I completely forgot about number 6!

My second half marathon was trained for and completed, and I forgot to blog about it!!  It feels like ages ago now, but I managed to beat last year's time by over 15 minutes, and even managed a sprint finish for the last 100 metres of the 13.1 miles.  Here's a pic of me with my medal after the race.

This time I ran for Stroke Association and the just giving site is still live if you feel like donating to a fantastic cause.  On the morning of the race I discovered I had no safety pins to attach my race number to my t-shirt.  My Delicious Freak badges came in very handy :)

Very happy with having improved my time and felt fantastic after the race.  Unfortunately most of the good work put in has now disappeared under a layer of beer and good cheer, but I'll be training for the next big thing soon :)

If anyone fancies training with me and is local  to me, give me a shout, the loneliness of the long distance runner isn't just the title of a book!

Numbers 20 and 21 Completed (with a little bit of Cheating and combining two into one!).

Well, Rachel managed to graduate and leave Cardiff before I had chance to visit her at Uni and go drinking with her.  However, by a stroke of luck, she managed to come down to my Nephew's University Town for a night while I was there.  This meant we had a proper "Bad Uncle" night out in Exeter with plenty of drinks, giggles and of course live music.

The Sorry Head in Exeter is a fantastic pub with great beer (discounted thanks to Dan's membership of the Rock & Metal Society), lovely bar staff and a cracking band playing 90s Grunge and Alternative Rock.

Rocking out to covers of Pearl Jam and Nirvana tracks that awakened me to music other than Radio 3 and my older sister's record collections of Abba, Shakin' Stevens and other such things with my awesome Niece and Nephew, both musicians in their own right, was something of a proud uncle moment.  It reminded me that music is a journey, and that whatever point you're on in that magical mystery tour, it reaches parts other things just never quite get to.

There was laughter, mickey taking, drinking and pure fun.  I have a feeling the 3 of us will get together there again some time in the new year.  In the mean time, a definite reminder for me that spending time with my "niblings" is a vital part of keeping me vibrant, young and alive.

Sadly (or fortunately!) all of our phones died at various points in the night, so we have no photographs to share with you.  However, the memories will live on with me for a long time - happy days on Planet H :)