BTDT - Manchester Great Run

Been there, done that! ..... and in a rather surprisingly good time - all things considered.

Both Di and I managed the course which had something of an atmosphere that was quite exhilerating; with people cheering us on and 'running with the herd' along roads normally reserved for rush-hour traffic. There were various bands and music being played around the course, on a day we probably couldn't have asked for better weather.

The day though dry and sunny with patchy cloud, was cold with a very chilly wind. I was glad for the footless tights I chose to wear with my cheerleaders outfit.

At about the 5km mark, my legs decided they wanted a rest so I had to leave Di to carry the t-girl flag onwards. She got to the finish about 3 minutes before me - under the hour; I was on the hour.... which surprised me 'cos I had to stop and a walk a few times and when I'd done that in training, I was getting times in the order of 5-10 minutes after the hour for running 10km.

I have all sorts of excuses as you might expect - one of which was rather personally embarrasing and only revealed itself a few days after the event! So to do the 10km course in the time that I did was actually not far short of amazing!

That was about 2 weeks ago; certain ailments reasonably recovered from and as such, on getting home from work yesterday I decided I just had to go for a run... 10km of course; no ankle pain afterwards and in a time in the order of the hour again ... although I must admit to still having to take a few rests throughout but I felt I had loads more energy than I had on the day of the Manchester Great Run.

A big thank you to everyone who sponsored us! - I personally raised around £300 for the MS Society.

The final countdown

It's just a week to go now to the Manchester 10k run that Di and I have signed up for. We're both supporting the MS Society and so far I've raised over £200 in sponsorship.

But I've been resting up for the last couple of weeks following a rather bizaare heel and ankle strain that I put down to just getting used to a new pair of running shoes - shoes I bought because I thought they would cushion the impact and save my knee ... which has been just fine BTW!

I've spent most of the last two weeks limping around the office following a rather vigourous 10k session that got me a time just under the hour.... limping which attracted an interesting comment from one of the girls who asked if I had fallen off my stilletos... 'course one just had to reply with 'stilletos would probably feel a lot more comfier than these shoes'!

..... which actually isn't far from the truth; strangely I found that I could walk with no discomfort what so ever whilst I was wearing 4 inch heels; put on a pair of flats and the result was agony.

So I'm hoping my heel and ankle will have recovered sufficiently for the big day; I tried the new running shoes again a couple of days ago and ended up with some mild discomfort - and that was running a distance of just over 6km. So it looks like a couple of pain killers and a glass of the good stuff will be order of the day.....!

Spring Fever

Have you noticed how everyone has turned into some crazed lunatic 'cos the sun has come out? - trying to race you at traffic lights, trying to get past you and the next 6 cars ahead of you all stuck behind the same tractor.... and that's just the women drivers (not a sexist comment - trust me; based purely on numerous events witnessed by both Mrs Kate and I).

If they're not on a mission every where, they're simply walking out in front of you whilst inanely chatting on their mobilephones; completely oblivious to the approaching traffic.

Yes girls! it's that time of year for 'Spring Fever'; when all sanity goes out of the window and those affected by unbridled amounts of testosterone and estrogen tend to do things that any sane person would normally think twice about.

Of course I'm immune to all this - or so I thought..... I put mine down to a temporary rush of blood to my head... you see, I've signed up for the Manchester 1ok run in May (well, it was actually to support two of my bestest friends). I think I was feeling quite pleased with myself in having lost all this weight and acquiring a silth-like figure, and of course doing a daily round trip of just short of 15 miles on my bike to work should make it quite a cinch eh?....

.... I couldn't be more wrong.... doing a 10k run? ... and this is someone who last managed to do (more like dodged) any form of structured running sports way back in high school days.

So having signed up with one of the charities, I thought I better dust off my best pair of trainers and see what I really could do by way of a time to complete 10km. So throwing all caution to the wind (staged training - who needs it?) I did do 10km... it took me a little under 70 minutes (no laughing please - and appreciate that my High School days were over 35 years ago!).

I thought it was a cinch... 10k dead easy... BTDT; a bit more training and I should easily get under the hour.... but the next day and for the best part of the last week has been a different story.... I found muscles aching I never knew I had and my knee... well! .... lets just say that a little over a week on and it's only just recovering.


Spring Fever ... pah!

.... but on the managed weight loss, I've just passed below my target of 168lbs - about 3 months later than expected but at least a positive side to 'Spring Fever'.

Should have used Duracell batteries

It's taken the best part of a week to recover from our outing to Leeds and Manchester... well actually a combination of Leeds, Manchester and that weird bug I came down with just into the New Year.

