Tuesday 30 December 2008

Connemarathon March 2009

This will be my third and absolutely I promise final marathon, why my last? Well their to long .... 26.2 miles is simply to long really ha ha...

I prefer the Half Marathon distance if honest, and the last year could be classed as my Marathon period of running done only to see if I could really achieve it within only two years of starting running... and I can I've done it twice in fact .. and one more to add to that...legendary really...

Also I want to start a new sport of Long Distance Road Cycling, similar in my view but you get to sit down for a bit...seems a better deal in my view with my older (post 40) age coming along swiftly ha ha... but I will keep me running going on the side lines...



The best way to learn about the Connermarathon is to look at the web page -

http://www.connemarathon.com/

The Marathon for 2009 is full and you can only run at the time of writing, for a charity, the location is stunning in the challenging mountain wilderness of Galway in the west of Ireland. The course meanders past bogs, hills, lakes, and the Twelve Pin mountains rising up over the great expanse of Killary Lough, through the quiet village of Leenane, around the Maam Turk Mountains and all the way back up to Maam Cross.

Its a stunning location and as we did with the Loch Ness Marathon weekend, we (me and Stephanie) will be making a mini holiday out of it but as money is being saved for other more exciting things were only going over for the long weekend, we as usual have done it on the cheap, were booked into a cheap hostel and we have got cheap flights from EMA (East Mid Airport) to Knock. When were there we will get a small rental car and have a blast rallying through the lanes of Ireland as we did in Loch Ness...which was a blast...

Anyway I hope as its my last Marathon to get my best time my previous best time is
03:50:11 secs...and this is the target. I hope to get -

Sub - 3:40:00 (8:30 mile pace)....

The race is on the 22ND of March and my training has been limited so far but as the new year comes along so does the new training regime which will assist in losing all of those Xmas calories...today I have weighed myself and I am the heaviest I have been for 2 years...15.1 stone...when I ran 3:50 I was 14.2 stone...so I am looking forward to losing weight as well...

I have to mention that Stephanie my OH is also going and the event is even bigger for her as it is her very first Marathon which will be a tremendous and possibly tearful experience for her as she crosses the line...I wish her all the best...

Its an awesome area of Ireland here's some pics..



Looks like an awesome run....they actually ban ipods at this event...I reckon that's a good policy...



I am looking forward to the weekend for more than just the race as it's our first visit to Ireland. Hopefully at some point well make it to the bars of Galway to get involved with a sing along somewhere.....where's me dam guitar...

There are some that regard this event as over priced, it was £50 to enter this event and I do feel that's a little steep but I will hold back until after the event and then comment on the wether it was good value or not, but on side note I do think that private companies are cashing in by over pricing entrance fee's in a essentially free and basic sport of late, under the illusion of high organisational costs and charitable schemes, but are always unwilling to show where the money has gone....I have started to get more interested in Fell running for this reason alone its back to basics again as it should be...and cheaper with just as much fun if not more..

So training starts for real in the new year...sod it ill start tomorrow, yep that's it, those scales have frightened the hell out of me.... over 15 stone are you sure!!!

Let the training begin...



When I was 14.1 stone (May 2008) not 15.1....!!!! shocking really...fat sod..

Monday 22 December 2008

Stephanies House Makeover.....cont...

My oh my, doing an old house up is tough eh, after all the shows you watch on TV don't believe for one second its a breeze its not.

Anyway we have done the lounge and we have created an office as seen in a previous post now the kitchen and hall way, for the record the best way to show this is to do before and after pics so here does, oh its not finished yet by any means but this will be a good record for us to remember the pain by....

Boiler before (now Combi in bedroom) £2400 full cost.

before -



After -



Essentially we have had to strip back the whole kitchen, strip off the tiles and remove the dark blue wall paper, re locate the boiler in the upstairs bedroom (changed to a combi), stud wall the piped areas, remove the mains around the corner of the wall and re move the water meter outside the property, all at cost, but these changes were required to bring the house up to standard as she would have never been able to sell or rent the property as it was. There has been an injection of cash from family for her otherwise she would have not afforded some of the finer details and she would have had to fully finance the kitchen £7000 has been lent to assist.

In a sense it is the first ever house make over me and Stephanie have ever done and as the completion of the hall and kitchen approaches (20th Jan 2009) we are delighted with the results, and it has been a stress full experience but we have learned so much along the way.

Here is the colour of th wall paper and the wall that we removed, before ...



And now after we have plastered and removed the wall and the tiles...that made me sick.



The sink unit area, that was put when the house was built!!! has been removed and the mains have been placed on the back wall to accomidate the new sink location...what a mess.



And now after -



So the kitchens been plastered with 12mm boards to cover the damaged walls and skimmed cost £600 for cash, the plasterer also did some other areas around the stairs and two seperate walls.

The walls and roof have been painted and now for the floor tiles which are grey slate, which again we ahve never done in our lives but were going to give it a bash as well its cheaper. The kicthen is due to arrive on the 10th of January and be fitted week comencingthe 12th of Jan, so we need to have the complete floor ready by then...fo a novice no easy task.

Kitchen plastered and painted - Some pics......



Choosing the backwall colours? tough one....she picked it is she sure?!!!







And now the tiling has started, we have no experience of this so er here goes....the slate is going down..









So tired and I have only done the first third of the area needed to be covered. anyway looks good for my first attempt.

carrying on tomorrow....we need a kitchen so badley now doing plates and stuff in the bathroom sink loses its appeal after a while.

Laterz.