Being A Tourist At Home

I'm lucky enough to live in a beautiful city which is visited by over 7 million people every year, and though I often go into the city to shop and eat, I don't often go in to see the tourist attractions. This week Paul is visiting so I get the opportunity to do some of the things I don't seem to get around to by myself.

This week has started off being a tourist in my home city with a walk around the walls to see the daffodils. It's alwasys such a beautiful time here in spring but the daffodils are short lived so you have to make the most of them!

Source: Paul Noyola

Followed by a wander through town listening to some buskers playing on the streets

Sourcce: Paul Noyola

Friday was a slower day all round so we decided to get some fresh air in the evening walk along the riverside to the Millennium Bridge. It's been great to enjoy the city in spring, hopefully the next few weeks be like this so that we can continue to get out and explore more of Yorkshire and surrounding countryside :)

That bbbrrrr time of year already

It's that time of year where running isn't just about putting on a pair of shorts and a tshirt... winter seems to be approaching way too fast. I'm just getting back into training and loving it, but already I've noticed the nights drawing in and the mornings staying dark later. I'm not a big fan of running in the dark by myself so this is massively reducing my 'time to run' window! 

Secondly it's cold already. Now I struggle with the cold pretty much all the time, that is except for while I'm running when, as long as my hands and feet are warm, I'm fine. What I learned tonight is never to listen to anyone else about how many layers I need! I usually go by the rule, wear what I think I need...then take something off (obviously not in the summer when I'm down to minimum layers...that could end up being embarrassing!) I had opted tonight for a tshirt and gloves instead of a top with full length arms.. However on the way out of the door I got told I'd 'need a jumper' (!!!) because it was freezing outside. I didn't believe for a second that I needed a-whole-nother layer on but I did put on my arm warmers just in case... and of course folded them down before I'd even gone a mile!
So here's to winter running again.... layers, hats, gloves, thermals, rain, mud, ice and wind. There's one thing I know for sure... it'll take a lot more than some adverse weather to stop me ;)

Remembering Columbia

This morning Paul and I attended a memorial for the crew of the spaceship Columbia in Hemphill, Texas. The memorial was held at the Patricia Huffman Smith Museum, a museum opened on Feb 1st 2011 to honour the space shuttle Columbia and it's crew.

CREDIT: Creator/Photographer/Source: NASA

Hemphill and it's viciinity were the key search areas for debris from the space shuttle which broke apart during re-entry on Feb 1st 2003. Citizens of the Hemphill and surrounding areas (including Paul) assisted NASA in an unprecedented air, ground and water search. They recovered over 80000 pieces of debris which helped NASA understand the tragedy and put safety measures in place to prevent a similar accident from occurring on future missions.

The museum is awesome and tells the story of space exploration from the first mission of the Columbia to it's last mission, STS-107.

It is a tribute to the efforts made by local citizens during the recovery and has an area dedicated to each crew member and the two people that lost their lives during the recovery. Especially touching is the support given by the family members who have contributed personal items belonging to the crew to be on display. It was hard not to be moved by the displays and emotion shown by those that were involved with the museum and their dedication to providing an informative, yet sensitive, view of the tragedy that happened 9 years ago today. 

This image of the STS-107 shuttle Columbia crew in orbit was recovered from wreckage inside an undeveloped film canister. The shirt colors indicate their mission shifts. From left (bottom row): Kalpana Chawla, mission specialist; Rick Husband, commander; Laurel Clark, mission specialist; and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist. From left (top row) are astronauts David Brown, mission specialist; William McCool, pilot; and Michael Anderson, payload commander. Ramon represents the Israeli Space Agency.
CREDIT: NASA/JSC

Mental & Physical Toughness Test...

This week I had one of the toughest runs I've ever been on.... my first 20 miler... with hills! 

I love being back in Texas, the weather is fantastic (running in shorts and t-shirt in January is awesome!) plus it's great to be running in the countryside again. The only problem is that I may have lost my touch with the hills as it's been a few months since I was running on them regularly... and the hills here are rough! 

There is no direction I can set off from the house that doesn't include at least one monster hill if not several, so I think you can imagine how I felt running 20 miles of them!

My quads were already achy from the run I'd done a couple of days earlier as I'm just not in hill shape. Add 20 miles on to that ache and I was hurting, big time! Thankfully I got to running near the lake where the views are a beautiful and the hills are a little less severe.

 It was a massive milestone for me and I needed to tackle that as the marathon is approaching fast.

So next time I'm running in York and grumbling for any reason... just remind me to be thankful that I'm not tackling this....

London Calling

Last weekend Paul and I had the opportunity to go to London and stay with a friend for the weekend. We were both excited to go as neither of us have spent time in the city or seen any of the sights that 30 million people a year go to see! We were also fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Sarah Ezekiel who has inspired and supported me throughout my fundraising for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Sarah has become a great friend to both of us online over the last couple of years and it was wonderful to meet her and her family.

After spending some time with Sarah we headed back into the city. We didn't set off with the intention of sightseeing that evening but once we saw the London Eye and Big Ben lit up we couldn't help but walk around to see as much as we could!

Sunday was a beautiful day with clear skies and sunshine so we spent the day doing a lot of walking, sightseeing, picture-taking and train-riding!

We also (somehow) made time to visit the Natural History Museum and Science Museum in the afternoon (both of which are like a maze of rooms that could easily swallow you up for a few days... or even weeks!).

This was a great weekend to finish Paul's time in England with and a great experience for both of us. When we got back to York we had just a couple of days to spend with my family and pack our things before flying to Houston.  I've loved having Paul in England with me and I'm happy he could spend so much time in York getting to know my family and friends.

So as his travels come to an end for now, mine are just beginning again.... For once though, neither of us had to travel alone and we could enjoy the journey together :)

The Hardest Step....

This photo was one of the final posts from my 2011 blog though the meaning was no less true today than the morning I took the photo. 

I'm ready for the mornings to start getting lighter as getting up and setting off in the dark takes a lot more will power than it does on those bright spring mornings! 

Despite the hardest step I managed 26.6km this morning in 2 hours and 27 minutes. It's not quite as far as my marathon training plan calls for at the moment but after being ill earlier in the week I was happy with it. The pace (ave 5.30/km) was a bit faster than I'd usually do on my longer runs so I feel this makes up for the slight shortage in distance!