The big day....

After weeks of training, and a few blog posts, the weekend of the Great North Run finally arrived. Well, saying finally is a little misleading - the weekend seemed to come around fairly quickly in a way. The fortnight leading up to the run flew by, and the panic set in.

On the Saturday afternoon, the road trip began. First stop was Cannock, where I met up with Kate and Ian, who I was travelling up with. Thankfully, Ian volunteered to drive the rest of the mammoth distance, so I could have a bit of a rest. Next stop was Manchester to pick up Les, who I practically emotionally blackmailed in to doing the run as well!!! On reaching Middlesbrough, we checked into the Best Western hotel, which was located next to a building site. Which had a lot of scally kids on it.

Things had been planned out quite well - I'd looked up an Italian restaurant near the hotel and booked it for the Saturday evening for pre-run carb loading. We headed down to the restaurant, and then all ended up having pizza instead of the intended pasta. Still the food was good, and the drinks and chat after were the perfect build up to the the big day.

After an average night's sleep (not because of the hotel - it was pretty comfortable - the problem was nerves), we had an early start, with breakfast at 6am. As part of the hotel deal, we had transfers to and from the race site. Despite the awful directions provided to the meeting point by the travel company, we found the coaches in time for the departure at 6.45am. The weather at this point wasn't great - it was raining constantly. The journey to Gateshead was hassle free, and we arrived at the race site to more rain with almost 3 hours to spare. Most of this time was spent trying to keep warm (courtesy bin bags) and find shelter from the rain, which we got in various places, including by the university, and at the nearest metro station.


We slowly made our way to the baggage buses to dump our bags, and then made our way to the start line. We did think we were going early, but the sheer volume of people and buses meant that this took a while. To put things into perspective, there were four or five colour zones, and I put my bag on bus no. 22. There were 54,000 people doing the run, and the start line was 1km long.

After the warm up (which was nearly impossible to do because of the amount of people), the run began. I was in the green zone, fairly close to the back (and rightfully so!). It would have been a little more pleasant if we weren't drenched from head to toe, but it couldn't be helped. It took me half an hour to cross the start point, and the first few miles went fairly well. The atmosphere was electric, and despite the rain, the roads were lined with spectators, which made it easier to keep going.

Around the 6 mile mark, the weather started to clear up, and the sun actually came out. It was pretty strong, but didn't stay for long. I had other problems though - both my knees gave up on me. The right knee has been problematic for a while, and I've been receiving physio on it. However, over the past 2-3 weeks, the left knee has become quite painful during training. The same pains returned at this point in the run. I tried to carry on, but the pain was almost unbearable. From this point on, each mile ended up being a mixture of walking as quickly as possible, and running as far as I could. Needless to say each mile got longer and harder.

After 10 miles, things became very hard. I didn't feel as though I had any energy left, and when I was trying to run, I noticed that I was literally dragging my feel along the floor. Again, as hard as I tried, I couldn't go much faster. The 11th mile was all uphill, and by this point a lot of people were walking. We also had to move out of the way a few times for ambulances that needed to pass - some people were more unfortunate than me and ended up being severely injured. Just before we got to the 12th mile, there was a very steep downhill section - unfortunately, because of my knee problems, I couldn't even run down here. However, on reaching the 12 mile mark, there was a straight stretch to the finish, and I did force myself to run this (albeit very slowly). During the last mile, the heavens opened, and the rain started to hammer down, making it harder. For the last kilometre, markers were placed every 200m, and after 12-and-a-bit miles, every 200m seems much, much longer. I finally crossed the finish line, with my time being a not so great 2 hours 46 mins. But the main thing for me was to cross the finish line, which I did.

After completing the run, I headed over to the Macmillan tent for a chocolate bar, drink and a chat - seeing the Macmillan supporters along the roads cheering me and the other runners on really made a big difference, and gave a big push to carry on. Following this, I met the others (who finished way before me!!!) for a chat and catch up.



We then began our trek back home. After another mile long walk to the coaches, we were transported back to Middlesbrough, after which Ian very kindly drove us back home (via a service station where we had a well deserved Burger King for lunch/dinner!!). All in all, it was an amazing experience - I may even do it again......

Seven days left!

The only reason I've said seven days instead of one week is that it sounds slightly longer.

Training has been pretty much non-existent this week, for two reasons. Firstly, I'm just lazy. Secondly, after my run last week, my left knee was hurting. This worried me a bit, as I've been getting physio on my right knee. I decided to rest my knee for a while until it felt better, but the pain remained until the end of the week. A trip to the doctors has confirmed that I have the same problem with my left knee as I do with my right knee. It's a bit of a setback, as I don't think there is much I can do in a week. I'm just continuing with the training, but not pushing myself too hard.

