[GCW]

Funnily enough, she said the same thing last night

[Jaspersharpe]

Not enough gloom and wandering around soaking quarries recently on this blog. It's all I read it for.

[GCW]

Once the marathon is out of the way, I won't be running as much so normal service will resume.

[Jaspersharpe]

Good luck with the running.

[r-man]

You've definitely taken your eye off the ball. This week has been the first prime miserably cold and disgustingly wet week for ages. You're missing it!

Summer will be here soon. Midges instead of rain...

[GCW]

Good luck with the running.

Going to need it!!

[comPiler]

YYFY!
29 April 2012, 4:52 pm

Dry days- 67 Days of rain- 53  Marathon Day!  Due to the new house I haven't been running this week.  However, despite this I was going to take today seriously and approach it properly- I only had a couple of beers last night.  I had bought a shower-proof jacket yesterday in Preston after looking at MetCheck.   The weather has been terrible this week, and today was no exception. The Doc and I were out of the house just after seven, after I'd eaten mini Shredded Wheat at six and a banana smoothie just before we left.  There were no signposts for the Marathon or its parking, plus there were road closures, so it took a bit to find where we were going.  The parking mentioned in the booklet for the race wasn't great. One was full, the other had decided it wasn't accepting event parking. We ended up in some backstreet and then walked in the pissing rain to the start.  It was cold, windy and very wet standing around waiting for the gun.  After saying farewell (possibly literally) to The Doc I jogged up and down a bit to try to get warm.  I had my Helly Hansen long sleeve thermal on, then my Satch T shirt and the shower-proof on top.  I wasn't exactly warm like this, so I didn't envy the people huddling under trees in T shirts and shorts.  I had said I'd do the run in five hours, so I was in the penultimate wave which took 6:24 to cross the line after the gun.  The first five or so miles were past the fire station and Kellogg's and was quite built up.  This meant that whilst everyone goes soaked in the continuous rain, the wind wasn't a factor. Once outside the M60 this came into play and the rain became horizontal.  I was utterly soaked by this stage, and cold.  Between twelve and sixteen miles we zig zagged around Dunham Massey, through country roads with three inches of standing water and then through a park with two inches of standing liquid mud.  My feet had been wet before, but by now they were waterlogged and covered in mud.    At this point a stop in at the Rope and Anchor was tempting, but I pushed on. At various Marshall tents there were lots of runners in foil huddling for shelter.  A lot of people on the route looked very very cold, and many were walking.  To be honest, conditions were awful and about as bad as you'd ever want for a long distance run.  24 miles saw me back inside the M60 and a little more shelter, thankfully.  At least I wasn't going to get any colder than I already was.  After the 20 mile point I felt more upbeat, and managed to up the pace a little. I seemed to be overtaking quite a few flaggers now, including most of the 4:30 and 4:15 pacemakers.  My habit of stomping up hills in shite weather was holding me in good stead.  I managed to run all the way, and finished in 4:39:58 which was nicely under my 5:00 target and considering the conditions I was quite pleased. The Doc was relieved to see me at the finishing mud bath. She was pretty cold just from standing in the rain. After that we came home to warm up in the bath.  So, unending rain and wind. Lovely, I think I'll leave Manchester next time!  Although I think I'll enter the London Marathon ballot tomorrow when it opens.  And I need to decide on the Preston Guild half vs marathon.  Split times: 10 miles-  1:44:31 Half-  2:16:36  (Second half-  2:23:22) 20 miles-  3:30:29 Finish-  4:39:58

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter

[comPiler]

I hate this new design of Blogger
29 April 2012, 5:01 pm

Is it only me that can no longer format paragraphs and get pictures to embed correctly?!?!?    

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter

[Duma]

top effort GCW!
 

[GCW]

I think I will sleep The Sleep Of The Just tonight!!!!

 

[andy_e]

Good effort GC. I walked for 5 minutes through this rain and thought it was too much.

[GCW]

I thought the same, but then I had to carry on for another 4 hours and 35 minutes.   

[nik at work]

Nice one hero.
You going to start climbing again now?

[GCW]

Bouldering. Soon, I hope.  No ropes. 

