More ParkRunning

This morning I completed my second Parkrun.

It was one of those mornings when both little ones were still fast asleep so there was the promise of a luxurious (and rare) lie in. I cannot believe that the idea of getting up and running 5K was an alluring enough prospect for me to forgo said lie in - but such is the grip that the running bug has on me, it was.

The weather was a beautiful. The sort of weather that completely restores your faith in the possibility of spring. It was a bit fraught getting the little ones ready and out of the door but they had the promise of playing in one of the well equipped playgrounds that form part of Telford Town Park where we were headed.

My husband has an injury from falling off his bike (an absolutely stupid accident that would have been comedic had it not hurt him) so he was opting out of the run. My daughter's boyfriend was busy piling tons of rubble from a demolished wall into a skip. That left just me and my daughter to join the other participants - each driven to run for their own personal reasons and coming together to take part in this wonderfully friendly and relaxed event.

We ran.

I'm not going to say it was easy - it never is - but it was less of a struggle than the previous time when I was still recovering from a nasty cough and finding breathing a lot more difficult that it should have been. I was much more aware of the surroundings this time now that all my attention wasn't focused on gasping at  much needed oxygen. It really is a lovely place to run, especially in the sunshine. I enjoyed the moment so much more. A quick glance at my watch showed me that we were making good time (for us!) which was very motivating. A final push at the end gave me a finish I was proud of in contrast to staggering over the line last time.

As you cross the line, you are handed a token which you have scanned with your own personal barcode a little further on. By some magic, this enables the Parkrun people to put your results up on the website. I was absolutely delighted to have knocked a whole 2 minutes off my time.

To put our achievement into perspective, I should probably share a slightly embarrassing story. My daughter and I were intrigued by a Walker who had joined the Parkrun. I'm not talking about a casual stroller, this was a man in sporty shorts with the strange hip rolling action of speed walkers. He was ahead of us at the start but  it didn't seem too onerous a task to catch up and overtake him - after all, he was walking and we were running. This did not happen. For a while he was a steady distance ahead, tantalisingly close, but the distance started to open up. We were giving it all we had and he was charging away from us. Eventually, he disappeared from view. I'd like to think that this could be attributed to his athletic prowess and fantastic technique but I have to hold our plodding pace at least partly responsible!

My husband and two rosy cheeked children were there to greet and congratulate us at the finish. I loved that my little ones had got to play in the fresh air while we were running. There were no complaints from them when they were offered some additional playtime while my daughter and I went off to do a bit of shopping (seems a shame to be so close to a shopping centre and not take advantage!)

We bought ourselves a pair of running trousers each - slinky tight fitting ones instead of our tired old joggers. We are hoping that by dressing the part, we'll knock even more minutes off our Personal Bests!

Getting the Summer Holidays off to a Good Start - Part I

It had always been on the to-do list for the Summer Holidays to spend a week near Brighton where my husband's parents live so that the children could have the chance to see their grandparents and start making the sort of memories that will stay with them for a lifetime. After consulting our diaries it transpired that there was only one week that would actually work for everyone (my in-laws have a fairly hectic social life centred around their shared love of sequence dancing) and that was the first week of the holidays.

My husband booked the accommodation and I hurriedly organised the packing. The weather was abysmal and my mum rolled her eyes heavenwards as she wished me a happy holiday and hoped we might get a little bit of sunshine. Neither she nor I could have imagined what an amazing transformation there would be from grey miserable skies to clear cloudless blue. I have never had a holiday in Britain where the sun shined constantly.

Clambering in the sand dunes at Camber Sands under a beautiful blue sky

I had packed jumpers and raincoats. We had to go shopping once we were there to buy suntan lotion and shorts. I also bought a whole lot of outdoor toys at sale prices that would keep the children amused.

We stayed in a very comfortable holiday cottage on a farm in Herstmonceaux, East Sussex. The children took a liking to the horses in a nearby field ( I had wanted to write 'neighbouring field' there but thinking of it as a neiiigh- bouring field of horses was becoming an obstacle!)

The holiday worked out perfectly. We were able to spend lots of time with the Grandparents as we'd hoped and also managed to visit beaches, take a bike ride along the cool, leafy Cuckoo trail and spend a day at the Bentley's Wildfowl and Motor Museum featuring two things that my little boy loves - duckth and carth (yes, he has developed a very cute little lisp!)

With only a couple of days at home to unpack and pack again for our next week away, I was glad to have done some of the laundry already. As lovely as it was to enjoy the sunshine at the beach, I was especially appreciative of how useful it was in getting the washing dry!

