Tag: raining

#juneathon day 4

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

Today's run could be summed up in one word: wet. But why use one word when you can add a load of others and create a sonnet.

Juneathon the fourth and it was quite a day,

Teaching and meetings and running club.

Left school pretty early – no overstay,

Straight to the woods, avoided the pub.

Started the run and it was dry and clear,

Five minutes later it was anything but.

I'd wished I'd gone and had that beer,

Cause the rain had started to fall somewhat.

I managed to do a few miles at the wood,

I was totally drenched when back to the car.

As much as I was soaked – it felt quite good,

Which is something I found pretty bizarre.

By five o'clock it was Murray on the box,

And heading for a glass of whiskey on the rocks.

Day 4 mileage = 2.58

Total Juneathon mileage = 18.80

Clock Watching

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 7 Comments

It was a day of watching the rain and watching the clock.

9am. I dragged myself out of bed, looked out the window, and it wasn't raining. I should have gone running. I didn't.

10am. Breakfast and coffee. I looked out the window. It was raining. Run was therefore put on hold for a little bit longer. Shower number 1.

11am. Still raining. FaceTime with Gracie my beautiful niece. She gave me a couple of renditions of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' before I gave her a virtual tour of the house.

Noon. Still raining. Did some marking.

1pm. Still raining. More marking.

2pm. Still raining. Cheese and coleslaw sandwiches followed by a couple of doughnuts.

3pm. It had stopped raining and a blue sky could be seen. Perfect opportunity to go for a run. I didn't. I had promised myself a couple of hours on the sofa watching the football. After the game it was the draw for the fifth round of the cup. AND, believe it or not, the mighty Charlton Athletic were in the hat. The fifth round draw normally throws up some classic encounters. We were not to be disappointed: Sheffield Wednesday vs Charlton Athletic. I sense a place in the quarter finals for my boys.

6pm. Headed for the woods for a run in the dark. Tonight's highlights:

  • I encountered a man. It was very dark. He was standing and pointing a high powered torch at me in a Nazi interrogation style. As I ran towards him he said something that I couldn't quite understand, I did have my earphones in with music blaring, for all I know it could have been 'Ve have vays of making you talk'. I just smiled and waved.
  • I banished the demons. Following last weeks falling over debacle, I ran through the very same car park, only this time I managed to stay upright.
  • I was also using a new app to track my run: Nike+. After seeing the beautiful map on Sophiebee's Blog I decided to give it go, just for a change. The voice you hear that gives you feedback on the run is an American lady. She sounds a bit more American than I'm used to with RunKeeper, also slightly more relaxed about everything. I like her.

7pm. Shower number 2. Have I mentioned that as well as Janathon I seem to be taking part in Showerathon. Dinner was jacket spuds.

8pm. I now sit here writing this blog. It is Sunday night, so the rest of the night will go something like this…

9pm. Finish marking*.

10pm. Iron shirt and trousers for the morning**.

11pm. Early night in preparation for the week ahead***.

Total Janathon mileage = 85.74

* this will probably not happen.

** this will probably not happen.

*** this will probably not happen.

 

Sometimes you just get the feeling that the world is against you….

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

Janathon Day 8

After yesterday's exercise, which took the form of running up and down the stairs, I was determined to get a run in. Although the world did it's best to conspire against me.

Firstly, my 20 min journey home from work took 50 min due to ANOTHER car accident on the SAME road as yesterday. So I did a lot of looking at this….

Secondly, on arrival at home Amy and J-Dawg had just started watching 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' so I joined them. So that was a couple of hours wasted. Although I declined the offer of joining them to eat popcorn out of the dog's bowl – apparently it was 'clean'.

Perhaps that's why he is called J-Dawg!?

Thirdly, when I finally managed to drag my arse of the sofa and change into my running kit I realised it was raining out. But by then it was too late – so I went for it. iPhone was on, RunKeeper was going, except no music was playing. Cue a stop in the rain to restart app whilst trying to avoid it getting soaking wet. Not the best of starts.

If that wasn't enough, 400 yards into the run and a car drove through a massive puddle and splashed me – full in the face.

The rest of the run was pretty uneventful pounding the rather boring streets of Bourne….

Job done. Sorted. Cushty. And relax.

Total Janathon mileage after day 8 = 29.11 (plus of course up and down 50 flights of stairs)

 

Slightly Strange….

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 9 Comments

This morning was one of those mornings, you know the ones? The ones that seem slightly strange, the ones that seem to be full of too many coincidences.

