Day 361

On 1st January 2015, I made four glorified New Years resolutions to act as targets for the year ahead. 

Just as a little reminder, this is what I set out to do this year:

1. End the year in Cape Town
2. Run 600 miles
3. Read 25 books
4. Get a new job

So, now it's time for the all important end of term report card:

1. End the Year in Cape Town

I fly out on TUESDAY! I've had it booked for quite a while now and it has definitely sprung up out of nowhere in the last few weeks. You spend forever looking forward to something and then BAM! It's here. So that's super exciting.

I'll be at all five days of the Test Match in Cape Town as well as seeing family and friends over the ten days or so of the trip. So that's going to be amazing. 

I need to go and buy one of those neck thingys so that I don't spent the entire flight (London > Istanbul > Cape Town = hourssss) bobbing my head all over the place like Churchill and his insurance ads or whatever they were selling. And I need suncream and a hat as it is going to be hot hot hot (don't hate me).

2. Run 600 Miles

Well this one has been fun.

I have now ran 114 times this year for a grand total of... 800 MILES!

In the last entry I essentially said 'Pah! Don't be silly, I can't be bothered to go for 800,' because it seemed a long way off. But then one thing led to another and I convinced myself 800 sounded way better than 782. So December has been a 75 mile month fuelled heavily by roast dinners and chocolate. 

The vast majority of the 800 have been pretty boring runs after work or at the weekend, but there have been some stand outs; the four half marathons (Reading, Great North, Nottingham and Tissington), getting quite quick (1hr 35 WORLD RECORD) and getting to run with some friends too. 

It's always nice to share the misery.

Some BREAKING NEWS for you... next year I will be running the BERLIN MARATHON on Sunday 25th September. Which is very, very scary but a little bit exciting too.

(Mainly exciting to eat my body weight in German sausages afterwards and get a shiny medal).

3. Read 25 Books

Now on the face of it, this one looks relatively easy. But I have a reading age of a 12-13 year old so this has been a real challenge for me. I have always enjoyed reading but bar Harry Potter, I don't think I read a book between 11 and 24... ha. I have read most days this year, usually just before going to bed and yesterday I finished my 25th book!

I got up to #22 last time, so...

Book #23 - 'The Man in the High Castle' is the book that Amazon have recently turned in to a series and I thought it was worth a read. It was originally published in 1962 so I must take that in to account, but I thought it was ok at best. I think at the time it was groundbreaking, in 2015... less so. Also, I think the Amazon thing is quite different from what I can gather.

Book #24 - 'Fatherland' is another book based in a reality where Germany won the war, but this one was great. A pretty straight forward conspiracy thriller, but the attention to detail and the environment the author has built around a Berlin where Hitler still reigns supreme was stunning. 

Book #25 - 'The Girl on the Train' has had so much praise and won a ton of awards for 'thriller of the year' and the like. But I was disappointed in it. I think it was badly written with unlikable characters and a padded out story. If it wasn't book 25 with only a few days left of December, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the last 150 pages or so... but alas, I did, and it was all a bit lame. 

4. Get a Job

Back in June, I finally managed to get a new job at Boots on the Christmas marketing team. I say finally because on more than one occasion getting a new job felt like something that was never going to happen. It was only a six month contract but it was a way in, a step up the ladder.

Six months later, and definitely the most challenging period of my working life, Christmas has come and gone and I needed a new job! Thankfully, I did a decent enough job to be offered another one at Boots, working on the in-store marketing for Opticians. So that's pretty good news and I'll be starting on 11th January when I am home.

So that's it! It's been a good year and I definitely would have taken it as an outcome if it was offered to me on 1st January. 

Thank you for reading, I hope it has been an alright read. And thank you for the kind words about Project 9626 too, it's made it all the more worthwhile.

Happy New Year!

Nearly There...

First things first, my apologies for completely slacking on the 9626 front. It's been a busy old time! 

That said, it is high time for an update.

If you cast your minds back to late September, I had just completed my second of two half marathons in three weeks. The third and final run of the challenge came the following weekend and the records tumbled. Powering through the hills of Tissington (erm... Peak District, I think?), I registered a 1hr 35, which SMASHED the previous record (1hr 37) which only stood for a mere week. 

Mental. 

