sarah_a67

My bank balance has suffered but I've been having fun and as interest rates are so low at the moment, it's not really a pain to go overdrawn. Last Wednesday evening I went to the Everyman cinema here in Winchester to see Town of Runners and afterwards there was a Q&A with the director. It's a documentary, following two young girls in Ethiopia as they train in the hope to become world famous athletes. It was a really good insight into how running over there is viewed very differently than it is here - basically you can either do well at school and get a job from that, or you can become a runner. They're very serious about their training and hugely ambitious and, as they start honing their abilities from a very young age, highly capable too. All this despite not having easy access to the basic resources they need to survive. It was inspiring.

On Friday night I went up to London to see the play, What the Butler Saw at the Vaudeville Theatre, a very different form of entertainment! It dealt with insanity, incest and rape, but in an old-fashioned, very English way, which, with all the jokes, made it less unsettling than it should have been! It starred Tim McInnerny, who for some reason has become one of my favourite actors, along with Omid Djalili and Samantha Bond. It's on a limited run so I would recommend seeing it if you have the chance. My seat turned out to be in row A, which is impressive because I booked it cheaply through Lastminute.com. However, row A is the third row, behind AY and AZ!

Today some free fun, and I briefly attended the Sports Festival at Bar End in Winchester. There were lots of different sports being showcased but it seemed to be intended for children so it was kind of weird being there as an adult on my own. There was a WADAC stand, but nobody on it! I had a look around, ate a roll from the hog roast and watched some co-ordinated children do a gymnastics routine before going home. It can be very easy in Winchester to lead an unhealthy lifestyle but to counter that there's so much provision for sport, and it was encouraging to see all the healthy young people enjoying various kinds of sporting activities.

There's some things coming up, too. I have the day off work tomorrow and there's an event in Raynes Park about how to run a faster 5k, which should be useful as my goal for the upcoming year is to win the points competition at Basingstoke parkrun. Recently I've been pushed into fourth place, so from Basingstoke's next anniversary when the competition is reset, I'll do my utmost to attend every Basingstoke parkrun possible, volunteer the optimum three times and, crucially, get much faster so that I can rack up the most points! It can be done!

Also Chris Addison is coming to Winchester on Sunday 10th June. It was over £20 but worth it and I couldn't miss the opportunity to see him live so close to home.

Lastly, I will be 26.2 years old on the 22nd of July, which fortunately is a Sunday, so I thought it would be a good thing to find a marathon somewhere on that date. I found a 50-mile challenge in Kent, which would be OK but I'd feel silly stopping after only 26! The only other marathon race is on the Isle of Man, which is probably the most difficult place for me to get to, even though it looks like a great event. So I've mapped out a route along roads from Winchester to Basingstoke which is the right distance, but I've no idea how practical it would be to do. I'll find out on July 22nd!

These were taken at about 4:40 this morning:







Luckily it was a beautiful day. I set off from Winchester at 4:30am and ran door-to-door until I reached my mum's/my old house in Alton. I was about 20 minutes quicker than when I did it the other way around, although I found a slightly shorter route, didn't get lost and I reckon it's more downhill from Winchester to Alton.

Having reached Alton, fortunately the 10-mile road race was about to start, so I did a last-minute entry and ended up coming last in about 2 hours 7 minutes! Everything considered, this wasn't especially slow but the field was made up mainly of experienced club runners. And of course if I'd gone in fresh I would have run faster (and run the whole thing too!)

So that is my longest day in terms of running - I just clipped seven hours in total covering a marathon plus another six miles or so.

Can I just clarify - I'm not a Satanist, I just read the book.

The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey

( Read more... )

I should really write in here when I'm feeling bad, too, as then it would present a more rounded picture. I haven't been doing too well food-wise this week and am sure to have gained a lot of weight come Saturday. I ran on Bank Holiday Monday but gave up any exercise Tuesday or Wednesday in favour of eating. I got given too many sweets and chocolates but still spent loads on unnecessary snacks.

However, tonight it was run club and all is well. I started going last week and really enjoy it. I've had texts and calls throughout the day from family, work was OK and I've generally had a good day! I'm 26, which I reckon is the first time I can say with certainty that I am no longer a "young person".

Mum, Dad and Jack clubbed together and bought me my first Garmin, which I haven't had a chance to play with yet but should be really great to monitor my progress.

I'll start again on Saturday! Apparently there is a 10-mile race in Alton on Sunday. Where does everyone find out about these races?

I entered the London Marathon ballot and was surprised that entries are still only £32. Brighton Marathon 2013 places are now selling for £65 (if they've not gone already) - over twice as much! And the Brighton organisers are thinking of charging the spectators next year, too. Dear oh dear. You don't even get 5k split times! I - somewhat arrogantly - put on the form that I was aiming for four hours.

