A great holiday!

My wife and I got back from a great holiday yesterday, where we packed a fair bit in but also got some time to relax and forget about work for a few days.  We went to a comedy show on the Friday (Jack Dee), a wedding reception on the Saturday evening and went so see Muse in London on the Sunday.  On the Monday we went to York for three nights, before travelling to Birmingham for one night and then travelled home yesterday.


For the first time ever whilst away on holiday I did some running!  I got a 6-miler in on a loop around the River Ouze in York and then a 6-miler along some canal paths in Birmingham in the morning.  So not massive mileage, but I feel I've kept things ticking over which is nice.  I'm pleased to say that although I enjoyed my holiday and ate/drank what I wanted to I only put a couple of pounds on.

The run along the canal in Birmingham was particularly good.  It's great having all those waterways within a stone's throw of the city centre.  York is very nice too....so much so that I'm considering the York Marathon next year, if I can get a place.  It sold out very quicly this year.

If you do ever find yourself in York, I can highly recommend a place called Betty's Tearooms.  It was my wedding anniversary whilst in York and we went to Betty's for an Afternoon Tea (we splashed out on champagne as well), and it was fantastic!  http://www.bettys.co.uk/bettys_york.aspx  I must admit I hadn't heard of Betty's before, but I do believe it is quite famous.  They were certainly doing a roaring trade with a queue out the door for most of the days we were there and the quality of the food and service etc was second-to-none.  As well as that, I sampled a good few York ales at various pubs around the city and there are some great places to eat and drink, as well as lots of stuff to do whilst there.

Also, this morning I marshalled at my first ever event.  My running club (Teignbridge Trotters) hold several races a year and this morning was the club's flagship event.  It's known as the Dartmoor Discovery and is a 32-mile event around the roads of Dartmoor.  The event itself is quite tough, with a few big hills to content with.

Having never marshalled before I was a bit nervous and my station was in the town of Ashburton.  Ashburton isn't what you'd call a busy town, but my station was on a road junction with a car park so I was pretty active ensuring cars stopped to let the runners through.  It all went off with no issues, and the organisers provided all marshals with a packed lunch which was great.  I was also able to keep an eye out for my fellow club members who were running the event and cheered them all on.