It's been a month!  Crikey I've been busy.  Since I last blogged I've attended two weddings (in the same weekend), lost a flat, had an offer accepted on another one and run a half marathon.  No wonder I'm knackered.

The half marathon was round two of the "races beginning with B" series - the Burnham Beeches Half.  The day dawned clear and bright and before too long it was chuffing hot.  The signposting to the car park was a bit iffy, and it was a 20min walk to the start.  We got lost trying to find the parking so had to run to the start and lined up just as the gun went off - not ideal, and particularly annoying as we'd left plenty of time to get to the start all being well.  The course is undulating throughout - not much in the way of flat running, and the course is two loops, so you climb a hill, think "ooh that was a bit nasty" swiftly followed by "aaaaw crap, gotta climb that again in about an hour".  Thankfully it's quite a shady course, and friendly marshalls were plentiful.  Zero points though, for the "helpful" spectator who shouted "keep going slowies, it'll take them ages to pick you all up and take you home".  Nearly punched that woman, not helpful.  Didn't get close to my HM PB - finished in 2:27:52, but am happy with that given the conditions on the day.

The following Wednesday I tried out a new running route that my friend had told me about.  I often run from Godalming up the River Wey towards Guildford.  My friend told me that there is a cycle route that crosses the river near Shalford and continues down pretty much to the south coast.  It's gravelled and FLAT, which is the Holy Grail of routes round these parts.  I finished work at lunchtime, got kitted up and embarked on a 30k odyssey.  It's a lovely run, flat and quite shady, and I made it as far as Cranleigh before turning back at the halfway point.  The main thing that I learnt from this run is that I must remember to take ibuprofen before going long.  My hips were really painful towards the end, and I had to walk the last couple of kilometres.

The following weekend was the BH, and my sister & BIL were down for the weekend.  Spent an inordinate amount of time eating (yaaaaaaay!) and when they left on Sunday evening, I knew I could put it off no longer.  Monday would see me attempting my longest pre-Berlin run.  32k - yikes!

I procrastinated as much as possible, but finally mid afternoon I got my kit on and headed out.  It was quite hot, so decided to do my Grayshott loops.  Started running at 3.30.  First loop would be a long one of 12k.  It went ok, although I was glad to get to the car for some Lucozade, which I used to wash down some yummy Jelly Belly sport beans.  Om nom nom nom. Lap 2 was more of the same, and I was actually feeling quite strong, despite the hills in the route.  Lap 3 was a shorter lap of 8k to finish, and I completed this without issue - mainly due to the fact that I remembered to take my ibuprofen - anti-inflammatories kick ass.  Throughout the run René (my Garmin) was on the fritz - kept losing satellite reception.  I can only assume that some nefarious Bond villain was attempting some kind of global scheme using the satellites, as I've never had an issue there before.  Anyhoo, the result was that when I downloaded the data, it turns out that I had actually run 34k, which I'm over the moon about - I feel confident that I can get round the course in Berlin now, so life is good.

Since then, I've been tapering off - possibly more than I should have been - have only done a couple of short (4-5k) runs since.  I love Runners World as this month they took the opportunity to state that it is better to be under prepared for a marathon than over trained.  Music to my poorly trained ears!

I have a 10k race this Sunday at Alice Holt - my first race as cross country captain for my club.  And then the following weekend...... IT'S BERLIN!  Can't quite believe it's here already, but really really can't wait to hit the start line.

As for non- running stuff, I lost the flat as the eejit decided that after dangling me on a string for 3 and a half months he didn't want to sell after all.  Nearly went round there to beat him to death with his own arm - I know where you live buddy.  Thankfully common sense prevailed and I undertook another intensive round of property viewings instead.  I've now had an offer accepted on another flat - it's smaller, but in a good location, and four doors down from B, meaning that I'll never want for a running buddy again (or someone to share a bottle of wine with for that matter!).  Please, everyone keep fingers crossed that all goes smoothly with this one!

And finally, last night I went to see the Chris Moyles show on tour.  They have been doing a week of karaoke shows around the country and I was lucky enough to get tickets to see them at the o2.  Wow, they had so many amazing guests - Roy Walker, John Barrowman, Peter Andre (♥ Peter!!), James Corden, Justin Lee Collins & Alexandra Burke all sang karaoke - and as it was a small venue, we were really close to them (Peter was smuggling peanuts - we were close enought to see his nipples *sn----r*).  The atmosphere was absolutely brilliant - was so glad to have been there - although feel a little bit jaded today (no beers - just a late night).

If you look carefully at this video you can see me and my friend Lexi jumping around like loons in the audience (at about 40ish secs into the clip)  Fun times.

Hope you're all well - I have been trying to keep up with reading blogs, and have chucked the odd comment in here and there - some comments odder than others haw haw haw.

xx

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