Did I write about the 9.7km multi-terrain run on Sunday? I put it on the Marathon Talk forums under "rate your run" and gave it 5 out of 10. Started by the Mayor of Winchester, it was the inaugural event and the Mayor said that it could extend to a half marathon in future! The 6 miles were bad enough, though, as it didn't stop raining the whole time and we were "running" (mostly walking in my case!) across very muddy, slippery fields and trails. Imagine, if you've ever been to Glastonbury in a wet year, trying to run through that mud with no solid pathways underneath and several deep puddles to navigate!

I didn't come last but I was not far from it, and finished in a personal worst of 1hr 13min! There were fewer than 80 competitors though and the best time was around 36 minutes.

Before I begin, the split times have come through for the Brighton Marathon. Aiming for a sub-4:30 I went through half way in 2:14:39! That's pretty spot on! But even though it felt otherwise, I slowed down significantly in the second half.

( Stalking people you've never heard of )

I know I'm on the internet and this shouldn't be surprising, but, planning to spectate at the London Marathon next weekend, I'm looking at their interactive map, which is SUPER COOL by the way, and you can move the slider along the bottom of the screen to show where the runners will be as time goes by. You can see when the wheelchair racers, the elite men, the elite women and the "mass race" will finish. Fair enough. But there's also this little running tag called "You" and when I drag the slider along it turns out that "I" would finish the London Marathon, were I running it, at 13:49, which is the time that I did in fact finish the Brighton Marathon (chip times may differ).

I'll do a proper race report of Brighton in the next couple of days but this freaked me out a bit. I just find it amazing that "it" knows my time, and would be able to keep track of me were I doing the London Marathon. I feel like I'm being watched... LOL.

If anyone happens to see any coverage of Brighton, that's the (rather difficult) number to look out for.

I've been doing exploratory trail runs over the past few days, discovering scenery I didn't know about before. Pics under the cuts.

( Friday )

( Sunday )

Ahead of my first marathon.

Is that wise?

Well it's better than doing no exercise and stuffing my face with chocolate and curry (not at the same time), isn't it?

I'm actually up to date on Marathon Talk episodes now, after listening to all of them since the beginning of time. Well, 2010. What will I fill my ears with now?!

Music and running

After the shocking 32:08 parkrun last week, yesterday I managed 27:24, which is 18 seconds slower than my personal best. Quite an improvement in one week! I ran loads leading up to it though, catching up with an hour and a half Monday to Thursday and two hours on Friday night. It's brilliant as now that the clocks have gone forward it's still light even if I'm out for three hours after work. This means that I can go across the fields in the evenings as well as on Sundays and as they're so pretty it's a great motivator.

What's also motivating, particularly when I'm out on my own for so long, is music. Now admittedly - with the exception of a Tribes EP - I haven't bought anything new since the last Wombats album but there's a wealth of good stuff on my iPod. I run with it on random so it can sometimes unhelpfully play slow songs but today's playlist helped me run 13.4 miles in two and a half hours:

( Typical of a long run selection )

Written last night.

I warmed up with a slow two-hour run around the perimeter of Winchester and arrived at the Bar End stadium with a couple hundred others to do the Sport Relief mile. The first digit of participants' race numbers signified how many miles they were going to run - probably 75% including the majority of children were doing one mile, just over half the rest three miles and a handful of people including myself the full six miles.

I was not representative of the typical Sport Relief Mile runner. There were loads of children, which was great, although I am a bit dubious of the one or two parents who thought it was a good idea to sign their kid up for six miles. The presence of people in good running kit was outweighed by fancy dress and casual gear. One six-mile - and I hesitate to use the word "runner" - turned up in denim shorts. So running a good time was really not the point of the race, which was a pity because it was an almost perfectly flat course (hard to come by in Winchester), and six times one lap, which made observing your mile splits a piece of cake.

So here are mine:

Mile 1: 9:17
Mile 2: 9:09
Mile 3: 9:10
Mile 4: 9:20
Mile 5: 9:26
Mile 6: 9:25

That's an average of 9:18-minute miles, sustained over six of them! I am pretty pleased. At the start of this month, Marathon Talk wanted me to predict a race time and I said I would do six miles in 55 minutes. I figured out on the start line that this would mean 9:10-minute miling; considering my current level of fitness and yesterday's 32:08 parkrun, that seemed impossible. So to do the first in a speedy 9:17 was great! I haven't run that fast since I set my 5k personal best. Totalling those splits comes to a finish time of 55:47 so if I had gone on for another 0.2 miles it would certainly have been a 10k PB! Of course, I started out a bit too fast which should have been difficult given all the slow children surrounding me. But after the one- and three-milers dropped off it was easier to go at my own pace. My legs felt tired after only three miles (but to be fair my "warm-up" was around ten) but I bore in mind Tony Audenshaw's advice to "f*** your legs!" and pushed through. I wanted to give it my best. (Frustratingly though my internet's not working - I think Virgin Media are doing an upgrade - so I can't post the time I tried so hard to achieve!*)

So we're getting closer to race-day weather, closer to being able to wear race-day kit and, most importantly, closer to optimal race-day fitness.


