1:53:17

Well, I finished it. *sigh* And now, a couple of days later, I've just about recovered from the Lady Godiva half marathon.

It was a really good weekend all-round - great to see some of my uni friends again whilst I was up in the midlands. Now back to the harsh reality of job applications this week.

The half marathon was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Even though, as I said, I wasn't totally looking forward to it, on the day I actually did enjoy the challenge, despite the fact that not every second of the running could be described as being "enjoyable"! I finished in 1 hour, 53 minutes and 17 seconds. Steve finished about 20 minutes after me. I think we were both happy enough with those times, although of course there's always a little bit of you that thinks "I could have run that a fraction faster" (I came around 700th out of over 1700 runners by the way ... which is alright I suppose).

I'm also famous now, thanks to the half marathon ... well, kind of! A photo of me crossing the start line is featured on the BBC Coventry website. Click here to see it! Was pleasantly surprised by that - it's not every day you're featured on the BBC website. Stardom beckons ... not!

Would I do it again? Maybe. If I do another half marathon or similar then I'd probably do it for charity. Quite a few people have asked me something along the lines of "so, which charity are you running for?". Thus, I've had lots of practice at uttering the words "Actually I'm not. I'm just running for a challenge - a challenge with a friend." i.e. I'm running for myself - selfish, selfish me! Haha. Nah, I think it was alright to run this as a pure challenge. The fact that I signed up pretty late meant that there was little time to sort out any kind of fundraising or the like. But I guess if I did anything like this again then it'd be really ace to do it for a good cause as well as for the fact that it's a great challenge. Though maybe I should just aim to beat my time ...

Half Marathon

On Sunday I'm running a half marathon in Coventry. Or, to be a little more specific, I'm hopefully attempting to run the "Lady Godiva half marathon". (If you want an interesting read I suggest you look up Lady Godiva on wikipedia - she's a person with quite an interesting history, one which explains where the phrase 'peeping tom' came from amongst other things)

Except I don't really want to run the half marathon anymore. I feel overwhelmed and underprepared.

It's ironic that I'm not as keen to run now as I'm the one that came up with the idea in the first place and encouraged a friend that entering would be a good idea. When I suggested entering though, I'm not sure I anticipated Steve taking me up on the offer. I just thought that doing something like this would be "nice" - a fun challenge and enjoyable as the route goes through the campus of Warwick uni. I'd not really thought about the necessity of being motivated and putting in the spade work. (Before anyone starts to question my training techniques, I feel I should point out that I use the term "spade work" here metaphorically! :P Thank you.) But fair play to Steve for taking me up on that challenge and I'm sure we've pushed each other on in our training - let's hope we do the same on Sunday.

I mentioned that I feel a little underprepared. Well, I have done a few weeks training (so I'm optimistic that I should be able to complete the race at the very least), but people keep pointing out to me that I could have done a lot more. Like in the following conversation that I had ...

My Mum: "I don't think you've prepared very much for this half marathon - you should have started training much earlier, so don't go out there expecting to run a personal best or anything like that."
Me: "I think you're forgetting something. I've never run a half marathon before. Therefore even if the race takes me six hours it's still a PB. In fact even if I don't start the race I've already acheived a personal best due to the fact that I've entered, thus beating my previous best 'record' of never having entered a half marathon!"

(By the way another thing my mum told me recently was: "you don't drink enough". Before I go out on a binge-drinking spree though, I think she was talking about liquids in general. Yes Mum, I should really drink a bit more water. It's great living at home again! Nah, in all honesty she has a point, but I've gone off the topic just slightly: back to it ...)

Anyway, I'd best go get some sleep to ensure I'm well-rested ready for Sunday. Then I just hope I can last the course.

My Huge Embarrassment

Today saw one of the most memorable (although I now want to forget it) embarrassing things that I've done recently.

Having been at home for most of the day doing job-hunt related stuff (reading mainly), I paid a quick visit to the bank to pay in a cheque and pay a bill. Upon leaving the bank I thought it would be nice to leave in a cheerful manner, so I wished the person serving me "a good weekend" ... on a MONDAY!!!

