Me =

Have : Tonsillitis
Training : None
Mood : Miserable
Fitness : Crap
Dream : To run or ride
Ability : Sit on arse in pain
Half Marathon : 5 weeks
Cycle Benelux : 4 weeks, 2 days
Excitement : HUGE apart from
Have : Tonsillitis

arse....

Back in the game

My mojo was hidden down the back of the sofa crumpled up in birthday paper, mince pie wrappers and new born nappies from the little bundle of joy that is my new baby daughter, Elsie Grace. The Girl will now join The Boy in taking up as much of my time as humanly possible for approx the next 18 years.

To be honest, this maybe part of the reason I even started looking for my running mojo again. As with many people out there with families, it's some of the only time I get to myself. I rarely ran in the evening before but now once The Boy has gone to bed and The Girl is having some dinner it's the only time I can really. Not that I'm complaining mind. I could do a lot, lot worse than a beautiful and happy family!

The other thing that helped get me back out there is I have entered the Maas Half Marathon in May. I think it's something of a small race as I was competitor number 17 to enter. But they'll be plenty more I'm sure. Eatingtrees has already entered so that ups it again. The cool thing is our fundamentally ridiculous plan to cycle to the race. From Britain. On single speeds. I love that I have a friend as ridiculous as me! 

There may be people out there who think that therefore, we are relatively fit and in good shape. I assure you for me, this is not the case and I suspect it's going to hurt a hell of a lot but the idea of 4 days of cycling, staying in little Belgium B&B's, drinking Belgium beer, talking crap with one of my favourite people in the world and then ruining all the goodness by running a half marathon in 'barefoot' running shoes is something that I just cannot say no to to be honest!!

Den Haag Half Marathon - Race Report

Last year, despite the company being fantastic, the food excellent and a new city being explored, my Lisbon weekend will only ever be remembered for that utterly hideous and confidence sapping race. It was time to banish those memories on another installment of eatingtrees and Hauling My Carcass' European adventure.

It washz time to head to De Nederlandshz for Den Haag Halve Marathon!

The road trip was on. At 7:50am on Saturday morning, myself, Mrs HMC and eatingtrees, left The Boy with the Grandparents and hit the road. 524km of tarmac minus around 50km for a train tunnel lay between us and a swimming pool, sauna and that accent that makes 3 people in a car attempt to say everything with that dutch twang.

The drive was good and pain free, we arrived in loads of time and got ourselves settled before heading out for the night to a little Italian restaurant we'd found on the world wide web. We had to wander around for 10 minutes before we found the restaurant but it gave us time to appreciate how pretty the centre of The Hague is. It just added to the excitement of the next day's race. Casa Caroni is a fantastic little restaurant with fantastic food, run like a family kitchen and amusing staff too and was perfect for what we wanted the night before a race.

CPC Loop Den Haag was going to be an unusual race for me. It was in the afternoon. I don't run in the afternoon at all really. I'm usually a 'get it out of the way early' kind of runner but Sunday I'd have to amend my plan some-what. As the bus we used to get into town travelled along one of the roads of the race, we had to head into town before 11am to make sure we could get there but with us needing to pick up numbers and timing chips etc, it didn't matter too much. In fact, it gave us more time to look around and see all the other races (they had 2.5k, 5k and 10k all before the HM). We could have had even more time but due to everything being in Dutch (as you'd expect) and being 1 of 3 incompetents who travelled without knowing a word of Dutch, it took longer than it probably should have. We walked right past it! 15 mins later, we were back.

A sandwich, some snackage and a couple of hours later, we were ready. The bag was checked in, Mrs HMC knew where she was heading and into the starting pens we went. Within 5/10 minutes, we were off. I had some stomach cramps just before the race and they were similar to the Cranleigh 10k last year but there was no way I was dropping out of this and I suspected that just like Cranleigh, it would sort itself out. The first 5-6km were quite hard. It was extremely busy with many people taking detours on cycle paths and across tram lines and but to be honest, I couldn't pick up the pace anyway. I guess the best description was uncomfortable. An irritant rather than a screaming pain.

However, after that, it just clicked. Suddenly it felt right. Suddenly the pain subsided. I just hit my consistent stride like I know how to do and settled in! It was feeling really good. Not fast, not slow but just good. I knew after the first quarter that a PB was nowhere near but I never expected it to be so it didn't bother me however, I knew I could still post a time I was very happy with and with the way it felt (did I mention it felt really good), under 2 hours was a definite.

The KM's were being ticked off and with a rough course map in my head, I knew where I was, how far I had to go and when I'd be running past Mrs HMC and her camera. 13.5km ish to be exact ish. I threw my cap to her (or to the foot of the lady next to her if I'm honest) as I'd gone without after 2km as I was just too hot and headed for the 'pier' part of the course. The support was still there cheering and blowing those little plastic trumpets as it had been all the way round and although I doubt my face showed it, I was smiling inside. When there's an event in The Hague, people make the effort to come out and see you!

