Hello everyone. Before we start, we need to apologize for the delay in getting this update to the blog out, we seem to have discovered the joys of alcohol and friends again, and motivation to sit inside writing the blog has been low. Luckily the English bank holiday weather has come to our rescue, and we're now tucked up inside avoiding the gale that is currently lashing the British Isles.
So, on 22nd April 2007 Ollie ran his first (and most probably) last marathon in an effort to start the push towards the Jollyfollies target of £30,000. He ran the entire sun baked course with Di, who he met luckily at the start. It was this fortuitous meeting just 30 minutes before the start that made the run much more fun. Together they ran approximately 20 of the 26 miles, before a mixture of running, crawling and falling took them the last six miles, to the finishing line. The whole London Marathon experience is amazing and if you are ever uncertain about whether you would want to do it, then, in the words of Nike, GO FOR IT :) The atmosphere is incredible, with the crowd shouting each runners name as if they have a personal relationship with every entrant.
Ollie's preparation for the marathon also involved running the Reading half marathon, and this would not normally be noted here, except for the fact that thanks to Ollie's friend Maz, he ended up running it with a stinking hangover. Although he started the race still feeling rather giddy, after knocking back a bottle of wine and half bottle of port the previous night, by the time he had climbed the hill at mile seven, the hangover was at full throttle. Ollie wasn't! But the time was still a PB of 2:12!!
On Tuesday Ollie starts the preparation for the next fundraiser, cycling from John O'Groats to Land's End, which will hopefully take place next summer. It's still very much in the planning stages, but hopefully this will start becoming a reality as we move through the summer.
Dino's Ups and Downs
After Dino's frolics at the Seven Sisters, we thought it best to take him into the garage to get a quick service, specifically to get his timing belt changed, which was getting very close to the life expectancy of 60,000 miles. We stayed at Ollie's dad's farm, hoping to take advantage of his many years of tinkering experience. Here we fiddled mainly with Dino's electrics and the successes included getting most of the lights working and also getting new speakers installed. Although traditional sexism would dictate that this is Ollie's domain, in reality this is where Jenny rules the roost, as you can see by the photo below.
Next on the never-ending list was to take Dino in to get the troublesome timing belt changed, but within 30 seconds of being on the main road Ollie noticed a total loss of drive and a sickening juddering. Jenny jumped out and immediately diagnosed a large piece of undercarriage that was dangling down as important and necessary. What could it be? Well, it turns out that it was the rear prop shaft that became unattached because the connecting U.J. has somehow fallen off. Jenny was right - both important and necessary! So, although Ollie's dad came out with some baler twine and wire, it was thought best to take advantage of AA membership, and use them to drop Dino off for his appointment with the garage.
A new U.J. was fixed and the timing belt changed along with some other minor work, and the repair bill came to around £300, although the U.J. only accounted for £10 of this! Dino is now feeling in much better health, but is currently having another 2 week stretch in the garage, this time with Foleys, for some long term diagnosis work, and also fitting a shower and some other small bits and pieces. Once he is out we are heading off to Portugal to attend Massey and Bella's wedding, which also gives us the perfect opportunity for a shake down trip. We hope to spend just short of 3 weeks testing him out, but we will also be sure to get some European AA cover :)
More Shire Club Shenanigans
One final update was a trip to Bunny Lane with The Shire LRC, for some more testing of our off road skills. Just like Seven Sisters, we realised that most people at these events are quite happy to break their vehicles in the pursuit of off road Nirvana. We tried to take it easy, but within 10 minutes of setting off Ollie managed to get Dino well and truly stuck in a innocent looking mud hole. Of course we are well equipped with recovery equipment that came in the package when we brought Dino, and hence should have been able to recover ourselves. But when Ollie opened up the back of Dino, he suddenly remembered taking this box of gear out the night before - to make sure everything was there. Oh dear, of course he had never put it back in! Luckily enough there are plenty of people attending who are more than happy to help out two novices. Soon enough two discos had arrived and within minutes we were utilizing Dino's winch to pull him out.
Also whilst here, we managed to practice our failed hill starts of a nice gentle hill, a video of which you can see at the bottom of this blog.
So thanks to all of you who read this, don't forget you can add to the whole blog experience by leaving your comments, and hopefully we will have more updates in the 2nd week of July after our shakedown trip to Portugal.
