Blistering Speed

Andddd relief.

After 1 hour, 49 minutes and 27 seconds I experienced the biggest wave of relief that I've experienced since the last time I dragged myself up the 13th mile back in September last year.

I thought I would do a little diary-like entry for yesterday. So, stay with me. 

The first decision of the day was Red or Green.

Big decision.

Kind of like in the Matrix (I know it was blue or red...). And Neo took ages over that one. 

I went green. 

I've done the bulk of the 350-odd miles since September in them and felt they deserved their moment in the sun. 

And they have a fair bit more cushioning. So congrats, chaps.

The race was meant to start at 10am, but come 10.20am it still hadn't so I had time for a quick pre-race photo!

Finallllllly, it got going around half ten and I tried to set off at a good pace. In September, I went out at a slow and very cautious 9.22 minutes for the first mile. I struggled to get the pace back up and the end result was an average pace about 15 seconds slower than in practice.

So this time I BOMBED the first mile in 8.17 which gave me time to play with later on. I knew I needed an average of not much over 8.20 to go sub 1hr 50 so things started well.

Before the race I heard the organisers say the course was much FLATTER and FASTER. At 3 miles, the biggest bloody hill I have ever seen lay in front of me. 

It went on FOR EVER.

People were walking and stumbling by the end of it. Whilst thankfully I wasn't that bad, it hit me (and my pace) hard. In fact mile 3 was the slowest of the race.

The route went on through Reading University at about 5 or 6 miles which was nice, then through Reading town centre. 

I've had two nights out in Reading before so I spent a good mile and a half/two miles thinking 'I've been there' and 'TWO JAGERBOMBS FOR £3 THERE!!!' which was fun.

At 8 miles there was another hill. But this one wasn't too horrific, and I caught sight of the 1hr 50 pacemaker about 300 yards in front of me which was good news.

For the next few miles I put in 8.03, 8.06 and 8.09 minute miles to reel in the pacemaker. Throughout this time I was running next to a guy who must have been 70, easily. He was in full running club gear and was flying. So, I sat on his shoulder for a bit and marvelled in what he was doing. Big ups, man. 

I hit 11 miles and felt immediately shit. The energy gel I'd taken a few miles earlier was only just kicking in and I think the push in pace to get up to 1hr 50 took its toll. 

Once I passed the pacemaker I felt better and managed to drag myself up the boring dual carriageway route up to the Madejski Stadium. I had enough in the tank to sprint the stadium part and came in with about 30 seconds to spare.

YES.

So made up.

Shaved a full 6 and a half minutes off September's time and didn't feel like I was going to pass out. So that was a good improvement all in all.

For those who care, the splits...

And the elevation blah blah. Just look at Mount Everest at mile three. 

Christ. 

So job done. The medal is amazing, the pain today isn't too horrendous and the 200 mile mark is up on the 600 mile challenge.

Well done to all who ran, especially the lego men, the lunatic with a concrete mixer on his back, the man pushing his friend in a wheelchair and my friend Rhianne who smashed it on her half marathon debut. Top work.

I'll leave you with this little treat. It's a beauty.

Things are A'Changing

Things are definitely changing.

After a miserly one positive response from my first 35 job applications, I have now had five positive responses in the following 18. 

That's gone from 2.9% to 27.8%. 

That's MAD.

The positive responses from the last five are all possible avenues of interest.

1. Marketing Officer at Nottinghamshire County Council - the recruiter has put me forward for consideration
2. Assistant Brand Manager at a hitherto unnamed Derbyshire FMGC company - I've got through the initial recruiter phone conversation, meeting the head recruiter on Wednesday next week
3. Assistant Marketing Brand Manager at the company that owns Bicester Village - the recruiter has put me forward for consideration
4. Marketing Executive at Liverpool Football Club (yep, really) - the recruiter has put me forward for consideration by the HR department at the club
5. Marketing Executive at a procurement software company in Oxford - this is the one I mentioned in the last blog about the recruiter being dead keen then disappearing off the face of the planet. Seems there might be some legs in this one yet after going direct to the company

What's strange is I'm applying to the same sort of jobs with basically the same CV. I've added that I am enrolled on the Squared Online Digital Marketing course, but surely that doesn't make that much difference one month in to the course? 

Maybe it does.

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the responses are steadily more positive of late.

I also had a call from a local events company yesterday who found my CV online and were interested enough to ask me over for a chat to see where I am with my thinking for my next move.

It makes a nice change from getting emails from companies or recruiters where the word 'unfortunately' stands out like a flashing red light. 

You needn't read much else after that. It's a no.

This recent flurry of more positive responses is important for my state of mind I think. When you get one positive response from 35 job applications it isn't much fun. The ideal of making sure I take the right next step and not jumping in to the first job that gets offered was becoming clouded. 

It's important I don't let that ideal slip.

I'm streetwise enough to know that even though I haven't had the dreaded unfortunately... from the above so-far-positive-responses yet, that doesn't mean I'm down to the last four or five applicants. There will be a huge number of applicants for the Liverpool gig especially, and I'll be staggered if I get to an interview stage. The same may well be applicable to the other possibilities (on a relatively smaller scale), but it's nice to know that the CV seems to be attracting a level of interest now. 