*8pm: Got internet back now and posted my time. I also mapped it on Mapmyrun.com and it comes up as 0.94 miles but the race track is still a building site on Google maps so I'll not worry ;)

My randomised desktop background aptly chose to show me the picture I took of the old pier at about 6pm on marathon day last year, reminding me that in just one month's time I will have completed the Brighton Marathon.

Regarding my training I am behind but see plenty of scope to catch up. I am using the fact that Easter is before the marathon not as an excuse to eat a huge amount of chocolate that I'll certainly "run off" but to have extra time to run to be in great shape come race day.

So excited! A big thanks to everyone who's already sponsored me but if you would still like to my page is http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/sarah_a67

I'm looking up the Marathon Talk presenters on the parkrun website. Basically I wanted to find out if I'd crossed paths with Tom Williams at any point, as he set up Leeds parkrun and it seems he's there a lot. I might even go as far as to say he changed my life, as if I hadn't starting running in Leeds I might never have started running at all... but that would be a little over dramatic.

Maybe it's a good thing then that we never ran the same event.

Tom's page | My page

I find it amusing that he ran in December 2008, before I'd started parkrunning, but that his next one wasn't until the end of September 2009, the week after my last run in Leeds! And he seems to have been pretty consistent since then, at least until 2012.

Still, he may well have been volunteering and offered me words of encouragement at some point, but buggered if I can remember anything specific that far back.

I want to run in Leeds again and am thinking of going there over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend as I really miss it.

I took the 8:53 bus from Winchester to Alton and ran back: 23 miles in 5:07:04! (I got slightly lost and was expecting to do 21 miles.)

I averaged 13:25-minute per mile pace... I guess I was aiming for about 12 but didn't account for the ground being quite that slippery in the rain or for my avoidance of a sheep-worrying conviction by slowing down and walking through a few fields of them.

Oh, and the snow.

Yes, at Ropley, about two-and-a-quarter hours in, it started to snow and I couldn't believe it! I had gone out in the freezing rain and already couldn't feel my hands and the blizzard lasted until I got within 5k of my house. Then the sun came out and it was quite warm outside Winchester Cathedral!

Still, I can categorically state that the weather won't be like that in Brighton on 15th April.

Here is the entire route on maymyrun.com. I keep almost typing "ruin" instead of "run", which is quite accurate. Pain, I feels it. But it is not even as bad as how I felt after my very slow 19-mile run the other week. Might even be able to walk tomorrow...

Might also need to readjust my sub-4:30 estimate for Brighton, but RunBritain disagrees, now thinking I am capable of a 4:17! Here's hoping the crowds spur me on. There was pretty much no-one else on the trail today.

The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand

( Read more... )

With all this talk of running and Sherlock, you'd be forgiven for thinking I'd forgotten about The Cribs. I'm very belatedly listening to Monday's Zane Lowe show before it disappears from the internet forever, and the first track he played was their new song! I didn't know what it was until the end and about halfway through I was thinking, this sounds like a new band who are trying to sound like The Cribs (but the accents were familiar).

I don't know yet if that's a good thing or not. Apparently I no longer have a Cribs icon :/

I have had a fantastic week off, culminating in this morning's 10k road race. I was aiming for under one hour - I finished the one proper 10k I've done before in an hour and four minutes. And today? 58:36! Very pleased and I was buzzing afterwards! I saw a woman from work and some guys from Basingstoke parkrun who also did really well.

I went through the first 5k in 28:59, which I was really pleased about, and believe I would have done a negative split (where you run the second half quicker than the first) if I hadn't got a really painful stitch just after 8k. I ran through it, though, and managed a sprint finish. I am grateful to Marathon Talk because listening to their podcasts over the past few weeks has given me some great advice on how to improve my running. I kept a good overall pace despite going off quite fast (though slow at first with all those people to get past).

It was a hilly course along roads which I am mostly familiar with, and the finish line was literally five minutes' walk from my house! Brilliant! And the weather was perfect. It was chip-timed so you could get a little receipt printed out at the end. I would like to thank the marshals and organisers for doing a great job, and the motorists along the way for their patience.

According to mapmyrun.com, the route was a perfect 6.2 miles and I managed 9:26-minute miling! Considering how knackered I felt I'm glad my target marathon pace is over 30 seconds slower! And according to runbritain.com (which thinks I should be aiming for a 4hr 36 marathon based on my 5k times), a 59:22 10k would have been excellent ;)

Today I ran from my house to Alresford and back, which didn't seem very far but took me over three hours. Unhelpfully I'd eaten far too much the night before so didn't feel at my best, but managed a 12-minute-12-second per mile pace over the 15.4 miles. Had I kept going instead of turning back and spent the same time in total running, I would have reached Four Marks, so I estimate that I could run home - given I don't get lost! - in 3 hours 45 minutes on a good day.

