Magic Pill

Just recently there have been a number of TV programmes on TV such as "The men who are making us fat" from BBC2 , "Do Diet clubs really work"  and not forgetting "welcome to the world of weight loss" BBC2 again.  It strikes me that there is a lot of people spending a large amount of time and effort on looking for a magic formula to loss weight and stay thin.

There  already is a magic formula which is; M+ and E- which easily translated in to Move More and Eat Less.  All of the diets mentioned above and all the others are doing exactly the same thing getting us to restrict what we eat in one way shape or form. 

The maths is very simple if you use more calories than you consume then you will either stay the same weight or lose weight, this is all about energy balance. The food we eat is converted into energy our bodies need to function and perform its day to day activities, and our day to day activities all need energy 

Don't get me wrong I am no angel, not the ideal weight for my height (vertically challenged I say) and really need to lose half a stone, but I also love to eat and really loovvee food.

I was naturally gutted when I found out that I am not naturally thin, it was a huge disappointment as you can imagine. So if genetics are not on my side, then it will be down to me to lose the weight I have to make sure that my energy expended in my day to day activities exceeds my calories consumed. As you can imagine this is has been a hard fought war and one that has been going on for a number of years and continues on.  However to help in the battle I have consulted with one or two of the specialist agents mentioned above and I'm a long standing member of Slimming World. Together we have fought this battle side by side, however I was not a long for a free ride, as well as attending the weekly weigh in I had to undertake some solo armed combat with my nemesis's that is chocolate, chips, cheese and alcohol, actually move alcohol up a few positions on my most evil nemesis and put it next to chocolate! 

I have won a few battles and todate kept off the 2.5stone but the war is not over these is still half a stone to lose and even when that has gone there will be a long and drawn out peace treaty that will need to be brokered.  This peace treaty will need to be policed and again I will call upon the UN in form of Slimming World to help with this.

I am not saying that everyone with a problem with food needs to join a slimming club what I am saying  is that we all need a little honesty with ourselves and realise that we are the problem, because once we do that we will realise that we are also the solution. 

Finally remember all the B's

Be who you want to be

Be all that you can be

Be proud 

Thunder Run 2013

The Thunder Run, was one of the major runs on my calendar this year; my first Marathon at London, my marathon PB at Edinburgh and finally I was getting to run the Thunder Run, my running year is nearly complete.

I joined the Trentham Thunder Run Team last year when I went along to see them running it in 2011, the atmosphere was brilliant coined a festival for runners, with 24 hour food and showers what more could one want.

The team and running order was sorted Team Captain Ken had sorted everything out from registering us at the event, calculated everyone’s predicted times and looked after the priceless Trentham tent.

The weather gods were looking down on us and Friday was glorious sunny with a slight breeze; I had begged a lift with Dan Jordan and Jill to reduce the burden of cars on the campsite.  We made it their easily although we did take a lovely detour through Burton upon Trent, we found the Trentham encampment easily and Pickles suggested where we could put our tents, in the nicest possible way.  

Before you knew it the camp had taken shape and it was a sight to behold, we were literally on the course, the runners had to pass our bases so it was ideal for keeping an eye on what was going on.

The sun was still shining so I thought it was an ideal time to have a nice cold Dark Fruits Strongbow cider…….ohh it was lovely and very short lived, it was decided that it would be a good idea to take recky of the course and see what the next day had in for us.  The guys agreed to take it slow and the emphasis was on steady and easy, which in fairness it was, plenty of stopping to take photos and looking out for the really bad bits and for how after 5k it was all downhill…..yeah right.

Heading back in to camp I was looking forward to finishing to cold (now slightly warm) can of cider and a few more for good measure.  Looking at the running order I was not due to run until 5:30 in the afternoon, which was great news and something I held dear as I opened my next few cans……

The morning arrived and the muted tones of early morning camp life could be heard; Lee, Scott and Matt were all heading off to the Merebrook; Sarah and Emily with their little ones were awake and moving around and before long everyone was up and getting more excited as the minutes ticked by. Debbie arrived at the camp and the team was complete, happy days. 

The race starts at 12:00 noon on the Saturday and Dave was up first, we all wished him well and he was off like shot, I took this opportunity to have a look around the expo and made some essential running purchases before heading back to the camp. Back at the camp we settled down to watch the runners pass and send out cheers and shouts of encouragement. It seemed like no time and the 1^st runners were coming passed and when we saw Dave coming striding past looking great! (well a little sweaty and hot, but great all the same).

There was a steady stream of activity at the camp people coming and going, preparing to go out on their runs, getting back and cooling off, refuelling and getting ready for their next loop.

