The Leeds Half Marathon

After years of a sedentary lifestyle, I took up running last January when we moved very close to Roundhay Park in Leeds - if living opposite one of the largest public parks in Europe didn't inspire me to get my bum into gear then I decided that I would be a lost cause in the exercise stakes! I'll be honest my first 'run' was really embarrassing - my friend Paul joined me and when I say I couldn't go for 5 minutes without gasping for air it's not an exaggeration; in fact it had to be abandoned after a just 15 minutes!! - pathetic.

But I kept it up for some reason. My first organised run was the Leeds 10k last May which I never thought I would get round in one piece! Looking back now that seems a little silly but it felt like a real achievement and my time of 46 minutes wasn't too shabby considering.  Next was the Hoylake 10k (fast and flat), the Bradford Half Marathon (nails - 1hr 45m 50s), the Stockport 10 miles (too far away - 1hr 17m 05s), the Liversedge Half Marathon (nails - 1hr 40m 50s) then a run called the Spen 20 miles which in March (super nails! - 2h 50m). Looking back I have actually achieved quite a lot considering the terrible start to my running career in January 2011!

So this leads me to last weekend with the Leeds Half Marathon on Sunday. The night before a run, my dinner has been a carb-tastic pizza and this continued on Saturday night. Ever the dutiful wife-to-be, Jo made a pizza dough in the afternoon which was then topped with spicy pork, chorizo, spinich and mushrooms - delicious huh!

But after a couple of minutes cooking, the oven stopped working! Jo managed to use the residual heat to cook the pizza as much as possible but it was touch as go as to if it was edible or not. Although it was pretty doughy (some may say undercooked!) we decided it was okay and demolished it all but Jo was pretty dissapointed that it wasn't as she hoped. To be honest my tummy was a little delicate on Sunday morning......

The half marathon went quite well with a time of 1hr 40m 9s and it was a good training run with the Edinburgh Marathon looming at the end of the month!

The pizza minus two pieces

My running number

My finishing time

My medal!

Sunday - Half Marathon and Salmon!

Today was an early start as I was running the Liversedge Half Marathon at 11am.....it was my second half, and I was hoping to get round in sub 1hr 40mins which would have been 6 mins better than my first time out. In the end, the hills defeated me and it was a 1hr 40mins 49secs finish which was close but no cigar.....!! There is always next time!!

After an afternoon of relaxation with nibbles, a couple of drinks and the papers Jo prepared us a very pretty dinner of salmon on a bed of spinach with baked sweet potato in canjun spices - DELICIOUS!!

Half Marathon & Dominos Pizza Day

So today Joe ran his half marathon.  Although a few people had mentioned that it was very hilly, I don't think either of us realised just how hilly it was - in one mile he climbed 1000 feet, and then kept on going up and down! (the stats from his run can be found here). Joe finished in a very good time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, and now the Edinburgh marathon should be a breeze (ahem!).

The finishing line of the half marathon in Lister Park

Joe shortly after he finished - and he doesn't look nearly tired enough for my liking!

 In August we received an email from the Dominos marketing team saying the following:

"After reading your blog and especially your post your champion league homemade pizza, I think you’ll be a perfect fit for my latest campaign...it would be great if you could choose one of Domino’s pizzas, taste it and write about it."

Well who could say no to that?!  They sent us a voucher for any pizza, any size and today seemed like the perfect day to use it.

After a little confusion with our order, we chose a "half and half" pizza.  Half was Spanish Sizzler (chicken, green peppers, chorizo and roquito peppers) and half was American hot (onions, pepperoni and jalapeno peppers).  We also went for the stuffed crust (at Joe's request).  Although I would usually prefer to make my own pizza, this turned out to be quite a good treat, and Joe definitely deserved it after his long run.  Both halves were pretty tasty, although the Spanish Sizzler came out on top - it was surprisingly spicy!  I would like it if they made the base tomato and cheese a little more punchy but other than that it was a pretty decent pizza - thanks Dominos! click pizza menu for the website.

The box of treats.  Also, Dominos has a new range of thin based Gourmet pizzas which will be my choice next time.

An accompanying salad.  I am a girl after all.

The half and half pizza

American hot

Spanish Sizzler

The empty box.  Joe ate more than half.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.