This got me thinking about my marathon pace and I concluded that I would have to run 10-minute miles consistently in order to achieve a sub-4:30. It seems achievable.

I like how my mindset has changed so that "long" runs are no longer a measly ten miles!

I need to focus on the fact that it is the start of a week's holiday, rather than worrying about Monday 27th when I'll be back at work having forgotten how to do my job and being picked up on stuff I've done wrong over the past few days, which will be ancient history then.

When I was with the agency I barely had time off at all. I took one day's leave in 2011, to attend an interview! It was good because I prefer the routine of work and was paid for the days I didn't take, so it could be quite lucrative. However that is no longer the case and I have plenty of holiday to use up so hopefully I'll find something to do with myself. I've already taken a week off following the Brighton Marathon in April. My manager is less than pleased because of its proximity to the financial year end, but she did approve it.

Yesterday I went home for the afternoon to visit my family and collect a few belongings, after running a 27:06 PB in Basingstoke and having no time to shower. I walked to Chawton and back with mum and Jack, then sorted out my stuff. At that point I realised I'd have to carry three large bags back from Winchester bus station to my house, which was a challenge particularly as I was so tired. Me, mum, Jack and Harry went for dinner at The Swan hotel, which was excellent and really good value for money. We picked Katie up from Sainsbury's, where she works, went back home and chatted a bit before I got the last (!) bus back at 7:40pm.

On Monday and Tuesday I will be in London - going to see Ladykillers again and to a lecture at the LSE. Also I desperately want to cycle.

Wednesday and Thursday I will be catching up on various things back in Winchester.

On Friday I am doing my first conservation volunteering in Basingstoke, which should be fun. I've been on their mailing list a while now but it always clashed with working days, so it's good to have some time off to give something back.

I'm also looking forward to running in the mornings as I normally go out after work when I'm quite tired and it is getting dark.

I've lost a stone in a week again. Oops.

I was actually disappointed by having lost too much weight! I am now 10 stone 11. So not far to go. The huge loss had more to do with my severe overeating and lack of exercise in the tail end of last week than being too restrictive this week, because I have officially given up my Saturday binges.

I have allowed myself to snack when I am hungry and have focused my grocery shopping on healthy alternatives. A week ago I spent over £30 (which is a lot of food for a price-conscious shopper!) in Badger Farm Sainsbury's on everything I could think of that has been mentioned in relation to healthy eating and runners' nutrition. I still have a lot of it left and pretty much just needed to buy fresh vegetables today.

The other factor is, because I ate badly I made up for it by clocking up nearly 50 miles of running since last Saturday, totalling over 10 hours! It was a very slow pace overall but I'm training for a marathon so I need to know I can do the distance required without faltering. I bought a lovely map of St. Swithuns Way from the Hampshire County Council information office opposite my work, which shows that, had I gone for just two more miles last Sunday and not got lost, I would have been able to run home. It is in fact only 21 miles away by footpath (haha, "only"), and I'd already done 19. So that would take me up to five hours but probably will be less when I attempt it in the near future as the ground won't be as slippery and I'll be healthier.

( parkrun talk )

...you're running on uneven terrain and think, "I don't trust my legs".

That was tonight, during my two-hour recovery run. I know, because of that time, it was NOT a recovery run! But I was very, very slow.

I was recovering from my 19-mile run/walk yesterday. I had originally planned to run from Winchester to Alton, which (off-road) is about marathon distance. The snow we did get here on Saturday evening was washed away by heavy rain during the night so that wasn't a problem, although the route (St. Swithuns Way) was quite muddy and slippery in places. Plus I have no sense of direction and got up too late so running home was not feasible. I just went to somewhere near Alresford and back; it took 4.5 hours.

I do feel better after running this evening. I was having trouble going up and down stairs, particularly down stairs.

I went up to London on Friday and ended up staying for three nights because I couldn't tear myself away! I did Hampstead Heath parkrun on Saturday - going to the Heath means I am bound to get lost so luckily I found this nice guy who showed me to the start line. I've newfound respect for Basingstoke as a flat course but still managed to come 86th in a time of 28:06. Hampstead Heath parkrun had a younger demographic (I came 6th out of 12 in my age category!) and a smaller, community feel to it, although the regulars there said that the turnout was unusually high. It was only the 38th event there and I stood out like a sore thumb in my 100 jacket!

Regarding the Sherlock meetup, this tumblr post is all you really need to know. So awesome :D

That was Saturday morning/early afternoon - we then spent a few hours in the Bree Louise like last year and split into two groups to visit Baker Street (the actual one) and a natural history museum near the LSE. I opted for the latter group as I'd been to the Sherlock Holmes Museum several times already and dead things in jars were kind of interesting! At 6pm we did the "Sherlock Holmes Saves The Nation" walk with the fabulous Richard IV. He thinks that Holmes and Watson should always live together and we agreed. I admire him for tolerating such a large group of excited fans!

