Neverwhere is a fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman.
I put off reading it because I wasn’t sure if I would get all of the London Underground references but you really don’t need to understand the tube to enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. More than American Gods which was good in itself.
For the past month, I’ve been having a hard time with my physical and mental health. it has been a tough gig because I have been doing client work throughout, so helping others manage their mental health while managing my own has been quite a challenge. Not made any easier due to medication limiting my ability to exercise.
Luckily, I have a very supportive family to draw upon. One of the downsides of greater mobility is that we can often find ourselves in a new cities, or even new countries, that take us away from our support networks and it can be difficult to rebuild those locally, especially when working multiple jobs, and studying, and doing whatever else we may have going on in our personal lives.
I’ve also gone as far as to do nothing. Or at least nothing “productive”. I’ve read a lot of books, destroyed a lot of civilizations on Age of Empires II, and finished off the whole of Downton Abbey. Not forgetting some time at the beach, as well.
The Trial is a murder mystery novel by Rob Rinder.
I was briefly ensure about the overly descriptive language and characters announcing their beliefs in an Atlas Shrugged manner but this soon gave way to a fascinating narrative that provided intrigue, drama and human interest. I can’t wait for the next one.
Venla had her second birthday party of the 2023/2024 year today. I’m not ready to have a daughter with a better social life than me. It’s too much too fast!
Another week, another new parkrun. This is two laps of flat sith a short stretch through some trees but otherwise around the edge of fields. Unfortunately, I felt ill on the second lap and had to walk most of it. But I still came home in under 40 minutes so the first lap can’t have gone too bad. I managed to get a post-run brownie from the coffee van, too.
Learn the ten essential attitudes and behaviours we can adopt to make ourselves happier and more successful.
I originally developed this course in July 2021 as a personal development course. It teaches cognitive and behavioural pathways to success. What success means is up to you, but regardless of your goal there are a set of replicable strategies that can help.
The course has now been re-developed for Holbeck College. You can preview it here.
Waterstown parkrun celebrated their 400th event this week. Which meant there was cake! It is a lovely course, too, although has a fair few hills in it. Nothing too step but it is is up and down.
I’ve been doing some parkrun tourism recently. Yesterday, I did Dodder Valley. It’s a nice course. Two laps and mostly flat, with a slight rise on the second lap. Some lovely views looking down into the valley, too.
Last weekend I took my first trip to Belfast. It was a flying visit so I didn’t get time to see the sights. But they do have a lovely city hall. And a Greggs:
Pubs were good, too. We dropped by The Crown, Trademarket and Town Square.
Did somebody say Hyde Park Harriers club trip time?
We headed over to Larne in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland for a half marathon along the coast. The route is roughly divided into three sections, with a 7k loop of the down, 7k down the coast to Ballygalley and 7k back. There is a bit of up and down but it is mostly considered a flat course with PB potential. Indeed, the women’s world record was set here in 2021, only for them to discover the course was 54m short.
I don’t think I’ve continuously run for 21k since the Clontarf half marathon last November. I ran around a 2:05:xx at both Lough Cutra and Metalman so I thought I had a good chance of running a sub-2 and lined up with said pacers, alongside Grace who was hoping to run her first sub-2.
The early stages of the race were crowded and it was difficult to find space. It did thin out over time but the coast road also got narrower, which meant there was never much space to drop into my natural stride. The weather was good: cool and cloudy which meant we did not get too cold standing around in the pens for an hour, but also did not sunburn.
There is a reason it is so crowded: the views are spectacular. The town was fine but once we were out onto the coast we had a constant view across the sea and the coastline.
I didn’t get chance for a toilet break before the race so I stopped at around 7k. I caught back up to the two-hour pacers fairly easily only to find Ged reporting that Grace was now way down the road ahead of them. I managed to catch up another few kilometres down the road and we headed into Ballygalley for the turn, as Clare came the other way with a convincing lead over the rest of us.
The way back was even more scenic because we were running on the left side of the road, right next to the coast wall, and could see down to the shoreline. We were both starting to feel it by this point and it was relief to see the remaining kilometres tick down.
My official time was:
1:56:55
Third Harrier across the line and first male. Not that I was counting. A big thank you to Ged for taking it easy on me. And a massive well done to Grace for completing her first sub-2 half marathon. Not just completing it but smashing it with over three minutes to spare. And well done to everyone who made the trip over for the race.
