Last weekend saw the first of these.

My training had not been going to plan -  illness and work getting in the way but this was the first marathon, and there was no hint of not doing it! My plan – finish, injury free so that I can still complete Edinburgh next month.

It was kind of weird running so far from home for the first time (8 hour drive) and having to make sure that I had all the kit I needed for all eventualities. I think I’m going to prepare a checklist for the next time. We spent too much time on a cold and rainy Saturday trailing round the shops looking for porridge!

Come Saturday morning it was a nice bright clear morning and as we had booked a house just 5 minutes drive from the start I even got to stay in bed until sensible oclock! The weather was the first problem, it was still cold, with a fairly stiff breeze (and a coastal course) but the sky was clear! I ended up going with the shorts and the long sleeved top.

The marathon course is “interesting”. It’s almost perfectly flat apart from some short sharp inclines as you navigate the bridges over the railway line. It follows the Millennium coastal path so is paved for the majority of the way apart from a short section on gravel. It consists of a 7 1/2 mile out and back to the west then a 5 and a bit out and back to the east and you do this twice. As it’s both an out and back and a 2 lapper you have lots of opportunity to see your fellow runners which is good. However, as you have to run “past” the finish line three times it is VERY mentally tough.

It was a very small field – I heard the announcer say there were 500 entrants but I doubt very much if they all turned up. I doubt that 200 runners didn’t finish! I finished 300 (my highest placing) out of 303 finishers. I was only just lapped by the winner Mark Roberts who smashed the course record in a time of 2:31 just as I was getting to half distance!

I had been running fairly comfortably up until this point but my training runs had only been to the half marathon and 2 /12 hour mark. At around mile 17 was where i hit my “wall”, this is the only boring bit of the course as you head around an industrial estate. I took a fairly long walking break at this point and phoned Elaine who confirmed  that she and Connor were at the finish line to cheer me “through”. I also sent a quick update to Twitter and Facebook – it’s amazing the mental boost you can get just from hearing your phone beep in your bum bag!

From this point onwards it was most definitely a run walk strategy. I was also starting to get twinges of cramp in my left calf as as soon as this started I stopped for a really good stretch. As I passed the finish line again at 21 miles – if Elaine and Connor had not been there I’m sure I would have given up – but then the brain kicked in – it’s less than 2 parkruns to go! and each of those miles were the longest I have EVER run! There is also one of those cheeky railway bridges just before mile 26 just to make sure my calf cramped again but there was no stopping me at that point!

I eventually finished in 5hours 53 in position 300 out of 303 finishers. This also included a 5 minute stop to get 2 plasters from the paramedics on the course.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the organisers and fellow runners.

All it would have taken is £10 / day for me to keep the ‘tache.

It was fun whilst it lasted, I tried various styles

but I could never get the Salvador Dali no matter how much wax I used!

I’m sad to say that the cash has dried up so unfortunately the ‘tache has to go!

Watch this space, I have my next fund-raiser planned (it’s another running one).

Since Christmas I have been sporting a new look – now it’s the time to announce why!

I have been raising money for various charities by running (I’m doing 4 marathons this year for MND Scotland) but I have finally found a way where your donations can impact ME as well as helping MND sufferers and their families in Scotland.

On Monday the 2nd of April my tache will be “born”.
I will keep my tache for as long as there are donations to support it.
My tache expects £10 per day – if the total raised is £100 then my tache will “live” until 10 days after the 2nd of April.
The more you give the longer it lives – once it’s gone it’s gone !

https://www.justgiving.com/LongLiveTheTache

I have never been a fast runner – but parkrun has always been a competitive event for me.
If I have not been chasing a personal best (PB), I have at least been trying to shave a few seconds off my time for the previous week or trying to pass the runner just in front (truth be told I always aim for the person two in front, to make sure I PASS the person in front of me).

This year, what with a series of coughs, colds, splutters, work commitments and various slight injuries; my running has really suffered and my head has not been in the right place either so I have really neglected my marathon training schedule.

I was supposed to be tail running at Strathclyde parkrun event 99 but John Edge asked if he could take my place – he is tactically planning to run his 50th parkrun at our 100th event next Saturday. This left me free to run the event at my own pace! I’m still nursing a slight pull to my hamstring and I was supposed to be running the Alloa half marathon the following day, this left me free to pick my own pace.

Just as we started there was that ominous sound from my Garmin – No Battery, my watch died. Nothing left for it but to just run and listen to my body – run at a nice comfortable pace and enjoy the view and enjoy the company.

