Roadhouse - A 3 Day Supernatural Convention

OK i suppose I should start with an explanation: The Roadhouse is the name of a bar in the CW's Tv show Supernatural. The Roadhouse convention was a 3 day convention organised by Massive Events dedicated to the tv show, with guests from the show doing talks, autograph & photo sessions etc with themed parties in the evenings. 6 months ago I didn't realise these things existed, apart from for real geeky sci fi stuff like Star trek & Dr Who - I've obviously been living under a rock for a few years! Having only been introduced to Supernatural earlier this year by my step daughter, I was instantly hooked and it was a chance internet browsing around the super cool '67 Chevy Impala (don't ask) that features in the show that I stumbled upon details for the convention. After browsing the Showmasters/Massive events forums for a few days I decided to buy 2 ticket for myself & step daughter [SD] the princely sum of £160. As the convention is held at a hotel there is usually a con rate which gets you a discount on the room, which was approx £70 a night for the room (not per person) including breakfast - although the breakfast thing wasn't mentioned at check in, we had to ask to confirm.

So on Friday 3rd September, we boarded a train to Birmingham International for the Roadhouse. We arrived around 4pm, the Hilton hotel is a mere 5 minutes walk from the train station, provided you don’t take a wrong turn at the lake (which is very peaceful and unexpected). We checked in without hitch - the room was fab, the bathroom even nicer but I wont bore you with details, just click through the pic to my flickr set if interested - bathroom was stocked with Crabtree & Evelyn products and Twinings & Douwe Egberts for the much needed morning after supplies!

Uber Comfy Beds

Much needed tea & coffee

We then headed down to register, much like any other sort of convention, you get the pack - obligatory pass (these were very cool), a glossy booklet with the guests in that also doubles as your 'autograph tickets' - you get an autograph from each guest, which is checked off on the booklet (extras available for an additional fee). You also receive a photograph of each guest to get signed, alternatively you can bring your own photo/item to be sighed or buy a different photo from the dealers room (prices start at £1). We also got a 'Metallicar' badge, word-search & crossword puzzle (more on that later). we had standard tickets, silver tickets cost around £135 and Gold £195! Although for this you get special extras including priority seating for talks etc. As we were standard ticket holders we also had to buy our tickets for photo sessions £10 each - I originally bought 2, but bought a 3rd on the Saturday morning. There was an opening ceremony at 7pm where all the guests are brought on stage briefly for introductions, and you get a run down of the weekend, they then go off for the Gold Pass Drinks reception where Gold Ticket holders are in small groups around a table and the guests come and spend time at each table for a chat basically. After this was the World Premier of Hell Hazers II - a fan made spoof video which was hilarious. Later on there was a party with the theme "Hollywood Babylon Bar & Casino" which wasn't quite what we were expecting if I'm honest - there was a roulette table and black jack, but this was packed away at 11pm (and the 'dealer' wasn't playing properly anyway). There was a variety of music played everything from total cheese (a lot of cheese) to Rock (which seemed to go down better with the attendees both nights). The drinks were pricey,even by hotel standards, considered there was 20% discount at the 'Convention Bar' which was really a make shift bar with bottles & spirits available - with 2 vodkas and one bottle of coca cola costing almost £10, this meant we spent most of the night walking out to the main Hilton bar where beer was *only* £4 odd a pint.

Saturday:

Up bright & early (as not to miss anything), we headed for breakfast and it was - amazing, everything from full cooked, to continental (cold meat, cheeses, pastries) and everything in between.
Next we checked out the dealer rooms again, as this was also where the autograph sessions happened. The dealer room was basically stalls selling Supernatural and other Sci-fi type merchandise as well as lots of photos of the guests and other actors from the show that you could get signed. During the day all the events (photo ops,autographs and talks) were well timed,so nothing clashed and there was time to see and do everything. So we got autographs from all the guests: Samantha Ferris,Chad Lindberg, Rob Benedict & Mark Rolston.
Because the event hadn't sold out it meant that there was more time for guests to do everything as well, which meant they could personalise autographs and had time for a brief chat too which was nice and we never waited in line for anything for more than 5-10 minutes which was great. There was also the opportunity for bid on a more intimate experience of having a 'Guest Encounter' in which a small group of people eg.10 spend half an hour/45mins chatting to the guests,however we couldn't figure out the bidding system to didn't bother (also we couldn't think of what we would want to say). As the Hilton food was a bit pricey (they did have an offer on pizza but we didn't fancy it for every meal) we went to hunt down the local Wetherspoons which was supposed to be a godsend. Now, I can appreciate that it's in a train station and at the NEC, so therefore we expected to pay more than a normal wetherspoons but their lunchtime 'deal' was a £9 cheeseburger and chips, more than double the price of their pubs in Manchester, so we weren't particularly impressed, plus the service from the bar staff was pretty rubbish too,oh did I mention the 'free wifi' didn't work either?

