Today it was race 2 in the Frostbite Friendly League hosted by Bushfield Runners. A 5-miler starting and finishing at Bushfield's Leisure Centre near Peterborough. When I left home at around 9.30am all seemed good. When I got to the race is was no longer 'all good'. It was absolutely pissing it down! Walked to race HQ in rain. Warmed up in the rain. Ran the race in the rain. Walked back to the car in the rain. I was wet through and just wanted to get home.
Finished in 145th place in a pretty decent time of 34.06, less than 7 min/mile pace, so couldn't moan too much. But a shower, a lovely bacon and egg baguette and cup of tea and I was sorted.
As for November's Challenge, the traditional art of Japanese paper folding, may I present a rabbit….
Now I understand it may look a tiny bit like a donkey or a dog, but I can assure you it is a rabbit, the app says so….
I can't quite understand how their rabbit is looking slightly more happy and proud than my slightly depressed looking rabbit. I think a visit to the art department tomorrow to steal borrow some coloured paper may be required.
Today saw four brave souls, Dead Men Running, attempt to complete a zombie infested 5km run….
Great example of teamwork – one hold phone, one press button!
A ‘short’ walk to the Zombie Evacuation HQ on a very cold and windy morning was enough to bring us to the edge of collapse before we had even seen a zombie.
Liability waiver was signed and timing chip, belt and tags collected. The liability waiver did not help to ease our fears:
‘The risk of injury and/or death from the activities involved in the Zombie
Evacuation Race and the Event is significant’
But we are a simple group of blokes and after a coffee and a KitKat, the standard zombie runners breakfast, we were feeling more confident and ready to face the zombie hordes.
Our allotted evacuation wave time quickly approached and we were ready and in postion to begin. We jogged to an assembly point on the edge of the infected zone where team tactics were quickly discussed. It was decided that we would stay together at all costs and if necessary risk possible zombie infection for the good of the team. After a quick briefing from the head of operations we began to jog ahead in a surprisingly light-hearted mood. This was soon to end because within 30 seconds we were running for our life, amongst smoke and dead corpses, after a zombie attack. At this point it was clear it was every man for himself, Simon pushing other runners to the side, Dave violently pushing me into a ditch in an attempt to save himself.
Over the 5km course we encountered various obstacles (logs, fences, walls, barbed wire, forest, mud, mine fields, rope bridges), what seemed like 1000s of zombies, and managed to just about stay together as a team. Only on a few occasions did the pressure of virus-infected zombies cause any team issues:
Early on Neil lost his hat which I bravely went back for, despite the cries from Dave of “leave it – it’s just a hat”.
On a particularly muddy part, Simon was seen walking over Neil to reach the top of the ridge.
At a rope walking obstacle again Simon was seen disrupting Neil’s progress by excessive swinging on the rope, nearly causing a zombie to infect him.
Trees twanged back into team mates faces…
Lots of needless shoving and grabbing for reassurance (the zombies were actually really scary!)
As we approached the end of the course Dave was the only member of Dead Men Running not to be infected, due to some decidedly ‘gay’ hand wafting around his hips, and it was decided that we would do ANYTHING to get him home in one piece. To cries of, “We’ll get you back Dave!”, we faced the final horde of zombies. Final outcome: 3 infected, 1 survivor. Good job Dave!
Escaping zombies makes you happy!
Overall it was a great day, and despite the ‘screaming like a bunch of girls’ I was very proud of the boys! A well earned pint was the reward…..
Dave was keen to tell EVERYONE he knew that he was the only survivor!
With only 2 days until the Zombie Evacuation I thought it was only right to take stock of our readiness to escape the zombie hordes…..
'Dead Men Running' are a group of highly intelligent young men trained in the art of zombie evasion. Years of watching such films as 'Dawn of the Dead', 'Zombieland' and 'Shaun of the Dead' have enabled this group of elite zombie runners to perfect their skills. Living seemingly normal lives as teachers, these individuals have made it their role in life to escape the undead. Normal people would turn into gibbering wrecks at the sight of hungry, blood-thirsty, zirus-spreading zombies, but not this band of brave souls…..
Phil 'The Guv'nor' Lengthorn
Age: 25
Background: Brought up during the early days of VHS by a father who was obsessed with horror films.
Specialisms: Lightning quick, natural leader with extensive knowledge of George A Romero.
Dave 'Mental' Marples
Age: Unknown
Background: Originally from up norf, so used to running after robbers and away from muggers.
Specialisms: Organised, tactically aware and has seen Zombieland over 1000 times.
Neil 'Badass' Rawes
Age: Classified
Background: Raised by mutant mountain men in the heart of Rutland.
