We're not in Chelsea any more!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It is a new year
It is just over 4 months until I run the London Marathon
I have kicked things up a gear!


So when last we spoke I had just got lost in Wandsworth and ran 10 miles! Obviosuly since then I have run but not as much and not as frequently,
WHY?
well I shall tell you why.

1) I had tonsillitis
2) I went to Bratislava (see picture below)
3) It was only ruddy Christmas!

if only I'd looked the other way... I would have seen that castle!

Needless to say that after 2 weeks of no running at all when I went for my most recent run (6 miles) it was a little more difficult then it had been!
Who knew this long distance running thing was so hard! Why would anyone ever do this to themselves?

This feels like a good time to mention Asthma UK,
As you all know the reason I am putting in all this effort and running more than my non-sporty self thought it would ever run  is to raise money for this cause.
It is really important to talk about it now as the cold, wet, winter months are the worst time of the year for Asthma sufferers (followed closely by pollen season... damn you flowers!) 90% of Asthma sufferers say the cold is a trigger for their Asthma. When you remember there are 5.4 million people with Asthma in the UK that means that 4.9 million people just in the UK are suffering with bad Asthma at this point of the year.
Asthma is often regarded as quite a minor ailment as well, possibly because so many people have it or maybe because most people who do have it are often rather blaze about the whole thing
"yeah sometimes I cough so much I pass out from lack of oxygen... lol!"
It is worth noting that it is a pretty major deal and can kill and Asthma UK is fighting to stop the fatal attacks!
So please donate, It is really easy...
Just Click Here
I am running a marathon for goodness sake!

So I have moved house now which means no more running through Battersea park, or along the river Thames but I went for a 6 mile run around the local area and discovered just how different it was.

Firstly, its a way less built up area and despite the fact it is technically in London I don't think the area knows this as you can see in my photo

Maybe Yorkshire has followed me down south!

The second main difference is that other joggers nod and smile at you, like you are friends!

I wrote a whole blog on how they don't do that (Here it is) and it turns out I was just in the wrong part of the world!

Crazy talk!

Anyone, although a little harder than i remeber, the Jog went well and I am now way on my way and in the final four months!

ARGH

Here is my run,

Kinda like a squashed whale with water coming out his blow hole...?

Please donate,

be awesome,

love Nic

Lost in Wandsworth

So I ran 10 miles.
Which feels like a pretty major landmark in my ongoing quest to run a marathon next april.

I am sure you have many questions such as...

How did you prepare to run 10 miles?
When did you plan the route?
How did you keep yourself motivated?

The answer to all these questions is I got lost and ended up running 10 miles because I accidentally ran to Wandsworth.

But it did make me realise how motivational getting lost is (or maybe that is just me)
I was no longer running to train for the marathon, I was running to get home. Sure I could have walked but that would have taken ages!
It was essentially an adventure of epic proportion

This gif is also funny because I am short

Here is the run

The clever people amongst you will notice that I should have ran along Nine Elms Lane

As you can see the run started out like most of my longer runs nowadays,

Off to Westminster and back.

Last time I ran there and back i told you I didn't do any photos because I was on a roll and thought stopping for photos would make me die inside, but this time I was more confident.

So I took this rather attractive photo of me on Westminster bridge.

 It would appear my hair is trying to escape my head

On the way back home I thought I would try running across more bridges (you know how much I love bridges) which then left me on the south side of the river between Vauxhall bridge and Battersea bridge, there is no tow path along the river at that point so I had to go further south and leave the thames behind. 

I should have simply crossed back over the river!

I should have kept an eye on my mapping app!

I should not have kept running for a mile and a half whilst thinking 'this is probably the wrong way'!

But I did, when I finally realised my mistake (in Wandsworth) I swiftly but my explorer hat on and managed to find my way back to Battersea park and got home!

Result.

It is worth noting however, that in the early part of my run I did cross some new bridges and actually in my whole run crossed 4!

Before getting lost I was going to write about the new bridges I crossed but will save that for my next blog, here are the photos I took however...

Points for guessing which bridges they are!

In summary, I was a bit of an idiot. It paid off though and I think for the first time since I started training it feels very real, and very much feels doable!

Please don't forget that I am doing all of this for a cause, Asthma UK. They do amazing work and I did not choose them for no reason.

Donate because they are great, or donate because I am running round London, trying to find enjoyment in it by losing my way!

You can donate here Nic's Marathon Donation page

Thanks loads,

Nic

A Long time

Hello Blog fans!
Hope all in reading world is going well.

It has been 'A long time' since I wrote one of these. (Yes I just used the title of the blog in the blog... maybe that is why I chose that title, or maybe the reason will become a lot more apparent later!)

Why has it been so long?
What was I doing?
What is the air speed ratio of an unladen swallow?

Well I can answer those first two questions by informing you all that my sister got married!

see...

I wonder if any of these people have legs?

You may notice that the person on the left of the photo is wearing fairy wings but fear not, she is not a crazy person.

Sally and Sam got married on a stage (The Royal Theatre, Northampton if you must know) and the beginning of the ceremony was like a little show, in which Genevieve (the girl with the wings) played a fairy!

She was then a witness

She was also the person who inspired me to the Marathon in the first place,

NICE ONE GEN!

Anyway, Sally getting married was a pretty major event in my family and I was busy doing all manner of things before the wedding, 

Then on the actual day i danced for 'A Long time' (ooh) and my legs hurt so much afterwards that no running could be done.

It was an amazing day and everyone basically had the best time of their lives.

Big congratulations to Sally and Sam who will now be together for 'A long time' (yeah, did it again)

Although I danced the equivalent of a Marathon at the wedding I was a little worried when I put my running shoes back on yesterday that I would have lost something having not run for over a week!

However, due to the fact that I had nothing else on yesterday and it being a relatively nice day I thought I would just keep running and see how far I could go.

For how long did I run??

'A LONG TIME!'

Here is a picture of my run

Looks kinda like a phone doesn't it!

If you are wondering where it was I actually ran to it was all the way to the house of parliament

When you look at this picture do you hear music going

"RULE BRITANNIA"

I do

When I got to the houses of parliament I took some inspiration from our deputy prime minister and swiftly changed direction. (BOOM SATIRE)

I didn't take any photos on my run as I have to stop running, take my phone out of my handy phone carrying case, stop the run-mapping app, unplug the headphones, take the photo, do everything again in reverse and frankly I COULDN'T BE BOTHERED

plus I was on a roll, running the longest run of my training so far... so I simply didn't bother.

All in all the run was a success, although I was feeling it a little by the end I have proved that I can run over a 1/4 of a marathon and maintain a speed of ten minute miles!

FOR THE WIN!

If you would like to I thoroughly recommend that you donate for my chosen cause of Asthma UK, go on... it will make you feel all warm inside

DONATE HERE

Thanks loads,

Nicholas

Getting to know London

Hallo there blog fans (I am still calling you blog fans),

I haven't written anything in a while but that is because the majority of my runs are rather boring, I leave my flat, run down to the river, around battersea park, back across the river, along the thames, back up to my flat... DONE!

(sometime if I am feeling CRAZY! I do it in reverse... it is out there, I know!)

I think it is worth noting at this point quite how tedious it can be, very tedious, so tedious in fact that it is impressive that I keep doing it, so impressive in fact that you should all donate lots of money to Asthma UK now, after all that is why I am putting all this time and tedious effort into running this ruddy long way!
Click on this link and it will take you to a marvellous place of donation-y goodness!



However, sometimes, if I have the day off work or for some other odd reason have an excessive amount of time I decide to run to places I have never run before.
It is actually a rather good way to see whole sections of London above ground that I would otherwise never see.

So yesterday (Friday the 1st of November) I decided to run towards a bridge in the distance (you know how much I love bridges)
When I got there it turned out it was just for overground trains so it could have been a bit of an anti climax if it hadn't been for all these other things I noticed on my run.

Firstly I saw this overground station

I feel 'Imperial Wharf' may be over compensating for something with this sign

It was this overground station that stood on the north end of the bridge I couldn't cross. The station itself seemed to mainly built into the  bridge and had obviously been modernised recently with the use of much glass!

Fair enough, an overground station isn't the most exciting thing one can find in London... but later in my run I found this,

How fancy the rugby posts are in Chelsea!

The Lots road power station (also known as the Chelsea Monster) used to supply the power to the entire underground network!

It is just an empty husk now but it is a pretty epic building and surprisingly close to the fancier bits of Chelsea and south Kensington!

Still not impressive enough??? well there is just no pleasing you Blog fans...

What about this statue?

 stop trying to steal my baby!

This statue is called 'In Town' and although I don't really understand why it is called that, or why it is placed where it is (relatively out of town) or why they seem to be playing a game of Baby Rugby but i can admire that the people do look like people and that must have been bloody hard to do! (I assume... I have never done metal sculpture myself but I don't think it is one of those skills that comes naturally!)

The last sight of the run was less impressive then some of the others but definitely the one I am most likely to visit again, although next time I will not be running.

It is like they looked inside my head and made my perfect place!

It's a Karaoke Bar Pizzeria, what is not to love! If I ever disappear for an excessive period of time, this is where you will find me. Drinking a cocktail, singing 'everybody get up' by five and eating a Ham and Pineapple pizza! Basically, Living the dream.


As you can see a productive run, for those who are interested here is what the run looked like

Leave comments of motivation and let me know what you think my last run looked like!

Please donate

and thanks for reading!

Big Love,

Nic

Bridging the gap

Whilst out running this evening, yes sometimes i do evening runs, I happened upon this thought;

'What is the point in running if you don't learn things at the same time?'

I, myself, couldn't think of anything!

except maybe getting fit and maybe to train for a long distance running event such as the london marathon BUT THAT IS IT!

I suppose maybe to get some fresh air... and maybe to see London from a new perspective... to strengthen the leg muscles and improve your lung capacity

NOTHING ELSE!

although I do enjoy the occasional nod at another runner (which as i mentioned in an earlier blog happens very rarely)

Alright ALRIGHT! there are loads of points to running but before I realise that learning whist running is a silly idea I shall carry on!

I also realised whilst running this evening (still shocked i went for evening run??? get over it!) that there are many a bridge in London and one gap in people's knowledge is London bridges.
This evening I ran across three bridges as you can see in the map of my run

yes I did run across that last one twice... check me out!

and although i learnt very little whilst running across the bridges as they don't have fact sheets, silly bridges, I have since done some research using the "internet"  So I present to you three bridges of London...

Bridging the Gap (of knowledge that you probably have about bridges in London.)

Bridge 1

oooooh bridgey

Name: Battersea Bridge

Opened: 21st of July 1890

Length: 725 feet, 6 inches! (THAT IS 1,451 6 Inch Subways)

Designer: Joseph Bazalgatte (incidentally one of my favourite surnames ever!)

Interesting fact: in 2006 a bottlenose whale got stranded there when trying to get to the 'Made in Chelsea auditions'

Thing I realised when crossing the bridge: It is the only of todays three bridges to not have lights on! RUBBISH!

I give it a 6/10 

Bridge 2

I took this photo from bridge one and the photo of bridge one came from bridge two 

which we can see in this photo from bridge one which we took a photo of from bridge 2 

BRIDGECEPTION

Name: Albert Bridge
Opened: 1873
Length: 710 feet, (THAT IS OVER 127 Me's)
Designer: Rowland Mason Ordish (another great name!)
Interesting fact: There is a sign telling soldiers to cease marching in time when crossing the bridge to avoid vibrations

Thing I realised when crossing the bridge: If Mr and Mrs Bridge had a son and called it Albert then he would have the same name as this bridge and he would be bullied regularly by all the bridge enthusiasts, who he would in turn bully for being bridge enthusiasts!

I give it a 8/10


Bridge 3! (the exclamation is because it is the final bridge of today's blog... exciting stuff i know!)

Name: Chelsea Bridge
Opened: 21st of July 1857
Length: 698 Feet (that is a 698 average length ferrets)
Designer: G. Topham Forrest (let's be honest, all bridge designers had brilliant names!)
Interesting fact: 'twas originally called Victoria Bridge, they had to change it to Chelsea bridge after it was caught conoodling with the Albert Bridge!
Thing I realised when crossing the bridge:It has a smashing view of the battersea power station

SEE

there is another bridge in this photo but it is only for Tube trains... i found this out the hard way!