The morning began in the usual 'holiday' way. I woke up, lay listening to the rain hitting the window for a bit, put the iPod on shuffle and began contemplating when to get today's Janathon run done. First track that came on was a Frank Hamilton track, featuring Mark Grist, called 'Animal Farm'. This is not particularly strange, I like Frank Hamilton and have quite a few of his tunes amongst the 1000s that are on the iPod.

The 'holiday' morning continued, I went downstairs, made a cuppa, grabbed the iPad and carried both upstairs with the intention of catching up on some Janathon blogs. As I jumped back in bed the iPod was playing the Pet Shop Boys. The iPod has gotten into the habit of picking the Pet Shop Boys when on shuffle, I don't understand why, but I've sort of got used to it by now, it still creeps me out a bit, but I've learned to cope. Next track up 'Animal Farm' by Frank Hamilton and featuring Mark Grist. What? The exact same track that was on earlier! Cue an investigation. Why had it picked the same track twice? Is the track on the device more than once? No. Does shuffle even repeat tracks, I thought once it had played a track that was it. I didn't dwell on this too much, it was really no big deal!

Next, did a bit of blog reading before heading off to Twitter to see what is going on in the world. After refreshing Twitter feed, I was quite surprised to see the latest Tweet was from Mark Grist, yes, the same Mark Grist that featured on 'Animal Farm'. Strange? Well, maybe a bit of a coincidence. The Tweet was referring to the fact that a YouTube video of his, 'Girls Who Read', was approaching 3 million views. Now I like Mark Grist and know of this particular poem, it's very good. I've seen him a couple of times, on his own and also as part of Dead Poets. In fact, it would be great if we got him into school to deliver some poetry workshops – must mention it to HoD. So I thought I'd click on the YouTube link and have another look at the video. Here it is….

After reading various Janathon blogs I felt enthused. I looked out the window, it was raining, but not amazingly heavy. I decided to go for it. I got changed, grabbed the dog, jumped in the car and headed for the woods. I sat in the car for a bit, the enthusiasm I had felt earlier was rapidly disappearing. After having an intense conversation with myself I was ready to go for it. The plan was: two laps of the small circuit, at a brisk pace. Recently I have been using RunKeeper whilst running. This enables me to track mileage for Janathon and also plays music via the app. You've probably guessed what is coming next. The music was on shuffle and what track should appear first? I think you guessed correctly: 'Animal Farm' by Frank Hamilton featuring Mark Grist. Now that is definitely slightly strange. I wonder what the rest of the day will bring?

Nearly forgot…..Janathon….

Total Janathon mileage after Day 4 = 15.23

Why not join in with 'Mark Grist Day'….click here to listen to 'Animal Farm', pop over to his website or do a search on YouTube.

 

A day of discoveries….

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 11 Comments

My first discovery of the day was that apparently the UK is receiving some ‘exceptional’ weather. You only have to watch the news or listen to the radio and you will be given various warnings: amber, low-level flooding, high tides, severe flood warnings, red, danger to life, tidal surge and localised flooding to name but a few. Now….let me just make this clear: I sympathise with people that have been affected by the ‘exceptional’ weather. But….I am fed-up of the media storm (no pun intended) that has been created. A couple of minutes watching Sky News and I’m ready to throw the bloody TV out the window (although I remember screwing the bloody bracket on the wall so I doubt I could manage it). The language they use is ridiculous: the sea ‘battering’ the coastline; the latest storm ‘thundered’ in; the flood waters are ‘frightening’; ‘ripped’ apart; left in ‘tatters’. So I headed out the door for today’s Janathon run expecting nothing more than it being an extra bit muddy at the woods.

My second discovery…..the frightening storm that thundered in had battered the woods leaving them ripped apart and it tatters, left an amazing amount of water. This is the estate I live on*, not a house in sight….

And the discoveries kept on coming. I recently read a blog (can’t actually remember what one – I’ve read a lot recently) about some things that had clearly been lost at the woods, which included a Johnny Depp DVD. I love that people pick up stuff and hang them on trees and bushes for others to find. So I give you a selection of items, left in prominent positions, for their original owners to reclaim….

There is always a lost hat about
…and gloves, always lost…
Secateurs? Slightly stranger…
This minion was waiting to be reunited
Someone had even very kindly nailed a lost ‘Private – Please Keep Out’ sign up on a tree….

Ooooo….better actually mention what I did for day three of Janathon…

Total Janathon mileage = 11.37

* this is a lie