Two Thousand and Great – Weeks 43 & 44

Dear All

Sorry for the lack of email last week I decided to take a quick break from everything and go and see a friend in Valencia which was lovely.

As the cold weather closed in it was nice to get a break. In my head I convinced myself it would be useful to get a bit of warm weather training before my 10k run but instead it turned out to be a series of long nights drinking heavily and eating gorgeous food.

The thing I love about Valencia is the Turia – basically there used to be a river that flowed through the heart of the city which no longer exists. Instead of filling it with housing and shopping centres they decided to turn it into a green space. 

It’s about 9kms long and has incredible fountains and stuff dotted through it, ancient bridges and masses of sporting stuff like football pitches and baseball diamonds, at the end there’s the ultra modern city of arts and sciences. Walking the Turia was lovely but it in no way prepared me for the run which I completed yesterday.

Way back in the spring I was set the challenge to race a friend over a 10k distance, when we originally agreed to race we both set out plans to do training runs and generally be in some kind of fit state to finish in a respectable time.

I even mentioned it in an email a couple of months ago and a friend from New Zealand who is ultra fit doing iron man triathlons and the like gave me a detailed training plan.

Unsurprisingly this didn’t happen, any thoughts of after work runs were washed out, so we headed down to Brighton yesterday in a nervous mood, worrying that the weather conditions actually made those in the lake district look positively balmy.

Armed with a sweat band and some vaseline (don’t ask) and brand new never worn before running shoes, we walked down the promenade getting drenched by rain and spray from the rough seas trying to work out why exactly we had got out of our warm beds in London travelled to the South Coast and were contemplating running in mud and along the promenade.

A little bit of an aside but, buying running shoes was an odd experience, I went to a speicalised running shop and selected a pair of trainers that looked a sensible price, shape style etc.. when the lovely assistant asked if I wanted to have a quick run in them on a treadmill. 

Being the morning after a night before I kindly turned her down but did ask what else they sold in the shop. Downstairs they sold swimming costumes, I had to ask whether they had a hot tub or pool, as it seemed they were going all the way to make you buy one item but not the other. It’s a shame as a quick dip could really have cured my thumping head.

Back to the run, we turned up with under a minute to go, meaning our warm up was slightly less than 30 minutes the organisers suggested, more a case of leap a fence and join the back of the pack than a planned set of sensible stretches and lunges.

That said we joined into the bunch and started our little run. I’d like to say at this point that in some kind of Herculean effort I really impressed, but with my breakfast starting to venture north at around 3k my running partner started to leave me behind. 

The weirdest thing was I didn’t feel at all comfortable, with the huge amount of people that were there, I couldn’t run properly having to take very short strides and basically waddle running like a penguin with thrush which was doing me in.

I dropped back further from my running partner but finally found some space and could run, being taller than most of the others my longer strides meant I caught up and then had the same problem. This made my run slightly odd, I seemed to be able to run in bursts and then have to slow right down.

In the end I think I resorted to a tactic that everyone else does which is to find an attractive girl / boy and follow them admiring the view (of the sea  you perverts!).

Some of the messages that people wrote on their cards which were pinned to their outfits were really inspiring – at this point I am kind of glad i didn’t put the message I had originally written on my card. The opening sentence was I am running for….. my initial idea was to write Jamaica, then it got switched to THE BUS. childish I know but common sense got the better of me and I ran without a sign. I knew why I was there and so did the people I went with it seems almost odd to have to fill that card in.

I’d love to say it was a barnstorming finish but I was beaten around the course by a couple of girls in butterfly outfits so I am fairly sure Seb Coe will not be calling me up for London 2012. The day was great and resulted in another nice donation to the charity which is what really counts.

At the end I received a silver medal which is odd because I think that meant I came second – Cancer Research UK must have an incredible system for working out who finished where, I guess I was second in my weight / height / baldness and beard class… 

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For the more culinary minded of you, I have added another couple of recipes to the cookbook – the oft mentioned Lamb in Olives has finally made it’s debut. that can be seen here:

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Wednesday 22nd was Rainmaking Day and a possible strange day but seeing as it was hammering down when I landed back from Valencia I decided against picking this as a day to celebrate…

Thursday 23rd though was a day I set out to celebrate ‘National Mole Day’ – this wasn’t another rodent / animal based challenge but an attempt to see if I could finally understand the basics of chemistry. 

A mole to break it down to it’s simplest level is a basic measuring unit. It equals the atomic mass of a single molecule measured in grams.

This might help - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit) or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day

I sat down and looked at a couple of websites / text books / worked examples which tried to explain the equation and how to formulate a mole (very important) and I still don’t get it. 

This might not seem that big a deal to 99.9% of people but I studied chemistry A level and this is the main building block of chemistry – it’s akin to not being able to use vowels in an English exam –  if you can’t understand mole calculations everything else on the syllabus is useless.

When exams come around people always say it’s not as hard as it was in my day and the like but this is maths and it can’t change, I could try and  learn it forever but still not get it. To everyine who does get it and get their A stars well done, you’re a far brighter cookie than me.

Friday will be my last Strange day of the month, it was going to be tell a story day (today – which I am kind of doing here, but I don’t think this counts.) So I will attempt to do National Magic Day and maybe recreate the lost illusion of water into wine from Holy Experiment Day back in March.

Any budding magicians that wish to join in please upload a video onto Youtube and let me know the links and I will share the joy.

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I still haven’t drawn the person who purchased the artwork from John & Yoko but it has spurned an idea from one of my supporters. 

I am going to try and create a number of Twothousandandgreat christmas cards. I don’t know yet whether they will be of me with the white beard or drawings but if you fancy some one off cards to give to people for a good cause let me know.

Design ideas will go up shortly, but any suggestions welcomed.

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My current thoughts for Strange Days in November are:

Nov 6th – Guinness World Record Day

Nov 17th – Homemade Bread Day

Nov 21st – National False Confessions Day

But these as ever are subject to change.

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Loads still to do but keep challenging me and I’ll keep on accepting.

Rob / Devani