A DEFINITE SMILE THERE

More KM's were ticked off and there was even a hill. Well slope. Slight incline really but it even had a tiny down bit too. The most I'd had to deal with up to that point was a speed bump. I didn't feel like I tired at all. Then suddenly, there was Central Station in the distance and I was near the finish! I carried on, head up, still feeling good and crossed the finish with a chip time of 1:57:37. Very bloody happy with that and honestly felt like I could have continued which is a first EVER for me! A few minutes later, a very smiley eatingtrees crossed the line and I could just tell he felt great too. You can check out videos, photos and my splits here and enter bib number 3286. Although I don't have a half way point time, by looking at the average speed and also the first and second 10k splits, I ran a negative split which only the second time ever I think!! I told you it felt good.

LOOK AT THOSE GRINS

A quick jaunt back to the hotel for another swim and sauna followed by the best meal of the weekend at a Kenyan restaurant called 3Stones and then a shisha once back at the hotel topped off what was probably my best race day ever!

The return drive had 'Gent' programmed into the Sat Nav as we were stopping for lunch in Belgium for eatingtrees birthday and sitting in a little local cafe, we chatted about how good the weekend had been while eating yet more great food before setting off for the final drive and cuddles with my little boy.

Thank you to the babysitting grandparents, a great city, some wonderful locals, some awesome food and mostly to my 2 travelling companions. I just have one question... Where to next year?

Back with an (almost) bang!

While those slightly insane people we're running around the streets of London on Sunday, I was in one of the new Airbus A380's attempting to land at Heathrow. I say attempting as very close to the runway, our pilot decided it was too windy, pushed the engines to full and took off again. That's a little scary but what has to make it worse is the 'tail cam'. I've seen plenty of the front and below cameras before but never this tail cam. Seeing the whole of the plane you are in, very close to a runway at an angle it really shouldn't have been at, is a little heart in mouth time. Thankfully on the 2nd attempt (and in my eyes, still sideways) we landed and once I got home, I checked out some highlights for the race. It all looked great, albeit a little warm so a massive congrats to anyone who completed it. You really do have my utmost respect.

So stupidly, this morning, I entered the ballot for 2010. Now, I've done this on the assumption that I won't get in. However, even if I do, it gives me a chance to do it (completion dependant) and forget about it forever. I hope.

I have the BUPA 10k lined up for the end of May so I'm going to build myself up to that with a few gentle runs and then start some hill training and new shoe try outs over the next couple of weeks. I have a lot of good food, tasty beer and sitting on my arse for the last 3 weeks to make up for!!! It was fun though. I won't bore you with any details as last time I checked, this was a running blog but if you wanted to know about any of the countries, feel free to e-mail me.

I'm off to make a playlist for the Sony W series Walkman I've been sent..... in LIME GREEN!!! For a shaven headed bloke who is either very white or completely sun burnt, this isn't a good colour and with the way it wraps around your head, I feel this has hugely embarrassing sunburn mark potential. Anyway, a review and playlist to follow at the weekend!

Who is... Hauling My Carcass?

Well this is my first insightful, witty, and hopefully readable post for my new blog. OK, It's not a great start but I had to run 3 miles before I could run a Half so everyone has to start somewhere right?!?

From the start, I apologise for the general appalling abuse of the English language and spelling throughout. I got a 'c' in my GCSE about... 5,10... 13 years ago (bloody hell!! really??) and things haven't exactly improved since! Also I have a really annoying tendency to use too many exclamation and question marks. I will do my best to keep this under control too. (amended)

So a quick rundown of my ability to run: I bloody hate it. Not a little or just a bit. With nearly every ounce of hatred I can muster. That is until I get about 2 miles in anyway. Then something weird happens, I start to enjoy it! OK maybe enjoy is a bit strong. Maybe endure is better. So far I have complete one 10k a few years ago but did my first HM in Oct last year. YAY!!!(sorry) Christ that hurts. I mean seriously, why bother? These people that do actual marathons and triathlons must be in some way disturbed. Anyway, once the nicotine and alcohol had calmed me down and obviously once I'd finished, I agreed to do another one. When I say agreed, I mean was bullied into it by my friend and occasional running buddy, Shaven Headed Lovely (incidentally, this is his name for himself, not mine for him but from here on in, he will be known as SHL).

So here I am. The middle of Feb with the Fleet HM coming in about 4 weeks (wow putting it in writing is a bit worrying) and then the Prague HM 2 weeks after. Admittedly the Prague one will be about just finishing and making my way to a bar with SHL to smoke Shisha and drink Staropramen but I figure I'll deserve it by then.

Training works out around 10-15 miles a week right now and I can't see that increasing too much as I prefer eating and drinking to running and I can't see this ever changing! Anyway, it's Saturday tomorrow and 6 miles awaits. Hopefully it'll be an improvement on my 2 miles giving up effort on Wednesday! As you can see, the 10-15 mile training is not as strict as it should be.

Comments are more than welcome and would actually be appreciated so please, show some encouragement!!! (sorry)