Vitality Oxford Half Marathon

I completed the Oxford Half Marathon last week. It was good fun: there is plenty of beautiful architecture around the route, the weather was pleasant, not too cold, not too warm, and the mood wasn't too bad. To be honest the Hungarian races I participated in last year had much more of a party-vibe, but I'm used by now to Oxford being a bit stiff, whether it is a race, a conference, or a drinks evening.

The route started from Broad Street, in fron of the Sheldonian, and it went up a bit towards Banbury Rd, turned back to Pitt Rivers, did a loop by New College and back to Banbury, up North almost until the roundabout, then back to Marston Ferry Rd, all the way to Old Marston where we did a nice loop along the historical buildings and back to Marston Ferry. After that it was just running all the way back, and the last few miles stretched through University Parks and came back around the Radcliffe Camera, passed by Exeter College and through to Turl Street, and the finish was on Broad Street again.

The organization was alright. There were plenty of drink stations and toilets, lots of friendly volunteers, and the spectators and bands raised the mood. The only issue was - as usual in Oxford - space: the organizers issued small plastic bags with the application and one could only leave as much stuff in the baggage drop area as what fitted into the plastic bag. For anyone travelling from another town, city, this must have been quite inconvenient. Also, there were no showers for after the race. One had to go home to get changed. And since there was a good turnout and 8000 people ran, the narrow streets and the paths of University Park constantly became 'clogged' and one had to adjust the speed to others running in front. Apart from these small things it was a lovely day, and I'm glad I've completed the race. My time was a bit better than what I expected: 1hour 48minutes instead of 2hours. Still, much slower than my PB from last year, which was 1hour 35minutes in November, on a cold and windy day, in Siófok by the lake Balaton.

The page of the Half Marathon offers good running training advice and training plans for everyone wishing to compete at some point. I usually use the training plans of BUPA, but it seems that one could train perfectly well with these ones too. I also raised some money for Macmillan Cancer Support and received some nice compliments and thanks for doing so.

Books, books, books, and a beautiful Sunday

We finally have the first truly glorious weekend in the UK: the temperature is above 20 celsius degrees and the Sun is shining all day long. Accordingly, I went for a good 5,5k run around Summertown in the morning.

I've finally finished The Shepherd's Life yesterday. Excellent book. I have to make a small amendment to my previous post on the book: Rebanks does not argue straight out for a more conservative life and to sticking to old ways. He himself chose to combine his farming life with work done for UNESCO, and he tells several stories about how his grandfather, his father, other shepherds, and he himself had to adopt new methods and approaches to keep farming sustainable and going. Excellent book all in all.

The next two books that I will read will be Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and Angela Kiss's How to be an Alien in England. Giffard's book seemed to be a good choice, as I have read now 5-6 basic books on the history, economy, and politics of Japan, as well as 15-20 of the key literary pieces. Giffard used to work in Japan in a political function, and he is a Brit, which makes the book doubly interesting for me.

Kiss's is book is nothing heavy or serious. I've already skimmed through the first few chapters on the bus. It is funny, in an interesting way. It is somewhere between humour that is becoming increasingly frowned upon and American stand up comedy. She does rely on many bad national stereotypes, and makes many jokes based on overgeneralization which are not necessarily lucky. But at some points she seems to be aware of what she is doing and making fun of making fun of people in this way. All in all, a relaxing and witty reading, even if one doesn't actually learn much about how to be an alien in England. Shusaku Endo's book Foreign Studies is probably a more accurate representation of the issues one deal with :)

Challenges for 2016

Last year I've run two official half-marathons and a 10k run, all of them organized by BSI. One half-marathon and the 10k took place in Budapest, which proved to be a wonderful setting for running: wide roads, fascinating architecture, enthusiastic supporters, and a huge turnout. The third race took place at lake Balaton, at the end of October. Lovely race, lots of fun. The wind was a bit cold and when we ran on the shore the waves sprayed some water on us, but hey, who cares, we were already soaking wet from sweat.

This year the challenge will be a full marathon. I'll start preparing next week and as usual I'll use one of BUPA's training plan, this time the beginners marathon one. I would normally go for the intermediate plan, but I didn't do much running between December and April, so I think it will be best to go for a safe training.

At the same time I've also decided to try and read at least 25 books this year - or in what's remaining of it. I'm not really sure how many books I read each year. Suggestions on what would be good to read are welcome! You can go and check out my shelf here. It doesn't have everything, but covers a good deal of what I've been reading in the last years.

At the moment I'm reading - parallel as usually - Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Sidney Giffard's Japan Among the Powers 1890-1990, and P. Adamson's A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy in the Islamic World.