A flag lesson for all

For those who aren't aware, the Olympic torch has been making it's way through the UK the past two weeks. They have a live "torch cam" on the BBC where you can watch (www.bbc.co.uk/torchrelay) the events and let me tell you it's hard to stop watching once you've started! Last week it went through my village of Fernhill Heath and into Worcester where there were 60000 people on the streets celebrating and watching. Keep in mind that the population of Worcester is on 95000!!

Anyway, whilst watching the torch it's been great to see everyone waving the Union jack and being proud to be British. I have however noticed several occasions where the Union jack has been attached to houses etc. and it has been upside down. This is not good. Could you imagine if people flew the American flag upside down??

Many of you might think that the Union jack is symmetrical but it isn't. Here's a great illustration of how it should look:

Notice the thickness of the white stripes above and below the red in the upper left corner - the thickest white strip should always be at the top. Perhaps it was all those years of being in Scouts that has made me very picky about this!

CORRECT

INCORRECT

Can you see the difference?!? Look for it next time you see the flag!


A little trivia:

The Union jack is actually a combination of three flags: England (St. George's cross), Northern Ireland (St. Patrick's cross) and Scotland (St. Andrew's cross). The Welsh dragon was not incorporated into the Union jack because Wales had already been united to England when the first version of the Union Flag was designed in 1606.

Travel Advice

If anyone out there in blog world has been to Boston and has some must see/do/eat ideas I'd love to hear them - going this weekend :-)

Half Marathon Running Pics

Here are some of the pictures that were taken as we were running. You might get a little idea of the hills and see how happy I was to cross the finish line!!

Jog 4 Jugs Half Marathon

After many weeks of running and weekends trying to fit in long runs it was finally time for the half marathon. We headed out to Duanesburg, NY (about 25 miles West of Albany) for a 9 am start. It wasn't a very big race - 83 half marathon-ers and 80 5k-ers.



Free dry fit t-shirts. They are nice!

 
I was feeling good at the beginning but tried not to go too "fast" (fast is all relative). I started passing a few people around mile 3! The route was nice and scenic, but being 60 something degrees F, not a cloud in the sky and almost zero shade the whole 13 miles I was getting hotter and hotter every minute. Not only was it hot with no shade, the route was hilly. They even told us at the start it was a hard course, especially for first timers!! I had seen the profile but it doesn't do it justice... this is what we ran:



Half marathon profile!



I think they went out of the way to include as many hills as they can on the course. I'm glad we had done a lot of hills in training both of us mentioned catching people on hills. I was feeling pretty good until mile 10.5. I had run just over 11 miles as my longest training run so at this point I knew I could make it, but I also knew that from here on out it was essentially all uphill (as you can see). It was HARD, especially mile 12. Not only was it uphill, but as you turned the corner at mile 12 it was a long, shade free uphill straight. I did have to take a couple of walk breaks up that last hill as my legs felt like lead. I really wish I'd been mentally stronger and kept running though.

At the top of the hill Matt met me and ran the last part with me which really helped me to finish strong. I was so so happy to finish. And not only did I finish, I beat my goal time by a lot, finishing in 2.17.21 (62nd out of 83 but who cares I did it). I know I'm never going to win any running awards but I challenged myself to something I never ever though I could do, and did it! Matt beat his goal time too, sneaking in under 2 hours in 1.59.44 (32nd out of 83).



We really did do it!



I wonder how fast I could do on an "easy" course? Am I actually considering doing another one - maybe!!

After the race they had tons of free food (pizza, burgers, hot dogs, oranges, bananas, cookies) and plenty of water and Gatorade. It really was a great event that raised money for breast cancer research.



WE DID IT!!



Spring has Sprung

Some pictures from an afternoon in Washington Park a few weeks ago. The beautiful weather today reminded me that I hadn't shared any of these pictures. Sadly the camera battery died so there aren't as many good pictures as I hoped. Anyway, spring is definitely here!