Any excuse to get a photo taken!

Hello again, I have a few things that I would like to share in this blog instalment.  Firstly, in my last blog I mentioned there was a little surprise for the Petts Wood Runners at the AGM which I couldn't reveal at the time.  Well now I can.  All the attendees at the AGM had the opportunity to have their photo taken with the Olympic torch.  We were asked to not reveal this until the official tour of the UK had started, hence why I couldn't reveal it in my last blog.  Maybe not exciting for some, but I was well chuffed to get the opportunity to hold a little bit of history.

Running wise it has been a mixed bag.  Last Tuesday, due to the glorious weather most of the club groups headed into the woods for the evening run.  This made a welcome change from pounding the pavements. Alas for me half way into the run, whilst trying to avoid a hole I almost ended up flat on my face.  In the process of trying to stay upright, arms and legs flailing everywhere, I managed to tweak my hamstring and also inadvertently punch one of the girls in the group in the backside (sorry Emma).  I was asked if I was OK to continue, I said yes because A) the old fashioned male bravado kicked in, "Yeah i'm alright" and B) I didn't have a clue where I was!  So I soldiered on, having to stop occasionally to stretch and then probably pushing it a bit too hard near the end of the run.

What it did mean though was after being bravado man, I put my sensible head back on and therefore no track session on the Thursday, no Parkrun on the Saturday and no club training the following Tuesday.

However, I have cycled to work a couple of days which is 10miles (one way) I am back at the gym working on a bit of upper body strength and core and also back doing Pilates.  Pilates entails me watching the instructor in awe as she effortlessly demo's the positions, showing normal, advanced and easy options, followed by me breaking out in a sweat and then chuckling to myself as I struggle to get 50% of the way in the 'easy' position.

Thursday night was the final get together of the Project 26.2 gang.  The plan was to meet in Hammersmith at 6pm for a group run followed by a few beers and some nibbles.  Unfortunately, I didn't leave the office until gone 5:30pm and depsite the group waiting around for 15 mins, I along with Justin (him of barefoot marathon fame) missed them, so we both moved straight onto stage 2 of the evening 'beers'.  I did even send Danny (editor of Men's Running magazine) a text to say I was running late, but I later found out that his phone had recently been stolen.  So somebody somewhere is probably confused as they have received a text message from a Hippo!

I was gutted to miss an the opportunity to go for a run and even more so to find out that Nell McAndrew had also joined the group for the run!  As you will see below this didn't stop me having a photo taken though, and Nell was a genuinely nice lass to talk to.

It was really good to catch up with everybody (although a shame a few of the gang couldn't make it) and say thanks to everybody who was involved in the project as I know I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to have all the support and guidance.

I have already posted the original of this photo on Twitter, so thought I would enhance it slightly :-)

Until next time, TJH