Friday - it must be Leeds
Much has been said by Mrs Kate on her blog, so I won't repeat that except to say we (Diana, Karen, Emma, Mrs Kate and myself) ventured over the hill to Leeds for 'First Friday' - a self-proclaimed 'award winning' event held the first Friday of every month for the girls on the easterly side of the Penines. I guess we might be a bit spoiled with having the Village nearby, but if you don't have a lot else available near you, most events will appear to be 'award winning'. But it was a good atmosphere, packed and very hot - despite the outside chill. A number of girls we recognised, some on first name terms and others we recognise from their occasional visit to Naps.

So after showing our faces there we went to try a few other bars in the area; The Viaduct, where we sampled the delights of a DJ that kept talking over the music and just one drink before crossing over the road to the Queens Court which had a club I think was called 'The Loft'. The Loft was a bit like Naps in that us (T) girls got in for free whilst Mrs Kate had to pay - each of us getting a letter stamp on the back of our hand that would later prove that only the best of makeup removers could shift!

It seems that like most establishments in the 'Pink Triangle', it catered for the Gay community but not so much for T-girls. Most folk were nice and polite but there was a subtle territorial inference, particularly from the lesbian side which it seemed The Loft was as likely their turf. Music was pretty good, drink prices weren't bad and I even got molested in a nice sort of way by a group of young lesbians on the dance floor; their MO was to check whether my falsies were indeed false or not - actually 50-50 or so I confirmed (verbally of course!). The ladies powder room was not upto the same par as the main establishment - mostly down to the number of available cubicles (only 3) of which one of them was being used for the 'how many girls can you get in and have a bust-up' competition. Mrs Kate and I ended up having to share one between us; and on leaving, to check neither of us was doing the Andrex puppy bit with loo paper stuck to the bottom of our shoes.

Saturday - it must be Manchester
Woke up to a grey and rainy Leeds which following breakfast, the unanimous decision was to get back to Manchester to do a bit of shopping - 'cos as likely it would be sunny; and so it was..... something we can often experience with differing weather systems each side of 'The Hill'. So back to Manchester we went, and a bit of shopping around the city centre.

For a change we thought we would check out Aflecks Palace, and without thinking, it was full of Goths and Punks - one of which could have easily been No.1 son since he was also in Manchester for a major Goth event of the year (I guess 'dressing up' must be hereditary!). Alsorts of outfits can be found in there - nothing that wouldn't look out of place in Naps though!

The evening started off with a meal in Velvet, followed by a tour of Spirit before moving onto Naps. But I don't recall an awful lot of the evening after Velvet as I became tired about halfway through the meal, to point of being grumpy. I think it was a combination of the past evenings events in Leeds, and coming down with a cold or something - indeed when we got back to our accommodation for the night and removed all the concealing makeup, underneath my face was a bit flushed to say the least. I don't know what time it was when we gave our excuses and left Naps, but it was certainly earlier than usual.

Sunday - recharge the (solar) batteries
Woke up Sunday morning to a bright cloudless day; it looked warm and inviting and outside our hotel room window we could see one or two people out and about, some waiting for buses and going places. Feeling a bit delicate from the major power drain the night before, we checked out our hotel and put our bags in the car before going on to find breakfast. It was as we were going through the lobby that we experienced our negative situation, similar events that the others had experienced in various ways over the last couple of days. The hotel lobby was busy, mostly young male guests just hanging around; one in a group of which decided to have a go by directing 'Oy John' at me to gain my attention. As a one does, I just ignored him - until we were outside when I gave him a hard stare through my sun glasses and a few lipped choice words.

That behind us, we went to get breakfast - Witherspoons was Ok for the simple bacon butty and a coffee; followed by a mooch around the Arndale and the shops before sitting in the sun in St. Annes square. And it was warm in the sun, but in the shade - that wind just went right through you. So we ambled back to Taurus, met up with Diana and Karen, had afternoon tea and cake ; and then headed off home for a hot bath and a snooze.

Epilogue
Leeds was Ok, cobbled streets were hard work for the heels (thank you flatties!), Travelodge was warm and comfortable. Di was foxy in her leopard print figure hugging dress, Karen was elegant in her newly acquired red dress. First-Friday was Ok but too crowded and too hot, the lesbians in The Loft were a scream and I had fun dancing with my flatties which have made friends with me since I promised not to subject them to the shoe stretcher again. Saturday; I think was going downhill from mid-evening onwards and struggled to keep up with the conversation all-round (and felt I missed out on something as a result). Ibis hotel was cold and some of the clientele disrespectful - won't be staying there again if I/we can avoid it. Thanks go to Emma for being chauffeur and ferrying us to Leeds and back; sorry I was tired and grumpy on Saturday night!

Confessions of a party animal

You know when you're a party animal when the real die-hard party girls want to exchange mobile phone numbers with you just in case there's an opportunity for when you're next out (any excuse for a party eh?).