On Sunday I did my long run, again at Hampstead Heath, and was about 20 minutes late for the meetup due to once again getting lost! But I managed to find everyone in Trafalgar Square. We went to Starbucks for coffee and Wagamama on the South Bank for lunch and then looked at a designer coffin exhibition. About half left and the rest of us crossed back over the river and hung out in Covent Garden for a bit.

Thanks to morelindo for organising the weekend! It was fab.

I just watched Skins and Chris Addison made me cry.

Europe's largest bell will ring to start a £27m Olympic opening ceremony

So the one they used in Frankenstein, then?

Fucking terrifying.

I can't watch the video on that page because my "high speed internet access" in this hotel is a lie.

I'm fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust.

Please help me make a difference by making a donation to my Virgin Money Giving page.

To find out more about what I'm doing and why, please visit http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/sarah_a67 where you can also sponsor me online.

Don't forget to tick the box to reclaim Gift Aid on your donation if you're a UK tax payer. Virgin Money Giving will pass this on in full to charity, making your donation go even further.

Thanks for your support,
Sarah

Last night I went to my ~Mind Palace~ and came up with the following analysis.

( Least concise explanation EVER. Spoilers, naturally... )

I was listening to the parkrun show from a few weeks ago and they mentioned washing your barcode (what they use to register your run time). I thought, what a silly thing to do - I would never be so careless! Last night I panicked trying to find my barcode as it wasn't in my purse. I had to look back at the photos on the website to see which trousers I had been wearing. I checked the back pocket and sure enough my barcode was in there, freshly mangled from the wash!! So I had to print out and "laminate" (with sellotape) a new one before I went to bed.

Today I was about 30 seconds slower than last week.

Basketball was changed to Friday - last night - and Debi, the coach there, is really helpful. She taught me how to shoot properly and I actually scored some good baskets. I tried hard to be fast when defending as well, but I'm still very slow compared to the others. Debi mentioned a group that's run on Mondays for women who are getting back into basketball, which she thought would be more appropriate for me so she's going to find out the details and email me. Brilliant! She didn't know the cost but the training sessions for Panthers (which I've attended two of as a free taster) will be £4 a week, which I'm not sure I can afford, especially as I have to spend £5.40 getting to parkrun each week.

And I've spent too much on a hotel for next weekend! Although it is probably worth more than twice what I paid. I will try to do parkrun in Hampstead Heath - the hotel's really close to North Gower Street so I should be able to rush back, shower and meet up with everyone by 11am. That is if I don't get lost!!

At Basingstoke station, on the back of one of the toilet cubicle doors, someone had put a sticker that read, "MORIARTY WAS REAL". LOL that campaign reached Basingstoke.

Yeah so my previous post was the actual reaction but this entry will be more detailed and (hopefully) coherent!

( Spoilers! )

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

( Minor Sherlock spoiler )

Also, The Drill Hall (where awesome things get recorded) is now apparently called The Rada Studios.

Also also, there is a Holmescest comm. I would say it's my guilty pleasure but I don't even feel guilty.

For the first time in my adult life, I am a healthy weight! I weigh 155lbs and my BMI is 24.27. Actually I reached it last week, when I lost a stone in a week after gaining 9lbs over Christmas! So a much healthier loss of 0.8lbs this week. (Why is "pounds" "lbs"?)

I can't describe how happy I am to have reached this goal as I've been aiming for a healthy BMI for as long as I can remember. I would still like to lose my tummy though - ideally I'd be 10 stone; one more stone to lose.

I started basketball on Thursday night, which is a very good workout. It's not usually held at the university but it took 15-20 minutes to run there, and I ran back as well. I did feel slow and uncoordinated compared to the other players but I hadn't played since sixth form college, which was eight years ago! Back then I would have been out of breath by the end of the jog round and I felt good that I was about as physically fit as everyone else, despite being a bit bigger. I had fun, which was the main thing of course, and will go again next week :D

And at parkrun I got a PB: 27:21! I'm now under 5:30 minutes per km.

Over Christmas and the New Year there's been some great telly - notably all my favourite comedic actors in period costume doing random one-off programmes. There was Felix and Murdo, with Armstrong and Miller, which wasn't that great to be honest but I'll watch anything those two are in. And it was followed by the "best bits" of their old sketch show which I hadn't seen on TV before.

Then last night it was The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff with Robert Webb, Stephen Fry, David Mitchell, Katherine Parkinson - basically everyone good - in a Christmassy Dickens tale. I'm a treacle fiend!

