Tuesday, April 26, 2011

First time...

So having been on a mega roadtrip this last week I thought I'd do a quick blog on all the things I've done for the first time... Just to show no matter how old we get we can still do 'new' things .... In no particular order....

Went to spectate at the London Marathon... And saw the first men and women fly past before going on to support the masses and in particular Kirsty Dawn 'the Reemanator" as she undertook the challenge of her first marathon.

Next stop was the road trip to the south of France...
First time on the chunnel in a car. (strangely weird being in your car with the engine off and moving)
First time driving a right hand drive car on the "wrong" side of the road
First time stayed overnight in a budget French motel, the wrong motel it turned out... But given it was €40 for the three of us paying it twice was not a problem!
Next day first time Betty (the car) had gone that far in a day with about 8 hours driving shared between Popey and I.

Then... First time I've stayed in the south west of france, very pretty.
First time I've cycled in france (I had packed the bike).
First time I had wine twice a day (lunch and dinner) for two days in a row (I must have had wine twice in day before now)
First time I've run in france (which hurt plenty i suspect due to to the wine consumption)
First time i've eaten leek tart (surprisingly yummy!)

Then there was simple the most epic car journey ever on Good Friday, a drive so utterly epic I can't believe we did it... With Popey and I sharing the driving from the lovely tranquility of Labretonie up through France, through Paris... In to Belgium, around Antwerp, on towards Amsterdam before finally getting to Haarlem (northern holland) some 15 hours after starting and 1200 km later... Epic .... And we didn't get lost either!!!!

Which brings me to my current location; Bloomendaal (which is close to Haarlem) where we've been watching the last 16 and quarter finals of the euro hockey league to watch my old club Reading play as well as the best from Holland, Germany, and Belgium (we missed the Irish teams on Friday and there have also been some other English teams playing)

I'm sure there have been plenty more firsts among this journey which is nearly at it's end (only the 6 or so hours to drive home after two games of hockey... One of which will hopefully see Reading win and through to the semi's next month)

On the tri front, well once home tonight or early hours of tomorrow morning I have a week to detox and reawaken my body before training proper commences for the 6 months ahead.... I'll be getting a right shake down and reality check next Monday with a 10k 'race' which the only expectation I have is one of immense pain and suffering!!!!

Update: In an epic game of hockey the Reading Boys got through.... Conceding an equalising goal with about 30seconds to go in normal time leaving the score 2-2, no goal was scored during silver goal extra time so down to 1 on 1's with the keeper.... Which we won by the whisk of a whistle blow. Amazing!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

1 comment:

  1. WOW! That was an epic trip... although I think its fun to get lost :-)

    ReplyDelete