[Oldmanmatt]

I hate this new design of Blogger
29 April 2012, 5:01 pm

Is it only me that can no longer format paragraphs and get pictures to embed correctly?!?!?   

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter

Nope.

And I hate the way it looks fine on preview and is then crap when posted.

Well done.

I'd be lucky if I could get my nose to run these days...

[Teaboy]

Great effort, well done it really was awful weather today

[tomtom]

Nice one.

[Richie Crouch]

Boss effort Gareth. It was like the Perfect Storm out there!

Agreed on the new blogger being wank for picture placement.

[GCW]

Got the official time. 4:38:59. Woo hoo!

[Probes]

Well done Gareth good effort 

[Fiend]

I hate this new design of Blogger
29 April 2012, 5:01 pm

Is it only me that can no longer format paragraphs and get pictures to embed correctly?!?!?   

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter

It is utterly fucking terrible. You can get things to work as normal but it requires a lot of pissing around and trial and error with the HTML version, which is full of utterly bloated code by default.

[Jaspersharpe]

Running from the house to the car was bad enough in that shit. A truly heroic effort.

Now get back to wandering around green quarries and falling off.

[GCW]

I may be doing one or two more first......

[comPiler]

Busy busy busy
8 May 2012, 10:54 am

Dry days- 71

Days of rain- 58

What a week!  The Doc and I have spent most of our time trying to get the new house sorted after the dirty buggers vacated it in a right state, including piles of flour in the cupboards and live wires left around.  Cleaning is almost complete, but every room needed decorating.  This was too big a task for me so we have had to get someone in.  I've been fixing stuff, changing lights, clearing the garden, getting 240V shocks etc etc.  The kitchen is almost done now, and the bedrooms shouold be painted this week so we are hoping to be in in a fortnight or so.  Understandably, the board has taken a back burner.

Yesterday was the first of the Preston Guild races.  The Doc and I got to Preston for 10, parked in a back street and wandered to the Race HQ.  This event was very well organised, all credit to the Red Rose Runners.  I was aiming for under 25 minutes, but wasn't too hopeful due to a heavy cold.  I got totally stuck in the pack initially so my first 1km took over 6 minutes.  I managed to get going after this, but the final time was 25:47.  Both the Doc and I really enjoyed the run actually, great fun.  The next up is the Manchester 10k, which I hope I feel better for.  Other than that it's just lots of work on the new house.

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter

[comPiler]

Long time no blog!
25 May 2012, 11:54 am

Dry days- 84

Days of rain-  62

We seem to be in the middle of a heatwave at the moment, yesterday the car suggested 28 degrees.  Too hot for me.

I have realised it's been a while since the last blog post- this is because we have been beavering away to get the house in a decent condition.  As with most old houses, little jobs are never little and have often generated a much bigger job.  Lighting has been a major pain in the ass,  the wiring has been botched together in the fittings so I've had to modify most of it as I change light fittings.  This in addition to the Doc's preference for fittings with no space for wiring have made for some colourful language.  All done now though.

We discovered that the oven on the range was buggered, as was the extractor hood.  I know about caveat emptor, but the vendors refused us access to look around again and check stuff.  I suppose that should have rung bells in itself.  Anyway, on Wednesday I managed to strip the extractor and range out and put them  outside for removal when the new one came.  When I went out five minutes later it had all gone, I can only guess some scrap merchant pinched it.  Now we have a fully functional cooker, although no hood yet as the back plate isn't in stock at present.

I have my pride and joy hi-fi in the house now.  The Doc has decided where it needs to go and wants the cabling run under the carpet.  I made a booboo and bought new cabling that was too thick, so I went back yesterday to swap it.  The new one is three times the cost per metre. I'm also getting a new stand, the Atacama Equinox being current favourite.  I'm picking the cabling up on Saturday so I'll order something then.  I have also lost my spikes on the old Target speaker stands.

Other than dressings with pictures and mirrors, the interior of the house is nearly there.  It's been fairly stressful though, but at least it's habitable now.  The garden and exteriors need blitzing, but that's not something I'm any good at so it's a case of getting people in.  But we are approaching the time when I can turn my attention to Board work..........

Source: Wafflings of a Lanky Punter