Christmas party run

Day 349 Friday 13th December 3.2 miles : miles to date 2340.8 Due to a late court hearing in Stevenage and an office party night out that I had organised, tonight's little jaunt was a madcap dash at some speed around the bustling streets of Dunstable. I had hoped to be able to do a longer one, due to the highly likely pending hangover on Saturday. Instead, I made do with jostling car's and pedestrians trying to get home at rush hour. I just ran hard, quickly and on a dull route going out with the traffic and straight back in. I arrived back in the hotel in my tight Max Wall running pants and general running garb giving a few of the peeps a bit of a shock, as they have only ever seen me in a suit. I didn't immediately say I was going to get changed and let them wonder if that was my party outfit. I eventually made my way back up to the honeymoon suite where I had been upgraded free of charge by the hotel, spending a little time on the chaise longue before heading once more into the breach dear friends, once more. If Henry V had finished that off with ''Follow your spirit or beer of choice, and upon this hotel charge, Cry 'God for Pablo, Taffyland, and Saint David" that would have been more apt as my flexible friend took a hammering in the bar.

Day 348 Thursday 13th December 7.9 miles : miles to date 2337.6 I arrived at the club tonight for my last Thursday session of the year, cold, tired and a tad lethargic (still two more Thursdays but I can't get to the club). This feeling has been with me now for a little while and I can only put it down to almost finished fever. There is no other obvious reason why I should now feel tired, having been hammering away at this running lark all year without more than a handful of bad days. I just need miles now and the go fast daps have been stored by utilizing the best currently known cryropreservation methodologies. They have been put in the garage and the monster mile munchers have been dusted down. It was great to see Jerry Day back on the start line for what turned out to be quite a nippy figure of eight on the normal hilly winter loop, along with the ever dependable Silver Surfer Phil Clarke. There were only two of the ultra quick whippets springing out of the traps and I just didn't fancy another run on my own. I would inevitably have ended in the middle, so I went out for a much more social run with the lads. That wasn't the easy option as both are back on form. Despite chatting all the way, we still managed it in around 58 minutes which on a night like tonight, I will happily take. It was in truth so much easier with them both, so cheers lads.

1212121212121212122 arrrghhhhh

Day 347 Wednesday 12th December 8.3 miles : miles to date 2329.7

The plan today was to do 12 on my 12th at 12.12.12 on 12.12.12, but due to work at 12.12, I missed doing my 12 at 12.12.12 on 12.12.12 and instead did around 12 on the 12.12.12 at 5 but not 12 on the 12.12.12. Hope that's all clear.  I did consider a 12 at 12.12.12 or a 12 at 12.12.12 but instead decided to stay at home and enjoy 1:21:02am. For a whole second, I partied hard celebrating the point the date and time is the same read forward and backwards : 2012-12-12 1:21:02 = 201212-1-212102.

 Other interesting facts about 12 include:-

1. The dirty dozen - were actually quite clean in real life

2. 12 - the average pregnancy age in Merthyr Tydfil

3. The original number of dwarfs: missing are Smelly, Itchy, Sweaty, Pongo and Poo (not sure why they not in the film)

4. 12 peeps have walked on the moon (not including Sting)

5. A bakers dozen is 13

6.  The Chinese year of birth is represented by one of these: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

7. 12 - the average number of pints Welsh girls drink on a Tuesday night

8.  There are twelve astrological signs

9. 12% is the average number of made up facts

10. 12 - the last time I ate carrots - urrrgghh

11. 12 - the number of Leo Sayer LP's I own

12. 12 - the amount ear marked for Fi's Chrimbo present's

(OK, I'll explain the above. 12 miles on the 12th run of the month, at 12pm 12mins 12secs on the 12th Dec 2012, but work at 12.12pm, meant I missed doing what I just said and did around 12 km on the  above date at 5pm but not 12 miles on the above date.) The next list is 12.12.12 am etc!

Hello pop pickers

Day 346 Tuesday 11th December 6 miles : miles to date 2306 With exactly three weeks and two hundred miles to go, today's little trot was a laid back affair trying to re-charge the batteries and re-focus the mind for the last big push. A day off gave me the chance to don the Max Wall pants, turn up the long play and go for an easy, slow, cold cross country run. For once I blew the club speed session out, ran early and enjoyed more sumptuous repast with the clan. I put the pod on shuffle and chuckled at the eclectic mix that poured out, which included from recollection the following classics :- Funkadelic - One nation under a Groove Tenpole Tudor - Swords of a Thousand Men Pigbag - Papa's Got a brand new Pigbag Blue Oyster Cult - Don't fear the Reaper Boomtown Rats - She's so Modern Foo Fighters - Pretender Heaven 17 - Temptation Madness - Bed and Breakfast Man I felt like I was back on the 80's on the way to the school disco. Come to think of it, I was dressed the same. Skinny pants, trainers, t-shirt and a bit sweaty. Yep, I looked a wally then as well. I was just taking it slow and wound back at five miles. I was going to stop, when Ian Drury and the Blockheads came on just as I was pulling up. It would have been a sacrilege to stop at that point, so I turned around and put in another mile listening to one of the first records I ever bought. Strewth, that dates me.