Specialisms: Head of communications, quick witted and the ability to confuse.
Simon 'Numbers' Free
Age: Unavailable
Background: Created during a freak algebra experiment in the 1970s.
Yesterday was my most favourite niece's 1st Birthday and to celebrate we made the trip to Kent to spend the day with her. Firstly, let me just say that since the birth of Grace my sister has gone slightly mad. And considering she is once again pregnant things are only going to get worse. On arrival we were forced given our own hand-made party hat to wear.
Jill had gone all out to make sure we had a great day: loads of food; birthday decorations; home-made cake; AND party games. Although I was slightly disappointed not to have won pass-the-parcel, amazingly Grace won it, what are the chances of that? Grace got some lovely presents, including her first doll named 'Baby Gracie' which she was very intrigued by. We all had a great day….
This morning the plan was to get very muddy with a run on the trails of Bourne Woods.
Off for a run round the woods – plan is to get really muddy!!!
I had the iPhone for some pictures and had the Zombies, Run! app on the go. I had already decided on a pretty gentle run this morning and once I spotted how muddy the trails were a gentle run was the only option.
Pretty much covered most of the trails including the hilly ones, did loads of slipping and sliding, which actually reminded me of this ice-skating outing….
Billy Boy was with me this morning, so after about 4 miles we headed to the ponds so he could cool down and clean himself off a bit.
Overall a good run around the woods, loads of people out enjoying the morning, and I did indeed finish very muddy….
A lovely bright morning welcomed all runners of the Great Eastern Run to Peterborough. The course has changed slightly to last year, it now starts on the Embankment rather than in the city centre, but more importantly, it is still 13.1 miles long.
The past three weeks training has been pretty non-existent due to various niggling injuries. Therefore today's plan was a nice steady pace. Got to halfway in 52 mins, and feeling pretty good, ran the second half in 50 mins. Finishing in a pretty respectable time of 1.42 which I was happy with considering the last month. You can probably tell that the race was pretty uneventful, Peterborough is not known for its fantastic scenery, although I did spot what I think was a tree at one point. But I was given a goody bag, medal and a ridiculously bright t-shirt for my efforts.
The real fun and games began at the finish….
Firstly, when I went to pick up bag from the storage point, they couldn't find it. I had to hang about watching some bloke desperately searching for it, at the annoyance to other runners. I had borrowed Amy's rucksack because mine had somehow disappeared. Therefore when asked what colour it was I said it was black, which I thought it was, it was in fact more of a grey. Doh!
Secondly, I had parked in the closest car park, not realising that the exit to the car park was actually on the race route. Therefore, it was not opened until most of the runners had finished. So in conclusion it took me an hour and forty minutes to run the race and the same amount of time to exit the car park!
And now for something completely different….
A crazy Austrian man jumped from 24 miles up in the air in an attempt to break the sound barrier….
Failure. I hate to admit defeat, but for one reason or another I am officially announcing that September's challenge has been extended into October. I'm slightly disappointed that I've had to take such drastic action but with a two week half-term coming up, together with the fact that my body is finally starting to feel better, I feel it is the best option. The challenge of learning to ride a unicycle was always going to be difficult fully fit, but with various aches and pains appearing (none I think directly related to unicycling) completing the challenge in one month was near impossible.
Blood. It has been a busy week at school. Various assessments taking place and an ever increasing pile of marking that needs completing. Thursday saw the school's open evening, and the annual 'teach the parents' classes I put on. All was going well early on, I was doing the old descriptive writing session using sweets to encourage the use of senses in our writing. We had got through the sight, sound, touch, smell parts without any problems. At this stage I did the old comedy healthy and safety speech before tasting sweets, “please don't eat sweets if you are allergic to anything that could possibly be contained within the sweet”. I should also have mentioned loose teeth! Before I knew it I had a prospective student in front of me in tears, blood flowing down her chin and tissues being stuffed in her mouth by her mother. She was quickly whisked out of the room passed other prospective parents and students, leaving a trail of blood from the English classroom. Not the 'English is Fun' look I was going for. Needless to say that could be one less student joining us next September.
Running. Today I went for a run, the first for three weeks, and although my back was a tad sore it felt good to be finally running again. So I'll be partaking in the first Frostbite run tomorrow morning at St Neots. The Frostbite Races are a great little series of six races held throughout the winter (hence the name) for local club runners to enter. I'll use tomorrow's race as a nice training run and take it pretty steady. That should put me in good stead for next weekend's Great Eastern Run, a half-marathon run around the picturesque streets of Peterborough. Followed, of course, by the Zombie Run later in the month.
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