61 degree change in latitude, straight down the way

We're packed! I have a giant bag!

Now to drop from 60 degrees to -1 degree latitude and try running again.

See you soon friends in the North, see you sooner friends in KENYA!

 I look tired! I felt pretty good this morning until I saw this picture.
x

So long Stockholm

Last night we did our last training run in Stockholm. We just made it out of the house in the midst of packing and were very glad we did as the most beautiful moon had just risen over the City Hall in the clear sky.

Thanks for all the training terrain Stockholm, see you for recovery runs.
x

Stats for the week (1st June - marathon month!)

ONE - Some lovely early morning runs this week. And the sun has come out in Stockholm, so we are finally getting the chance to try out our super-snazzy hats. 
TWO - Rich's family have been visiting this weekend, so we have been having a fine old time visiting our usual haunts with a three-year-old and a one-year-old in tow. This is a beauty of a quote from Harrison. We rather annoyed him by, instead of being terrified by our impending doom, launching into a whole series of these. "Orange to live!", "mango to dance!", "pineapple to go to the moon!".
THREE - Rich at the Historiska museet, with totally random children. These guys are not related to him, they just decided to take part in the picture. This makes me even more amused at the little guy on the left's face. He was there entirely voluntarily.
FOUR - Thank you so much to everyone for the sponsorship. You are marvelous.

Terrain profile and course map

We got a map! This is actually a real race, who knew! It's good to see an outline of the course, and alarming to see the terrain profile. My favourite thing about this though is how different it will look to us in three weeks time, when we can picture what it actually looks like.

My favourite bit of this is 13.4km: spectators will encourage you here! Least favourite is definitely 8.7km: beginning steep climb. I fear that on the second time around this may become beginning steep walk / stumble up a hill.

Stats for the week (25th May)

ONE - Yes! The first time we have run more than a marathon in a week! Now we just have to work up to doing it in a day.
TWO - We found a new route this week, which took us over 5 bridges and 6 islands on a six mile loop. It was a perfect day for running, sunny and a little breezy. Up and down off the bridges makes for some very good hill training and some daunting moments when you are at sea level looking up at the bridge that you want to be on. We accidentally found ourselves caught up in the tail end of the Stockholm marathon too, albeit on the other side of the barriers. I simultaneously felt very pleased with myself for prancing along up a gradient (completely unjustifiably, since everyone else on the bridge was on about mile 20 by then, and I was on 5), and terrified at the grimaces on all other faces. Marathon running looks tough.
THREE - Something we have been asked quite a few times throughout this escapade. Truthfully though - yes. Which is not to say that half the time (maybe more than half the time) I am not sure why I am running in the first place, or that it's always fun to get up an hour early to run (it is never fun to get up early to run), but we've been to bits of the city we would never have gone to, and been out in all weathers and temperatures. We saw a deer so close we could probably have caught it and ridden it home. And though 26.2 miles still feels like (still is) a bloody long way and quite terrifying, I can now run at least 16 miles. 16 miles! That's actually far!
FOUR - Ready to be pestered?

Leuven

I went to Belgium for work last week. I did not do any running at all, despite my best intentions. One month to go before a marathon - that's a good time for a break, right? However, I did drink beer and visit a magnificent toy shop, so not a wasted week. Also, the conference was pretty good.

Stats for the week (11th May)

ONE - Most of these in the course of one run, where we got hopelessly lost...
TWO - From me, whilst hopelessly lost, and in a forest. I thought we were going to have to make a camp and hold off the wolves all night.
THREE - Here are the extra 3 miles we accidentally ran, round and round in a lovely nature reserve at sunset. We were setting off on a 13 mile run from a friends house, our of town, having spent the afternoon eating and sunbathing; correct warm-up for a long run? Then we waved everyone off on the tram back to town, slightly apprehensive, and realised my phone was also speeding away from me, in Ilary's bag. With it our maps. On the plus side we saw a deer as close as anything! He was lovely, and startled. On the negative side I have only just regained the use of my legs, and we didn't get any pictures, since phones now double up as all electronic gadgets.
FOUR - nothing new, but a happy tally!

Safaricom Meeting in London

We had been getting e-mails from Mary-Jane at Tusk about a meeting in London to hear about the race from people that had done it before. I never even bothered to look at the date; once knew it was London-based I just assumed we couldn’t make it. Turns out, it was exactly the night we were driving back in from our muddy run with Morven. So we rocked up. VERY late due to forgetting that driving into Knightsbridge (very central and swanky London. I mean Harrods and £200-million flats swanky) at rush hour was only for numpties. And us.

