RUNNING - Running in Vegas

As a place to run I thought Vegas would be easy, I took a look at Google maps and decided that a quick run up and down the strip from my hotel at the bottom up until the hotels thinned then back again would be about 3 miles, 4 tops. How wrong I was on both fronts!

Its a great place to run though, the pavements are really smooth (so smooth that I'm sure with just a light drizzle they would turn in to a death trap!) and easy to run on and there is absolutely loads to look at along the way. I went out at 6:30 ish just as the sun was coming up and Vegas is a very different place then, sure you see the odd card on the floor promoting "Girls to you!" or similar and the occasional drunk wobbling along the strip making their way home after a night of gambling but it is very different that early to even just a couple of hours later.

Mostly, the only people you see are other runners, lots of other runners and workers. People cleaning, gardening, maintaining and repairing, it all happens before people turn up. Amazing really.

Anyway, I digress. The point is its actually not the easy run I was expecting, the strip is much, much longer than I thought and crossing the road is not as easy as it is over here. On my runs around Maidstone a quick glance in both directions to make sure its safe then a quick dart across is all it takes but over there the roads, 8-10 lanes wide, have foot bridges over them that you have to use because its not just illegal not to its also impossible not to.

Trying to cross the road without the foot bridges will almost certainly leave you run over and in prison! Remember too that these bridges have to be pretty high, I would say you could fit an average UK house under one of them just so the massive American trucks can rumble underneath.

Not only that but even in October at 6:30 its still 30 + degrees.

Hard work but I'd go back in a shot, if only to run there again.

www.justgiving.com/PhilipPowellMarathon

RUNNING - How I lost the weight.

For me, I didn't want to feel like I was on a diet, I wanted to slightly change my lifestyle so I would gradually lose the pounds without always feeling like I was going without. So when I started off 2014 looking down at the scales that were flashing 15:7 back at me as if they were shouting "I've told you how much you weigh now get off me fatty!" I came up with the rules that would see the weight slowly slide off.

1: Where possible, move more. This one is tiny little things like using the stairs rather than a lift or walking to the corner shop rather than driving.

2: Eat what you want, when you want but only if you are hungry. This is my downfall, (and, I suspect, the downfall of most bigger people) its very easy to eat something through boredom or because its nice or even just because its there. I was always guilty of going back for seconds just because dinner was so nice even though I'd had enough.

Me in 2010

Sticking to these rules saw the weight start to slide off and I didn't even feel like I was dieting, just that I had slightly changed my eating habits and before I knew it eating that way was second nature. For example if we went to the chippy I would get a large cod and chips PLUS a pie or a large battered sausage and quite happily chomp the lot, not though a small cod and chips is more than enough. The dog is happy too, he gets all the leftover chips!

Me in December 2013 and in September 2014

Even though this diet saw the weight drop off it wasn't until I got in to running that the numbers on the scales really got smaller, more on that next time though.

See you then. :-)

RUNNING - I GOT IN!!

I've just heard. I got in to the London Marathon 2015!

I put in to the ballot and didn't get a place so applied to a few charities. Admittedly this was a bit of a scatter gun approach to start with, I put my name in the hat with every charity that cared to listen but there were three that I really hoped one of them would let me run for them.

One of those three did so next year I will be pounding the streets of London having hopefully raised the £2000 minimum required or even better the £2500 target for......MS

Take a look at my just giving page and dig deep please people, I know I'm running this because I want to run but I also want to help people that need it.

https://www.justgiving.com/PhilipPowellMarathon

Welcome along to my new Blog! The way I say new makes it sound like I've done this before but this is my first go at blogging.

Here you will find my story about my running and training, my journey to my marathon in April and any tips I pick up on the way. I'm no expert though so please don't take my word for it with any of my advice, check with someone who knows.

Secondly, as well and all the running stuff, I will be talking food. I'm a massive foodie (thanks to the running not massive on the waist anymore) and I want to keep eating great food, this blog will have some recipes that I've either come up with or adapted, things I want to eat or even places I have eaten.


Happy reading and I'll see you back here soon.


Philip