In other news... I have made an introductory video for my course. It's a compulsory project, not just me being super vain. 

It's a remarkably hard thing to do. You have no idea. My main aims were not come across as a complete tit, or struggle too much with 'th..' words. 

Hopefully it works ok.

We're now only four sleeps away from the Reading Half... and I am as ready as I'm going to be! I'm pretty sure I'm a step up in terms of preparation compared to last time after running 12 miles in around 1hr 40 on both of the last two weekends. 

I have two aims:

1. Beat my PB of 1hr 56 from the Robin Hood last year
2. Go sub 1hr 50

On recent pace, the second aim is very much on. So hopefully no dramas between now and then and I can give that a good go. 

If I manage it, I'm going to spend the afternoon on the Hooch and wearing my LION medal. 

In terms of the 600 mile challenge I'm on 182 miles so far, a monumental 30%! Progress will definitely slow once I get Sunday's 13.1 miles out the way, that I can absolutely assure you. 

I have manged to finish Book #7 which was 'The Quiet Game' - I really enjoyed it. The story follows a prosecutor turned novelist returning to his hometown after the death of his wife to solve a race murder conspiracy that dated all the way back to 1968. 

It's so good I ordered the three other books in the series and I am flying through Book #8 'Turning Angel' at the moment. 

All this reading makes me want to write a book. What about I have no idea, and I don't know whether I could deal with the book bombing after spending so much time on it. I feel sorry for authors who that happens to. Pour their life and soul in to something and then the critics say 'rubbbbbbbish!' and give it two stars. Must be bleak. 

As we approach flight booking time in May/June, I'm keeping my eye on the cost of flights to SA... anyone fancy paying a tick over £500 to fly with Ethiopia Airlines? A solid half price cheaper than other airlines... No? 

Suit yourself. 

That'll do for this lunch time. See you in 13.1 miles...

You're Square

Do you remember in Year 8 when some spotty little creep in your English class sneered 'you're square!' because you got a good mark for your homework or were asked to help the teacher do something?

I remember thinking, 'God, I don't want to be square', like it was something really bad and not forgetting, endlessly uncool, to be doing well at school.

To be honest, that underlying fear of being considered square was probably half responsible for me ticking over at school at such a steady, unextraordinary rate. Not overly excelling in anything too much (bar English A* at GCSE, boo ya!) and not flunking too badly (apart from a quite horrific 11% in a Year 9 Maths test. So bad that my Mum wrote in asking the teacher what on earth had happened. At least I got 11% is all I can say).

So, some 13 years later I'm square again, but this time I want to be. Tomorrow marks my return to being a student (kind of). I have signed up for Squared Online, a Digital Marketing Course from Google. 

Late last year I had a meeting with someone I hugely respect at a local marketing agency who we do a lot of work with and I asked him 'what is the most important thing you need to be a success in marketing today?'. Without hesitation he said 'digital'.

Digital marketing exploded in to the consciousness of businesses and marketers about the same time I finished my Masters. Which, wonderfully, didn't have a digital marketing module.

So armed with the knowledge that digital is only going to get more influential (and nearly every job I apply for explicitly mentioning it), I've decided to start learning again.

The course isn't cheap, but I managed to get a 'part-funded award' which saves me 20% which is nice. I'm excited about starting, and I am excited about going to Partners and buying some new pens and paper. Maybe even a folder. 

*Yes, I am aware of the irony of buying pens, paper and a folder for a digital course. 

Time for a quick job hunt update and it is slow going. I have now applied for 35 jobs and I don't have an awful lot to show for it. I had a positive call with a recruiter about 10 days ago, but frustratingly nothing since which is disappointing. But who knows, it might still be a possible lead.

In the ever boring world of running I am really ramping up my preparation for the Reading Half which is in less than three weeks now. The problem with ramping things up is that I remember how painfully dull it is to run for over an hour. I ran a tick over 11 miles on Saturday and I felt like my brain was falling out of my head. Physically, I feel significantly fitter than I did three weeks prior to the Robin Hood half in September. So that's good news.

I'm also at a sort-of-incredible 135 miles for the year after a 70 mile push in February. 22%! 

Books. Books. Books. I'm getting pretty good at the reading now. I've convinced myself my reading speed has upped from that of a 12 year old to that of a 15 year old. Book #6 has been vanquished, all 680-odd pages, and it was good!

'N0S 4R2', or 'Nosferatu' - the German word for Vampire - it's not really about a vampire in the Buffy Summers sense, but it is about a creepy old bad guy who steals children and kills their parents for one reason or another. It's well written and a good story that I enjoyed. Think I gave it four stars on Goodreads. 

Book #7 is 'The Quiet Game' which I have been recommended as very good by a good friend. And so far, it is very good. So kudos to you sir. 

Finally, not too much happening on the get-BQ-to-South-Africa front. Apart from me reconsidering spending a fortune to watch England be absolutely pathetic at cricket. 

Not really, it'll be good to watch AB de Villiers hit the quickest ever Test triple ton and get drunk on £1 beer in the sun come January!

Until next time, which may or may not be before I drag myself round 13.2 miles in Reading, cheers.