Before I knew it was my turn, the weather was good warm, dry and a slight breeze my idea running conditions. Ken and I headed down to the start, made it in to the runners enclosure and waited for Paul Clinton to pass over the baton to me, then I saw him, which a mixture of anticipation and excitement I snapped the baton around my wrist and headed off.  I was now glad that I had at least seen the course so I knew what was coming and what to look out for.  The trees and woods where the nicest bits of my first lap as they gave you a chance to cool down ad seeing Ken at the 5k mark was brilliant he held out a cup a cold water which I drank a little but dumped the rest on my head.  Made it up the conti climb and then it was all downhill from here, well ish.  Running passed the Trentham camp gave me a real boost and helped me reach for the finish to pass the baton over to Lee Jones and see him flying off.  Please my 1^st lap out of the way and 2 minutes faster than predicted.

Unfortunately from here my times took a nose dive, I can’t take all the blame I would have to say that mother nature had something to do with it, as around 8:3pm we had an awesome thunder and lightning show (it ain’t called the thunder run for nothing), however as the show started to finish the rain started and not one to be upstaged it threw it down in biblical portions for the next 4-5 hours. 

My run was scheduled for 10:45pm (ish) and it was still lashing down, I was very apprehensive, after seeing Andy Vickerman come in covered in head to toe in mud and saying he had fallen twice and broken his head torch! I took over from Paul again and I gingerly headed out on the course, with Paul’s warning ringing in my head “it is bloody mental out there take care”.  The course was indeed more playful than it had been before, fortunately my trail shoes were helping me stay on course and mainly upright. Again running past the camp gave me a great boost and the end was in sight, I enjoyed the run however my time did take a beating officially 1:09….I was down by at least 10 minutes, but on the positive side I was still in one piece and able to run my last lap at 5am in the morning.

I showered, had something warm to eat and headed back into my tent to get some sleep before I was due to head out again. 

Before I knew it Andy V walked past the tent and gave me a knock to make sure I was ready to run, it was 4am, I had gone to sleep in my kit, so they only thing I really needed to do was calm my hair down, wash my face and brush my teeth I was ready to go again.  The great news was that it had stopped raining and the drawn was breaking, I would be running in the light and hopefully less muddy than the night before.  

5:00am saw me at the runner enclosure for the last time, feeling remarkably  refreshed despite only having 3 hours sleep, seeing Paul come running in the finish/start now felt very familiar and he wish me well on my last run.

The only thought that was going through my head during this run was Walter would love this, there was mud, nettles, hills and giant puddles to navigate your way through. Again it seem to be all over in a blur and I was running passed the Trentham camp there were a few more people up than when I left.  The only problem was that Lee was still there, I think I must had taken him by surprise the look of shock on his face made me giggle, I was powering up the hill for the last time and heading down to the finish, lee was in the enclosure and ready to tear it up for his last lap.  Again my time had taken a beating due to the sticky mud making it much harder to get any type of traction, so my last la was 1:05(ish). 

The rest of the morning was a flash of people coming and going; Dave, Scot, Debs, Jon and Andy were all going on their 4^th lap and there was a small piece of me that was glad that I wasn’t going to have to go around again. The camp slowly start to get packed away and then it was time for us all to head off to the finish so we could run in to the finish as a team with Andy.

 We managed to run 26 laps between us and came 11 out of 253 mixed teams, same as last year, there was talk that perhaps we could have made it to 10^th but the night rain and times had really taken the wind out of our sails. 

However there is always next year……….

Green Army 

Special mention of our fantatstic supporters Sammy, Chloe, Lara, Heidi Pickstock and Adam, Scott, Sarah and Dorothy, Emily and Elizabeth, Matt Plant, Lisa, Janson, daughter and friend all made sure we where well looked after with food, refreshments and plenty of words of encouragement.  

A W O L

Don't worry I'm not under the patio! 

I’m sorry for neglecting my blog but I didn't realise it had been so long! It has been a busy old couple of months, with work, college, racing and training.  But that is not a very good excuse for neglecting my blog, it is not that I haven't had some great thoughts for a blog post, I have but then something gets in the way.

I have been toying with the idea of taking out a voice recorder when I run as this is the time that I come up with some of my best ideas you know some are really gold

• what motivates me to run
• why can’t I get faster
• my monthly challenges
• why don’t the fish in the local fishing pond just swim around the edge, no one ever fishes there
• how I would spend the euro millions jackpot

Well I have there a number of short blog titles, so my aim is to write a short blog every week for August.

You have been warned!