegetarian [the nice man said he’d make sure there was some vegetarian soup for me]).

So, I’m sorry for the slacking on the running front and the blogging front.  And if any of you nice PR people who keep sending me stuff to review are reading, I’ll review your products soon.

My next run is scheduled for tomorrow and I’m down to run two miles.  This will be done on the treadmill as my gym membership only allows me to go during the hours of 9am and 4pm and I stupidly went and got a part-time job which means I have to get my value for money on the days I’m not working but it’s only a temporary job so I can go back to being a full-time idle layabout in a few weeks.

Hurrah.

I am still here

7 comments

Hello.

Yes, I am still here.

No, I haven’t done any running.

I have been on the treadmill though at my new gym.

Treadmill counts, yes?

I might attempt to run when this poxy pain in the arse snow buggers off.

Or I might not.

I don’t really like running round here.

Not that I’ve tried it yet.

But I can’t see that it will be any better than at the old place.

Ho hum.

Merry Sex Change

5 comments

This will probably be my last post of 2009.  It’ll also be my last post where the thing above where it says ‘Rants and raves from a 30-something female runner’ will be true.

That’s right, I’m having a sex change.

So, tomorrow we’re off to Italy to celebrate my sex change and back on Christmas Eve.  I’m not planning on running on Christmas Day although I seem to remember Mr Iliketocount dragging me out last Christmas Day for three miles round the marshes but that was back in the old days when we were just dating and I was pretending to like him.  Now I don’t have to pretend anymore, I think I’ll stay in bed.

I might run between Christmas and New Year, but if not, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whatever you’re doing or not doing.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A shrunken three and London hallucinations

2 comments

I am planning on sitting in front of the telly tonight drinking wine, and because that isn’t very conducive to getting up early and going for a run the next day, I thought I’d go for a run today instead.  When I got up, however, I didn’t feel like it but decided to force myself out the door for three miles.  On getting to the bottom of the hill, like the slacker I am, I decide that I’m only going to do two.  I get past the library and I see the van that belongs to the plumber across the road coming down the road and I think no it’s not, the plumber’s in London and I’m not in London and anyway, he moved away before I did and it’s just a London-based hallucination and I go round the corner and in the distance there’s a kid bouncing around in a hi-vis jacket and I think that’s weird, countryside people don’t usually walk with their kids, they usually drive them everywhere and then I realise it’s not a kid in a hi-vis jacket but a dog in a hi-vis jacket and the woman is pushing a pram or a buggy or whatever they’re called but it’s got it transparent plastic rain hood thing over it and so I can’t see whether there’s a baby in there or just lots of cans of Special Brew and I get to the tree and I’ve got a strange pain in the back of my head on the right hand side and it’s also making my right eyeball hurt but I’m a brave little soldier and I carry on and as I get up to the main road, the road’s covered with water and it’s like a little lake and I don’t want to get my feet wet but it’s not very deep and I only squelch a little bit and then I’m on the main road and I decide to walk the last half mile and then my next door neighbour walks past and I think no, that’s not my next door neighbour, she’s in London and I must stop having these London-based hallucinations.

Stats:
Distance: 2.14 miles
Time: 24:45
Pace: 11:32 m/m
Calories: 222 
Sitting in front of the tellies drinking wine planned: 1 
Three mile runs turned into two mile runs: 1
Dogs in hi-vis jackets: 1
Buggies possibly full of Special Brew: 1
London-based hallucinations: 2
Music:
Audiofuel
Babybird
Mansun
Cardiacs

At least today I could see the sun

3 comments

Yesterday I had planned to go for a run but as it was dark until lunchtime, I went off the idea at around 11am and opted to stay in and drink hot chocolate and eat crumpets instead.

Today I was less of a slacker and although my pc weather widget thing said it was only 1C, at least there was daylight outside and so I decided to do three miles on the road to see if I can improve on my time of 12:30 minute miles that I do when I run on the fields.

My run starts off downhill as I, um, run down a hill and it’s not long before I run out of pavement and a car comes down the road fast and she must be a driving-back-from-the-school-run-mum and then the slowest car in the world comes along and I wonder if there’s a five year old pushing it from behind but no, it’s just a stupid countryside person looking down while trying to light a cigarette and I go past the egg house and I think I should have brought the egg box back and then I think no I shouldn’t as it’s the wrong egg house and their eggs are only £1 unlike the egg house we’ve bought eggs from the last two weeks who charge £1.40 and although the week before last I only had £1.50 on me, Shaun wouldn’t let me only give them £1.30 this week, even though they owe me 10p and then I go round the corner and I get a stone caught in the sole of my shoe and I need a hoof pick or something and then coincidentally I can smell horses and I think I must be imagining it because I thought of a hoof pick but then I see a HUGE pile of manure and think aah, I’m not hallucinating horsey smells then but I still can’t get this stone out of my shoe and I stop to look at the sole and I can’t even see a stone but it’s uncomfortable and I feel like Princess and the Pea or something and I scrape my foot along the ground but it’s still there and then I think it must be the seam of my sock or something and I go past a field with horses in and one of the horses is looking over the fence and I want to stop and stroke it but I don’t because I’m a finely tuned athlete aren’t I? and then I go past the place where the horrible little schoolboy shot me with a staple gun and then I’m back on the pavement and I go past a house and a stupid countryside dog starts barking and I jump and I can’t even see the stupid barking countryside dog and then I see it and it’s a stupid little thing, although quite stocky and I think I’m never getting a dog while I live in the countryside as it will be a stupid barking one and then I get to the bottom of the hill and I’ve done three miles so I stop my Garmin and walk up the hill.

Stats:
Distance: 3.15 miles
Time: 35:13
Pace: 11:10 m/m
Calories: 326
Degrees in Celsius: 1
Sunlights: 1
Downhill: 1
Fast cars: 1
Slow cars: 1
Egg houses: 1
Stones in shoes: 0
Princess and the Pea moments: 1
Stupid barking countryside dogs: 1
Uphills: 1
Music:
Audiofuel
Babybird
Mansun

Technorati Tags: dark,sunlight,cold,winter,cars,cigarettes,egg houses,stones,horses,stapleguns,pavements,dogs
1 … 58 59 60 61 62 … 118