An average pace of 7.16 mins/mile which is daft, including a 6.57 mile ten which still makes me laugh and shudder in equal measure seven weeks later. 

Since then, I have bought some trainers that you can see from the moon...

                                         ... and bought loads of winter stuff because it is bloody freezing. The upshot of all that is the initial target of 600 miles for the year is loooong gone. About 125 miles gone, to be precise. 

I set a target of 800 miles once the initial 600 was hit, but unless I get overcome by wanting to go for more than a couple of runs a week in the cold, wind and rain... I expect I'll fall just short. Never mind, in the world of Project 9626, I've got a big tick next to the running challenge. Maybe we'll look at 800 miles next year...

Arguably the biggest target of the year was to get a job, which I finally managed to get back in June (YES.) As I approach the end of my six month contract, things are looking positive about continuing my stay at Boots and I hope to be able to confirm something soon. 

As we move in to December, it's great that everyone else in the world is getting onboard with the whole Christmas thing. It's about time. I've never enjoyed the arrival of Christmas songs and adverts as much as this year. 

The last five months have been all kinds of hectic but it's been amazing (and a massive bloody relief) to see so many of the projects we've been working on arrive in store and look so good. I've become an expert on things I'd never spent one second of my life thinking about before this gig (wall cladding?)... but they look great and I now find myself going in to Boots stores just to look at the windows and see what type of pillar cladding they've got (round vs square... who knew?!).

Out of nowhere, it is now only 29 sleeps (excluding naps) until I get on a plane to Cape Town to watch the mighty England take on South Africa in the cricket. I'm so excited. I could do with getting some sun cream and a big floppy hat because it is going to be HOT. 

I've been making steady progress on the reading...

Book #18 - 'The Cartel' is the follow up to 'The Power of the Dog' and continued in similarly brutal vein about the battle between the Mexican Narcos and the (mostly) good guys in the war on drugs. It's very, very good. 

Book #19 - 'The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair' is a strange old book. It is a classic mystery intertwined with a critique on the shallowness and falseness of modern day love/relationships. I liked it, though it borders on trying to fit too many narratives in to it. 

Book #20 - 'The Kind Worth Killing' was fun and a bit mad. Quite similar to 'Gone Girl' in many respects, but actually had an end. In fact, thinking about it I bloody loved the end of this. Very clever. Take note, Gillian Flynn.

Book #21 - 'The Stand' by Stephen King is the biggest book I have ever read (1300+ pages!) and it is the very definition of an epic. I read the extended version and it captivated me from the very start. Few authors drag you in to a world of a book and keep you there throughout like King does. Wonderful.

Book #22 - 'Mr Mercedes' is another King book, but about 900 less pages which is always nice. A formulaic thriller that reminded me quite a lot of 'Red Dragon', the first of the Hannibal books. A good read all the same with characters you actually care about.

So I have three books to go. Which, worryingly, is quite a lot to read in a month. Deciding to read a 1300 page book at #21 was probably ill-advised... but nae matter, I've got about 18 hours in the air to look forward to come the 29th December!

(It may be a Mr Men book if I'm stuck on 24 with only a few days to go. Soz).

So that's that, up to speed. Enjoy your chocolate in the morning, Christmas is coming!

One Thirty Seven

Today was part two of the half marathon challenge - the Robin Hood! 

I've been looking forward to this one. It's a route I know (more or less), I know people running it and I had some support from my friend Rhianne who I ran the Reading with earlier this year.

So, last night... I went BIG on the pre-race meal. A pizza with eggs, cheese and some kind of meat on it. That sounds like carbo-protein heaven to me. 

Destroyed.

I was very organised and brought my three weetabix, banana and milk for my breakfast. Then I realised I'd forgotten a bowl and a spoon. Then I discovered we didn't have a fridge. Bloody hell. I managed to persuade a very confused Eastern European receptionist at the hotel to let me have a bowl and spoon, then filled the sink with cold water to keep the beer milk cold.

I slept terribly, made and ate my breakfast in the bathroom at the crack of dawn so to not wake my room mate up, then looked outside...

Foggy.

A quick walk to the start line and it was soon enough time to get in to the starting pens. Now, at the GNR, the warm up was amazing. This time? Shit. So I took it upon myself to sort this out.

