Oh - and by the way....

Worst Film EVER (x100)

Snakes on a plane.

Never watch it. Bad beyond belief. Goes beyond "so bad it's funny". Wasn't funny. "Made me angry bad" is more like it.

Post weekend catch up

Man that was a hot half marathon. Completing that race was tough - well done all!

	Finish time	Avg bpm
2008	2:21	171
2009	2:23	171

Well done the (Jenson) Bunsen burner for Monaco - dull race but good result. The question now is not 'if' but 'when'. Singapore?

Right - time for a busy 4 day week.

Yay! Rant time!

First of all - this weekend is the Wokingham Half Marathon.....finally! It was postponed due to the snow in Feb so major credit to the organisers and sponsors for finally holding the race. I hope numbers will be good as the weather is forecast great (too warm?) but it is a bank holiday weekend so will people be off doing other things (like fast Bob?!).

Anyway, I have only trained up to ten miles - fairly comfy but this is the least training I have ever done for a race! I have my new 'marathon spec' sunnies so I'll probably be racing like a 'caged animal' anyway.

Right. This morning. Tube idiocy. So, you get on the train and head for a seat. Do you think the train will start moving at some point? Most non-idiots will hope if not expect the train to start moving fairly soon after the doors close. Why-oh-why do seemingly hundreds of utter brain-dead meat sacks insist on trying to sit down just as the train starts moving resulting in them stamping on my feet and punching me as they try not to fall over. It's all very 'Top Gear' as in - 'How hard can it be?'.....and 'ambitious but rubbish'. Ambitious in so far as these morons leave the house in the morning and try to get through a day without thinking about other humans and expect to not piss other people off. Rubbish in so far as they fail miserably. Morons piss every one off. Member of Parliament morons piss everyone off at the moment. 'I know - I'll make myself excessively rich by pilfering public money...that's bound to remain a great secret and therefore will piss no one off.' Morons. Sack them all. Lumley for PM!

Cretins annoy me.

Misuse of the 'reply-all' button annoys me.

Ignorance, rudeness and prejudice annoys me.

Lacking a sense of humour just encourages me.....*mischief*.

Wah! Google ate my baby!

I have Google alerts set up for various things I am interested in. One of which is Google Analytics. Now, The big G had a routing issue last week apparently. Personally I didn't notice anything - perhaps it was localised? Anyway, the main subject of conversation in my Google Analytics alert was how GA being 'down' stopped sites working. Even the irksome rag 'The London Paper' covered the story with a quote from one poor soul who couldn't use his Internet Banking because the site was waiting for Google Analytics. Now I pity this guys because he is clearly using a substandard site.

Why is the site waiting for GA? In order for GA to do it's thing, it needs to download ga.js or urchin.js from Google...assuming Google is there is course. So in the unlikely event of Google being slow or down

PUT YOUR GA INCLUDE LINE IN THE FOOTER

'course if you wanna get real smart, you'll make sure your site is easily configurable to handle third party system outages. Can your site gracefully degrade or does it die in a puddle of it's own piss as most sites seem to causing days of misplaced whining about Google?

Crumbs, the media frenzy is almost at the 'MP's expenses are wrong!' level of froth...

I'm back!

Having rested for two weeks and got my focus back on home, work and non-running projects I decided it was time to start Wokingham Half Marathon preparations. I'm resigned to the fact that this half is not going to be a PB so I just want to make sure I'm reasonably fit....as in I can finish under 2:30!

In the mean time I want to:

Fly (full size, models and kites)
Paint my house
Build a deck
Get a new shed
Build a gym in the garage
Buy a new flat to rent out
Get all the Google qualifications I can for Moneyspyder
Holiday (twice)
Enjoy summer (flying and running)
Get my 10k pb close to 50 mins

All done - London Marathon 2009 finished

Hi,
I've had a couple of days to recover, compose my thoughts, commit memories and upload photos since I completed the London Marathon. The experience in summary - AWESOME! The crowds were incredible, the support was fantastic and the weather was HOT!

I committed before hand to giving 100% to the marathon. I said 'I want to cross the line feeling 100% spent - I do not want anything left in the tank'. I did not let you down. The last 6 miles were the loudest, longest, hardest and most fulfilling miles I have ever done. I find it hard to put into words the the range and intensity of emotions you feel as you go round. During my five and a half hours on the course I had ups and downs. The biggest high was seeing my support team at mile 19 - James, you were the loudest for sure, good on yer! The whole team was fantastic - it was so great seeing you all and I will never forget your support. The low point was around miles 23-25 - I missed seeing Sue and Nigel which makes me feel bad - sorry guys. If I missed anyone else on my way round - I'm truly sorry but the last 6 miles took everything I had. My ignorance wasn't intentional.

The question most people are asking right now is - 'will you do it again?' Maybe....but not right now! I would say to anyone contemplating doing a marathon - 'Do London - it's great. Some say it's the best but I don't have anything to compare it to. Also, train like you have never trained before....then train some more - it'll be harder than you think but also better than you could imagine'.

Photos - here

I couldn't have done this without the support and advice from all my friends and especially Marie - it was a major team effort.

Thanks!

D

A big weekend

480 miles, 2880 minutes in the gym, 3 pairs of running shoes constant support and advice from Marie and my friends and 23 wonderful, generous and wise sponsors are all essential ingredients required to complete the Flora London Marathon this Sunday. That's great 'cos thats what I have and that's what I'm going to do.

Here are some useful facts for the day if you still want the sweaty hug:

I am number 37779. Text the word 'run' to 83040 to keep track of my progress every 5k.

I'll be aiming for 5.5mph or 11-12 minute miles. You can trace the following points on the Interactive FLM Map

The 'real' start time is about 10:00. So I expect to be just past the Cutty Sark by 11-11:30.

I'll be halfway - TowerBridge - at about lunch time, say 12:30-13:00.

I'll be around Canary Wharf near the famous traffic light sculpture twice - it's the best place to catch me then - at 15 miles and 19 miles - so that's about 3 hours in and 4 hours in - 13:00 - 14:00.

So, then I'll be in relatively uncharted territory going beyond 20 miles down The Embankment for the next hour or so. You won't get on the Mall unless you have tickets and my two tickets have already been snapped up by my Mum I'm afraid so the next best place to catch me is when I'll appear emotionally and physically wrecked in Horse Guards parade about 30 mins after crossing the line. Let's say I manage 5 - 5:30, that'll be 15:30 - 16:00 by the letter 'D'.

A good idea would be to keep an eye out for the flag.

If you come on the day, I really hope I can catch you on the way - your support means a *huge* amount to me (Sweaty hug is optional of course). If you don't make it on the day - no problem, if you sponsored me - THANK YOU! Every donation makes a huge difference - I appreciate your support as does everyone who is affected by Diabetes - the numbers are still growing. If you haven't had chance to dig deep yet - no worries, there is still time! Just head over to my Just Giving page and hammer the plastic ;-)

Thanks again for all your support over the last 6 months - Sunday is going to be a great day!

Doug