Kincardine

Hey everyone!
I'm back from Kincardine and am a little sad about it. It was the polar opposite of my Reading week there a couple months ago. Instead of being shut in the hotel room for 23.75 hours of the day like last time, studying, watching TV and wishing exams would be over, this time I was able to explore the crazy awesome trails,

get lost inside a lovely maze-garden,

read The Hunger Games at the beach

and peak into people's gardens as I walked around enjoying the sunshine :)

It was a lovely, relaxing (and cheap!) week topped off by a friendly poker night with friends on Friday, a viewing of the Hunger Games movie on Saturday, and a surprise visit on Sunday, from both a bunch of cold-inducing germs (I am constantly sneezing now and have a runny nose :( ) and a friendly couchsurfer!

Monday has brought cooler weather, a huge to-do list and a slap back to reality. I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Recovery

I'm supposed to be studying for my Group Work midterm, but I keep getting distracted by the internet!
I have been thinking about getting some Vibrams for the longest time.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/Five-Fingers-Sprint-Womens.htm

I would love them in purple!!

The idea came about as I was cleaning my room and came across my pink shoes, which are reserved for summer and hold many awesome memories :)

Each summer I notice that the first few days I wear them I get a headache because I step too heavily in them. I then realise that the way I was changes, as they are basically made of pink material with NO support. However, once my feet get used to the heat (I could feel the ground in Kuwait) they are my favourite shoes to wear the entire summer. I even wear them swimming in the river/sea, as they dry quickly and are super versatile.

I will be sad when the day comes that I will no longer be able to wear them. They've lasted a bunch of years with minimal tearing and I am proud of them!

So...  Vibrams. They seem more durable and could withstand the pounding of running. I would love to try them out, but I'm a bit weary of the separate spaces for each toe, hmm.

Next time I am in London I will look around and see if I find any.

In the meantime... back to studying and resting my aching calf muscles (the hillbilly trail race this past weekend was tough!!)

Hillbilly 5k

EDIT: Results are out! Official finishing time was 48:16, and I wasn't last!! Perhaps I will do a trail race again :)




Hi everyone! I hope you've been enjoying your weekends :)


My weekend was spent ice-skating, going to the gym with friends, sitting in our igloo, breaking a light bulb in my hand (super painful) and my very first trail race.

Malden Park hill, in the summertime. Picture this with snow on top!

I will just copy and paste my race recap from DM:

Another shot of Malden Park - imagine this with lots of snow

My first trail race. I loved that it was low-key (they took back our race numbers!!) and there weren't too many people running it. We all got on the trail and received instructions, and I was standing at the back, so couldn't hear since everyone started talking. I heard to keep the red arrows on my right, but I didn't get the course details....

Once we started, it was straight up a hill. The snow was about 20cm deep, and I knew it was going to be a tough race since I had to walk 1.5min in. I ended up pacing behind Mr. Snowman (he walked all the downhills because he didn't want to be the Rolling Snowman) and there were two ladies behind us. I stayed with this group for about 10min, before we let the women run ahead. I started going slow due to the snow (never really ran in the snow before), the knee (****ing hurt this morning, luckily the strap is sort of dulling the pain), and the incline (need to train on hills more). I lost Mr. Snowman after the bridge, where he turned around to make sure I took a right and didn't get lost :) Very nice of him!

After around 15min, I was by myself. It was nice - there wasn't pressure to keep up or keep running if it hurt or I didn't feel it, because I was already last. This is one fear I've conquered! Being last isn't so bad :)

The course was mostly off the normal tracks, and certainly off-road, through the trees and up every single hill they could find! I got lost because I found the road and followed it  - I should have known they wouldn't have made it that easy!!

I came up to some ladies taking pictures of everyone coming downhill... and when I asked which way everyone went they said I was off the track!! They weren't very helpful - they just said to go back and find the arrows. So ~8 mins later, I'm back on track. The worst part was that the first two ladies that were behind me in the race, also went past the picture-ladies. They weren't told to turn back, they kept running. Turns out they only ran about 3k though! So I'm super glad I turned back.

Walk, walk, walk, run... I get passed by 3 people doing the 10k! Haha, at least the first girl was really nice :) I then met a family cheering all the runners, and they told me it was just down this last hill to the finish. FINALLY!! 48:17 and I was last.

My boyfriend was waiting at the end with a hot tea :) They took my race number away (I was 255) and Calvin told me a lot of people doing the 10k dropped to the 5, and several people got lost. Most people were saying it was a tough course!

I sat in the car crying because it was a really tough race for me - I didn't want to skip it and get a DNS (why sign up anyway?!), but I also didn't want to start it and drop out and see a DNF with my name. So I walked a big chunk of the course, I WENT BACK to find the course route, I finished my damn 5kilometres and know I didn't cheat.

My time isn't stellar, but I'll take it for my first (winter) trail run!!! :)