And I'm spent...

Running season is over, for now anyway. last weekend was the final run of my 3 leg September/October jaunt round Swansea, Cardiff and Aberdare(!). Personal Bests tumbled, knee joints crumbled but after a roughly combined 242 minutes of running, I'm done.

As a result of my efforts, Barnardo's has a little more money and I have...

A truly epic collection of event t-shirts and participation medals!

My favourite shifted this year too, usually the Swansea 10k is my fav race, but this year it was Cardiff. This was helped by Swansea being horrifically wet and windy, but the crowds etc in Cardiff did spur you on, plus I wasn't struggling as much as before so could take stuff in! Aberdare? Fuck me, hardest first mile and a bit ever, but quite pleasant apart form that. Think I'd like to do it quicker, but the main issue was my brains unwillingness to let me run quickly down steep hills.

Given my standard of coordination I'd have been picking up my teeth from a rock half way down if I'd gone for it! Still worth a go though and the t-shirt from that was the nicest!  

So what now? Time to sit on my arse over crimbo and get fat... well to a degree. I've classed myself as injured at the moment as I am walking like I've shit myself due to swelling on my foot and a ropey knee, but give me a week and I'll be back in the gym on lunch times, I've kind of agreed with my pointless and demon run co-person to do the 5k 'santa' dash in Cardiff in December. It's 5k, there are no concerns there, but it'll keep me going.

Further more there's then a 8 mile road run in Newport in January (let's face it if I'm in Newport, I'm going to be running, to save my trainers from chavs at least) which looks like a great warm up for the Llanelli Half Marathon in March, which is supposed to be a nice and quite quick course. Sub 2 hours anyone? I doubt it too but I'm going to try.

Long term goal is apply for London 2014... but calm down for 5.

Then next year I'll do it all again! Well maybe!

Either way the slightly smaller version of me is more manageable and less likely to die horribly from a heart attack or related illnesses, so the exercise levels should at least stay the same, and to be fair do need to get picked up further. Particularly on distance, must run further at a time.

But for today... where's me burger?

Merthyr Town / Non league football

I took the bank holiday weekend to revisit the world of non-league football.

I support Arsenal as I'd imagine the vast majority of people reading this will know are not non-league, far from it (and no I don't want to talk about Sunday). But as much as I want them (and Swansea) to do well, my team has always been and will always be Merthyr Town (formerly Tydfil) FC.

The team has just returned to play in Penydarren Park, after a year in exile (which I didn't make a single game in)  20 or so miles away in Taffs Well. So I trotted down to the park yesterday to watch them play league pace setters, the undefeated Brislington Town (where??). It was then I realised I quite missed watching football like this, TV is comfortable, gives you replays, you can stop, rewind and all that shit, you have commentators telling you whjat to think any any given moment, stats popping up on screen, and generally speaking it's of a higher standard.

But being right up next to the pitch, taking it all in yourself, the experience is so much better.

The game itself was quite decent, Merthyr looked tidy passed the ball quite well, sometimes overly so and they could have done with taking a shot more. While at the back, but punts forward were a bit haphazard. Brislington had one or two tidy players, their left back looked good, while on the reverse their no4 looked like we was as likely to fall over at any given moment than successfully run in a straight line. Both keepers showed some... interesting positioning, but proved to be good shot stoppers when needed.

There was a few moments of marking (mainly the English side to be fair) that would I'm sure would give both sides coaches nightmares for a while. Even the ref had mostly a good game (although the away penalty was a bit of a mystery).

Happily Merthyr won 2-1 and moved 3rd in the table. Next week they have 2 matches in 2 days in 2 different cups (FA Prelim Round, Welsh Cup 2Q) and if I'm able I'll take the chance to pop down for the Welsh Cup game on Sunday.

Next week is an international break, no Prem games, no Championship games, which means come the weekend many football fans are at a loose end (Wales playing Friday). So if that applies to you, why not go see a team a bit further down the pyramid than you're used too? Go see Newport, Merthyr, whatever lower league teams are around, whoever's closer, you might like it! It's not always a comfortable as a sofa and sky sports, it's likely to be less conformable than a seat in the Liberty or CCS, but it's fun!

But speaking of armchair fans, the US Open started yesterday and I do love my tennis. I'll happily go see it in person if anyone wants to shout me flights and tickets. Please?

A golf tournament in October? In Wales? Nice thinking...

Welcome to October! Shockingly the South Wales weather has chosen this moment for the sky to open and deposit as much good old precipitation as possible onto the land below. Not an unusual thing for Wales or indeed for the UK as a whole to experience. Then why choose this moment to hold the biggest outdoor sports event Newport has ever seen in what is essentially a field, actually lets be exact, in essentially what is rapidly turning into a bog? Even as I type play has been suspended for hours!!

Did someone say 'first Monday finish ever??'

Overall I'm seeing the Ryder Cup as a good thing for the area, yes most of the money is kept by the Ryder Cup association or whatever the frig it's called, but it's still brought people to the area, and taking the prices at Celtic Manor as a guide, the type of people it brings have considerably more money than me. I may be wrong, but that kind of generalisation fits well with Golf's image as a whole, seen as an expensive sport for a privileged few who also hand round in the clubhouse in plusfors sipping pimms. Now I'm sure this isn't true, I used to play myself only under less glamorous surroundings (Caerphilly generally, if you know it, you'll know what I mean), but its an image.

The elite/rich nature of at least this particular golf event has however sent people into hyperactive "OhmygodIthinkIjustsaw" mode. Storys coming from Cardiff city centre yesterday included, Will Smith and Michael Jordan shopping for a basketball in JD sports (do you think they were going to shoot some b-ball outside of the school??), David Beckham in some 'exclusive' clothes shop on Churchill Way (I forget the name, but I can't afford to shop there anyway), maybe even Samuel L Jackson getting a chicken bake and a bottle of Dr Pepper in Greggs, St Davids arcade. Do date I have seen nothing in the way of evidence that any of these people have graced Cardiff in the slightest (Apart from Mickey Jordan who was posing for pics in Revolution) but I suppose they have to be staying somewhere.

The truth is, to make the most money you need to attarct the people with most disposal income, which lets face it these people are. But I digress, a month or 6 weeks ago it would have been an event bathed in sunshine, but now? Washout? 2 years ago Nick Faldo made a joke about bring waterproofs to Wales, and by all accounts people laid into him, I think all thouse people owe him an apology. The writing was on teh wall at the Wales Open last year which was delayed by rain.

but oh well, people not outside may spend more in the gift shop. £40k watch anyone?

Also, this is an experiment, I'm submitting this via email written on my lunch break, let's see if it works. But of course if it doesn't work, you won't see it, but you know what I mean. I think. Do you?

PS It didn't work, my email added a huuuuuuuge disclaimer to the end so I'm doing this normally!!