This morning, I went for a 6 mile run, and the plan is to do another couple of short runs this week. The run this morning was pretty hard work to be honest, I didn't feel as though I had much energy, and to be honest, felt as though I was dragging myself around. The positive (if you can call it that) is that despite my knee problems, my average time wasn't any worse. Although I would have liked to have done a longer run, it's taken me a while to recover from the 10 mile runs, so I thought it best to take it easy so I'm not in pain on the actual day.

There's a mixture of nervousness (read fear) and excitement about the big day - the atmosphere is great (which is expected with 54000 people running), but the prospect of the run followed by a drive back to Birmingham is a little nerve-wracking. Here's hoping for the best!

2 weeks to go!

With only a couple of weeks to go, I had to go out for another run this morning. In all honesty, it was pretty uneventful!!

I left the house early on a Sunday morning, when most people were still asleep. The first five miles or so actually didn't feel too bad - I felt I was actually running rather than power walking, and I wasn't too tired. The weather was a major contributor to this - the past couple of weeks, it's been pretty sunny, whereas it was cloudy and breezy this morning, so it actually felt ok.

I started to feel it at around the 6 mile mark (the uphill sections didn't help), and the last four miles were pretty hard work - very hard work actually. I have to admit that I walked more than I wanted to, but my legs were completely knackered. I think this may have been because I pushed myself a bit too hard at the start of the run.

After getting home, I was mildly disappointed to find out that my overall time was only 5 secs a mile better than last time. As much as I would like to get a good time for the run, as I've said before, I'll be happy with just completing the run!

I need new knees...........

I was debating on whether to write another update today, cos it's been a pretty uneventful week in some respects. But I promised myself that I'll keep a log of what I've been doing, so here goes.

The 10 mile run last week affected me quite badly. Although I didn't realise at the time, I'd pulled a muscle in my leg which stopped me running for most of the week. So unfortunately, my plan of 3 runs a week went to pot, but that couldn't be helped I guess. I could have gone out for shorter runs, but it would have been a waste of time, I would have practically walked around, so it just wasn't worth it.

The first run came on Saturday. Being up in Liverpool for the weekend gave me the opportunity to meet up with my friend Tim, and go for a 5k run with him. It wasn't a particularly easy run, but we managed to get around in 31 mins, which is a tad faster than my usual time. It was also the first time I'd run with someone, and I can honestly say that I'm not a very good running partner - I could barely speak after around 1 mile!

I forced myself out the house again this morning for another 10 mile run. I did the same route as last week, but the other way around to last week. Overall, apart from feeling tired, there were no major issues. I realised that my legs felt the worst - I didn't actually feel that tired, but felt as though I couldn't move my legs any faster. Whether this is a good thing or not, I don't know. Overall, I managed to beat my time from last week by 1 min and 10 secs - that's an improvement of 7 seconds per mile!!!!!!! Not exactly earth shattering........but as I've always said, the main aim is to get around the course, regardless of how long it takes me. A good time is a bonus.

As I write, my knees are feeling quite sore and tired - anyone know where I can buy some new ones?!

5 weeks to go.........

5 weeks to go till the big day (of the Great North Run, just in case you were wondering). I was awake fairly early, so decided I may as well get the dreaded run out of the way.

It started off reasonably well - when I say started off, I mean the first mile or so. After that, things got hard. Firstly, my hamstring started playing up. Secondly, I had to run up a hill - running up and down hills is still hard work, especially with my knee. It also seems that the Sun Gods were against me this time - despite running early in the morning, the sun was out in full force fairly early today, which made for uncomfortable running conditions.

I also took a bit of a risk this time - despite it being a longer run, I decided to run from home, rather than driving to the gym and running from there. This was a risk to me because I know the roads around my house, so it would have been easy to take a shortcut and head home early. Although I cam dangerously close to doing that, I did push on, and complete the run (with some walking involved).

At one point, at about 4 miles into the run, I was particularly tired and was running quite slowly. A bus stopped in front of me, and a fat kid got off....and then proceeded to take the piss out of me. Was I offended? Not really, more annoyed to be honest. Now this kid wasn't just fat, he was morbidly obese, so I couldn't really get too offended, cos he's probably gonna die of a heart attack in a couple of years, after his in-bred parents feed him a few million more Big Macs. In hindsight, I probably should have shouted abuse at him, he would have been able to run after me anyway (he could barely walk). But there always was the risk of him sitting on me if he did manage to catch me up.

