Crunchy ‘Nanas

Leaving Ramsgate

Leaving Ramsgate

Leaving Ramsgate

On our way back from Oostende

I took a moment this morning to glance through the +1,000 new posts in the music folder on my Google Reader (I’ve been busy lately), and I stumbled upon this: Peter Gabriel to Receive Ambassador of Conscience Award.

Crunchy husband and I like to joke about Crunchy ‘Nanas press passes whenever we are anywhere watching cool people do cool things from afar. (You can kind of see Paula Radcliffe in the pictures I took the other night. If you know it’s her, of course. Kind of.)

On September 10th, Peter Gabriel is receiving this honor from Amnesty International at the Hard Rock Cafe in London. The award is to be presented by the Edge. Peter Gabriel and the Edge. In the same room. Now, I know they are not likely to break out into a jam, but still cool people, cool thing – where can I get the press pass, please?

I mean, I am, after all, a member of the team that received the Kent Village of the Year 2008 Communications Section Award (Minster Matters won! Yay! Go team!), where I diligently record the audio file for our CD and podcast editions of the village newsletter, type copy, and surreptitiously correct the inappropriate use of apostrophes on the blog whenever possible. That should count for something, right?

Usain Bolt has his chicken nuggets. Apparently, I have Graham’s Sunday Roast.

Last weekend, we combined socializing, which means eating, with running the Nike+ Human Race in London. The night before the race, we gorged on Indian curry. The next day, four hours before the race, we tucked in to a lovely Sunday roast. I tried to eat daintily, knowing beef, red wine, Bailey’s birthday cake, and Phish food would not make for the best combination in my tummy at mile 5. Or even mile 2. (As it turned out, I ate too sparingly and was STARVING by the time wave 2 was finally let loose on the course, but oh well. I made it.)

The race was fun-ish, but I don’t know if I would do it again. It’s a nice idea, coming together to race against the world. (London came in second. It probably helped that Paula Radcliffe was chasing me…uh, running it in a later wave!) And yeah, leaving from Wembley Stadium sounded cool at the time we signed up. But, logistically, it’s really hard to run with 20,000 people in the dark down a narrow course with sharp bends (who thought that was a good idea?). It is especially challenging when it’s also pouring down rain and everyone is dodging puddles. And really, the area around Wembley, it’s not all that picturesque. So, it was fun, but not a total blast.

However, running-wise the race was a success. My official time is pretty far off my watch time, so I am sticking with my watch time (58:38). Our theory is that perhaps the chip did not log in at the first mat and my official time is actually the gun time and not the chip time. Who knows? I’m not worried. With my watch time, I finished with a pace of 9:26 min/mile, and I am a-okay with that considering I haven’t had the most rigorous of training regimes lately.

And yeah, there was all that beef.

I kept asking, how many people are joining us? (We were five all together.)

Eating my ‘nana on the tube before the race

Wet, but don’t I look cute in my running skirt?