But most exciting of all I only just found out as its trailer was shown after QI XL. You know when you are so immersed in a fandom that it becomes heavily distanced from the source material, then you drift away and kind of forget about it? I've mostly been concerned with Cabin Pressure towards the end of the year and wasn't expecting this 2010 fandom to be back so soon... well Sherlock series 2 episode 1 will be shown on January 1st!! SO EXCTIING. THAT IS ACTUALLY LESS THAN 48 HOURS! It's weird seeing new footage as we've only had the three episodes so far and I forgot I could get this excited about Sherlock! LOL.

I've avoided "spoilers" up until now and from the trailer alone it looks like they have progressed with the story and characters, which is good. OMG SUNDAY. CAN'T WAIT.

1. I won at weight_comp!

2. lesscushion is more active lately. I posted a year review there. It's friends-locked but the community is well worth joining if you want to become healthier.

3. Yesterday I was out running when I was stopped by a drunk man about my age trying to convince me to have sex with him. This went on a while as we walked together and he showed/told me all about himself. It was quite disturbing and he kept holding the back of my neck and at one point did manage to kiss me. He thought I was a lesbian because of my hair and I wouldn't let him think otherwise. I've reported the details to Crimestoppers - this guy had many distinguishing features and has been arrested, he told me, 16 times before, so it shouldn't be too difficult to catch him. I was out running anyway, so was literally able to run away when he held back to light a spliff and there was no chance of him catching up with me.

I just opened up my newsletter from the Shop and Scan panel, and it reads as follows:

If you fancy a short break from the festivities, have a read through our feature article on Penguins and Polar bears. You may feel slightly warmer reading about how these amazing animals can survive below freezing temperatures, and learn some interesting facts about them too.

How can I NOT read that in Arthur's voice?

In case you're interested, I'll copy and paste.

Polar bears are the largest carnivores on Earth. They live within the Arctic Circle; the coldest place on Earth. Temperature can fall below -55° Celsius, and winds can blow at 30mph. During the very harsh weather conditions, most animals will migrate south, apart from polar bears. Their size and endurance helps them tolerate the conditions they live in. Polar bears are very strong swimmers. They can swim at 6mph and have been known to swim 100 miles in one stretch. Their fur is oily and water repellent, meaning they can shake off water very quickly after a swim.

Despite common assumption, polar bear fur is not white. Each hair is a hollow tube which reflects light giving it the appearance of being white. Their skin, below all the fur, is actually black! Like penguins, polar bears have a layer of ‘blubber’ fat under their skin, for insulation against the cold.

Female polar bears start to have babies at the age of 4 or 5. When born, the cubs are much smaller than human babies, often weighing less than a pound. If fed well, they can grow to a full mans size within a year. Their diet consists mainly of seals. They have a powerful sense of smell, being able to smell dead seals and whales from 20 miles away, and one meter below a layer of ice.

Polar bears live 25-30 years on average. Adult males usually weigh between 360-770kg, and females weigh between 220 and 270 kg. Males can grow up to ten feet in height!

Or, in other words, POLAR BEARS ARE... BRILLIANT!

Last week I had the excuse of not knowing when bin day was but, since I just filled the recycle bin with collapsed cardboard boxes, I thought I should find out and do it. It was quite an effort. Probably because of the weather, the back gate was stuck shut, and there were three latches to open. I asked Matt to help before I kicked the gate down in case he knew of a better way but he ended up kicking the gate down, practically! I was standing there with my torch and wheeled the bin out once he'd managed to force the gate to move. I left said gate ajar because otherwise we'd have the same trouble next week.

Lol, domestic excitement there. Christmas is (almost) finally upon us so I will be going home for four whole days! Dad's kindly agreed to pick me - and my stuff - up from Winchester before parkrun on Saturday and drop me home afterwards. It'll be a 7:45am start.

Work's Christmas meal yesterday was very different from the one in Alton. It was booked from 12 - 2pm but the small team I'm in were the first to leave at 3:30pm! A lot of people took the afternoon off and drank well into the evening (and some missed work this morning too!). After my delicious tomato soup, traditional turkey and indulgent chocolate tart at my last work's Christmas do, I opted for ham salad, sea bass and white chocolate fruit tart. Although I felt a bit jealous of the turkey eaters who couldn't finish their chocolate caramel cakes, it was nice and I didn't eat anything later that day, which was good of me.

Just got a text from the landlord saying it's bin night, LOL.

I went for an hour-long run after work today intending to end up at Tesco, which I did eventually but not before running to Sainsbury's first! That's like three miles in the other direction. Tesco Extra looks awesome but it's not as good as I was expecting.

This morning I awoke, freezing, at 5:00 and ran 5k on the frosty (but not slippery) Alton pavements. I showered, had breakfast and left for Basingstoke, arriving at the War Memorial Park for 8:30. I volunteered again at parkrun, which was fun, except it was Run Director Euan's last day there so we will miss him very much. I wrote a short paragraph in his farewell book. We were standing around in the freezing cold for what seemed like ages; my jobs today were to help mark out the course and to hand out the numbered tokens to the finishers.