The race got under way and I started with 7.45/7.46/7.27/7.23/7.29 min/miles for the first five - which, in other words, is fast. My average pace at the GNR was 7.38 so I was ticking over about the same.

Then a mental run of 7.14/7.16/7.10/7.12/7.14/7.17/7.18/7.09 took me home. 

FAST!

So bloody fast that I came in in 1 hour 37 minutes and 21 seconds. 

Erm, WHAT?

Previous best of 1hr 42 fairly smashed. 

So I'm dead happy with that. I did the Robin Hood last year in 1hr 56. Proof in the pudding that loadsa training makes a hell of a difference. 

The best part of any half marathon day is eating everything in sight afterwards.

Thank you, wonderful people of Chiquito.

So all in all a really great day. So pleased to know some great people who did so well today themselves, no feeling beats finishing these races. 

There is a rumour going round that I might be doing another half next Sunday... It all depends how sore I feel over the next few days. Why not make the two-half-marathons-in-September-FUN in to three-half-marathons-in-four-weeks-FUN? Apparently it's 'all down hill' too, which I'll have to see to believe, but it might be a nice retirement party for my reliable pair of Nikes. 

Thanks to all who've sponsored me so far, you're the best. Up to a great £410 now... I reckon there's a chance of £500 which would be a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Time for bed I think. Might wear my new bling.

Cheers.

Running for Jaffa Cakes

So, yesterday was the Great North Run - part one of my two-half-marathons-in-September-FUN - and as I've got today booked off work and can barely walk, what better time to do a quick write up!

I travelled up to Newcastle on Saturday evening, saw off a lasagne, wrestled with getting the race number on to my shirt (again), and worked out where on earth I had to go in the morning - the race starts on a dual carriageway so it was very hard to put a finger on where it actually started. I laid all my stuff out on the floor like a kid on a Sunday night before their first day at school and managed to get a half decent nights sleep. 

I woke up and forced down three weetabix and a banana, and guzzled down as much water as I could.

I started walking towards the general area that I figured the race would start and was soon pleased to see loads of people in bright colours walking that way too. Success. I spent some time meandering around the place, taking in the atmosphere and working out where I needed to leave my bag (only the mere 40 double decker buses to choose from...). I made my way in to the starting pens decked out in my super cool SPACE BLANKET which kept me warm, when a woman asked me how long I was planning to use it for... Probably till the race starts, I'm afraid.

How wrong I was. A Mr Motivator fitness instructor bloke came out and wanted to get everyone warmed up. I normally have no interest in such mass flapping, but this was amazing. I fully embraced the mass flapping, and before I knew it the elites were off at the front (huge head start, we never had a chance) and we were starting to walk forwards towards the start.

There were so many people there, I couldn't even seen the start line. Apparently from the very back it took 50 minutes to get going. Mad. Luckily, we were running in about 15-20 minutes. The weather was absolutely glorious, about 18'c with a steady breeze and off we went. The first few miles wound through the city towards the Tyne Bridge at mile two, which was the stand out highlight of the race.

Just as I left the bridge I heard the roar of the Red Arrows above which was incredible and really helped me appreciate how big a deal it was to run this half marathon. 

The route then moved out of the city and I was feeling pretty comfortable ticking over at below 8 minutes a mile which was the only target I really had in terms of pace. I've read a lot about the GNR not being a great place to run fast and I quickly understood why... there were just too many people. I would regularly get boxed in behind a couple of slower runners leaving the options of biding my time and not causing a mass tangle of legs resulting in a crash, or chancing it and causing a mass tangle of legs resulting in a crash. I chose the former. 

The route then settled in to a pretty dull dual carriageway set up for a good 8 or 9 miles which was a shame. Don't get me wrong, the support on the sides was better than I've ever seen before, I just felt a little disappointed there wasn't more of the route in the city or around renowned sights. But to feature the Tyne Bridge moment and end where it does on the sea front at South Shields, I suppose there's not much that can be done about it. 

Before I knew it the 10, then 11 mile markers passed by and the pain was setting in. Bizarrely, my shoulder was the biggest problem but generally I was ok. When I began counting down the minutes (error) and looking for the finish, the sight of the sea unfolding in front of me was a big boost. Down a big hill which was absolute murder on the knees before sweeping left in to the finish straight banked on either side by hundreds, if not thousands of people. 

