My marathon report

I finished! 5:26:48. You can get all the finishing times at http://www.blackpoolmarathon.com/results.html. The first 10 miles were pretty good, then the lack of breakfast really hit me and I started to struggle. Meg was an awesome race supporter and brought me a banana, which helped for a while, then another one which totally got me through. I did a mixture of running and walking – I had planned to do between 1 minute and 0.1 mile in every mile, which worked for the first 13-15 miles (it’s all a little hazy in there) when I started walking more and more. Finally around 21 miles I started to rally and finished pretty well. We spent the rest of the day riding the highest and fastest roller coaster in Europe and with me eating pretty much everything put in front of me.

I’m totally sore, and incredibly happy, and already thinking about the next one. Meg has requested it be a bigger one so she’s not so bored. I’m hoping to improve my standing on the celebrity marathon runner list:
George W: 3:44:52
Oprah: 4:29:20
-->Megan: 5:26:48
Katie Holmes: 5:29:58
Mario Lopez 5:41:41
Freddie Prinze Junior 5:50:49
David Lee Roth 6:04:43

If you want the blow-by-blow, I’m putting it on my running blog to spare you all the 4 pages, but here are the photos courtesy of Meg.
Here's me getting ready:

Here's all the things I needed to run:











The morning of the marathon:










Here go the wheelchair racers:










The runners are off:










I'm in here somewhere:










At mile 2, I saw Meg before she saw me:

























At mile 19, I was struggling - but still smiling (I think - that might be a grimace):










I finished:














Here's me and my medal in my T-shirt from Ginger:

Spring snow

We had the biggest snow storm of the year yesterday. I took my camera and Turbo and went to the park, and I'm glad I did because the snow is all gone by this morning (except for a few sad pieces of snow people). Pictures on Flickr as usual, but here's my favourite.

Amsterdam, 30, the marathon, where's Meg?

We've had the last week+ off work as we went to Amsterdam for a music festival with our friend Nikki. We had tons of fun (nothing we can't tell Mom about!), time to walk around and think, then came back and Meg and I have had a lazy few days just hanging out about the house. Just in time for ...

the big 3-0. Yes, indeed, I had a birthday. I got a cake from my grandparents, but I don't need to eat a whole cake so I thought I'd share it with you:


As you may recall, as a 30th birthday present to myself, I decided to run a marathon. 5 weeks and counting...

Paris photos

Like I said, we went to Paris with our friends Mikaela and Lisa. I put some photos on Flickr, but here's a taste:
We walked around a lot and went to a bakery for some amazing pastries:


We also walked up to Sacre Cour:


Meg has promised to write about what all we did there, so that'll be all from me.

In "print"

My first short story has been published in an online literary magazine! You can download the whole issue. I'm very excited.

Turbo goes on vacation

Meg and I went to Paris last weekend with our friends Mikaela and Lisa. We had an amazing time. Photos coming soon.

In the meantime, here's some photos from my coworker Anna and her flatmate Faye, who dogsat and fell in love with Turbo. At one point, he was so sleepy they had to carry him to bed:

Turbo's new job

As you all know, Turbo has been over here in England since the new year. He has a pretty easy life - his day's are mostly filled with ball-chasing, walks, and naps. Bringing him over here was pretty expensive though (we try not to add up the total cost, for fear of inducing a heart attack), so we've been talking to him about finding a job. The problem is that his skill set is pretty limited, and finding a job in this economy has proved to be tough. He's tried a few jobs, but has not really been very successful:

Driving a limo seemed out of the question.
He tried being a bartender but just drank all of the product.
His typing skills left something to be desired.
He's not much of a lifeguard.

However, after much thought and evaluation, we think we have found a new profession for him: Turbo's Computer Screen Cleaning Service. He charges reasonable rates, and his work is guaranteed! For a sample of his work, CLICK HERE.