We came back to Alton and Dad and Jack helped load the car up to go pretty much straight on to Winchester, from whence I write this. We spent many hours in town shopping, eating and generally wandering (we took in the Christmas Market at the Cathedral, which is awesome but I will have to go back again earlier in the day when it's not overly busy) and I signed my rent contract at the landlord's house, whereby most of my bank balance disappeared.

I met Matt and Richard, two of three housemates, and Matt's girlfriend Zoe. James, the other housemate, is away this weekend. Richard will be moving out soon and a new female housemate will arrive (Dad may even have a cleaning job for when this happens!) They seem very nice and friendly, as well as tidy and not at all noisy - we're not allowed parties in the house so from my point of view this is a bonus.

Two things I need to find out:
1. Whose turn it is to do the cleaning this weekend (we have a detailed rota provided by the landlord which is useful if onerous). I don't mind if it's me! At the moment the house is not as pristine as I was expecting, but good enough.
2. How we are going to work the bills out. I don't need the entire digital TV package for sure.

I have been reading my LJ from when I started uni and I seemed much more willing then to mix with the people I was living with - this tapered off and I became something of a hermit up to my last graduation. But after two years' work experience, particularly on reception where I had to interact with people on a daily basis and found I didn't mind it that much, I have become much more relaxed and willing to get to know others. I definitely don't want to go back to being the paranoid girl hiding in her room away from everyone. It feels quite nice to accept that this is my home too, and to feel comfortable sitting/doing whatever in the communal rooms. Long may it continue.

Oh yeah and I'm going to be dirt poor from now on.

I've finished my Christmas shopping - did it all online in the end despite spending hours shopping in Basingstoke and Portsmouth this weekend.

( I also bought a tree for my room )

Tomorrow I'm viewing a house in Winchester. Two things I need more of: sleep and money! I'm going to get the early bus to see if I can actually get to work on time going from Alton.

Tentatively it's 13th December - I had to make sure it was after my current team's Xmas meal so I start in Winchester on a Tuesday. I underestimated how long it took to chase up references but fortunately they were all positive this time.

I'm anticipating a quiet day at work tomorrow because a lot of people will be on strike. I intend to carry on working for at least the next 75 years so I don't have to worry about retirement.

I've had this journal since 2004 but did only my second proper friends cut this week. It likely won't affect anyone reading this as it was mostly dead communities and people who haven't updated since at least 2009 and never comment. But if you're a lurker who'd prefer to be kept just shout and I'll re-add you (I realise the irony there). Nothing is anything personal. Also I'm deleting the stupid, very old entries so if you want to go back and LOL now's your chance... Orlando Bloom and Quizilla are waiting.

I have finally found the time to start dealing with those 1,000+ items of media (books, CDs, DVDs, etc.) lurking under my desk. So far I have read one book! Well done me. I thought after reading the books I would post up some quotes I liked. Too lazy to do proper reviews or anything but I hope it's interesting nonetheless.

So here are some quotes from Down And Out In Paris And London by George Orwell.

( Under here )

Now I have to find some way of getting rid of the books so that the money goes to charity.

I joined weight_comp as it's a free, online alternative to community weightloss groups. And I'm rather competitive, so I signed up to their six-week challenge. The mod has just posted up the initial table with everyone's BMI etc. and I viewed it whilst eating pic and mix :( I felt so guilty! These days I tend to reach the middle of the week and crash - usually out of habit or simply liking food too much - but today I recognised that it was because I felt bad and/or was bored. I felt angry and upset and like I couldn't concentrate on the thing I wanted to do, which was reading. I also could not bring myself to update LJ before I ate (by the way it wasn't just the sweets - I had a huge tub of biscuits and some Ready Brek too). I make up excuses such as "it's cold so I need the food to keep warm", which I know is bollocks.

I was sad because on Monday night my dad was texting me messages intended for my mum, but she refuses to speak to him. We think he was drunk and he was saying how he still loved her (they're divorced and have been for over two years) and in one message, implied that it was my job to get them back together and thinking about my own life was pointless and I was not looking at the "bigger picture". Last week he asked how my interview had gone and I told him the good news; he did not even reply. I suppose he is still bitter about that BOC job that he wanted to get for me. About a year ago (and I believe he still thinks this) he accused me of letting mum control my life, whereas he should be the one doing it. Um, excuse me, I don't want anyone "controlling my life", thank you very much. I just live with mum because I have to and I don't like her partner any more than I like you.

This week's House episode was well timed.

And I haven't heard any more about the Winchester job. I know it's only been a week but I'm impatient and fearing the worst, because the worst happened the last time I got a conditional offer. I don't want to ask if there's any news in case I'm doing it wrong (phone vs. email) or appear not to trust them, but on the other hand is it a test and should I be asking??

