Running the London marathon

I've been shocking at blogging on here but that's mostly because I've been so busy. One of the things keeping me busy is training for the London marathon on 17 April.

I ran 14 miles last weekend and I'm due to do 16 this weekend, working up to my longest training run in two weeks' time - 20 miles.

I still find it hard to believe I cam run that distance but I promise I'm earning every penny of sponsorship money (I'm running for the NCT - National Childbirth Trust). Organising a wedding, running marathon, completing a 30/30 list and rounding up the end of the financial year at work is a tough combination but I'm plodding on. If you'd like to show your support, you can sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/Rhiannon-runs-the-London-marathon.

Seeing an opera

A couple of months ago we went to see La Bohème at the Soho Theatre. I've seen a couple of operas in the past and never been massively enamoured but I was looking forward to trying again. I wasn't disappointed!

I absolutely loved the OperaUpClose production which is a contemporary adaptation with an English libretto and broadly based in London. It was funny, engaging and totally accessible. There's a surprise element that I won't mention in case you see it but it really made it for me. I cried and cried in the sad bits and can't recommend the production highly enough!

Seeing a ballet

On Wednesday we went to see Alice's Adventures in Wonderland performed by the royal ballet at the Royal Opera House. We decided to go for the whole experience and go for a meal in the restaurant as well. The tickets were only £5 so we could afford to treat ourselves!



I was a little bit uncertain about whether I'd enjoy the ballet. I saw quite a few ballets as a small child and my mum tells me I exclaimed loudly about how beautiful they were, but I wasn't sure how my adult self, devoid of childhood wonder would take to it. I needn't have worried. I can't quite explain why but I loved it. I felt transported by the grace and beauty of the dancing and the beautiful music. I've had quite a stressful last few weeks and during the ballet I felt like the tension was vanishing from my shoulders, it was lovely.

I'm really glad we went for the meal as well. The food was lovely and it felt like a real treat. Plus, added bonus, Liz Hurley was sitting two tables down from us at dinner!

October update

Once again, I need to apologise for the lack of blog posts recently.  As well as planning our own wedding we've been to two other weddings this month, both with hen dos on other weekends, and on the weekends that I haven't been at weddings and at hen nights, I've been in Cambridge for one of them and I ran a half marathon on the other - another task ticked off!

Nevertheless I haven't been doing nothing towards my list, I've been steadily progressing in the background.  Here's a quick update:

We visited Dickens' House museum a couple of months back.  I intended to blog about it at the time but sadly didn't have time.  It was fun.  A bit of a mishmash and not quite sure whether it wanted to be Dickens' House or a museum and the exhibition about the musical Oliver! felt like a bit of a tack on.  I enjoyed the visit though, as I always enjoy getting a peak into the houses of a bygone age.

I also visited Sir John Soane's museum for the candlelit opening at the start of August with my friend Claire.  I frankly found the museum a little bit overwhelming but also pretty amazing.  It's basically one man's museum of things that he found interesting, and this covers a remarkable range of things! Too many, really, to get your head round.  The really cool bit is the paintings room, which I wouldn't have known about had Claire not been there before.  This room is a real treasure trove, not because of the paintings (I don't know enough about them to appreciate them really) but because of the ingenious way Soane found to store them all - the walls all flip out on hinges and have another layer of paintings behind them.  The whole house is full of ingenious cubby holes and cool things to look at like this.  If my memory serves me correctly there's little or no interpretation which makes taking everything in doubly hard.  It was great going with Claire though as she is self-confessedly bubbling with enthusiasm for 'stuff' and her enthusiasm and interest is contagious.  I think I'd like to find out a bit more about Soane and about certain items on display and then go back sometime.  If you want an insight into a really interesting man who collected interesting stuff though, it's well worth a visit!

As for the previously mentioned half marathon, I spent a good part of the last few months training for it - another reason for being so busy.  I completed the race in 2 hours, 34 minutes and 41 seconds on 10 October 2010.  I'm a little disappointed with the time but I had promised myself to only think about completing since this was by furthest I have ever run and no mean feat.  I actually found the race much harder than I expected but I was quite proud of myself for still managing a sprint finish! The photo shows me looking anxious beforehand but you can also see a photo of me running here.  My next running challenge is to run the London marathon next year but I'm getting slightly worried as I can't seem to get a charity place.  They seem to be filling up fast. If the worst comes to the worst I'll try and get a place in the Brighton marathon which is a week before.

As for growing my hair to my elbows, I always knew that was probably a bit ambitious but I think it might be slightly longer than last time I photographed it.  I've bought three piano pieces which I've started learning.  The first is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, the second, Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk and the third, rather ambitiously and probably foolishly now I've listenedd to what it's supposed to sound like is Chopin's Minute Waltz.  I started practicing them the other day and was transported back to a world that I'd forgotten how much I missed - growing up music was a big part of who I was and I'm sorry I've let it slip! 

I've started but am making slow progress on Anna Korenina, one of my five classic novels. I'm making quite good progress with saving £500 of my own money and hope to be able to save more so that I can pay for my own wedding dress.  Which also means that progress is being made on another point on my list - to have an item of clothing tailormade to fit me.  My wedding dress is now on order! Obviously I can't say anything about it but I REALLY love it!