So after lunch it was time for the talks. For these the guests are on stage answering questions from the audience either submitted before hand or standing up to ask. Whilst I can't remember details all the guests were hilarious; Sam Ferris can talk for England (although I wasn't surprised at this) and would frequently go off on a tangent about something or other, she was also really good at giving an insiders view of how a film set works. Rob Benedict was very reminiscent of his character Chuck especially with his mannerisms and again fabulously funny (no surprise as he told us a bit about his stand up career).
Chad was also very funny,amusing the crowd with his David Caruso impression (that's Horatio Caine from CSI Miami) but the major surprise awesome guest was Mark Rolston (feedback from other fans after the weekend also backed me up on this). Mark,despite only appearing in 2 episodes of Supernatural as Uber Demon Alistair was very popular, he's had a long career starring in numerous shows,including NCIS, Criminal Minds, the CSI franchises, X-files, the list is endless -however some of his best anecdotes were from working on Shawshank Redemption with Morgan Freeman, he was also very funny. The only downside to the talks was that the stage wasn't high enough and you couldn't always see over people's heads (story of my life, like every gig I've ever been to), although they were filmed and projected on screens the camera was often zoomed in on a guests face so if they were gesticulating or interacting with someone else this was lost. Also the lighting in the room was very subdued with a couple of bright spot lights on the guests, which made taking decent photos very difficult.
After the talks had finished there was an auction of various Supernatural stuff, from the huge banner posters used on stage (that must have been 8 feet long/tall) signed by all guests to the directors chairs they sit in, with their names on, signed. Also auctioned off was stuff from the dealers tables but the auctioneer guy was a bit clueless in that he tried to start the bids off at the prices they were for sale at, next door... I mean really? Anyways, me and SD didn't bid on anything as we had another party to get through, so it was another meal in the Hilton bar/restaurant then off to beautify ourselves before the themed "Ben's Birthday Bash" party.
The Saturday night parties are apparently the biggies, so it was a bit fancier than the previous night, there was also a bouncy castle! which attendees and guests alike enjoyed! However I just felt sick and totally blame if for my bout of hiccups later on!

At the time of the Saturday night party, Supernatural's favourite angel Misha Collins was just starting what would become an immensely long run for charity, I believe he exceeded 50miles (83km) for his Random Acts Charity to egg him on a couple of fans & supporters (who I shall call Pinkpezilla & Doubleshiny) started a twitter campaign to get RunMishaRun! trending, with lovely RunMishaRun signs, they photographed and tweeted as many attendees as possible, including the guests, it was one of my personal highlights for the weekend!

Image © @pinkpezilla & @doublyshiny (on twitter)
The Hilton is quite a bizarre place, with pervy old men at the bar which made me & SD v. uncomfortable, and after a lovely bout of hiccups retired to bed.
But not before firing off a few arty photos of the architecture in the Hilton

The music for this party was again, quite a mix of cheese & rock which would be fine if the DJ could read the crowd, when you've got a dance floor full of people dancing to Guns N Roses, then the floor empties when you play STEPS, you'd think they'd learn, but no, apparently not...

Sunday:
Sunday was slightly more relaxed, as we had all our autographs & photo ops done, and slightly hungover (yet refreshed from the Hilton's amazing breakfast), Sunday gave way to the joint talks. These again were really interesting, the first talk was Mark & Rob, which was hilarious because Rob was almost like his character in that he was scared/in awe of Mark, this was swiftly followed by the Quiz!

This Supernatural based quiz involved audience members joining Rob & Mark on stage in opposing teams (Alastairs Angels & Chuck's Chicks - check facebook for the teams!) where they not only answered hard core fan questions (with audience help) but also acted out scenes, both guests being very involved and hilarious.
Afterwards there was a lunch break then more talks.

So after lunch was Chad & Samantha, who are good friends off set, so they have amazing banter and just really bounce off each other, you didn't even really need questions as they could just keep chatting all afternoon, it really was great to see the guests being so comfortable and natural.
After this talk there was almost a 2 hour gap until the last group talk, at this point though the dealers had pretty much cleared their tables away but fortunately they showed Supernatural S5 episodes on the screens, however after 1 ep someone decided that there wasn't enough time for another full episode, cue 40 minutes later and we're all still sat in silence... sigh!
Until the final talks, which again, were so good, the only disappointing part is finding out that despite filming it all, Massive Events/Showmasters aren't going to release a DVD of the event (even though their rivals are offering DVD's of theirs!)
After this was the closing ceremony and it was all over.

Well for those hardcore fans, who were staying for the Sunday night party! We'd mistakenly thought we could stay and see peoples fancy dress costumes and that there would be stuff to do, but alas no - so we spent the next 2.5 hours in Birmingham train station waiting for a train (and with no one selling coffee etc!)

Not to mention our connecting train at Coventry being cancelled!
We arrived back home after midnight tired but happy!

Roadhouse 2 takes place in March 2011 and will also feature guests from True Blood and the Vampire Diaries.

