As you know I have pledged to run 1,000 kilometers in 2011 For Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Here is the first draft of the dashboard I’ll be using to communicate my progress.
Click here for the bigger version.
The JustGiving page has also been set up here : http://www.justgiving.com/1000k-in-2011
Since turning 40 (unbelievable I know) I have noticed a few changes:
We recently went shopping for a new sofa for the family room, to aid getting one the fitted I did a floor plan of the room in Visio.
I felt compelled to then do a plan of the whole house and garden!
I resisted!
I get annoyed by really trivial things:
I quite like (as an occasional treat) a Twix from the vending machine. It’s great because it’s chilled. But because it’s chilled it quite often breaks when it falls from the machine.
This really annoys me, even though I’m just going to bite it and chew it!
Most would have said the weather was good, I beg to differ it was waaay too hot!
On the plus side I’m sure that helped bring out more spectators who really helped spur me on and yes the garden hoses and sprinklers WERE appreciated!
The golden rule is to have practiced everything and have no new kit on race day.
Due to the heat in the days leading up and the forecast I decided to treat myself to a new belt with a bottle holder built in. Unfortunately this was not really up to the job and my bottle jumped out the holder in the first few yards after crossing the start line.
Due to the excitement of the start I even forgot to start the timer on my watch so it was a few minutes after crossing the start line before my watch started. My watch gave me a time of 6:23:24 and my official time was 6:34:05. I had also made sure that my watch had a new battery but I had not double checked the settings and I ended up having to fiddle with it during the run to get it set properly. My Garmin FR50 was complaining over the last few miles of low memory, I’ll either have to buy a new watch or speed up: I’m “cheap” so I’ll have to keep up the training !
No real injuries to speak of, the plasters on my nipples fell off so I had to get some emergency vaseline from the first aiders at mile 8. I finished with a small blister on each heel, but this was due to the fact I did more walking than running in the latter stages.
Obviously I’m stiff and sore today but I’m keeping moving to prevent complete seizure.
It has been a very busy/eventfull week this week!
Great Scottish Run – Half Marathon 13.1 miles – 6th September
Pedal For Scotland – Glasgow To Edinburgh Cycle 50 miles – 13th September
On the 7th September my 17 year old daughter; Emma Berry Goodman died of Motor Neurone Disease.
Previously I had promised her that I would run a marathon before I was 40. I have just under a year to ensure that I do that.
The only experience I have of running was doing a 10k for MND in 2008 so the half marathon is the next logical progression.
Never one to do things by half I have also signed up for a 50mile cycle ride as a “cool down” event after the run.
If you have never heard of Motor Neurone Disease have a look at their website http://www.mndscotland.org.uk/ I would pay particular attention to the video. The film has been given a cert 15 classification. It is a graphic portrait of how many people diagnosed and living with this illness can feel.
In addition to making a donation here, it would be fantastic if you could either join me on either or both events or if you could come along on the day and cheer me on!
Thanks
Ross Goodman
Just a quick summary of my on-line presence this year.
I have invested a lot of content to Twitter this year.
This is primarily due to the convenience of the platform racking up almost 1200 updates in the year here.
I can’t find a way to get stats for the year so here are my top five photos:
By far the most popular post on the site was the photos page here.
Second most popular page is the “About Me” page here.
As for the blog entries themselves they rank at:
1 – Business Objects XI 3.0 New Features – Conditional Prompts
2 – Crystal Xcelsius – Filtered Rows From A Filter Component
3 – Modelling Change In Your Dimensions
4 – Business Objects XI 3.0 New Features – Change Data Tracking
5 – Dimensional Modelling – Facts
As you can see here the site only really started getting traffic last January so that gives me 17300 page views.
Obviously the biggest news of the year was the passing of my daughter Emma.
Celebrating the Life of Emma Berry Goodman
And the year ends on another low point with the passing of another member of my extended family.
George Miller – Footballer | 1939 – 2008
Despite my working in IT and also “enjoying” technology, our kids being typical kids and having a PC each and an unstoppable curiosity, Elaine has never shared our passion.
Last week Elaine tore the ligaments in her left foot so has not been able to hit the shops at all and has been forced to stay at home with her feet up. Over the space of that week she did her first Asda shop online.
Last night, with no prompting Elaine had the laptop out and was shopping unaided !
The coup de grace was the next question:
How to I get the BBC iPlayer on the Wii to work again !
I treated myself to a new toy for my camera.
Cactus Wireless Triggers
I’d like to thank EVERYONE for all of their gestures of kindness and support.
It lifted my heart to see everyone at Emma’s service wearing bright colours as was her wish.
Many people have asked for a copy of the tributes that were read during the service so I have posted them here:
I caught the middle of a program last week on BBC1 : Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
This program was highlighting the in-breeding and lack of genetic screening that is in place in the Kennel Club.
I did not get to see the whole program, I am downloading it using the BBC iPlayer to watch it in full.