This resulted in one of my best parkrun running experiences ever – comfortable enough to have a conversation and enjoy the view. Running in a different part of the field from normal allows you to meet completely new runners, I’m privileged to be a regular volunteer so I do get to see most of the runners but maybe not have as long a chat as I would like.

So why don’t you try it – experience a parkrun at a completely different pace!

Disclaimer : I’m on the core team for Strathclyde parkrun and am always on the lookout for new runners to join our event or do one of the easy volunteer roles that enable our events to be enjoyed by so many.

photo credit: aye_shamus

After my first ever #parkrun DNF (Did Not Finish) due to pulling my hamstring I have finally LEARNED my lesson.

A Warmup/Cooldown and stretching regime is MANDATORY!

My question is this:

What do you consider to be the “best” options?

• A gentle run
• Static stretches
• dynamic stretches

Feel free to send links to YouTube etc as appropriate.

You can see what my plumbing looks like here.

Reading

The way I make it work is via RSS feeds.
If I see a site that I like, I grab the RSS feed of the content and subscribe to it in Google Reader.
This means that I can see the content of all of the sites I’m interested in in a single place.

Writing

The three main sites I publish to are Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
I have no firm favourite so I try and keep them all in sync, this is where Google+ is slightly hindered due to the lack on an API.
The way I make this work is again through RSS, I use the site TwitterFeed.com. This takes an RSS feed and then publishes the content onto Twitter, Facebook and Google+ amongst other sites.

Taking Action

There are various times when I find some content on the web and I want to take action on it, read it later, authorise a blog comment etc. The way that I make this work if a combination of IFTTT (If This Then That) and RTM (Remember The Milk).
If This Then That allows you to monitor the web for certain events happening and then creates trigger events.
Remember The Milk is the site that I use to record my ToDo list, I tried lots and in my opinion is is simply the best.

Thanks to Marathon-Photos.com

For those that don’t know, my eldest daughter Emma Berry Goodman passed away in September 2008 from Motor Neurone Disease. Whilst she was with us we were greatly helped by three fantastic charities: MND Scotland, Marie Curie Cancer Care and the Childrens Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS).

For the last three years I have dedicated a years fundraising to each of these charities. This year my challenge was to run 1,000km in 2011 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
If everything goes to plan then I will achieve my 1,000th kilometer when I run in Strathclyde Parkrun -  event number 86 on Saturday 17th December.

I know that this is an expensive time of year but if you could see your way to giving a donation at https://www.justgiving.com/1000k-in-2011 or by texting “Ross70 £5″ to 70070 – feel free to adjust the amount as you see fit!
Every £20 raised helps to provide 1 hour of nursing care and I can personally vouch for how invaluable the Marie Curie are!

Thank you all for your donations and your support and encouragement in this past year!

If you would like to see just how far 1,000km actually is have a look here.

I had hoped to be able to raise £1000. Every £20 raise helps provide an hour’s nursing, £1,000 would equate to 50 hours care! Unfortunately I’m only at £766 or 76% of target. I am putting a big push in, I’m planning to run every day in December to guarantee that I hit my km target but I need some help from you to make sure that I hit my £ target!

I understand that these are financially trying times and December is an expensive month but this is exactly when we should be thinking of others. Any donations at all will be gratefully received at https://www.justgiving.com/1000k-in-2011 or you can donate via your mobile phone by texting “Ross70 £5” to 70070

Whilst I don’t always chase the latest and greatest geek toys or gadgets I do like to try and find a practical application of how technology can help me. This is a side effect of being a Business Intelligence consultant where I am striving to maximise (and measure) the benefits for my clients.

During a quiet moment I pondered – If I was to build a dashboard to measure/motivate/incentivise “ME” what would be on it?

photo credit: churl

After an admitedly quick brain dump this is what I came up with:

Health
No Chocolate
No Fizzy Drinks
Sleep 6.5 hours

Fitness
Run 4 times per week
Strength 2 times per week
Run 20km per week

Social
Work Blog once per week
Personal Blog once per week
EMail an “old” friend once per week

Development
2 hours personal reading per week
2 hours work reading per week
Take a “nice” photo per week

What are your thoughts?

What have I missed?

Of course I already have an idea as to how to capture and present this but that’s for another blog post.

I created a dataset that contained two columns of numbers that I wanted to quickly get into excel. I choose, export in CSV format to clipboard so that I could quickly paste it into an existing spreadsheet.

My dataset contained:

1234, 5678
2345, 6789
3456, 7890

The data that was exported was:

12,345,678
23,456,789
34,567,890

Have to export to an xls file, open it then copy and paste – YAWN !