Yes, I should have written that before I binged.

I've scheduled in an extra hour's run for tomorrow afternoon (doing my usual run in the morning before work) so that I don't gain weight and appear ridiculous in the chart on weight_comp.

Sorry if that was jumbled and well done if you read it all. Maybe I will be able to concentrate on stuff now.

It is a conditional offer so I'm hesitant to be too excited, but hopefully I will be starting as a Finance Assistant in Winchester mid December :)

It's been a weird week. Tuesday felt like Friday and Thursday felt like Monday, as I had the day off for my interview on Wednesday. I was very nervous beforehand and prepared loads, but couldn't really tell how it went. The interview questions were pretty much as I had expected them, but the council offices were very shiny and nothing like the Hampshire County Council I am familiar with, having only visited the smaller, Social Services, offices previously.

So it felt like I was going for a graduate position, even though I wasn't, and that was quite intimidating*. After 5-10 minutes I wanted absolutely to leave the interview. There was a panel of three - two men asking questions and one woman observing - who each worked in one of the finance departments that they were recruiting for. I answered all the questions - having not had an interview since December 2009 I realised I'd built up much experience to draw upon - but I'm not sure if what I said was wholly relevant.

I'll hear at the start of next week.

*I had an email about a graduate insight analyst position at McDonalds, which I thought would be perfect for someone with my skills, knowledge and experience, but not me. I don't believe I am "graduate calibre".

A couple of things before I begin:

- I have an interview on Wednesday for the admin/finance role with HCC. I turned down the other one and dad was only disagreeable for a minute, so it's worked well so far.

- I'm getting Graze boxes delivered on Wednesdays and Saturdays to help curb my unhealthy snacking! If you want a free box, you can go to the website and enter the code: V9FH6KB.

Today I ran from Farnham to Guildford, along the first 11 miles or so of the North Downs Way. Here is a map; it goes all the way to Dover!

(click a few times for bigger)



( More pics of beautiful Surrey countryside )

I had database access at work for one week before it was taken away again. Apparently agency staff are not allowed it and my manager should never have sent me on the training! (Despite me using it for six months last year). The position of full-time receptionist has only just been advertised externally so I've got at least another month there, probably more.

The thing is, I'm bored. Mechanical Turk is all well and good when reception's quiet and there's nobody around, but I've done over 700 HITs now and earnt far more than I want to spend on Amazon.com. There is not enough work to last me even half of any given day, and I thought this would have been overcome as I could have used the database in my work - not only to help everyone else out but to use up my time too. (Everyone else both at the Family Centre and at Park House seems very busy all the time when I'm just not).

Dad is friends with a man who works at BOC Gases in Guildford. I wouldn't mind moving there but I can't make myself at all interested in the company. What I hate is people being given jobs on privilege, but my dad is the kind of person it's difficult to say no to. So I'm going to have an interview next week that I don't want to go to. I don't even have a job description (I think it's admin?) and all I did to apply was tidy up and email my CV.

There was a job advertised on the Hampshire County Council website for an admin-leading-to-finance role, which I would be much more interested in. It's in Winchester, which is nice too, if farther than I'd like from London. It only requires GCSEs. I spent the whole morning on Tuesday putting together an application form online and sending it off - and haven't heard back yet. Tuesday was the deadline and, as I'm so far behind on my personal emails, the first time I'd seen the advert.

It's probably clear which job I'd prefer. Leaving aside the fact that I'm so terrible at interview and will likely get neither, moving out of this house will be beneficial, and both provide an income that will allow me to do so. I want to stay with Hampshire County Council because it's a good working culture and can't any more envision working for a company where the primary motive is profit maximisation. Degree in Business Studies? Pah.

I went to Alice Holt again today - got off the train at Bentley and ran in random directions for an hour and 25 minutes. I ended up in Farnham so had to get the train back from there!

( A couple of pics )

I've also located an 11-mile footpath from Farnham to Guildford so that should be a fun one for a future run.

In the 10k I came 130th out of 152 and achieved an age-graded score of 46.72%. My recent 5k age grades are around the 51-52% mark, but the Alton course was more difficult than Basingstoke. Somewhat surprisingly I was the fifth-youngest runner overall and the youngest female runner.

On Saturday it will be exactly six months until race day! According to the internet, given my Alton 10k time of 01:04:02, I can expect to finish the Brighton Marathon in five hours (26.2 miles is 42.2k and my marathon pace will obviously be slower). But because of the six month thing I intend to step up my training and really enforce my diet. Maybe I won't join Slimming World - I know what I need to do and normally have no trouble sticking to it. It's easy enough to maintain my current weight and I'm OK with it, as long as I remain fit. For 26 weeks I'll measure weight, calories and runtimes and hopefully see a vast improvement! That's the plan, anyway.

And I need to start fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust.