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This weekend I ran my 4th race this year, the Running4Women Windsor 10k.
I was due to run this with my sister but she had flu so I ran alone.
It was actually a really lovely little event. We ran round Windsor Great Park on smooth paved roads and only the odd cyclist to content with. The sun shone and in fact it was a little hot in places.
As I had been expecting to run with my sister I had not trained as hard as I should have, so to come within 18 seconds of my 10k pb isn't bad - 0:55:55. Maybe with the correct training I'll beat it!
With less than 700 ladies running and a well marshaled route the whole race had a brilliant atmosphere. I'd certainly be happy to run here again; maybe next time sister will be well enough to join me.
After a break for the summer it was great to meet up with the writers group again.
With lots of new faces we had a full room! A little bit of advertising over the summer helped I think.
The last homework was to write about a celebration and it was great to see, once again, the great range in what was celebrated or not as the case may be. I loved the story of a girl trying to win her last sports day race; although the lady who wrote it doesn't do much running, it felt like she'd captured all the things I think and feel when I race.
And I actually had something to share this time too, although it had nothing to do with a celebration. Early morning writing really works for me. I might have to start getting up at 5am and going to bed at 8.30pm!! I think 'im outdoors might complain.
With a little time left at the end we had time for an exercise, so we had 10 minutes to write from 'And then the lights came on...' which put some of our new writers under pressure, but created some intriguing starts; I hope they will revisit them and take them further.
This months homework: Use the following as either the starting line or the inspiration for a story or poem: A young girl walks down the High Street. Clutched to her chest is a pair of bright red, extremely high heels...
If you've been following this blog you will know that I have just started knitting. I feel I have mastered simple patterns so thought I would try something a little more tricksy.
The first part wasn't too bad - I have now made three button holes and they seem to have worked well, but then we got into a part of the pattern which needs me to decrease and increase stitches, but just says things like 'Cast off 2 sts, patt to last 3 sts'. I can understand why they don't go into full detail - the pattern would be pages long, but it does leave me feeling a little lost.
Being quite a visual person it occurred to me that if I drew it out then I would know exactly what I should be doing and when. Out comes the white board and 40 minutes later I have my pattern. Assuming everything goes to plan I should have something to show for it soon.
This weekend we went to the Salisbury Contemporary Craft and Heritage Fayre. We weren't really sure what to expect but there was a really nice selection of crafts and some cool heritage stuff too, althought I would have liked to see more. I think the chair maker and the chap making metal arrow heads were my favourites.
In the craft marquee there was an amazing selection of jewellery, glass, wood, leather, wool and other things. Part of me was there as a customer, I bought a silver ring and a pair of leather ear rings, but a part of me was there absorbing everything and saving it for inspiration later.
As always I was surprised at the lack of paper crafts. There seems to be a huge gap in the market, but I don't know if it's because no one is interested, so people don't buy it, (or they can't compete with Smiths) or if it just hasn't been tried yet? I did see a really lovely book but it was the note pad of one of the exhibitors so not for sale.
On the way home we stopped in Stockbridge and after watching the ducks and trout went to Broughton Crafts. I first visited this shop in 1991 and as a child I wanted everything in it, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that as an adult I still wanted everything in it, but now I have the money to spend if I want to!
A grand day out, I look forward to seeing what it inspires me to do.