I think I've pretty much been out to the Village every Wednesday and Saturday since the snow melted (roughly speaking, since just about the end of January). Although I must confess to only one occasion I had no excuse except that I just needed to be out; the others had varied in range from needing to book the Angels meals to supporting best friends (Ok - rather tenuous excuses for some!). Only on two occasions I have to confess to being alone for the evening - well.... I mean not planning to meet up with any of my friends and literally just enjoying my own company. On one such occasion I bumped into Jane who seemed a little surprised to see me out alone - or rather dancing about at Naps on my own.

Naps eh? - where would we be without it?.... and on that particular night that Jane was out was a quiet night in Naps; I even had to encourage the only four other girls to have a dance by being the first to break the ice and get on the dance floor. It was one of those nights where there were more admirers than girls; in the past and probably still on occasions, I might feel uncomfortable with them, but this was the particular night I just had to be out and was determined in having a dance. I was dressed reasonably casual - black skinny jeans and my recently acquired 'Rock Star' t-shirt; a regular rock-chick look!

Unlike last Saturday when I just had to do 'tart' - animal and snake print leggings, black top with silver sparkly bits and fur coat. I tempered this look by only wearing my shoe-boots rather than 6 inch heels (I'll save that look for when we go to 'do' Leeds!). And rather unsurprisingly (so some might say) it attracted some unwelcome attention from at least one guy in Naps; I wasn't sure if he was Polish or just p****d, probably was very likely both. As he was giving his unwelcome 'attentions' to a number of girls, big-glass-collector-dude had to persuade him to leave.

Towards the end of last week Mrs Kate found her mojo again, she probably lost it in the first place as a result of watching too much day-time telly whilst being in the depths of Winter (day-time telly will rot your brain!). As a result of this she tempted me with yet another excuse to be out - one of our late decisions that we sometimes have, made shortly after supper on a Saturday evening and we're in the Village by 11pm (well... it takes time for a girl to get ready doesn't it!).

We used think this was a bit strange, going out at a time when most sensible folk were coming back home. Not peculiar-strange, but being a bit from the 'being naughty' aspect. But it slowly creeps up on you to accept this as being normal.... well.... normal except from an aspect that by the time you arrive in the Village, most of the other party animals are already well into the party spirit or being taken home in one of those taxis with blue flashing lights. Mrs Kate put the latter circumstance to it being a full moon last night and this was supported by big-glass-collector-dude having to literally pickup and carry some of the more argumentative sort to eject them from Naps.

So yes... we got out again, last night... and bumped into one of the die-hard party girls we know and love (well... you just have to love them don't you?!) and as she was asking for our mobile number might mean I indeed need to reset the threshold of what's normal (again!)

Then again.... anyone want to dance?

From one Avatar to another

What a brilliant film! - well actually, Mrs Kate and I went to the T-Centre for a spot of lunch and a little shopping.

It was whilst we were taking a break from window shopping this Springs collections when Mrs Kate mused that we should perhaps go and see the current box office sensation.

.... and in doing that, achieve another 'first'.

We managed to catch the late afternoon showing which had no more than a dozen others in the cinema. Late afternoon is 'tween' time at the T-Centre, people have either gone home, or haven't yet arrived for the evening. So there we were with shopping bags around us, watching this ab-fab movie with the best seats in the house .... and whats this yarn all about?... I'm not going to spoil it for you! - go and see it for yourself!

New Avatar

I thought it was time I ought to update my Yahoo avatar since I no longer resemble the 'plus-size' figure I had in place upto now. Come to think of it, that little postage stamp picture of me on my blog profile could do with a bit of updating too... I can't believe I was that overweight; and I daren't look at any pics I have of myself from 2 or 3 years ago. At the time of posting my profile picture I considered myself as being 'thin' in comparison to those.

With being a little off colour (and the amount of snow!) over the last few weeks, I haven't been able to get the bike out as much. As a result, the weight loss plan has gone a bit off the boil. I haven't reached the 12 stone mark, but I'm at least thankful that it remains a little around 4lbs above this target; but I did have scary moment earlier in the week when a whole extra inch appeared on my waistline!!!! .... biking to work and back through this week has sorted that out!

I've not been out since New Year and I'm starting to get really fed-up; my finger, symptomatic of something much bigger is just starting to improve. It no longer feels numb and today, it started hurting ... just for the novelty of it all! (the Doc said it was a trapped nerve... yeah right!, in my wrist, my elbow, my arm, and my shoulder too.... but what does he know?!).

Trying to put a brave face on things, but with my employers actually progressing to remove 30% of the staff from the directorate by April is not exactly moral-boosting even if you are 'all right Jill' ... all-right that is for at least the time being..... but I suppose it could be worse, I could be 'normal'.