800m.

400m.

200m.

FINISH.

Happiness is. Relief. Water.

H2O. 

Come at me.

I spent a good ten minutes gathering myself on the grass not far beyond the finish line took it all in. I've never ran with so many people, in front of so many people. A pretty amazing experience really.

YES.

At 1 hour, 42 minutes and 8 seconds I beat my previous best by over seven minutes. It also meant I came 3194th out of over 50,000 runners. 

Ridiculous.

I hopped on the bus, ate a lot of Jaffa Cakes (A LOT) and drank a good three litres of fluids to bring me back to some remnants of normality. 

A good day, and I'm delighted to have ticked it off my list. 

People say to me all the time 'I couldn't do it!' when we talk about running that far, but seeing so many people of different ages, shapes and sizes just reinforces my belief that anyone could do it. It's genuinely one of the best things I've ever done. And you get big medals, who wouldn't want some medals? 

I'm not sure how best to prepare for the Robin Hood in 13 days time, but I think a good few days off are in order first. I saw some maniac on Twitter this morning go out for a 12k warm down run. Mental. 

Thank you everyone who has sponsored me so far, up to a quite brilliant £350 so far for Balls to Cancer. You're the absolute best and it genuinely means a lot to me.

In signing off, I was absolutely crushed to hear that a runner had died yesterday. Life isn't fair. My thoughts with them, their family and friends. Rest in peace.

Thanks for reading.

Back in the Saddle

Been a while since I've done one of these.

Forty-three days! 

I'm well aware of at least five big fans of Project 9626 so it is only right that I get back in the saddle and provide an update for my adoring public. 

Ahem.

Right, last time I said I wasn't that busy and wanted to do more.

I'm now so busy those early days feel like a different life. I'm looking after four main projects which invariably are riddled with things going wrong each and every day. But I'm doing my best and learning a lot, gradually being able to answer questions more convincingly and getting stuff done. Which is important. I spent a good while becoming very frustrated that things just weren't getting done. But as the weeks have ticked by and I've grown more used to working in such a huge company, I've come to accept that's just how it is. 

But that's not to say it's been easy, I've found it to be a real challenge. I've never been a stressful person but man alive, I've felt stressed. So much so that a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with shingles. Shingles! Ridiculous body. I got away with it in all honesty, a week or two of feeling sunburnt on the left side of my back a small rash on my ribcage. Some good anti-virals from the doctor saved the day. 

I've made a conscious effort to not let the work get to me as much as it did leading up to that week and it's working. I'm getting more done and staying in control. Old fashioned to-do lists help. Who knew!?

At the end of the day, it's cardboard and paper... It ain't going to kill anyone. #Perspective

So, the running.

I think my target of 600 miles in the year was a little on the low side (despite being 25% more than 2014!). Considering the 26.2 miles of half marathons in September and all it's associated training leading up to that, I think I will be going past the 600 mile target sometime early October. 

Mental.

I'm continuing to run a longggg way on Friday's, up to 11 miles last week, probably 11 more tomorrow. I've spent a lot of time running in torrential rain recently, which is actually quite good fun whilst temperatures remain around 20'c. Give it a month and it'll be far less fun. But good progress and good preparation all the same.

With only 17 days to go until round one of the half marathon fun I'm ramping up the SPONSOR ME (please!) message. I've reached £100 which is good, but is it great? No siree! We have £200 to go! So as ever, anything you can spare is massive to me and, of course, Balls to Cancer. 

Here is my page, make my day. Thank you!

I finally decided to part with 70 quid to order my new passport so that I'm actually allowed to fly to South Africa in December (124 days!) which is all well and good. However, getting my picture taken in a photo booth was a traumatic experience. It appears my head is not symmetrical. I used all three of my allotted tries and each one was not cool. 

Not cool at all.

I'd upload a picture of the photo booth print out but I don't think I'm ready for the ribbing. 

I'm not having it. The machine must be broken. 