I continued with my run, and was running through a fairly nice part of Solihull...........when a car managed to run over a squirrel in a way that launched the dead squirrel towards me. Luckily it didn't hit me. But I was running for a bit with my eyes closed. Honestly.

The last leg of the run was very hard. The increase in distance may have been a bit too much, and my legs felt like mush. My overall time took a big hit because of the last couple of miles. But, at the end of the day, I managed to get a 10 mile run in, and over the next few weeks, I'll try and do the same sort of distance, and hopefully it'll be a bit easier.

It's getting harder.............

.........and that is the exact opposite of what should be happening. I've been running 3 times a week for about 3 weeks now, and surely logic dictates that I should find it easier to do. Going by the past week, that isn't happening. The first run was reasonable enough, I managed to get another 3.5 mile run in before work on Tuesday in a similar sort of time to what I've been achieving so far. Things went a little wrong on Thursday morning though.

I woke up at 4.30am, and literally had to drag myself out of bed. I hadn't slept too well, and felt absolutely exhausted (I think the 4.30am starts, and 3-4 hours spent driving up and down the M6 every day is starting to get to me). Still, I pushed on, and went out for a run, planning on doing my usual route. The only conscious difference was that I left my knee support at home to try and gauge whether my knee was improving, and whether I would need it for the big day or not. I ran for about a mile or so, but then just felt physically drained. I tried to push on, but couldn't push myself to run at a reasonable pace. I somehow dragged myself around the route, then got in and got ready for work. It wasn't a good run, and I still haven't looked at my Nike + wristband to see how long it took me. The only positive from this was my knee didn't give way completely - but I think I'll carry on using it for now.

Sunday morning's run was marginally better, but still had it's fair share of problems. Tiredness was one of them (having been out on Saturday night for a stag do), but the unexpected problem for me was the change of weather. When I left the house, it was grey and cloudy. The sun quickly burnt through the cloud, and having next to no breeze made for uncomfortable running conditions. Luckily, there were no problems with my knee this time, but fatigue set in fairly quickly, and I did stop and walk a couple of small distances - something I had avoided doing the past couple of weeks. I also wasn't completely prepared - I hadn't looked up my route properly, so ended up missing a turn. This wasn't a problem as such - but I tend to memorise a route in an area I don't know very well - so this forces me to stay on track, and I don't deviate from the route for the fear of getting lost. I didn't get too lost when I missed my turn, but my run ended up being half a mile shorter than I had wanted it to.

The run was by no means a disaster (although I haven't checked to see how long it took me) - all in all, I managed 7.5 miles - but it could have been better, and the improvements I should have seen in the past few weeks just weren't there. Let's hope this week goes better!!!

Inception

A petty thief with an estranged family gets the chance to do one big last job to put things right. Been there, seen that? That, in a nutshell, is the story of Inception.

Luckily, Christopher Nolan is at the helm of affairs, creating a thriller that is engrossing, even if not as clever as it likes to think it is.

Tom Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is an 'extractor' - someone who enters the dreams of others to steal information hidden in the subconscious mind. Working alongside Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and estranged from his family thanks to a previous job gone wrong, Cobb gets the offer from Saito (Ken Watanabe) to plant an idea in a business rival, Robert Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) head. In return for helping him with his business needs, Saito will arrange for Cobb to be reunited with his family. So Cobb starts to get together a motley crew (Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao) to carry out the inception.

As a Nolan fan, Inception is a bit of a disappointment. Although the core idea in the film - of entering the subconscious through your dreams to plant ideas - is strikingly original, the storyline that has been built around this idea is as old as the hills. Coming from someone with a filmography as impressive as Nolan's, this shouldn't have really been the case. The film also thinks it's cleverer than it is - using a dream within a dream within a dream scenario to try and confuse people as to what is a dream, and what's real - but this doesn't really work - the dreams are fairly easy to follow, so the blur between dreams and reality just doesn't exist.

Criticisms aside, the screenplay is fast paced, and despite a 2 and a half hour run time, the film doesn't feel particularly long. Nolan's direction is tighter than his story, and the performances are very good all around.

All in all, despite the negative remarks, Inception is definitely worth a watch - I just wish Nolan had made the film he wanted to make, rather than making the next summer blockbuster.

Running in the rain.......