Morven e-mailed round the rest of the running team after the meeting. She expresses it so well that I am shamelessly going to use her words from here on in (bits in non-Italics are my additions):

“Hey team.

So Laura, Rich and I made it to the marathon meet last night. Which was brill but hilarious seen as we arrived 45mins late, covered in Wessex Downs mud, into a room full of people in suits.

Luckily Mary Jane is delightful. She handed us booze and told everyone we had driven in from Wales specifically for the meeting. Slight exaggeration but we went with it.  Although we now need to speak in welsh accents for the entire race. Cool? (This is not the first time in my life that is has been difficult to explain where we were from, living and coming from that day. The upshot is that people there were not sure if we were Welsh, Swedish or Scottish, despite the fact that I was about 1 mile from where I was born at the time).

Was a great meeting with plenty folk who had run the race before. I think the best things they said were...

People regret focusing on their time rather than the giraffe running beside them. Focus on the giraffe.
There are misting stations.
We should all get white running caps with black on the underside. To reflect heat as well as look super snazzy.
There are 3 hard hills and we should expect to walk up at least one.
The temp gets to average 28 (not as bad as I thought)
No one else is staying in the campsite (we are such urchins) but Mary Jane is going to come find us on Friday night.
Breathe in before you drink water.
We will definitely get lapped by many barefooted sinewy Kenyans.

It's going to be soooo great.” 
 

Here are Bam and Kaz modeling our snazzy free t-shirts, with Tusks:

Worst Wales and Wessex

We had a glorious and ridiculous week of running last week, in two parts.

Wales –

We finally made it to see my Dad’s house in west Wales. Not worst Wales, that was a mishearing by Nosh. It’s full of amazing old cars in bits mostly (the house, not the country), and we had a fine old time kicking about there for a few days.

According to our training plan it was time to complete our first half marathon whilst we were there. This was a mixed blessing. On one hand we had plenty of time and pasta on our hands, so we were well fed and rested when we started out. On the other, Wales is a very hilly country.

On turning left out of the house we hit an immediate climb, which pretty much set the pattern for the rest of the run. 13.2 miles up and over a hill (mountain?) and then back, innumerable sheep and hill (mountain?) ponies and a couple of mouthfuls of raisins later we arrived back, just before one of the many biblical downpours of rain that week. Then we remembered that we didn’t have access to any washing facilities other than the kitchen sink.

It’s not a run that’s going to go down in the history of speedy runs, but for us it was a brilliant way to hit a milestone, and remember that at the beginning of this crazy plan, a half marathon was the very distant and daunting goal.

Time to crack on and do that twice then…

North Wessex ups and Downs –

Two days later (after visiting the nearest swimming pool 20 miles away at 7am in order to wash) we were back on the road heading towards London, through yet more of the week’s typical storms. We had the vaguest notion of a plan to meet Morven somewhere off the M4. Remarkably we found each other without incident, in a teeny tiny thatched village called East Garston, somewhere on the North Wessex Downs.

Morven had planned a wonder of a day running and swimming in this pretty part of the world, so we set off first on our run. I am still unsure how far we went – maybe 6 miles or so – but we felt like we were training for the army. We went up and down hills and farm tracks so wet and rutted with tractor tracks that you had to decide how exactly to place your feet in the pitted mud. It was bloody marvelous.  The same post-van passed us twice on the run, and then once whilst we were lying facedown on a tiny strip of grass trying to do planks. He must have wondered what the heck we were up to.

We ended up covered in mud and pretty wet, and tried to clamber down into the little stream running through the village to wash our faces and feet, before heading off to our next location of Hurley to wild swim in the Thames. Sadly the Thames was having none of this, as the week of rain had taken it’s toll on the force of the river. Despite determinedly running through the rain and ignoring signs not to go further Morven and I had to eventually admit (when we came across a fence about twice my height, through which the raging torrent which was once the river that ‘The Wind in the Willows’ was inspired by) that swimming wasn’t on the agenda for the day.

And thus we carried on to our next adventure in our post-run muddy and sweaty state….

Stats for the week (27th April)

ONE -  a marvelous week of running in the hills in Wales, in the mud in Wessex, and then round and round Peckham Rye on a sunny Saturday morning in a 10km race.

TWO - Peckham team! We did 10km in 57 minutes, thanks to Morven’s encouragement and occasional tugs by the hand up the hills.