Me and my bizarrely shaped head are up to book #18 now - closing in on the magic #25. Book #16 was the quite frankly amazing 'The Bone Tree' which follows on from Book #10 'Natchez Burning' and features Penn Cage again. It's a huge 850 pages, taking the total of the first two books of this trilogy past 1700 pages - all to tell a story of six or seven days. It's fantastic. If you want a crime thriller to compel you as intensely as these books do, I couldn't recommend any other.

Book #17 'The Power of the Dog' is absolutely nothing to do with animals. Rather, it's a blend of Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and The Wire in book form focusing on drug cartels in Mexico, and the men charged with bringing them down. It's awesome. And easily the most gruesome book I've read. Lesson for all - don't piss of Mexican drug kingpins.  I'm reading the sequel now. 

So there we are. Things are good.

Full steam ahead to the hills of Gateshead.

Comfort Zone

New jobs are hard. 

Who knew?

Today was day eight of my new job and it is proving to be as drastic and difficult an adjustment as I thought, nay feared it would be. To go from an organisation with ten people in the office to an organisation with hundreds in one particular wing alone is a massive change. 

Everyone is extremely busy, everyone knows everyone and then there is me... Feeling like a kid on work experience. But that's to be expected, and each day things get slightly easier. I have more to do, more people recognise (/accept?) me and I feel less like the heavier, spottier, 17 year old version of me that endured five miserable days on work experience at the local paper in 2006. 

That's not to say I'm rushed off my feet - yet, at least. I'm naturally a quick learner and equally fast worker so I've picked up the bits and bobs that have been sent my way perhaps ahead of time. So I'm offering my help to the team and making lots of teas and coffees (PLEASE BE MY FRIEND). My working day (well, the drive at least) now starts at 7.30am as opposed to 8.30am two weeks ago and a few traffic rages apart, it's been alright. Starting at 8.30am means I can leave at 4.30pm which is glorious - home in time for Pointless.

I'm not going to pretend I am anything other than a long way out of my comfort zone but everyone has to go through this at some stage in their career/life so no complaints from BQ. It's a means to an end, and in five months and two weeks time I will be in a much better position than if I hadn't taken this opportunity. 

In other news, I need a new passport. New passports are extortionate. So I'm summing up the courage to part with £72.50 and get that sorted. 

Seen as England have remembered how to play cricket, I'm much more excited about travelling thousands of miles to watch them! 

I'm also beginning to collect various things for the trip, including a lovely new England Test shirt to wear at Newlands. Fortunately I can't put the name and number curse on it like countless ill-advised LFC related decisions... Messrs Balotelli, Aquilani, Kewell et al. Soz.

All of a sudden, it's only 60 (sixty!) days until I drag myself round the hills of Gateshead and South Shields. Which means it's only 74 Days until Robin Hood Sunday. 

So, because I have a degree of sense, I'm picking things up. I ran a steady nine miles last Friday and plan to log a long run every week now until the GNR really. Thankfully, I appear to have retained that good, long distance fitness which means my biggest barrier, as ever, is the impending boredom that running for over an hour creates. Pace wise I'm solid, usually around 7.40min/mile once I get going.

I have decided to run for Balls to Cancer and I'm hoping to raise as much as possible for them. A charity for all forms of male cancer, I thought it would be a great cause to run for. Whilst of course it is not a competition, the male cancer charities seem to get less air time and engagement than the female ones - the wonderful Race for Life and breast cancer initiatives, etc. - so I thought what better cause to choose.

As ever, anything you can spare is genuinely amazing and helps so much during the training and the 11+ mile misery. And I'm doing it TWICE! That's mental. 

#SponsorBQ

As a slight aside, I've now racked up a mighty 414 miles this year which means the 600 mile target is going to be smashed by about October!  

After the wonderful 'Station Eleven' I began my first ever Stephen King novel and Book #14, '11.22.63' - a story centred on the JFK assassination and what you could do to change the events of that day... If you had the chance. 

It turns out, the main character of the story does have the chance through a magical time travelling portal that takes the traveller to 1958 with the ability to live as long as they want in the 'old' world and return to the present day and only lose two minutes. But for every different action and decision in 1958, a butterfly effect follows. The book is long but it is an absolutely stunning piece of literature - one that you actually miss reading when it's finished. Can the president be saved? Can Vietnam be avoided? But what happens to the present day if such pivotal elements of the 20th Century didn't take place? Stunning writing.