So, in my preparation for the Great North Run, I had my second long run today (in the rain - in case you hadn't realised from the title). Since the first one a week ago, I have done a couple of shorter runs - 2.5 miles in the gym on Tuesday morning, and 3 miles on the road on Thursday morning before work (having woken up at a ridiculous time). This morning's run clocked in at 7 miles, so in terms of increasing distance, I think I'm going the right way. Doing it in a decent time is another matter.......

Once again, more positives and negatives from the run this morning. On the plus side, the stops were minimal again - I seem to be able to run for longer now - the downside being that I tend to get overtaken by geriatric pensioners with zimmerframes. It was hard to grasp if it was any easier this time round, as I got a little bit lost and ended deviating my route before finding my way.

One thing I have noticed is that I need to change my route - I was about 5 miles into the run when I ran past a Subway - needless to say that those are the sorts of distractions that I don't need.....!!!

Luckily this morning, the knee did not give way - it was mildly painful all the way around, but did not cause me to stop like last time. Hopefully this is a sign that it's getting better, and won't cause me to keel over half way around the course on the big day in 7 weeks.

The A-Team

The A-Team was a much loved memory from my childhood, along with Baywatch and Double Deckers. Having said that, I don't watch the re-runs on one of the millions of cable channels (just as well, as someone watched it again and told me it was pretty crap), and I didn't really know much about the film - apart from the fact that I wasn't a huge fan of anyone in the cast (although Liam Neeson was pretty cool in Taken). So I guess it was fair to say that I was fairly indifferent in a way.

The film is no classic, but it is pretty entertaining. Taking things back to basics, and essentially having a storyline showing how the A-Team forms, the film is fast paced, with enough one-liners and explosions to keep me entertained. Of the cast, surprisingly (for me, anyway), it's the less well known people who shine. Sharlto Copley (playing Murdock) adds a manic touch to his performance to steal most of the scenes he's in, and 'Rampage' Jackson (playing B.A. Baracus) adds enough to his character to avoid too many comparisons to Mr T. It may be the character, but Bradley Cooper just seemed smug for most of the film - some of his expressions reeked of 'Look at me, I'm a star', and Liam Neeson, although perfectly competent, was just going through the motions.

All in all, this film is worth a watch - not necessarily something you should cancel all plans for, but worth the price of a ticket on Orange Wednesdays.

The beginning of eight weeks of pain

The big run for this year, the Great North Run, is only 8 weeks away. Although a bit late to start training, I went out for my first long(ish) run today. Over the past few weeks, I've been doing shorter runs in the gym on and off, but not been able to do anything consistently because of my knee. At the last physio session, I was given the all clear to start training again, so decided that I couldn't put it off any longer.

Mental note 1: midday is not the best time to go for a run.

After spending the morning trying to decide whether or not to go out for a run cos it was raining (yes, I know, I'm a wimp), I finally left the house to embark on my run during one of the warmest parts of the day. Luckily the breeze helped me along the first leg of the run, but that soon subsided, and the humidity reminded me how unfit I am quite quickly.

Mental note 2: remember to take your knee support bandage when you have a knee problem.

The first major issue that I faced on the run is my knee pretty much giving way half way round. Shooting pains in the knee isn't ideal when you're running. A bit of walking, and a bit of stretching soon sorted that, and I was on my way again. The knee played up for the rest of the run though, so I had to slow down a little, particularly when I was running downhill.

Mental note 3: Walking isn't running

The final time wasn't great, but I managed to run 5.6 miles............although the time was pretty slow. I completed the Birmingham Half Marathon in 2 hr 30 mins last year, so as long as I beat that, I'll be happy.

Films of 2009 - Part 1

I've been meaning to write some notes on my thoughts of some of the films of 2009, so seeing as I've left it so long, I thought I'd do it properly.............and comment on EVERY Hindi film released in 2009 (well, according to Wikipedia anyway). Needless to say that I won't be including a lot of detail on these.....This is a loooooooooooooooooooooong post, you have been warned.

1) Chandni Chowk To China - Maths lesson for Warner Bros (that they really should have learnt before entering Bollywood): Akshay Kumar + Deepika Padukone + Nikhil Advani = torture!! How Akshay has managed to last so long with his 90's style Mr Bond acting in most of his films is beyond me. And Deepika..........well, she needs a new career.

2) Aasma - The Sky Is The Limit - I thought I'd seen most of the films released in 2009, but I haven't even heard of this one!!

3) Raaz - The Mystery Continues - Kangana and Adhyayan Suman started seeing each other whilst making this film, and split up shortly after the release. Not that it was a publicity stunt. Emraan Hashmi played a painter who looked more like a mental patient, Kangana was possessed by something or the other, but I didn't make it to the second half of this film. Maybe it improved after..........