I think this must be a consequence of me having a 'house day' where I'd not really been out the house much, but had been cooped up in my room and a scarce amount of contact with any other humans. :( Gah, having too many such days really get to me. I did realise earlier on in the day that it was Monday, but at that particularly point in time it would seem that for some reason I thought it was Friday. :S

Interestingly, the bank attendant didn't correct me. She just said "you too". I do hope she didn't really notice what I said, but I fear that she just chose not to correct me. Hmm, I can imagine the bank staff all having a good laugh at my expense after I'd left.

I think I'll have to avoid the bank for a while.

Job Applications

Currently wading through a stack of application forms (well, technically they're not in a stack, not a physical stack at least, cos they've all been online). Oh what a joy.

I've just realised that, having recently written it so many times on various forms, I have now memorised my National Insurance Number!

How sad is that?! Oh dear, oh dear ... it's all downhill from here ...

Flawed Heroes

Nobody's perfect. That's something that I've been constantly reminded of recently. Not even celebrities that so many people (myself included) so often elevate to such a high pedestal.

One of the most recent celebs to "fall from grace" is Tom Chaplin, the Keane singer, who is now in rehab. I'd built him up in my own mind in a way as I'm a huge Keane fan. He's got an amazing voice and is an integral part of a band that's produced some awesome music (in my opinion!), with so many things going for them. Keane have always had such a positive image - they tried to refrain from dissing other bands and so on. Because of this they were accused of being boring and ironically the media are probably happier now that their human-ness has been exposed!

Pete Doherty is recognised by many as one of the greatest song-writers of recent years. His struggles have been headline news in the last year or two though. Such is the extent of his drug-related problems now that many of his fans now daren't miss a gig in case it's his last.

Zinedine Zidane is to many people one of the finest footballers the world has ever seen. I totally agree - he has elements of genius about him, he would do things that no one else could do. He was certainly a flawed genius though. He was sent off a number of times, 2 of which stand out in my memory. The first was for stamping in the 1998 world cup - an act of malice if ever there was one. The second is now one of the most infamous sendings off of all time. In this summer's world cup final, with a few minutes remaining in extra time, Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in retaliation to a comment that Materazzi made. Zidane had already announced his retirement, so that was the very last act of his career. So, Zidane: a fantasically skilled sportsman, but by no means perfect.

Charles Kennedy, former Lib Dem leader, had the respect of many, but people were quick to turn against him after it emerged that he was suffering from a drinking problem. He was quickly replaced as leader and little has been heard of him since. It wasn't long ago that he was being heralded as an inspiring potential leader of our nation.

I could go on and on - it seems almost every week there's another celebrity scandal in the tabloids. It seems that the media (or at least certain parts of it) take great joy in building people up to knock them down again. But why shouldn't they? These journalists are only human and so it's unsurprising that where it's possible to feel better about yourself by showing that others aren't all they're cracked up to be, that some will take the opportunity (here the incident with Chris Martin - who has a pretty squeaky clean image - punching a journalist who "got to him" springs to mind) . If I'm honest, I think I like to know that these guys stuff up too. I like to know that they're human. It must hurt a lot of celebs that their flaws/mistakes are pointed out in such a public way ... just one of the prices of being famous I guess.

To the same degree I know that I occasionally build myself up as something of a hero and am audacious enough to mistakenly think that I'm without flaw. Even though such a mindset is usually only maintained for a short length of time it's one I can do without as it is a totally false one. I like to put on a mask and pretend that I'm better than I am. Often when things fall apart I'm brought down-to-earth with a crash. Thus whilst I can aspire to do heroic things, I'll always be flawed. But I can draw great strength from knowing that God loves me oodles despite these flaws! :) And I know that God can change me to chip away at these imperfections (in theological language I guess this is the sanctification after the justification bit if that means anything to anyone :P)

So why have have I been thinking about heroes and about the notion of flawed heroes? Probably in part because of press coverage of people like Tom Chaplin and certainly partly because of having a theme of superheroes for a week of children's summer holiday clubs that I helped with earlier this summer. However, I think it was also to a degree down to me reading the following quote, which I think sums things up quite nicely (it's from a book called "The Life" by J John - seems like a good read, although I'm only part way through it at the moment):

"We live in hard times for heroes. There is a cynicism in our culture that eats away at even the most glorious reputations. Almost overnight, selfless geniuses turn out to be selfish fools, great leaders are revealed as insecure bullies and champions of morality are exposed as hypocrites. One of the few figures to survive with their reputation intact is Jesus Christ."