World Wide Half 2008

Our plans to run the Mendip Muddle fell apart today when Nick brought the car home sounding like a tractor. It apparently needs a new muffler/silencer, so we decided to RUN LOCAL! We printed out our WWH race bibs and set off with Nelly (the dog).

This is the second year we've pulled out of the Mendip Muddle at the last minute. NEXT YEAR we're REALLY going to do it!


We chose a route along the Grand Union Canal from Chorleywood. Using my Garmin we ran north for 6.6 mi and then retraced our steps along the tow path. It was a foggy morning and very quiet as we padded past the longboats moored along the canal.

It is impossible to resist peaking into the longboats - some are elegant and others are pretty rough. Many in this stretch are on long-term moorings and it feels a bit voyeuristic running a few feet away from someone's private home!

As the miles and heat increased, Nick began suffering the effects of little running training and a late night partying the night before. Ah, the recklessness of youth! He thought that running a little half with Mom would be easy! I resisted smug rightousness (early to bed last night, and being better trained for running despite being 52!) when he dropped out with a pulled groin muscle about mile 10. To his credit, he is incredibly supportive to agree to run with me as he's far more interested in rock climbing and bike riding!

They say that pride comes before a fall... well I was humbled by a tumble on a tree root which resulted in a skinned knee and a tweeked ankle. But I limped on, ignoring the funny looks at the blood dripping down my leg. If I take out the time I spent rolling around in the ditch and brushing myself off, I figure I finished in 2:14. Not a PR, but at least I finished the WWH this year!

Then I shuffled back up the canal path very slowly to meet Nick and buy us ice cream. (Which tasted the best ever!)

There's a sucker born every minute... (and I'm a sucker for any fitness kit)

My friend Liz suggested I check out these shoes, and I think they will really help me (and are just, so ooh cool new shoes!!) They are designed to simulate barefoot walking on uneven ground, like the Masai tribesmen of East Africa, the idea being that this will activate muscles that atrophy when we walk on hard, even surfaces wearing conventional shoes. Hence the name BMT (Barefoot Massai Techology).

Struggling as I do with tight calf muscles which result in plantar fasciitis, anything that lengthens those muscles and tendons has got to help - and the second benefit is better posture. I've found that if I slouch, I tip over forward!

I went shopping with my sister, fully intending to buy a pair of street shoes and, well, the trainers were on sale... and she encouraged me... so I bought two pairs!! (in photos) I did manage to resist the private lessons to learn to run in the trainers...

Well, the street shoes are not obviously strange looking, and once I got over falling forward all the time, I like them. They sort of feel like the Earth shoes I wore back in the 70's, with the heel lower than the foot. However, running in the trainers is pretty odd, but for my cross-London 3 mi commute run, really OK. I don't think I'd recommend them for fast or long runs, because they are heavy and you really can't lean forward in them to push off. But, hey I'm having fun.

Oh, the shame of it! I'm going to have to resign from the Bad Girls of Running. I disgraced the sisterhood.

I really aspired to be "Bad", one tough Mama that people would think twice about messing with - Hey, my sister's got her black belt and drives a Harley!! I had a role model! (that's Linnie in the photo) I run with a big German Shepherd!

I set off this morning to run a usual 6 mi route, one I've run dozens of times before. It crosses through a London Underground Station, and the station staff just wave me through and open the gate. My station is one stop short of the farthest away from London you can ride on the underground, and its a quiet commuter stop, usually deserted mid-day.

Today when I waved at the guy in the ticket booth, this big mean bouncer-type-guy (with a Station Manager name tag), came out the back and told me I could not come though the station without a ticket! I made feeble objections along the line of "but I always do" and "but this is a public footpath", which did not convince him. Looping around the station means running under a narrow busy underpass and perhaps an additional 0.25 mile... but my sense of injustice was in the withdrawal of my entitlement!

That's when things went horribly wrong. I just said "Oh, all right", moaned... and went around. Why didn't I have the presence of mind to:
1) take his picture and send it with a brilliantly critical letter to the local paper
2) teach Nelly to knock down bad guys so I could race by him
3) at least have some clever, cutting and very Bad come-back to his parting snicker of "you're doing this to get more exercise, aren't you?"

I failed, miserably. Maybe I just needed the right T-shirt... Can I have another chance to be Bad?

Nelly and me at the dog training club demonstration at the village fair. It poured during our practice session Friday night, so a break in the rain on Saturday was welcome. But the common was a muddy mess!

Ali's down on the Isle of Wight for a music festival, Bestival - what a nightmare that must be with all this rain!

(This is a very short, 4 second video. Click on the black box, and then the right triangle to play)

Does this look like a good day to run a 10k? I was really lucky that I ran my Nike+ Human Race at 7am, because by noon, the lane in front of my house looked like this! The people that ran the "official race" from Wembly later in the day must have been soaked!

But I could use the mileage for the Bad Girls in the Bad Girls of Running vs Bad Bad Boys of Running Challenge on Runnerplus

I got to meet a podcasting star!

Nigel, the host of the Running from the Reaper podcast, was taking a class near Heathrow and agreed to come and meet me for a run from home. What should have been a 20 min drive here was over an hour with an accident on the M25! I'm sure he was tempted to turn around and go back to his hotel. But he finally made it and we took a few snaps of the historic event (for me!) and we were off on a 7 mile run in the Chiltern hills.

It took me a minute to re-sync my recognition - merging the complete stranger at my door with the very familiar voice I know from his podcast. I can't quite define difference between the Nigel I expected versus the reality, but perhaps he laughed more than the meditative thinker I expected. It didn't take long for me to feel very comfortable with the genuine article!

In fading light we padded along soft trails, chatting about our training, web of friends online, Nigel's recovery from surgery, Staffordshire vs Buckinghamshire - the time flew. Over dinner my husband Billy enjoyed talking to a kindred soul, sharing conspiracy theories, and sock preferences as they are both pretty picky about what they put on their feet!

Missi and Zach are in London! We've done the tourist thing, and we meet Nick tonight to do the cool Camden Finsbury Park Islington tour. Missi and I recorded this greeting for our sibs, Linnie and Miller.