The Old Bill run

Day 345 Monday 10th December 6.5 miles : miles to date 2300 For once I looked at the total as I knew I was close to moving into the penultimate hundred miles. I decided it would be nice to settle on a nice round number and save the 4's for Tuesday. I ran my normal six mile loop and tacked on a half mile on the course of my famous paper round race, which I won earlier this year both times of asking. The crowds were a bit sparse tonight and even Megan declined to take part. Still, the race entry limit was again reached and I didn't even advertise it this time. To be entirely fair to me, even London marathon can't boast a 100% race day entry, with such a consistent winner. Who also happens to the loser at the same time. I ran up and down the local streets a few times, looking like I was casing the hood (yuff speak apparently), going around in ever decreasing circles to get to the exact distance. I must have looked a bit of a wally to anyone looking out. What am I saying? All the sane peeps were inside, toasting marshmallows and watching the soaps. They wouldn't have bothered opening the curtains. All the same, as soon as I finished I legged it home just in case someone had called the old bill.

Bedford Half Marathon 2012

Day 344 Sunday 9th December 13.1 miles : miles to date 2293.5 Oh dear, it had to happen. For me, the worst race of the year. Not in terms of time, as a 1:29:30 half marathon is semi ok I guess, but I just didn't enjoy it. I just wasn't in the game today and the positive neurotransmitters were just smoking weed or were on holiday. As we all know from earlier posts, neurotransmitters are packaged into synaptic vesicles clustered beneath the membrane in the axon terminal, on the presynaptic side of a synapse. They are released into and diffuse across the synaptic cleft, where they bind to specific receptors in the membrane on the postsynaptic side of the synapse. Yeah, whatever. Mine were in serious grumpy old man mode today. I'm just not in the fast running frame of mind and in truth, I have half an eye on finishing the year streak and three quarters of an eye on the last serious challenge of the year, Hadrian's Wall. I spent the first part of the year running long and slow, the middle part burning it up and now I'm trying to go slow and long. Truth is slow used to be easy and it just isn't anymore. I suspect that last bottle of wine and three double Baileys to round off the night on Friday influenced my two day hangover and general grumpiness, but I woke up this morning thinking I just can't be bothered to hammer it, so I didn't. That having been said, I set off with a runner that earlier in the year, I just wouldn't have thought I would be in the same league, Steven Upton . We stayed together until half way, when my blooming shoe lace came undone. Just stopping for 30 seconds meant I couldn't catch him and I dropped the pace for the middle section. I slowed so badly, that the world and his wife went past me including one bloke who was breathing so hard I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I just didn't have any breathing problems at all, although the 9 miles I did on Thursday was in the legs. My slowest mile was at 8 when I did 7.14 (shocking I know), followed by 7.02, 6.45, 6.38, 6.28 and 6.28. The only reason why I picked it up? Ivor the Engine obviously. The heavy breather was getting on my wick. The best part of the day was seeing my fellow club mates doing so well. Yet another great day out for the mighty AFF! Close on the heels of that, was catching up with my fellow shadow Olympic torch hero's (?) Belinda Bradberry and Adrian Smith. Without question, the highlight of the day

Petzl time

Day 343 Saturday 8th December 4 miles : miles to date 2280.4 Tonight's run was delayed due in part to Fi and in part to me. Last nights sumptuous repast and vino fest with Satnav and Mrs. Jones (there's a song in there somewhere), left its imprint on the old grey matter. I sat around all afternoon hoping not to be noticed and just not wanting to run. It wasn't just the vino. I have had sore calf's since Tuesday's speed session, due I suspect to hammering it on the road, in my go fast daps. I also feel physically tired, so all in all both mind and body were just not in the game. I eventually laced up the go slightly less fast daps and tried to leave. At this point, I had to take my jacket off as Fi somehow managed to get her hair stuck in my head torch and was in some pain. I rushed out to the kitchen to get an essential bit of kit to help. My camera, although it was difficult to hold it steady as I was laughing so much. As for the run, I eventually did a slow and slightly longer than normal run around the village which took over forty minutes, shock horror (granted I did nip into Budgens - other supermarkets are available). I'm now tired, a little puffy and totally not looking forward to Bedford Half in the morning. Right now, I'm lacking any ambition to try to run it fast, which is possibly due to my focus being almost solely on reaching 2500 miles by the end of the year. Just under 220 miles to cover in the next 23 days. Guess I had better pull the finger out, run Bedford slowly and put in a few extra miles after. Probably.