The Rest of October so far...

Here are some of the things I've been up to...

There's a car boot sale that takes place on Sunday mornings in Errol. Dave and I got up early one Sunday morning to go along and while we were driving out I remembered that I had a camera in my bag so you're just seeing the outskirts of the place. Sorry.

A couple of weeks ago there was a coffee house at the Gate and Dave did a set. Here's one of the covers he did.

My hand mixer had been on the blink for a few months. The only way to switch it off was to turn it off at the wall, and the gauge for controlling the speeds was broken so you had to maintain pressure on the gauge to keep the speed you wanted. I was thinking about getting a new one and then decided that since the warranty was lapsed anyway, I might as well try to fix it myself first. So I took it apart, gave it a good clean and put it all back together (with no parts left over!) And it actually works properly now! It took me about 1.5 hours but I was pretty pleased with my venture into kitchen tools DIY.

Mixer being taken apart and cleaned.

Mixer put back together.

The cake I made the next day with my mixer.

River Ness 5K Cont'd

As promised, here's more about the weekend.

Karen (one of the girls I work with) picked me up on Saturday afternoon and we headed up to Inverness. On the way, we stopped off in Dalwhinnie for a snack break. While we were sitting in the car, I noticed the sign "Dalwhinnie: Twinned with Las Vegas". The two places couldn't be more dissimilar. Dalwhinnie is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that basically consists of a small pub-hotel and a petrol station. I'm not sure how decisions are made on which places to twin, but this twinning seemed particularly ironic.

We got to Inverness just before 4pm and unfortunately missed the final boat tour of Loch Ness for the day. So instead, we just drove along the loch and checked out some of the local tourist shops. People come to Inverness from all over the world for the Baxters Loch Ness Marathon so there were lots of interesting people to meet.

Saturday night we loaded up on pasta at Bella Italia and then headed back to the B&B for an early night.

Sunday morning the plan was to drop me off at the starting point for the 5k (my race started first) and then for the rest of them to head to the 10K starting point. Unfortunately, we lost our bearings and were heading to the wrong starting point. Finally got ourselves sorted out (the GPS feature on my phone, which I hardly ever use came in handy at more than one point that weekend).

The race itself went well. There was a bit of an incline for the last kilometer and I hadn't really done any training on inclines so I was getting pretty tired by that point. I kept thinking of what Thom used to tell me when we ran for the bus nearly every day of high school - "Don't think about being tired, just put one foot in front of the other". It was good advice, Thom. When I made the turn into the stadium there was one of the running marshalls telling us it was just 100m to the finish line. There were lots of people along the sides of the track cheering you on so it did give a bit of a second wind. There was a company there taking pictures of everyone as they crossed the finish line. Click here for a link
Just after the finish line you get your medal, T-shirt, banana, water, and goody bag.

After I finished my race, I went around checking out all the different stalls in the stadium. There were tents where you could get food, check out the charities that were being supported by the runners, buy really expensive running gear, and listen to different bands. There was even a historic re-enactment group there that gave the crowd a scare when they unexpectedly fired off one of their guns while rehearsing. I then headed back to the side of the track and watched everyone else come in. I got talking to the lady beside me. Her name was Melinda and she was from Santa Barbara, California. Her husband was doing his first marathon and they'd combined that with a vacation in Scotland.

The trip back to Dundee was pretty uneventful except for the deer that dashed across the road in front of us. Thankfully, it was far enough away that we didn't hit it.

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures from the weekend:

River Ness 5K

River Ness 5K

I just arrived back from Inverness. It was a good trip but I'm glad to be back. I managed to run the whole distance and completed it in 31min 2sec. After doing this one, I think I'd be open to trying a 10k at some point next year.

I took pictures while I was there, but it feels a bit late to post them now. I'll do my best to get them up this week, along with a few more details of the weekend.

The Heating is On

It's finally October, which means that the heating can go on without guilt. For the last two weeks I've been using our home group on Tuesday nights as an excuse to put on the heating. Now I can enjoy it myself! There seems to be some sort of psychological barrier to using it before October. I just don't like being bested by the elements. It's probably something similar to Dave's aversion to wearing a coat in early autumn.

Of course, now that the heating is being used with greater regularity, I'm aware of all the strange noises coming from the radiators. Dave's attempt to bleed one tonight was relatively successful if the accompanying water spray was anything to go by.

This Sunday is the date of my first 5K race. It's taking place in Inverness and I'm heading up there tomorrow afternoon with a girl from work. She'll be doing the 10K race, but since I'd never done any running at all before 11 weeks ago, I thought I'd start small. We're planning to check out Loch Ness while we're up there. I figure I can't be that close to it and not go, especially since I've already lived in Scotland for nearly 3 years without seeing it.

The race is at 10.15 on Sunday morning so it'll all be over by 11. I expect to be back in Dundee late Sunday afternoon and will try to remember to post any pics I've taken.