Welcome to January 2013.
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| What now ? because it's January |
By now you have re-discovered the world of work, schools have returned and everything is pretty much settling back into a routine.
We await the January pay packet and hope to stretch things out that long, we look at the long repeats of weight and diet adverts as well as "discover the new you" gym and fitness marketing campaigns which avoid pointing out that it is in fact just you, just older, and by the way you could be fitter. This is all a marketing myth.
Unless your name is something like Mo Farrah, Bradley Wiggins or Jessica Ennis and the date is July 2012, then the answer to these adverts is always going to be yes, perhaps I could be a bit fitter and lose a bit of weight. It is a rhetorical point by these marketing wizards and it is a question you should not be lead astray into subconsciously answering as you play into their hands and ultimately - their products.
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| We await the snow down south like last year...in early Feb |
The questions you should be addressing at this time of year are pretty simple -
1. "why am I doing this when I should be out running ?"
Closely followed by :
2. "what do I need to do right now to make sure I can go running at some point today?"
As someone who recently broke their 9 month duck of no running, merely to get to the garage and pick up the fixed car (it was only about a mile there), I did faff about it a lot, but I was surprised how nice it was just to get out, even for those short meters and turn over the legs. I had missed it. Even in the cold and the rain, it was surprisingly ok. We are all OK, and you will continue to be OK, OK ? Just do some running to prove it OK ? Good !
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| The Start of the Roding Valley Half 2012 |
Some of you will have had your London marathon entries accepted or dashed in December, but depending on your perspective that is either a blessing or a terrible injustice. My brother finally got in after about 7 years of trying, and the scale of the task is slowly beginning to dawn on him. He now needs to get out and do a bit of training and a bit of running. This I find OK, and even a bit amusing (He doesn't read this blog) in a brotherly love kind of way...you understand what I mean.
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| The Rain will stop soon. Apparently. |
So depending where you are in preparation for the spring, and getting out for even longer runs you might want to consider the following races in your training plan and build ups. Click on the links to go to the websites and enter them ! You'll be surprised how fast your training mojo returns with a race to aim for.
You'll notice a general lean towards 10, Half and 20 mile races through the build up phase to April.
We're not at all of these races - but most of them, so I hope to see you at at least one of them !
January 20th -
The Fred Hughes 10 - St.Albans
January 27th -
The Epsom Perch - Epsom
February 3rd -
the Watford Half Marathon
February 3rd -
the Ashford and District 10k - Kent
February 3rd -
the Bookham 10k - Surrey
February 10th -
the Deal Half Marathon - Kent
February 17th-
the Brighton Half Marathon - Sussex
March 3rd -
the Steyning Stinger (Half and Full Marathon) - Sussex - free image downloads
March 3rd -
the Spitfire 10 / Tempest 20 - Surrey
March 3rd -
the Roding Valley Half - Essex
March 10th -
Finchley 20 - London
March 10th -
Lydd Half Marathon - Kent
March 10th -
Worthing20 - Sussex
This is my last weekend off until June, and it's not really off - I'll be working in the office instead, so have a good weekend especially if you are at any of the remaining county cross country champs speaking of which
The
Sussex XC Champs gallery is here if you missed the action last Sunday - hopefully we will have a few more sales from that gallery - as four isn't enough really ! Remember you elite club athletes - one day you'll want to remember how good you were !! (I speak from sad experience)
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| The Mens Senior Sussex XC race 2013 |
In other news, the job description is ready if your interested in a
part-time administrator role here in the office - we close applications on the 15th of January so get in touch by email and ask for a copy.
And if you're ever thinking of sponsoring
free download images at a race on behalf of your company, I've prepared a guide that includes how to get the most out of it for your company and brand - get in touch if you'd like to have a read of that.
Almost finally, just in case if you hadn't noticed, that lovely other company we get compared to has put the price of their single digital images (that are at a lower resolution of 3Megapixels) up to £19.99 for their events in 2013, so no more complaints to us please and don't tar us all with the same brush ! We had to add VAT last year, but apart from that we've stayed at the same price for about 4 years (£9.99+£2VAT for a 6 Megapixel image), plus our in-focus quality guarantee.
And really, finally, a thought for
Jessops going into administration today and the ~2000 jobs involved. Never nice to see, but there have been some jobs on internet camera sales created as well so the conclusion was almost inevitable, but still sad. Websites like
http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/ keep price competition tight, but not the advice on what kit you need to do the job you want. It's been a death spiral that took at least 4 years to play out.
They were however one of the few remaining walk-in print shop chains available - so it will now become increasingly difficult to get 1hr printing achieved if you are ever in a hurry. Sometimes you do need a print immediately !
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| Get your 20 miler in for marathon training at Dunsfold and the Spitfire 20 |
So until next time, just go for a run and we'll see you soon, I'm going to spend Saturday with my Dad on an early birthday meal. Sunday, well that's going to be working isn't it, the last weekend "off" until June.
laters
Anthony
