Month: January 2013

Janathon Day 5

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

This morning's run was a gentle 4ish miles around Bourne Woods with the dog. Legs felt very heavy this morning, probably due to the lack of running in December (very bad bout of man flu) together with the start of Janathon.

It was a pretty standard run through the woods, loads of people out walking dogs, but a distinct lack of runners. I don't think anybody in the East Midlands/South Lincolnshire have heard about Janathon. The only decision I had to make on my travels was whether it was left for mud, or right for hill….

I didn't particularly fancy running with wet feet this morning so took the right fork.

Today's mileage = 4.22

Janathon mileage = 22.62

I think today I did indeed 'Do The Right Thing'….

 

Janathon Day 4

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

Just a quick post tonight, especially for Dave (I've checked and double checked, definitely zero mistakes):

In the beggining i was gonna just do a short run tonite but after me started I didnt want two get behinde in my mileage totall insted I run about 2 miles to the other side a town so that I was forced to get in ova 4 miles witch still meens im on trak four beeting last Janathons mileage of one hundred and thirty for miles

Today's mileage = 4.67

Total Janathon mileage after day 4 = 18.40

Number of mistakes on blog = 0

 

Janathon Day 3

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 9 Comments

Today was always going to be the toughest day so far, first day back at school after the Christmas Holiday plus the dark evenings, doesn’t make for a motivated runner. But after a very long day I ventured to the woods with the dog for a spot of running in the dark. I’m starting to get use to running at the night. I’m no longer terrified, although I never turn and look behind just in case I am being followed by an axe wielding maniac or a horde of zombies. Although getting out the car at a pitch black woods is never particularly inviting….

In an attempt to keep me on track to bettering last year’s Janathon I managed a couple of laps of the woods totalling 4.74 miles. Although the forester must have heard about the Rat Race Dirty Weekend as he threw a few obstacles at me: lots of mud, fallen trees and temporary fences.

Today’s mileage = 4.74

Janathon mileage = 13.73

Number of people seen = 0

Janathon Day 2

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

The advantage of running in the morning is that you can walk round with a smug smile on your face knowing that you're ahead of the game. However, as I'm back to work tomorrow there will not be much opportunities for smug grins, so I'll be making the most of it today.

This morning's run took me on a 4ish mile loop of the town, it was all very quiet, most interesting thing I saw was a couple of workmen up a cherry picker fixing a lamppost. I did manage a picture, this is Red Hall, not entirely sure what goes on here, I think maybe it is where the local 'strange' groups meet….

Today's mileage = 4.25

Janathon mileage = 8.99

Number of squashed frogs = 0

Number of miserable gits who failed to say good morning when I ran past = 1

 

Review of 2012

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 7 Comments

I've read a few of these 'review' blogs over the last couple of days and after a year of various monthly challenges I thought a quick review of my own was required.

January started with my first attempt at Janathon. This was a quite a challenge to start the year, and I actually ran every day of the month and completed a total of 133 miles. It was great fun, really enjoyed reading the blogs of fellow janathoners. Good start to the years challenges.

After the excursions of Janathon, I decided on something rather gentler for February. The aim was to teach myself to play the ukulele. Didn't go amazingly well, although the uke is still hanging around and is often picked up every now and then.

March's challenge was again music related, only this time the challenge was to listen to new music and blog about it. This was an enjoyable month, I discovered some great bands and some have even made the list of bands to see in 2013.

Thanks to my sister and her birthday present to me, April was a month of model making: an Airfix model of The Cutty Sark. This was a very difficult challenge, the model was near impossible to make, very fiddly, and the paint didn't work either! Although a YouTube video of the final boat was a thing to behold.

And so we reached May and one of the most difficult challenges of the year: write a short story. Difficult for a number of reasons: time was an issue, lack of plan and a distinct lack of skill.

So after a couple of rather relaxing challenges, June brought us Juneathon and the attempt to run every day of the month. Didn't go quite as well as Janathon, I dipped out on running every day and completed 114 miles in all.

July's challenge was tasty: baking. I made ten different things other the course of the month, from cupcakes, brownies and tarts, through to shortbread, cookies and flapjacks. Lovely jubbly!

Of course, after making and eating cakes for a month, a physical challenge was needed for August. Swimming was decided. I could swim before but after a month of visiting various swimming pools in the area my swimming has really improved. I'm far from entering a triathlon, but maybe that's something for the future.

Learning to ride a unicycle. Seemed like a good idea at the time. September was the month to do it, which because of injury, turned into October's challenge as well. The unicycle was not mastered, even after two months, but I've not give up on that yet. Summer 2013 for the next attempt.

After the efforts of the previous two months, November brought the rather more gentle art of Origami, one per day for the duration of the month. My tutor group came on the journey with me and between us we produced 100s.

And so to the final month of the year, December, or should I say decembeer. The challenge was to drink a different beer every day of the month. This was a good challenge, and despite a dodgy illness over Christmas, it was completed. A reflection on 31 beers in the form of a blog post coming soon.

So the idea to dump the new year's resolution and instead complete 12 different monthly challenges was a complete success. I can now: run, swim, bake, unicycle, appreciate music, become more knowledgable about beer, have become an origami master, make models and write. All to varying different degrees. But as much as I've enjoyed the year…..enough is enough.