The pebble beach at Eastbourne

Hola! Do you speak English?

It was an early start to catch the Easy Jet flight for our holiday to Spain. I really love getting up before the sun rises and seeing the part of the day that I usually lose to sleep. It wasn't quite such a good experience, however, when shared with two grumpy little ones who didn't really understand what was going on!

A series of errors including miscalculating the time we needed to leave, being diverted in Liverpool and my failure to check the hand luggage our Charis had packed for herself for non-permitted items meant that we only made our flight by the skin of our teeth. It took all of my husband's best delaying tactics to stop our checked in bag being unloaded from the plane as Charis, myself and the buggy containing a somewhat startled nearly 2 year old made an epic dash through the terminal from baggage control to the boarding gate. I was glad that I had recently restarted my running training and that my Life Line Screening had detected no abnormalities with my cardiovascular health! Although there were no audible disapproving tuts, my frazzled mind certainly imagined them as we walked the walk of shame along the central aisle of the aeroplane, past the unsmiling faces of the delayed travellers, to our seats.

Once on board with seat belts fastened, I dared wonder what would have happened if we had been denied boarding. Not the best start to my 'relaxing' getaway!

We flew into Alicante airport, picked up our hire car and headed for the villa we were renting for the week.

Our villa was up in the mountains in Tibi on a small development made to appeal to the leathery skinned ex pats hoping to enjoy their retirement in the sun. Unfortunately, the Spanish developers went bust before completion. Many of the villas lining the unadopted roads in various states of completeness were displaying "se vende"signs. The value of the villas had plummeted from the initial purchase prices, undoubtedly leaving some people's financial security in ruins. It painted a grim picture of shattered dreams. For us, though, we had the use of a lovely villa with beautiful views of the mountains from the roof terrace (although it was mostly a little too windy to benefit from that).

Near to our villa there was a small herd of goats that were driven for milking by their gnarly goatherd on a daily basis. We were only there once when this happened but it was a memorable moment for me hearing the tinkling of their various sized bells making an eerie discordant sound as they walked obediently over the rugged terrain to their familiar destination.

We had two separate agendas for our trip to Spain. One was to get the little ones on a warm, sandy beach and the second was to give Charis the opportunity to practise her Spanish with the natives. We achieved both objectives with the bonus of my personal objective to sample plenty of Spanish wine.

Rioja on the terrace of our villa

We organised our days almost like a Spanish language text book: Shopping at the local Market, At the Beach, In the Restaurant. Charis coped really well - even when she inadvertently asked for 5 kilos of oranges rather than 5 oranges and had to quickly back track. (Incidentally, the oranges were delicious). I'm ashamed to admit that my best attempt at speaking the language was a confidant "Hola" followed by "Do you speak English?"

We contributed to the struggling Spanish economy when we were ordered to pay a spot fine for speeding by the rather intimidating Guardia Civil. We were incredibly vigilant after this when it came to watching the speedometer, even if it meant crawling along and being overtaken in the 60km/h stretch of road which we became increasingly certain was only put at a 60km/h speed limit to catch out poor unsuspecting foreign drivers.

I had another personal objective that I wanted to achieve during our vacation. At Christmas, I couldn't help feeling disappointment with my husband's choice of present for me - namely a bottle of suntan lotion with a 10 euro note taped to it. I was determined to use that 10 euro note for something amazing to somehow make up for his unimaginative gift. I succeeded.

We were visiting the harbour in Alicante. My brain could barely comprehend how many millions of pounds worth of yachts of all descriptions I was looking at. I had a brief 'winning the lottery' fantasy moment then got totally distracted by a magnificent sight. A pirate ship. I was kicking myself that I had left my camera back at the villa. Charis took some photographs with her phone. The pirate ship had been converted into a tourist attraction where you could dine or simply board and enjoy a beer or soft drink for the admittance fee of 4 euros. There was little hesitation. My 10 euro note (complete with sellotape that I had failed to pick off) was handed to the attendant and Charis and I spent a very happy time sitting in the sunshine on the top deck drinking our drinks and imagining what it must have been like to be a pirate (Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow did, of course, make his way into my day dreams!)

The beaches were everything you would expect from a stretch of coastline known as the Costa Blanca.
It was a little too early in the year to enjoy the sort of hot sunshine that has you stripping down to your bikini... but that was possibly a blessing!

The journey back to England was mercifully uneventful and despite the rainy welcome in Liverpool that made me long for the Spanish weather, it was good to be home.