We've ticked the 'staying in a posh hotel' one as well - we stayed at the George in Rye for my other half's 30th.  It was really lovely and I'd recommend it to anyone. Lovely room, 4-poster bed, lovely big bathroom and really gorgeous, gorgeous food. Some photos of our room are below

    

 

And lastly, we've just watched Goodnight Mr Chips. I really liked it, really nice Sunday afternoon watching.  It's the story of a school teacher in a boys school. He started in 1870 and stayed there right through until the First World War and afterwards.  At first he was a very rigid and not very popular school master but on a holiday one summer he met and fell in love with his future wife (I cried!) and she changed him and helped him become a better and more popular  teacher.  He eventually realised his dream to become headmaster when, at an advanced age and post-retirement, we was the only person able to when everyone else went off to fight.  He ended up teaching several generations from the same families.  I've just read a review that calls it sentimental and a tearjerker, which I suppose it is.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and enjoyed the reminder of a tradition which was still part of my childhood but which I think may well die in a few years' time - afternoon tea! And I mean proper afternoon tea, with bread and honey, by a roaring fire.

So I'm getting there with my list.  There are still a few really major challenges/things that I need to do but I think I can still manage it. Let me know if you want to join me in any of my activities!

Supporting me in the Royal Parks half marathon

I've now got my race pack for the Royal Parks Half Marathon next Sunday and it includes a route map and some estimated times that runners might be at each point.

I'm still anticipating that this race might be quite a challenge so it would be great if anybody felt like coming along to cheer me!

You can find the route map on the Race website.

Here is a list of when I expect to roughly be at each point (very hard to predict)  on Sunday 10 October:

Mile 1 - Constitution Hill in Green Park - between 9.50 - 10.05
Mile 2 - By the Houses of Parliament - between 10.00 and 10.17
Mile 3 - at the top of Waterloo Bridge - between 10.10 and 10.29
Mile 4 - the other side of the road to mile 3, near Emankment tube station, around Victoria Embankment gardens - between 10.20 and 10.41
Mile 5 - On the Mall - around 10.35-10.53
Mile 6 - near the Hyde Park corner entrance to Hyde Park on Serpentine Road - between 10.50 and 11.05
Mile 7 - towards the top of West Carriage drive in Hyde Park - between about 11 and 11.17
Mile 8 - you'll have to look at hte map for this, it's in the middle of the park - between 11.15 and 11.29
Mile 9 - kind of parallel with the bottom of park lane but in Hyde Park - between 11.25 and 11.41
Mile 10 - North Carriage drive, not terribly far from Lancaster Gate station - between 11.40 and 11.55
Mile 11 - Look at the map again, it looks like it's sort of a bit in front of Kensington Palace - 11.50-12.05
Mile 12 - Look at the map! - between 11.55 and 12.17
The finish line!!! - at the bottom of Hyde Park, near Knightsbridge tube, where the start was! - between 12.10 and 12.29

Please bear in mind that this might be completely inaccurate.  It's kind of based on something a bit more optimistic than the times that they predict the slowest runners will run in - 12 minute miles.  I'm currently training at about 11.5 minute miles but hope to be maybe slightly faster on the day (bear with me, I'm VERY slow!)  I guess they're probably anticipating that people towards the back will take a long time to get through the start line as well.  The timings above assume I might take up to 10 minutes to cross the start line and hopefully it won't be that long so perhaps arrive a little earlier (the race starts at 9.30).

For the enterprising amongst you, hopefully you will be able to see me at several points and therefore will have some idea of how I'm doing.  Having said that, I'd really appreciate it even if you only came to one point just to give me a brief wave!  It will make all the difference I'm sure!

Thanks everyone and wish me luck!

Item number 31!

For those of you that haven't heard, I've added a 31st thing to do before I'm 30 to my list - get married! Thankfully a couple of items can be adapted around it, including the one about going on an expensive holiday (honeymoon) and getting a dress tailored to fit me (wedding dress).  It is likely to happen in Spring next year though, but I'm determined that it won't get in the way of all of the other things that I'm planning to do before next June.  It'll just make that bit busier!

Update on progress and sponsorship plea

First and foremost – an apology. I’ve been very slow to blog recently. But this hasn’t meant that I’m not continuing to tick off my list. Waiting in the wings (in my head) are blog posts about Sir John Soane’s museum, and about Dickens house. In addition, I’ve recently made a start on reading Anna Korenina and there are a few other activities that will count towards my list that are starting to be put in motion in one way or another.

Mostly though, I’ve been doing quite a lot of running. My half marathon is a month away (10 October) and my training is going well. These last couple of weeks have been very busy so I haven’t run much but on bank holiday morning I had a lovely early morning run all along the river from Richmond to just past Putney – 9 miles. That’s the furthest I’ve ever run and I struggled with boredom along the way so I felt pretty proud of myself when I finished (and pretty tired and achy afterwards!)

I ran nearly 6 miles before work on Thursday but won’t be able to do a long run now until next weekend when I plan to run 11 miles, the longest distance I’m supposed to do on my training. After that I’ll start to taper and just do shorter runs to keep up my fitness before the big day.  Before the 9 miles I'd been gradually working up with a slightly longer run every weekend and at least one short run and two outdoor workouts during the week.  Even recently when I haven't managed todo long runs so much, I've still been doing my 2 workouts and a short run during the week.

So as you can see, I’ve been working pretty hard at it. If you’re feeling generous, I’d really appreciate your support in this endeavour, either by coming along to support me on the day, or by sponsoring me at www.justgiving.com/Rhiannon-Looseley. The money I raise will go to the Bone Cancer Research Trust.

I'm about halfway to my target as I type this, but I hope to reach it quite soon. Although it would be great to exceed it, if yu want to sponsor me after I've exceeded and wouldn't be able to do so twice in a year (which would be fair enough!) then please save your sponsorship as I hope to run the London marathon for the same charity next year and I think I'll need to raise considerably more then so will definitely need all the support I can get.

Thanks everyone!