Nearly 20 miles!

I thought I better put a quick post in because you lot seem to be getting a little frisky without a post. I haven't got much to say (as always) but as this is supposed to be a running diary I better tell you about the running. Well I have just got back from 7 miles of Speed running, I hate Tuesdays! My big acheivement was on Saturday, 19 miles. It wasn't pleasant especially because it was on a Sat! Very busy in Hilsborough and it was so hot that I had to take half my kit off. I then ran up to Crookes and Lodgemoor where it got very windy and cold and so I had to get dressed again. It took me 3hr5mins which I was pleased with. I also looked at a race pace calculator and according to that both Phil and I, taking into account our half marathon times, should complete a marathon in under 4hrs. Result! Might as well stop training eh!

On a lighter more interesting note, Kay found this on eBay. We nearly laughed 'til we wee'd. This man is selling a DVD with Girls smoking and Kissing but it's all totally in line with eBay rules and is absolutely not porn! Sure. Please read the description it's brilliant! I like the cementing their friendship bit. Please someone buy it so we can complain to the seller that it's not what we wanted. We wanted to cement our friendships with smoking and kissing. hehehe.

When the Tiger is Away, the Monkey is King of the Mountain.

He he he, aren't foreign people funny. Not much to report on this side of the world. Stuff happened, people said things and, and and and so far from my emailing around the department, I have been pledged a massive (I'm really pleased with this after two days) £55. I have also been promised sponsorship from two other people and I haven't even bugged my lab yet. That brings my total so far not including my mum's work or my family, to £245!! Woooo. People seem to really identify with this charity, it might be because I have to explain what it is about rather than just saying Cancer/Heart/Children/Hospital (worthy causes all the same) but they are really up for giving money towards the cause! I have even changed my opinion of someone at work because of their eagerness to support me. The very same man also told me he ran a sub-4hr marathon in 1982, so there is a bit of pressure on the time now. Good job I went out running in the freezing cold tonight then eh! A slow 4 miles, but a run in the cold nonetheless.

Plum plum plum Banana

The Silverstone Half Marathon

Hi there intrepid readers, today's big running effort was a half marathon. This was the first run of this distance since the orange poncho incident. I finished that race in about 2hrs, that was without training so today was I ran to see what I could do with training. Well, it was a success! I ran this race in 1:47:01 (loooook, Grrr David Willis and haha Deanna Williams)! Yeah me. The two pictures are Phil and I after the race, we look much better than after Cardiff! Training works. Can you see me in the other one, I was going so fast in the last 200m that standard photography could not capture it!

I realise that this is a rambling post but I'm tired and as such I'm going to bed.

Laters

I've got no towel, I hung it up again

Bugger, balls and bum. Stupid Germans. Eek, Can't say that because of new tough FIFA rules. Stupid winners. bah. I bet the Spanish stil won't take points from anyone.

Swapped the devil for a Sideboard

Mike. What you playing at. Why didn't we go to the pub to watch today's game! I'm sure it would have been much better. Liverpool win just to annoy me.

Two days worth of running to blog today. I managed to do the most horrid run of the week yest running about 7 miles with 3 x 1.5mile fast sections. Yuk yuk yuk. Today was less stressful but cold cold cold. It was the first time ever that I thought weeing myself might be a good idea. The thinking was that at least I would be warm for a second! Didn't do it though. Perhaps this would be a more interesting post if I did, but I didn't.

Anyway off to bed. Might be more posts next week as my boss is on a conference so I may have more time to post at work.
Oh yeah. yey Boro! Up the pinks tommorrow!

Just a quick edit, I was talking to Kay about Palermo's actual nickname: The Rosanero and AC Milan's: Rossonero and she said "oh so Palermo is like the lady reds?" I'm sure they would have loved that. Here's a great Palermo link, don't open it near your boss if you have your speakers on but do listen it's brill!.

Remember what you mother said...

...never go out in the snow wearing lyrca shorts. Aaaah that old adage (adages are always old says Kay. Bah. Bill Bryson can bugger off, stupid words book eh Phil?), oh balls, now my flow is all buggered up. If only I could delete words that I have already written down. Babble babble babble. Anyway, yes, today, in the snow, I went out running. It was cold, I was half blind and some little... shite, threw a snowball at me. However I did run the further I have ever ever run before, 17 million miles (perhaps I exarggerate). It wasn't fun but it was worth doing. Some words of warning if you ever go running when it is snowing, wear a water proof and expect people to look at you like you are completely mental. Perhaps you are. Just thought it was worth mentioning, I was out running for 2h 45min today. That's a long time, there aren't many things I spend 3 hours doing. Perhaps this running thing isn't a good idea. I could have been... mooching for three hours instead. And I ran 4 miles on Sat morning too, another hour of my precious time gone. Forever.

Further running news, my training partner Phil completed a half marathon today in 1:54:34. A personal best, well done Phil. We both will be running in the Adidas Silverstone half marathon next week so lets see if we can both beat PBs!

Non running news includes the booking of the flights for a holiday to Palermo in May. It was certainly a stressful day, (see Kay's blog) 7 hours of faffing and waiting but we got there in the end. Chris I now imagine that this is what your job is like every day. Arsey people who want exactly what they want whether it is possible or not. I'm admire you on a totally new level after a day trying to please myself, my parents and Kay (not that any of those people are difficult but there are a lot of opinions).

Talking of holidays, here's a picture of Statue park in Budapest. Both Kay and I have been there (separately), it's good but it ain't Golden Eye!

