please don’t cook your dog
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curious duck
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the family holiday
for every sensible family photo there must be an equal and opposite silly one where everyone pulls comedy faces (or vice versa).
me in greenwich
self portrait at the location of the start of the marathon.
despite being in a crowd of over 35,000 runners it’s weird how i didn’t really have a conversation with anyone for 7 hours (from when i arrived at the start).
I suspect this was mostly because i did it at a different speed to everyone else. note the yellow fleece which i took off whilst walking (quite a feat as i had a backpack and a running vest on top of it).
i also haven’t got a hat on at this stage. when it started getting really sunny i decided i needed a sun hat so i was going to pick up one of the discarded ones. but i didn’t want anything too scanky. luckily just as i was thinking i might have no choice someone from the crowd gave me a free one advertising bottled water. and it was just the job.
in the background of this picture is the isle of dogs where the marathon course eventually snakes round to.
sheep crossing
here is the actual sheep, actually crossing its actual field.
fantastic
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road trips (for the elderly)
when we usually end up sharing our holiday days out with bus loads of european school kids. on one particualr holiday jane and i were bumped in to the same class of french school kids for three days running.
our recent holiday in norfolk was punctuated by coach loads of elderly people. these coaches unload their contents next to the tea room in whatever attraction we’d be visiting. they would queue up, drink their tea and cake, then get back on their bus to be transported off to another tea shop.
it sounded ideal. and all the people were really nice.
here are bunch of olds queuing at a tea shop, viewed from up a windmill.
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lighthouse with no light
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warning – do not try this at home
touching the sun can be very dangerous and should only be attempted by trained experts.
a green chap at the fair
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esther’s puddle
esther (on her scooter) spotted this puddle and said we needed to take a photo of it. she thought it looked like a hippo.
it does, so i did and here it is
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goth at the seaside
what is it with seaside resorts and goths ? there’s always loads of them milling around dressed in black and looking moody.
goths always make me smile. i used to be one but i wasn’t very good because i was always smiling. i couldn’t help it. we all looked so funny.
distressed dog signs
there’s something going on here.
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how i walked the marathon
i started at the back with a few thousand others. here we are making our way to the start line. at this point i was feel very unsporty in my long trousers, fleece top and mini rucksack (nearly everyone else was in shorts and running vests).
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we slowly shuffled until eventually we reach the starting line:
because i was walking, a few thousand runners whizzed by me in the first hour. this was a bit depressing, but then i’m not in any way sporty so i wasn’t too bothered.
it was a bit disturbing seeing people pack away around me though:
i kept my pace steady throughout the race and enventually started to catch up with some of the people i’d stood with in the original line with.
By about half way my walking speed was faster than those who’d run as far as they could and were walking the rest of the course. By the time it was 8 miles to go i was being rarely overtaken myself and it was me who was doing the overtaking.
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those last 8 miles were great as my patient pace meant i could really push a bit faster to the finish. and i was whizzing round people (without having to resort to anything as vulgar as running).
somewhere in the middle my feet stung like mad things so i took my pain killers which helped hugely.
the last bit of the route is very well known walking territory for me so i knew how far i had to go. i even had time for a self portrait with big ben behind me:
and finally i made it to the finish line:
the official photographer said i looked ‘very fresh’ and i realised i hadn’t really broken in to a sweat or got out of breath the whole race !
In the end i came 33,507th out of 35,680 people.
hoorah for walking. hoorah for all your lovely sponsoring and support. (and hoorah for pain killers)
give yourself a medal:
you are what you wear
the outfits some people wore were amazing. i couldn’t imagine running a marathon normally, let alone wearing a heavy hot costume.
here is a giraffe chasing mr tickle chasing the police:
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here is the pink panther answering his phone:
and a star and a person pretending to be a star:
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don’t wee in people’s gardens
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