THREE -  wise words from the Safaricom meeting on Thursday night. Although maybe my favourite quote of the meeting was “The majority of the runners will not be European. Do not try to keep up with them.”

FOUR - up this week thanks to my Aunty. Thank you Aunty-dear!

Update on Demibrain

For anyone I haven’t spoken to who is reading this blog and is wondering about Demibrain Rich, he is doing fine. He just completed the Kungsholmen 10km in Stockholm in 48.15 minutes, showing just how much I am slowing him down usually!

Stats for the week (20th April)

ONE - Best week so far! A large chunk of this was the lovely long run we did on Easter Sunday in the sunshine, round the...
TWO - dark side of Södermalm. At the moment one of my favourite things about running is ending up in parts of the city that I would never have gone to otherwise, and working out how other bits all connect up.
THREE - It was Rich's birthday this week, so we spent Tuesday evening having dinner with Stockholmies and drinking non-alcoholic champagne. This makes us sound very intense about training, but actually it's because of Demibrain's brain.
FOUR - Thank you to everyone that has sponsored me so far.

Twende pamoja!

For some glorious adventures in MUCH warmer climes, check out this beauty of a blog.

It belongs to Catherine, who lives in Nairobi, and had the idea to do this crazy run in the first place. It's marvelous, I don't want to tell you anything else about it, just click on over and read her words!

Stats for the week (13th April)

ONE - Yes this week! We finally got through a week of running without colds or seizures or other nuisances. And it was great.
TWO - Early morning Easter view whilst running over Västerbron.
THREE - Since Nosh's visit Rich has been trying to come up with a street name that will stick. This was his latest effort, when I was blinded by the Scottish whiteness of his forearms in the gloriously bright Swedish spring sunshine.
FOUR - Yippee! Thanks to Giada! I am her winning horse apparently. I am thinking of putting that on a t-shirt. 

Stats for the week (6th April)

As you can see my friends, not a strong effort this week. Something's got to change!

ONE - Well, at least we managed one.
TWO - New mantra.
THREE - We had a Nosh to stay! That was excellent. He requested to see a moose; request granted.
FOUR - I must. Try. Even. Harder.

Patient was in tent, in flat...

So last weekend, Rich and I got all excited about the upcoming trip (even more so than usual), and decided to put up the tent that we are going to take away with us. To check for all the pegs, and leopard proofing, that kind of thing. Then, because we know how to rock a Saturday night, we fell asleep, in the tent, in the flat. Which is where we were an hour later, when Rich suddenly started having a seizure.

I haven't been very close to anyone having a seizure before, and certainly not in a 1.5 person tent with someone at the time. It was pretty much the most frightening few minutes I've ever experienced. I called 112, and waited for the paramedics. By the time they'd arrived Rich had stopped seizing, and started breathing. He was still in the tent, much to their incredulity.


They were great, explained to me what was happening, whilst checking over a very very confused and bleary Rich, still in the tent. He finally emerged with the threat of a paramedic getting in with him, after cradling one of their hands and smiling at me. Luckily, he remembers none of this. So to St Görans we went in a snazzy Swedish ambulance through the night.

We waited in A&E for a while, whilst Rich slowly came to and requested periodic recaps of what had happened.

Here we met an excellent Swedish A&E nurse, who told us all about his Scottish grandmother, and how they would tease her about her short arms and deep pockets. I wish I could remember his name. 

By this point it was Sunday, and Sweden is pretty closed on a Sunday, so Rich was installed on a general medical ward, and we got to wait it out until Monday. The nurses were ace, and kept teasing him about the tent. The top of his hospital notes read 'Patient was in tent, in flat'. They were considering sending him to a psych ward, apparently.

On Monday he went for an MRI. He was assured that once the MRI came back clear he could come home. So we waited, and waited, and waited, until Monday evening, when he was told that the MRI wasn't quite normal, but the neurologist was too busy, and would come tomorrow.

 
On Tuesday he went for an EEG. This is turning into a Craig David song... Came out with red marks all over his noggin. Then we waited some more. On Tuesday evening we were told that the neurologist was still too busy, but since Rich was clearly perfectly fine, sitting up and playing rummy, he could go home, and come in tomorrow to see him instead.



On Wednesday we met the neurologist! Success. He was great, and took plenty of time to explain everything. We'd been worried that his level of busyness would mean he only had a few minutes to spend on Rich's wonky brain, but not so.

