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Monday, March 22nd, 2010Street View Fame
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Back in October ’98 I blogged about the arrival of the Google Street View car in our road. The data for our area has finally been made available and I’m glad to report that Emma (with short hair) and I can now claim our moment of fame. I’m disappointed that we don’t get to feature twice despite crossing the road whilst the car turned at the end of the cul-de-sac. Having moved house since you’re not likely to find us in the same spot again!
Chariots of Rain
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Lordsdale Greenway
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010Having put on my new road shoes for the first time last night it was typical that a route was proposed that, when first run in my absence last year, was apparently ankle deep in mud. The route in question starts by hacking out across to the Common (via the site of Southampton’s Court Leet) and then takes in Hollybrook Cemetery and the Lordsdale Greenway that encircles the Coxford district of Southampton. As well as keeping us off the roads it meant that we got more than the usual level of ‘encouragement’ from local youths! Thankfully it was pretty dry this time round and the trainers came out pretty unscathed. I must remember to tie the laces less tightly next time though as I had pins and needles in my toes for much of the run! An early start next week to take in Lordswood and then we’ll be switching back to the Forest for our runs.
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Relays Revisited
Monday, March 15th, 2010On Saturday we went to the SOC local event at Dibden. The longest course on offer was a Green which included several legs from the Mens Open at the British Relays. The course started with a few track legs which weren’t particularly interesting but were a good chance to warmup. When we reached the legs from the relays they weren’t the same gaffles I had but I was pleased to find number six without too much trouble as this was the area I wasted time in at the British. In proceeded to waste a minute or more on the next leg although in my defence I still couldn’t see the distinct vegetation boundary even when I was stood at the control site. Total time was just under 27 minutes for the 5k course so a good burn-up.
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Expensive shoes
Saturday, March 13th, 2010As part of the drive to use up all of my remaining vacation by the end of the financial year I had Friday off work. After we’d been to Emma’s swimming lesson at Twyford School, we all headed in to Eastleigh for a bit of shopping. This involved taking back Emma’s new shoes which she’d managed to wreck on the slide on the way home from buying them. Shoes for a two year old can hardly be called fit for purpose if the soles can’t cope with a slide! I then went to the running shop to get some new road and off-road shoes whilst Christine went to Sainsburys where we’d parked.
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ASDA calls
Sunday, February 28th, 2010Every so often we get bored of running around the streets of Southampton on a Tuesday night and we decide to head north to the delights of Chandler’s Ford. This does, unfortunately, mean a long slog up the Avenue and Bournemouth Road to ASDA but you then get to follow the cycle route to Flemming Park and then cut back through Lakeside Country Park and the University Playing Fields. This time we also took the footpath around the back of the Ford plant which follows Monks Brook which was a new diversion. Not long until the clocks change now…
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Snow, mud and brambles
Sunday, February 28th, 2010Last weekend we were over in the Forest of Dean for the Southern Championships weekend. The Saturday was a middle distance race on Mallards Pike. Somehow, I’d managed to remember our start block as being from 3:30, not 13:30 and it was only when we were sat having lunch at about half 12 that Christine’s Mum spotted my mistake (her Dad was meant to have already started). Although we weren’t actually all that late once we got there it had been a bit of a rush and I wasn’t really thinking straight when I started off on the Black course in to an area full of ditches. Thankfully (and this was actually part of my plan), I ended up at control three and just had to back-track the short distance to the first control.
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