Month: February 2012

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a great blog – if you fancy a good day out in London

lindalengthorn's avatarFreedom Ladies

Tuesday 14th February – sixth walk of 2012

This week we went to the Museum of London to look at the ‘Dickens and London’ exhibition which commemorates 200 years since his birth. We planned to meet at Cannon Street but by coincidence meet each other at London Bridge when changing trains.

As it was a nice, sunny, bright day we decided to walk to St Paul’s Cathedral for a coffee on the way to the Museum.  The protesters were still there and the whole area was full of tents and, in fact, had a village feel with library, lounge rooms, food tents and even a piano!  Unfortunately, due to the protesters, the Crypt Cafe was closed. We were really disappointed and decided to carry on walking straight to the Museum and there made the cafe our first stop for coffee and cake!

We purchased our timed tickets for entry into the exhibition. Entry into the Museum is free but the…

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Busy Weekend

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

The end of half-term has appeared incredibly quickly this time, and coincided with a very busy weekend.

First up was a trip to London late Friday evening to stay at Mums for a family gathering on Saturday. Brother Paul is home from China for a few days and my niece is visiting.

Saturday morning I went to Norman Park in Bromley to take part in my first parkrun, a free timed 5km run. It is a great idea and the race was great fun, three laps of Norman Park – finished in a time of 20.53. After the event you even get a text with your time and details of the race:

“Bromley results for event #130 – Your time was 20.53 – Congratulations on completing your 1st parkrun and your 1st at Bromley today. You finished in 41st place and were the 37th gent out of a field of 298 parkrunners and you came 5th in your age category VM40-44.”

AND they sent me a £15 off voucher I can use for my next pair of trainers from Sweatshop. Apparently these events take place all over the country at 9am on a Saturday morning. However, it would seem that my nearest ‘home’ parkrun is about 30 miles away! If anyone fancies running a parkrun near me, feel free!

Later in the day my niece came for a visit……

Grace is doing fantastic! I hope she enjoys ‘Discovery Bunny’ that we bought her. I drove back Saturday night to be ready for this morning’s Sleaford Half-marathon.

Initially I was not going to run this event but with the cancellation of the last two races due to snow, plus all the mileage I did in janathon, I thought I should go and run it. Firstly, let me just say it was a cold and very windy morning, when I say windy, think….

The Sleaford Half is an event I’ve done a number of times. A rural course, slightly undulating, and because it begins at RAF Cranwell, very open. So the wind was a big issue especially over the first half of the course. Finished in a time of 1:42.06 – pretty happy with that.

Next event up is a club 5-miler Frostbite followed by the Grantham Half-marathon.

 

Bits and Bobs

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

Its been a while since a blog post, so here goes……

On the work front it has been a crazy last couple of weeks at school which has meant that I have a fairly long ‘to do’ list over half-term: marking, reading, marking, planning, marking….and….yeah….more marking.

On the running front the weather has meant that it has been a bit touch and go lately. The last two weekends I had planned to run a couple of races:

  • Last Sunday – Bourne Frostbite – cancelled ‘snow and ice’
  • This morning – Stamford St. Valentines 30K – cancelled ‘snow and ice’

Although in both cases, unlike the France/Wales rugby, they made a decision 24hrs before the start. I’m gutted the 30K has been cancelled, with all the miles I ran in janathon I felt like it would be a good way to finish it all. I have managed to do a few runs, although I hate the thought of starting a run in the cold, once I get going I think it’s fantastic. It’s great to fill the cold air in your lungs, very invigarationg! Since janathon came to an end I have had no problem settling back into the old ‘run when I fancy it’ routine. The dog joined me this morning for a gentle 4 mile jog through woods and over fields on the outskirts of town.

We also have some good and bad news on the music front…..firstly bad news….

Frank Turner has released another 150 standing tickets for his Wembley gig in April. Which is bloody typical since the only tickets I could get a couple of months ago were seating. I thought back then to hang-on and wait for some more standing tickets to be released, but began to panic as it was near sold out, so bought seating tickets. Damn! Damn! Damn!

And the good news….

It has been announced that Beans on Toast will be opening at the gig. Which is fantastic news!  So full line-up:

…nice! Also on the music front….I am loving The Vaccines and Bombay Bicycle Club at the moment….

Finally, my February challenge of learning to play the ukulele is not going particularly smoothly…..enough said.

 

February’s Challenge…

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

Did you see the headlines in the media? ‘Worried for his safety!’….. ‘Run comes to an end!’…..

If you did you will be aware that I haven’t posted on this blog for 4 days. Shock! Horror! Due in part to two big events: Project365 and Janathon. Meaning that until recently I had posted everyday for 13 months.

So with the ‘ridiculous’ idea of doing a challenge every month, and on the back of Janathon, comes my attempt at playing the ukulele. Here is said ukulele….

Having obtained a book from @ladymarples and trawled the web for some ‘how to’ advice, after 4 days I’m still struggling, not really getting the hang of the strumming. But it is only early days! Wish me luck….