I give it a 9/10



Needless to say, we all know a lot more about bridges and have forgotten entirely the point of this blog, so i shall remind you
I AM RUNNING THE MARATHON
click here to donate and feel better about yourself!

Donations seem to have slowed down... which as you can imagine I am furious about,
If we reach £300 by this time next week I shall do a run in halloween make-up!


Nic

Mind blown by socks

Yes the title is what you think it is!
How can your mind be blown by socks?
Well for something to blow your mind it either has to be so absurd it shatters all opinions of the world... so socks surely can't do that can they, if you think socks are absurd then you are insane, after all socks are the opposite of absurd, they are unabsurd... or normal as most people say.
Look at this sock

Purple called, asked why you didn't invite it to the party!

Despite being a pretty damn funky sock it is not blowing any minds.

'GET TO THE POINT NIC' said everyone reading angrily and with purpose

For a sock to blow your mind it would have to do something pretty out there... and this morning i noticed something new and out there about my running (THANK GOD YOU MENTIONED RUNNING) socks.

yeah that is right... one of them is for your left foot and one of them is for your right foot!

I HAVE NEVER SEEN SPECIFIC FOOT SOCKS BEFORE!

THis reveals two things about me

1) I am not a sporty fellow and therefore have never come across this before

and

2) I have been running for about 3 months without knowing that you could get left and right footed socks...

Who knows how many times i have been running with my feet in the wrong footed socks. NEVER AGAIN!

I ran today very smoothly around Battersea park, safe in the knowledge my feet were perfectly cradled in the correct footed sock.

So happy was I with my comfortable feet that I drew the following shape whilst running... I am reckoning it looks like a chicken... Any better ideas, comment below!

BOCKARK!

It is now less than 6 months until the big day so if you have not yet donated then DO IT NOW... this running is driving me mad enough to talk about socks for an entire blog so please support me by donating toward Asthma UK, it literally is an amazing cause!

Click here to go to the donation station (site)

Andy Green has had the biggest donation for AGES so please try to beat him.

Thanks,

Nic

It has been a while

Hello Blog fans (I call you blog fans)

I must first apologise for my lack of blog in the last two weeks.

'WHY HAS THIS BEEN?' I hear you all murmur timidly.

Well many reasons, and by many I mean three.

REASON 1
Dracula,
Last week i was in a production of Dracula in the evenings which, mixed with my working hours took up all my time, this meant i was not able to Jog OR blog. Sad times Iknow.
Here is a picture of me as 1920's 'Man about town' John Harker to make you all feel better

not sure why I am not so bothered about the vampire on my right!

The show went extremely well and made me people literally jump out of their seats and wet themselves with fear.

This ran all of last week and ended with a wonderful after show party and a hungover morning spent emptying a van.

Needless to say it was a long and hectic week with no spare moments for this silly running malarkey

REASON B

Newcastle,

After the show was done I went to Newcastle for two days with work,

not a lot fun happened there and although I am sure Newcastle would be lovely to run around I forgot to take my running gear

lol

So was unable to run along the Tyne like I had considered. 

REASON III

My Laptop died,

after Dracula and Newcastle I arrived home planning on writing you a blog explaining my absence only to find my Laptop would not switch on, not at all, it was dead, it has bitten the dust, shuffled off this mortal coil, joined the great holy laptop in the sky, 

IT IS AN EX LAPTOP

If this doesn't make sense to you then sort your life out

I have now bought a NEW laptop but it has not arrived yet (sad times)

Despite this I have managed to blog.

Running starts again tomorrow as we approach

THE 6 MONTH MARK AAAAAARGGH

I hope you heard evil music in your head when you read that, i know i did. If you didn't then perhaps read it again but imagine evil music playing in your head. If you are unable to imagine such music then refer back to the comment I made under the picture of John Cleese and Michael Palin in the dead parrot sketch.

Despite the gap the marathon is still a huge part of my life right now and I would feel a lot better about everything if all you wondnerful folk out there in blog reading land would sponsor me, to do so go to the following site

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NicMunday

And PLEASE DONATE, not just because i asked but because of all the people with Asthma who need your help.

Follow me on twitter @nicmundayasthma

Thanks,

Nic