Determination is everything.

Me at the finish, my medal is made of wood and on the back it reads "your piece of the parks"

. 

 

 

I did it! I completed my half marathon yesterday in the pretty respectable time of 2:03:29. Which is far far better than I could ever have hoped for! And on top of that I absolutely loved running, the atmosphere was incredible and I had the biggest grin the whole way round. It really is true that the crowd cheering really lifts you and keeps you going, and until mile 12 it didn't really feel like hard work at all. A definite pinch myself moment, was running over London Bridge in the glorious autumn sunshine with Big Ben just starting to chime. The whole course was so inspiringly beautiful and a joy to run, I highly recommend this race to anyone thinking about trying out a half marathon. It was flat the whole way round, seriously beautiful and had a great atmosphere!

My knee did give up on me fairly early on in the run and it is now protesting a lot, especially when going down stairs, but I decided to just run through it and use my Jedi mind powers. The runners for Oxfam had the best slogan on their t-shirts which I decided to adopt as my mantra while running, "Determination is everything". I really think this is what got me round without having to stop and walk once and with such a big smile on face. I pretty much repeated this to myself the whole way round when my knee got bad until it passed again. Well done Oxfam! Although big credit has to go to my cheerleading team who were amazing! I think I had the best banners out of everyone there, serious effort and creativity went into those! You guys are superstars! More about them later though...

Another person also shouted out through the crowds "run through the pain, it's only temporary". This really resonated with me too, I thought about the people I was running for and the pains they must be going through in their lives and it gave me the strength to keep running for them. Even though I hurt now, I know it is temporary and the money I have raised will help some other people to realise that pain is temporary and isn't something they always have to live with. Someone will be there to help them through and that is partly because of the fundraising the whole MIND team did yesterday. I am very proud to have been part of such a great team and all the mind staff were brilliant and really looked after the runners. We got free massages afterwards and food and goody bags. It was a really nice little touch.

Back to my support team then, my mum and brother Scott came down to cheer me on. My mum and sister had made the world's biggest banner for me! They were in Hyde park waiting for me and apparently I went so fast they didn't have time to get the banner out for me the second time I passed them! Ed was running around the course trying to catch me at various points along the way which was so lovely, he kept it low key with a MIND t-shirt which he wrote on "Yeah, Nicci!", you've got to love a guy who writes a gramatically correct slogan about you on his t-shirt!

And the dream team cheerleaders Freya and Lucy had a "crafternoon" and came up with the most inventive and gorgeous sign for me and were also running about round the course to cheer me on. I actually nearly cried the first time I spotted them as Dolly Parton 9 to 5 had just come on my playlist the second before I saw them, and we all went to see Dolly last year. The timing was just too perfect and the sign completely blew me away! I couldn't have done it without them so thank you so much all of you! And also thank you so much to everyone who sponsored me!!

Now I'm figuring out what to do next, I'm thinking some sort of adventure run involving mud, obstacles and cargo nets...

Nicci
xoxo

 Scott, me and Mum with the amazing banner they made (along with some help from my sister Vicki)

 The beautiful Freya and the wonder banner!

And finally lovely Lucy showcasing her crafting talents. 

The long awaited Barcelona post!

I've been promising to write this post for quite some time now and have somehow never found the time. But last night I made myself do some photo editing in preparation and so here is a little round up of my short stay in Barcelona.

We arrived early evening on Sunday and quickly dropped off our bags at my sister and Miguel's place and then headed straight off to the beach, the weather was so hot it was the only thing to do. After a long swim in the sea we played a lot of beach bat and ball and then went to a beach bar for our first beer of the holiday. Bliss. In the evening we headed out onto the streets to check out the street decorating party. Every year in Barcelona all the streets in the different areas of the city are decorated by the residents and then get judged, after the judging it's just a big week long party. Every street is themed so each has a different vibe and live bands or shows depending on the vibe of that street. It's amazing to see the effort people put into this and so much of the material used to decorate is recycled or salvaged which is great.


From top, left to right: Honey bee themed street, aviation themed street (got second place), sisters (pulling our Patsy faces!), Really big face made entirely of recycled bottles, Mr T and ET made of tape cassettes!, Band playing in the aviation themed street

The next day it was 2 years to the day since Ed and I became a couple so we decided to have a relaxing day at the beach and having delicious paella and just generally relaxing and feeling like we were on holiday. Bliss.

 House covered in cactuses, Ed on the beach, our amazing paella!

 

On day 3 we felt like we should step it up a bit and get in some sightseeing after all that lazing on the beach so we decided to use the Bicing bikes (just like Borris bikes) to make sure we could cover as much ground as possible. We had a lovely ride down to the marina and right along the coast then headed back up to the Parc Cituadella, this is one of my favourite spots in Barcelona, it has the most beautiful fountains and the trees are filled with bright green parakeets. So amazing. Best part though was we decided to rent a rowing boat, which was so much fun. Ed has never rowed before so we got into a few scrapes but he did pretty good once he got the hang of it. We spent most of the time trying to sneak up on the terapins that live in the lake, they were so cute and kept popping their heads up all over the place. I managed to snap one while he was sunbathing on the rocks but we got a bit too close and he swam away sharpish.

Me rowing, Ed getting to grips with steering the boat, little terapin guy sunning himself on a rock



Next that day we decided to have a trip up to Montjuic on the cable car as this was something I had never done before. It was really a bit pricey for us, but the views were so amazing it was worth it. We had a wander around at the top had a coffee then headed back down to city via placa espana. We were lucky enough to get there just as the sun was setting and it was so beautiful, there was a man playing Spanish guitar and loads of people sat out talking and just generally lovely. 



The view from the cable car up to Monjuic, the view again, placa espana,

me and ed at the top of montjuic, the sunset from placa espana

 

 We were supposed to be cooking for Vicki and Miguel that evening but we arrived home so late after the sunset that we only managed to get something on the table by about 9:30, late even by Spannish standards!! We were meant to be going to watch a friend of Miguel's play a gig on one of the decorated street, so we wolfed down the food and headed out again. It was the last night of the street decorating party so everyone was in full on party mood! There were some little kids spraying people on the street with their garden hose from the rooftoop and everyone was going crazy for them! Luckily the band were running late so we managed to catch all of their set, it was a totally dreamy accoustic set with lovely boy/girl harmonies under a canopy of stars, unfortunately the photos from that are on my camera which is currently a little bit dead. I will try to update with them at some point though.

The circus themed street, Vicki and Miguel at the bee themed street,

Miguel in the aviation theme street, A volcano street, more bees, circus people

 

 Our final day was just a short one as we had to catch our flight at 6pm so we decided to head up to Parc Guell as it is just a short walk from my sister's appartment and it's a great way to get to see some of Gaudi's work for free and without the queues. We had a lovely walk round and especially enjoyed standing in the sprinklers to cool off, it was scorchio! I always love Parc Guell whatever the season and it's even better for being free. Afterwards we had a picnic lunch then headed off to the airport.

Pretty mosaic in Parc Guell, Ed taking a break from the heat,

lots of various tiles and flowers, The view from the top point of Parc guell

 

 Even though it was only a short break I feel like it was so reviving and really helped kick those late summer blues after the terrible weather we had this summer in the UK. I visit Barcelona most years as my sister lives there, but I always find something new and exciting and always love going back there, I don't think I'll ever get bored of it.

 

So there you go, FINALLY an update about my holiday. I have so little time and so many posts at the moment I want to put up but I will keep trying to catch you up on my adventures and activities. Watch this space.

 

Nicci

xoxo