Kay's Blog

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International Football: My Choices

That might sound like a strange title but while out on my 7 mile run today (~62mins) I was thinking about it. Ok everybody knows that I am half Italian. A tough choice as an interaional footballer, the three lions of England or the three world cups of the Azzurri. Somthing I found out a couple of weeks weeks ago ( I was gonna say makes it a harder choice but that is totally not true as you will soon find out) makes it more complicated. My Dad's Dad was actually born in Algeria, while it was a French colony. Now I'm sure under the "My Dog once met a bloke auntie who'd been to Glasgow, so I want to play for Scotland" rule, that means I could play for Algeria or for France (with the rest of the none Frenchies who won the world cup). How cool would that be, I could be the first English speaking half Italian Algerian to play for France. Not that I would. Might make me eat frogs. Or worse make me talk to Emmanuel Petit. Yuk.

Also in the news, we are going to Palermo for a hol. Woo. While looking for hotels in Terrasini we came accross a hotel which offered an unsual range of facilities

"Villa Trappeto is situated in the residential zone of Trappeto, 50 Km from Palermo and some steps from the center of Trappeto. It is dipped in a garden of 1000 qm rich of tropical vegetation with wide overview on the Gulf of Castellammare. Trappeto villa enjoys one small private beach where it's possible to swimm or explore by snorkeling its rich bottom of the mediterranean sea. The rocky coastline rich of fossils, invites to explore."

Oh laughing at foreigners it's always so much fun. We are not sure how far qm is but we think it's either very large or very very very very small. Think oceans or pin heads people. Also, pretty sure that square meters denotes area, silly long thin gardens. Chris you're in the travel industry, is snorkelling rich bottoms popular?

On the sponsorship front things are going well and Phil and I have broken the £150 barrier, many thanks to Phil's mum who went out annoying people for us and got £37. Yey Cynthia! A very glamerous name says Kay.

Take care of yourselves, and each other. Kay said that. Hang on. Kay says Jerry Springer said that.
I say BOG OFF

My sister's boyfriend's mate won that eurovision thingy.

Aren't stories that start off like that brilliant. They are normally absolute rubbish but this one truly is not. The mysterious John M', 33, friend of silver disc owner, Barry 'Luisa's (19) Boyfriend' Neal, 49, (evil perpetrator of singing hamsters), won the 'Making Your Mind Up' competition on Saturday night, with help from Luisa and Barry's 4 big fat votes. The song, 'A Teenage Life', didn't sound spectacular on the radio, but was apparently (and evidently) very well performed by Daz Sampson on't night. Maybe it annoyed us because it was played too early in the morning by veteran sex God Terry Wogan, 93. So, there we are.

Sponsorship for our charity of choice: Balesworldwide Ltd Tsunami Appeal - is officially open!

The Bales Worldwide LTD Tsunami Appeal is a charity raising money to fund the building of a new pre-school in the Hambantota region of Sri Lanka, which suffered losses in the 2004 tsunami. The pre-school will provide a much needed facility for 50-60 local children. Funds are also needed to supply school and playground equipment, and to staff and support the school. Building will commence in early March, and is expected to be completed three months later in early June 2006.

Please email me (e.guccione@sheffield.ac.uk) to pledge, I'll collect money after the event either in person or you can PayPal it to me (if i'm not going to see you). Chris Grime, 27, and family started us off well, thanks to them!

So, training for that there marathon then: It was a nearly perfect week for running this week for Iron Man Edward Guckyone, 13 and a half. Runs on Tues, Weds, Thurs and Sunday, and a 10mile walk with the luscious Kay, 21, on Sat replacing the slow 4miler. Today's 15 miles were run at the suggested half marathon pace (1hr 50min for the 13.1 miles), and took 2hr and 06min. Not bad. The first 4 miles were a trial, as I stupidly tried to run uphill at too fast a pace. Made it home though, now I'm sleepy. Phil and I are running the Silverstone half marathon in a couple of weeks time, hopefully we'll look and feel better than this at the end:




Anyway, bugger off, we're going to the cinema.

P.S. SPONSOR ME NOW!

To run or to blog?

Now I'm gonna try and be quick because Kay has been disin' my ass so I got to beat her down.

Firstly, an apology, I've not been doing this blogging thing very consistently resently. Sorry. The funny thing is, the reason why I've not been bloging is because I've been out running! Seriously, I work until 5.30-6pm, get home mess about for 30mins, go out running for a hour, have some food and either sit down for a minute with Kay and watch a DVD or go the the cinema (twice this week. DO NOT see Cassanova. DO see Lucky Number Slevin. You feel like a prat asking for the tickets but it's worth it. Word of caution, don't get too attached to any of the characters.) and by the time thats finished it's already 1am and I don't have the time or the energy to blog.

Secondly, running. My least favorite running day, tuesday, went well. Well, as well as can be expected. 5 miles of on and off speed running. Try running for half a mile as fast you can and then having a minute off and then doing it again etc etc ad nauseum. Today was a boring old 8 mile run. It is getting cold. Very cold.

I looked at my training log and not counting yesterday, I ran 102 miles in February. I think that isn't too good compared to what I should have done so I've got even more to do in March. Urk

Laters taters and very soon I will be adding a paypal address for any of you lucky rich people to sponsor Phil and I to do the marathon. Anyone who I will see in person can sponsor me by way of writing their name on my form designed by the lovely Kay. If you do this you will be able to see if all this training has paid off and I've finsihed the marathon before you pay up. Don't worry I'll finish it. Oh yes.