10 MILES! YES TEN MILES!

Creative writing taking a bit of a back seat this week.  Trip to Llandudno and lots of running has taken precedent.  Running along the seafront at Llandudno on Thursday morning into what seemed to be a reluctant sunrise was cold, windy,hard work.  Especially hard on an empty tank but fotunately only a short run of 45 mins.  This was followed yesterday by equally windy and cold but into sunset in Brighton FOR TEN MILES and we made it!  Minor discomfort from the 5 jelly babies boxing on board and chafing socks (hard to imagine but true).  Not to self - don't eat anything on the way to a run.

My legs are a bit stiff today, especially when I go downstairs and I don't seem to be able to stop eating but I am very grateful to my running partners (front row left to right) Jo and Tracey for keeping me going.  I would have given up without them.

This is going to be harder than I thought

Just got a very disappointing result for the second (and high ranking) of 5 assignments for the OU writing course.  I can't help thinking the standard to be achieved for a good mark is a bit too high for beginners.  Its not very encouraging to just barely pass and receive rather insubstantial comments to go with it.  I'm considering withdrawing from the course; the combination of this disappointment and my struggle with poetry makes me question the value in spending £650 on this course.

We're 5% through 2011 already

I set up a blog over the holiday season but haven't blogged yet so before time flies too far here goes.

I was born in 1961 and I'm using this year of a significant birthday as a catalyst for my transformation from frustrated office worker to freelance writer.  Did I actually say that? I better get going then.  I've planned a gentle route through short stories observing the exciting world of people management supplemented by a series of activities, some harder than others. 

Activity 1 - training for the Brighton half marathon. I am one third of the way through week 8 of this programme. 

Last Sunday I ran 11.75 km in 90 minutes.  It is true that Liz Yelling is probably not threatened by this achievement but it is the longest run I have ever done in my life - and amazingly I enjoyed doing it. So for this activity so far, so good.

Activity 2 - completing OU Creative Fiction course A215 - quarter of the way through so far.  My enthusiasm for poetry remains unchanged even though I was assured that the poetry element was not as daunting as it seemed.  Still hopeful that I might find a poet within I press on slowly.  I console myself that poetry is probably the least financially viable way to get out of the office.  I might need to work on my obsession with earning enough to keep body and soul together if I'm going to succeed as a writer.

Activity 3 -  complete the Brighton half marathon on 20 February 2011. I'm running for St Dunstan's a charity that helps blinded ex Service men and women to manage the trauma of blindness.  You can sponsor my team in this endeavour online by visiting our just giving just giving page


So I've started - now I just need to keep going.