 
So when they checked the MRI they discovered that Rich actually does have a brain. The EEG had confirmed that it was also working. We got to see the MRI, so I can confirm that it is indeed there, inside his skull.



However, it wasn't your textbook typical brain. Instead he has a chunk at the front of the right hand side that isn't functioning at all. This bit is his frontal lobe, and would usually be useful for stuff, but they think he had a bleed in the brain when he was very young (just before or just after he was born), and the brain, as it is wont to do, adapted to this by just wiring those functions up elsewhere. Since there have never been any problems, he's never discovered that anything was different.

Now they know about his wonkiness they want to make sure he doesn't have any more seizures. This is unlikely anyway, because if it was a one-off event not connected to his wonky brain, then it was a one-off event. Ergo, no more. If it was connected to his wonky brain, well, it hasn't been bothering him the last 36 years, maybe nothing else is about to happen. But just in case he's got some anti-seizure meds to keep him on a even keel.


He's also got some new rules:

No driving.

Not much drinking.
(The neurologist actually based his assessment of this on nationality. As in "You're Scottish, so you can probably have two beers, but I'd only have one.")






No piloting aircraft, or jet-packs. (He didn't seriously veto jet-packs, but I couldn't find a picture of a pilot).

 


No scuba-diving. (This one was real).

Running marathons on the equator? Well, this one is up to him. So for now he's just going to keep on training as though he is going to do it, and see how it goes.

We never thought our adventures would be so close to home.

Stats for the week (30th March)

ONE - Considering how the week ended, not a bad effort. This week is going to look somewhat reduced, but we'll kick it up a gear now!
TWO - Spring is imminent! Which is ridiculous, it's nearly May, but very welcome.
THREE - I think this has to be the title of the next post; way too much to explain here. Cryptic.
FOUR - I must. Try. Harder.

Tuesday morning run

It was a close call whether to drag our sleepy selves out into the cold this morning or sleep for an extra hour, but twenty minutes of running later and we were rewarded with this view of Gamla Stan waking up. So I really can't complain.

Stats for the week (23rd March)

ONE - A good week! Though I may have pushed it a little hard, the bruised knee is playing up again, so this week is set to look pitiful in comparison.
TWO - The words of training wisdom belong to Rich. He was being completely serious at the time.
THREE - Sunsets like this one make the lack of warmth almost worth it.
FOUR - A million thanks to Claire-Lizzie and Jeff for the sponsorship! YEAH!

90 days to go

Spring has finally arrived! (Let's assume that the snow forecast for Tuesday is an April Fools prank).

This means more running in the daylight from now on. By the time the race rolls round (90 days to go!) there will be almost no night in Stockholm at all, so it's happily inevitable.

I also finally got my hands on a guidebook for Kenya, which I can hardly sit still whilst reading for excitement. It mentions the marathon. Specifically, it says "Thanks to experienced rangers, helicopters and spotter planes, your only worry should be the heat and the 1700m average elevation." Excellent.

I also enjoyed the arrangement of books in the 'Africa' section in the bookshop. Top marks for alphabetising. Geography might need a check though.

Stats for the week (9th March)

Miles run - 14.5 miles

Sponsorship raised - £77.50!
Yippee! EM, Rich and Julia, you are the best. And I will make you all cakes.

Chumpish moments - deciding to cycle to work despite the 6cm of overnight snowfall, and falling off right in front of a bus. Now I have a black and blue knee and a somewhat altered training plan for the week. But at least the entire bus load of people got to see me sprawl around in the slush for a bit, and then pack my lunch back into my bike basket. Oh no, wait...

Here we go...

OK, so this is a bit mad. But we're going to run a marathon. Or at least we are going to have a damn good stab at it.

The thing is, this marathon is, and I quote directly from the website, "regarded as one of the toughest marathons in the world". What the hecking heck? It's also in Kenya, at 0.2000° N, so basically on the equator. And how are we training for it? In Stockholm. In the winter.

Why start easy though? Best of all, it's for an excellent charity called Tusk.  I will write more about Tusk another day, but you can check them out here. Or find out more about the marathon here.

If you think conservation, community development and environmental education are good things then you should sponsor me at this here link:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LauraComley 

I promise that all of this money is going straight to Tusk.

Bring it on! (eeeeeeeeek)
x

I even bought some running clothing. The brand call it 'vivid coral', but I prefer to call it 'obnoxious orange'. You can see me at 1000 paces, which is good in the land of constant gloom.

When we signed the disclaimer to say we were training in appropriate conditions we think this is what they meant.