4) Luck By Chance - The year's first good film, which unfortunately didn't do too well. Farhan Akhtar used his chat show to get other actor's to come on and compliment his performance, which was good - but Rishi Kapoor stole the show in my opinion.

5) Victory - Harman Baweja hams enough in this to make Sumeet Saigal look like a good actor! Victory showed the rise and fall of a cricketer, but it was too cliched and predictable to have any lasting effect. But still, this is worth a watch for some unintentional comedy moments.

6) Dev. D - I still haven't seen this - but have the DVD at home. But it has Abhay Deol in it, and is directed by Anurag Kashyap - it's bound to be head and shoulders above most of the crap churned out.

7) Billu - SRK plays a superstar, Irffan his poor friend - I actually enjoyed this. The song Love Mera Hit Hit gave a nation of husbands a new anthem to nagging wives - na kar aise kitpit!!!

8) Delhi-6 - Kaala bandar!! Two good things about this film - A.R. Rahman and Sonam Kapoor.

9) 13-B - One of the most original Hindi horror films I've seen, with Madhavan's life being mirrored by a TV serial.........not particularly scary, but was fairly engaging throughout.

10) Dhoondhte Reh Jaoge - Rip off of The Producers was mildly amusing - time pass, worth one watch.

11) Jai Veeru - Some advice to the makers - Fardeen Khan can't act for shit, Kunal Khemu isn't a big enough star to carry a film on his shoulders, and you should never have made this film. Diya Mirza looked hot though.

12) Little Zizou - Not seen this.

13) Gulaal - not seen this either, but have the DVD - heard good things about it. Anurag Kashyap at the helm of affairs, so probably worth a watch.

14) Aloo Chaat - is a Hindu-Muslim romance still enough to weave a film around? Apparently not - but I did fall asleep during this one.

15) Barah Aana - have the DVD but not seen it (can you see a pattern here?) Aamir Khan recommended it on a poster, so it might actually be worth watching.

16) Firaaq - see 15. Without Aamir Khan's recommendation.

17) Lottery - Abhijeet Sawant makes his acting debut. I don't think this was ever released in the UK. Thank God for small mercies.

18) Straight - Vinay Pathak kisses a bloke by mistake then spends the rest of the film wondering if he's gay or not, despite Gul Panag coming on to him. Yawn.

19) Aa Dekhen Zara - Neil Nitin Mukesh sang the reworked version of the Rocky track for this very slow, boring thriller - and it doesn't help that he can't really act that well, and that he can't sing either. Bipasha tries hard to look interested, and the Zee TV return bimbo Sophie Chaudhary plays an agent of some sort....from memory, she gets shot down - the best scene in the film.

20) Ek - The Power of One - Bobby Deol flop show once again. Sangeeth Sivan ripped off a south film for this, and somehow managed to rope in Nana Patekar into the cast...........maybe times were hard.

21) 8 x 10 Tasveer - Nagesh Kukunoor thriller with Akshay Kumar that wasn't as bad as the critics made out. Ayesha Takia had fun in her role, worth a one time watch.

22) Ek Se Bure Do - As much as I love Arshad Warsi, I didn't bother with this one.

23) Pal Pal Dil Ke Saath - OH MY GOD! I missed a film with Ajay Jadeja as the hero!!!

24) Coffee House - OH MY GOD! I missed a film with Ashutosh Rana as the hero!!!

25) School Days - ??????????

26) Royal Utsav - ????????????

27) Meri Padosan - ????????????????????

28) Sikandar - not seen the film, but has a fantastic song in Dhoop Ke Sikke.

29) Kal Kissne Dekha - Vashu Bhagnani launched his son in this film about..........actually I don't know what it was about. And I don't really care either.

30) Zor Lagaa Ke Haiyya - Another Mithun-da film I haven't seen. Riya Sen was enough to put me off this though.

31) Let's Dance - the English version of Aaja Nachle. Or Maybe not.

32) Paying Guests - Javed Jafferi, Shreyas Talpade, Ashish Chaudhury, Vatsal Seth - how can you miss a film with a cast like that? Quick easily. Add a selection of heroines from Tarts'R'Us, and you have another waste of time comedy.

33) New York - the film YRF offering of the year, and a fairly serious film with the fresh casting of John Abraham, Katrina Kaif and Neil Nitin Mukesh. Decent, but ultimately a watered down view on terrorism.

The rest will come later............