Next up on the conveyor belt was Book #15, The Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, the first in the Hannibal Lecter series. I'm a big fan of Hannibal on Sky Living and it was inspired by this book so it was an obvious choice. It was good, much darker than I anticipated (which says a lot) and has whet the appetite to read Silence of the Lambs at some point. 

And that's that. Things are going well on the whole. I'd love to press a fast forward button and arrive in six weeks time down the line actually knowing how do to my job and being settled, but alas, such a life hack isn't available just yet. 

Half Term Report (NEW JOB! NEW JOB!)

As I've dedicated many, many words to going on about two near misses recently, I will use this entry more as a half-way-through-the-year (give or take a week or so) update on Project 9626 as there is lots to update you on.

NEW JOB!!!

Last time I posted, I came THIS close to getting the No7 Assistant Marketing Manager position at Boots. To not get it was a big blow but apparently I was doing something right and had made an impression on them. Fast forward about ten days and I was invited to apply for a position on the Christmas Campaign Team for In-Store Marketing Communications. The would-be manager had been impressed by my CV and recommendation from the No7 interview and wanted to see me as soon as possible... she'd met with two internal applicants already and wasn't sold so there was a big opportunity there for me.

i.e. interview well and it's yours BQ!

I went for the interview a few days later and seemed to impress enough as I was offered the job of Assistant Marketing Manager the following day.

The one slightly negative issue is that it is only a six month contract with it being a Christmas-focused role. But it is a route into the company, and an opportunity to hopefully impress enough so that I can get a permanent job in the New Year. 

I'm basically treating it like a six month placement or job interview. It will be a hell of a motivator to knuckle down and work hard to secure a longer term career at Boots, whilst at the very least six months at Boots will be very strong on my CV if I wasn't able to stay on after.

Whilst I had a couple of other interviews lined up (one at a final stage), I wasn't in a position to turn Boots down. A job offer always outweighs a one in three chance. 

I start on Monday 6th July!

South Africa: Booked

This actually happened quite some time ago, but the blog took a big turn to misery-inducing job process entries but the big end of year trip booked!

I've decided to travel with the Barmy Army tour party so that I'm part of a big group of England supporters, with everything taken care of and not having to rely on anyone in Cape Town to put me up and entertain me for ten days. It is the more expensive option but having saved up for a good while, I'm not too worried. Travelling on my own and on my first cricket tour it felt like a no brainer to make it as easy as possible. Hopefully there will be some future tours where I can rope in some mates and we can go cheaper.

I fly 29th December!

Running

Man, I run a lot. 

I'm in that dead space that was always going to arrive in the middle of the year. Months from my last Half, months until my next Half. So it's very much a case of ticking over the miles and working on my pace. 

I'm well ahead of schedule in the race towards 600 miles and at this stage wouldn't be surprised if it topped 700 miles before the year is out. 

My pace is steadily improving with a ten miler a few weeks back at 7.48min/miles (which is a long way quicker than the 8.12min/miles at the Reading Half in March) and a 7.33min/miles five miler this morning... so the pace is there, it's just a matter of maintaining it.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but for some utterly ridiculous reason I have decided to enter the ballot for the 2016 London Marathon. 

I won't find out till October if I have a place, and at the moment I really don't want a place but I guess it's always good to keep pushing yourself. Right?

Right?!

Christ.

Books #10, 11, 12 and 13

As it's been such a while since I did a normal post, I've read four books.

Book #10 was 'Natchez Burning' which was fourth instalment of the Penn Cage series and it was probably the best of the lot. An 850 page mammoth though!

Books #11 and #12 were two books I picked up from Waterstones without really checking out their reviews on Goodreads. And it showed. 'The Three' and 'The Accident' ranged from meh to ok and taught me a valuable lesson. Never judge a book on it's cover and always, always check them on Goodreads.

Book #13 was the absolutely glorious 'Station Eleven'.

This is probably the most beautifully written book I have ever read. It focuses on a group of people adapting to life after an apocalyptic event wipes out 99% of the world's population, touching on fame, art and general day to day life in response to the world ending. It's brilliant. 

So there we are! Half way through the year and things are looking positive. Three weeks left in my current job so that promises to be very busy, and then the first day at big school will be here.

I better go and buy a pencil case.