Today, I Have Been Mostly... by Rob_Barber

Yup, the big four oh .

Am I bothered? Not in the slightest really. Not big on birthdays. I remember my dad being all anxious and wound up when he got to the grand old age of 40. So of course we wound him up with Grecian 2000 and all that . Didn't understand his resistance to it then I still don't understand it now.

Don't understand why anyone makes a fuss about ageing, I mean, if you're not getting older, then your either buried or burned. Unless there's some other option unbeknown to me, cryogenics or something ?

I suppose I should feel like celebrating in some ways, for one, I've now officially been on this Earth twice as long as I once thought I was going to be. On the other hand, its been a life with more than its share of tough times, and it just so happens I'm in the middle of one now, which is why I'm not on Kilimanjaro, which is where I'd hoped to be. You just don't know how its going to pan out sometimes.

Pleasant though for once to not be in work on my birthday. Gave me an opportunity to get out and run around on Moel Famau, Flintshire's own Kilimanjaro . Decent days exercise really, biked there, ran round, biked home. All in all near enough 3 hours of aerobic exercise.

Went up there to try and re-trace the route of last Wednesday's race. Thoroughly enjoyed that course, and it was sprinkled with exactly the right kind of terrain to be training on if there is going to be life in my future attempt at the Paddy Buckley. 

Got "lost" a couple of times, but did manage to put the race route together in the end. Its been raining a lot, and the course was very different today to what it was last week, 'slippery when wet' as Bon Jovi would say . Useful having the Garmin again. Can't figure out though how to edit the route so that I can upload what it should be to the watch.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192978027

If you ignore the little loop in that route, and take the left hand path on the 2nd, larger loop, then that is essentially the course for the Hot Foot Up Famau.

That first little loop is yet another hill fort - this area must have a tremendously violent past, or maybe the presence of all these hill forts somehow served to keep a strange sort of peace? Somehow I doubt it.

Suddenly have a strong urge to delve into the history of these Clwydian hills. Is this my mid life crisis ? A sudden interest in history ? Or did my mid-life crisis come 5 years ago when I decided that 2008 would be my time to run the London marathon?

Either way, the only thing I know for sure is that I am a much happier person at 40 with running in my life than I ever would have been without it!

As for Kili, well, it'll still be there when I'm 50, to do it at the mid-point of my life as was my plan, I'm just going to have to live to 100, that's all ! And if he's lucky, collect my telegram off King William.