Life

I was (very) lucky to receive a ballot place for the 2024 London Marathon. A few weeks ago, on 21st April, I ran London for the first time. It was a fantastic day, the crowd support was incredible, and it's something I will never forget.

An afternoon and evening of brilliant running at the Highgate Harriers track in London. Fantastic atmosphere at the event and free for spectators. This is the future!

My Mum, Brenda Walker, died in 2020 from COVID-19 and frailty. We knew that she had written about her childhood growing up before and during the Second World War and always wrote poetry during her life - but it was still a bit of a surprise when my sister, Lynette Coates, found Mum's memoir and poetry in a box in her bedroom.

Well, that was a massive day for me. Running my first marathon at Brighton on Sunday 12th September. How was it?!

I've been away with friends on a cycling weekend in Essex. Well, Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in fact!

Last week, my coworking friends Matt and Roger and my sister Lynette and a few other friends organised a surprise birthday party for me.

Another post about running this week. It's taken over my life a bit at the moment. This time, all about running the first Run Gatwick Half Marathon.

I've never run a marathon and, apart from TV watching, haven't experienced race day at a big event like the London Marathon. So, it was with excitement and a few nerves that I travelled up to Blackheath at 5am on Sunday to help out on the big day.

A new personal best for me this week. I ran the Worthing Half Marathon in 1:54:08 (chip time) which was a massive half marathon PB ..... by 15 seconds. But, 15 seconds is still a PB!

Just one subject for my weeknotes post today. A trip to Italy last weekend to meet with friends and watch Italy v England in the rugby Six Nations Championship. It's a trip I make every two years because that's when England play in Rome.

My third weeknotes post describes recent running adventures, my work updating a Perch CMS site, and personal finance. Quite a mixture!

I visited Bath last weekend for the University's 50th Birthday celebrations. I studied Chemistry in the 1980s and, although I have visited since, it's been a a few years (five?) since my last trip. My visit was a mix of familiarity, memories, new things and old friends.

I've not take any photos with my 'proper' camera (a Sony A6000) for ages. It's a great camera that is more than sufficient for my photographic talents but I became less interested and fell out of the photography habit. I'm hoping to get it back though and here's a start.

Setting some objectives and describing how I will tackle the Challenge. The tools I'm using and my expectations.