SS Great Britain

This year we did the same sort of this for Holidays as last year and took a week and two small weekend breaks. The middle one of these was to Bristol where we viewed the SS Great Britain that is preserved there. The ship was the first ship in the world to have an Iron hull and has been preserved magnificently. In its former life it was used to transport passengers to Australia which was a six week voyage. I was really surprised to see the size of the berths on the ship; even the first class cabins were very small and cramped. What really stuck in my mind though was that these first class cabins were smaller than the first class cabins on Emirates and Singapore Airlines A380’s that can get you from the UK to Australia in less time than it would have taken the SS Great Britain to cross the Bay of Biscay.      

Running Update

The course is now complete, 10 weeks ago I could not run for more than a couple of minutes before I was out of breath and had to stop, I can now run for 7 KM without stopping using a circular course that has a high point 46 Meters higher than the start and finish line. Last week with a couple of brief pauses I managed to run 9KM in a time of one hour.  It is now 12 days until I run the 10KM race that I have entered myself into. I am amazed about the ease that I have found the running which I can assure you is all down to the course and nothing to do with my ability. One thing I have found however is that “mind over matter” is a big factor in running, once you believe you can do it you will and if you have any doubts then just put them out of your mind and before you know it you will be half way round, once you pass the halfway point it’s as easy to carry on as to go back and it becomes easier. The final challenge is the last KM as you are almost to the start and you have to overcome the desire to stop and walk.    It will be interesting to see if I can keep the running up now as with the approaching end of summer and my workload increasing again it is getting harder to find the hour three times a week to go running. The last week has been a case in point. I ran 9KM on the Thursday, Friday I was in Germany and did not get back until 9PM after a 17 hour day, Saturday we went to France for the weekend with family and I could not get out. We arrived back on Monday after dark at 9 PM and today I was in Prague and did not get back until 11PM having left the house at 5:30 AM.

Next week is looking better (hopefully) as I need the practice before the 10K