A true 10km practice

I'd booked us on a practice 10km run as it would give us a good feel as to how our training had been going. This event was held at Croxteth Country park in Liverpool and was sponsored by my work, Myerscough College. We had set off from Manchester with plenty of time to spare, and we needed a considerable amount of that time after getting lost several times, and having to put up with some broken traffic lights that seemed to be permanently on red!

After parking up, we still had a bit of time to kill. The weather was wet and cold, and waiting around wasn't altogether pleasant. When the race had started, Andy took the lead and overtook many other runners straight off from the start line. My initial thoughts were along the lines of "what on earth is he doing?" as I didn't think we'd be able to sustain that pace for more than a couple of minutes. We'd passed the first kilometre marker at 4 minutes 30 seconds. The quickest average we'd ever previously managed is about 5 minutes per kilometre.

By some miracle, we did keep up at around that pace, and finished the race with official times of about 45 minutes 20 seconds. Considering we'd performed poorly in our own training sessions, I'd walked a significant distance and height the previous day, and that I'd not eaten well but drunk lots, I'd say we did alright :) It gave me confidence for the real race in three weeks time, to say the least.

Full House

There was no spare room at the flat this weekend as Gareth's old Lancaster housemates were visiting. Naima, Stephen and Stephen arrived on Friday evening. I had cooked a roast beef dinner, but not entirely perfectly! This is a dish I normally deliver very well, but on this occasion the Yorkshires didn't rise, the meat was over done and it somehow just didn't "feel" right. My thoughts were over-reactionary because it was all eaten and well received, and I received compliments :) We had several more beers, glasses of wine, ports and whiskeys until the early hours. We even found some old cigars from a trip to London several years ago, and these were smoked (not by myself!) up on the roof of the building.

There had been talk of climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District on the Saturday, but the amount of alcohol consumed the night before led me to believe that this would be cancelled. I realised how wrong I was when I was woken up early..

We made reasonably good time getting out of bed then on the long cramped journey. We stopped off for a lovely breakfast on the way and started the actual walking early afternoon. The weather was perfect for the trip, and there were fewer walkers than expected. As we reached the top, the cloud started to come down slightly, making it chilly and putting the stop on getting a good view. By the time we had got down, time was getting on, so we hit the road.

I kept having weird dreams during my punctuated naps, and awoke several times thinking we were being followed by other cars. I guess I was mainly over tired!

There was a motorway closure on the way home which added a bit of time to the journey. By the time we got home, it was too late for the original going-out plans, so the others got take-away while I went to bed, knowing I had another early start with a 10km run to attempt!

Networking

Networking,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

After work on Monday, my old pal James had invited me to a "Beermat Monday" event at Tiger Tiger in town. This was an event where you can meet like-minded entrepreneurs and make other contacts to help you do business. Although James and I had initially set up Legalhelpers over 5 years ago, we aren't, as such, entrepreneurs or self-employed at the moment. Nevertheless, we went armed with (in my case, out of date) business cards and gave the Legalhelpers "online legal services" spiel.

I was initially nervous about attending the event, but it was very friendly and I must have been enjoying it, as the time flew by. Met some interesting people, and got some ideas of how to perhaps conduct ourselves at the next event. More planning is needed on our parts, specifically with how we want to describe what it is that we do.

If nothing else, it was a good fun night out and provided inspiration for future projects. We ended up being amongst the last to leave, and retired to Sinclair's Oyster Bar for a pint (James and Gareth pictured).

The rest of a Sunday

I left the big screen after watching the elite runners finish their race, and rode my bike in a few random directions before deciding to head over to Sale. I had difficulty getting onto the canal anywhere around Old Trafford, and ended up only cycling the last half mile on the towpath! After some biking round the town, the canal-side King's Ransom pub was too tempting to avoid an al fresco pint and a read of the paper.

My journey home was almost completely by canal, bar the last mile or so from Salford Quays /Pomona. Had a quick microwave meal for lunch and then headed back out on the bike to Andy's. We enjoyed some nice weather for a run, and managed over 10km in around 55 minutes, a reasonable attempt considering I'd done some cycling. Andy cooked a pizza, which we quickly ate before leaving. Andy went to his parents and I headed to The Ox for the pub quiz.

Phil and Neil joined our usual threesome with Paul and Gareth in the pub for the first few rounds (of questions). When the quiz finally started (it seems to be dragged out since the Sunday opening hours increased, and then Quizmaster Flash lost the questions..) we seemed to be doing okay. But as is usually the case, everyone else seemed to find them easier too, and we were pipped at the post! We did get the bonus question correct, but so did a few other teams, and the growing jackpot (£200+) rolls over to next Sunday. We'll be back next with with extra team-members for ammunition! We're also eating from early evening in The Ox next Sunday when Naima, Stephen and Stephen are visiting. With it being an early start, I hope I'm still compus mentus for the hard brain work later on...

The London Marathon in Mcr

The London Marathon in Mcr,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

I decided it would be nice to come and watch the London Marathon on the BBC's big screen in Exchange Square. I watched the start early from the comfort of my sofa, then peddled over here. Nobody is here just to watch the show, but there are several passers by stopping for a glance while their partners are shopping in the Corn Exchange!

The screen will, no doubt, be used more during the world cup. Expect barriers and crowd control and anti-drinking officers (the number of empty beer cans strewn around is disgusting..). By then, the big wheel will have also moved from this unsuitable location, releasing the seating for its intended use.

Whilst it's raining in London, it's lovely up north, with the sun being out more than behind the clouds. It's my intention to go out for a run later, training more for my own entry in the Great Manchester run in less that a month. After some good practice last week, I'm finally quietly confident for a half-decent finish time :)