Prague Day 5

Mystik Cup
Our final day in Prague was to be pretty chilled, we didn't have to leave for the airport until 7pm, so we started with a gentle stroll back towards the river and and The National Theatre, where we saw a woman sat outside, alone in full period costume.
We then headed back towards the Old Town Square as it seems perfect for eating our lunch, on the way there we passed a Bride just entering what I assume is a Church.


The incredibly futuristic looking train station at Staroměstská
We then took a train to our destination for the afternoon which was actually on Stvanice Island. Mystic Skate Park is host the Mystic Sk8 Cup, an annual skateboard competition. My friend Jen had already recommened we go there just for place to hang out with cheap beer, but once we arrived in Prague we saw posters advertising the comp, we couldn't not go!
It turned out we were only staying a 5 minute walk from the skate shop and enquired about tickets, but we couldn't buy a day ticket in advance so it was a case of turning up and hoping for the best, fortunatly it was only qualifiers on the Friday (people who have never skated in a World Cup Skate event, or didn't have enough points), so there were no names I recognised apart from out of the women's group Evelien Bouilliart who I'd met and seen skate previously at the UK's Girls Skate Jam back in 2007.



It was really hot (like everyday had been in Prague) despite being 'undercover' as the sun ended up pounding on our backs and we didn't manage to make it to the indoor bowl & miniramp. There was also quite a few stalls from local shops selling the usual skate merchandise as well as a very nice food area, which unlike most British skate comps wasn't filled with burgers/chips/hotdogs etc we had a really nice spicy chicken & salad wrapped in a tortilla for a couple of quid, coupled with the beer which was less than £2 50cl, really nothing to complain about! The only odd part to the day is that they were still erecting the scaffolding that made the 'bleachers' so as the day went on, seats higher and higher up became available (not that I could stomach going up that high and I'd already dropped my sunglasses underneath once).


All in all we had a fantastic chilled day, I myself don't skate any more and can't 'name tricks' but it was still great to watch everyone.
We left about half past four to get back towards the hotel, we went for one last dinner at Jiný Stav a great restaurant selling Czech food that we found simply walking from the hotel to the metro station, then wandering around the block. Although not all the staff speak amazing English they speak enough to communicate the order and more importantly they have English menus so you can at least point.

We ate here 3 evenings out of the 5 we were there, which just shows how nice it was. The menu did keep us amused, Ant order the 'Pork Medallions from Italian Guy - no idea who he was, but it was great! Also the beer Kozel was less than £1 for 50cl and again, very tasty.
So after filling our chops here, we departed back to Miss Sophie's to await our taxi back to the airport and home.

Prague Day 4

Prague Zoo
After spending the first 3 days almost non stop sightseeing, we opted for something more relaxing on day 4 of our trip - Prague Zoo was described as Prague's hidden gem, but seeing as there was a road sign almost outside our hotel we decided it couldn't be that hidden.
How wrong were we?!
The lovely reception guy at Miss Sophie's told us if we got to Nádraží Holešovice that there was a nice relaxing walk through Letna Park that would take 40 minutes or 20 mins brisk walk.
It took almost an hour of brisk walking after having to double back around the expo grounds next to the Tesla arena, however it was worth an exploration with it's fantastic Art Deco buildings



So after a prolonged walk across the park, across the river to Troja and then the Zoo sign posts vanishing, we managed to see a group of school kids and decided to follow, luckily this lead us to the Zoo rather than making us seem creepy.
So we paid the approx £5 entry fee for the day (for a mere £18 you can get a yearly pass!) and entered into the most amazing environment and were immediately face with brightly coloured Macaws.
It just wasn't like any zoo I've ever been to, whilst some areas were 'enclosed' by nets (I assume to stop birds flying away) but allowed you to enter via a kissing gate system, some were just open to allow the animals free reign of the zoo/park which is built into a hillside with a variety of surfaces. Everything from rocks for mountain goats to pastures for ponies, and a very real river running through the middle housing the same sort of wildlife you'd see in a British river - mallards, moor hens and kingfishers.
We spent a good 7 hours there and still missed out a huge chunk of the Zoo, but our personal highlights were the Indonesian Jungle area with Fruit Bats & Talapoin monkey




Also when this monkey decided to pee at me


And the lemur area is amazing, they just sit on the fence literally inches away from you and pose, so cute

and finally the chair lift, I wasn't brave enough to take that transports you from the top to bottom of the Zoo or vice versa

I can honestly say this was a mind blowing visit, totally exceeded al expectations in terms of how close you can get to most of the animals, and for big cats and other more dangerous ones, they are behind thick perspex rather than a cage, also for a top tourist attraction the food and drink was very reasonable once again (less than £2 a large beer etc..)
If you go to Prague and don't czech out the Zoo, you're a fool!

Prague Day 3

Kutna Hora

Day 3 of our trip to Prague we went Kutna Hora a small town about an hours train ride from central Prague, which started out as a silver mining town around the 13th Century. Famous for it's Bone Church as well as several other religious buildings which I'll get to in good time, this was one of the main reasons for choosing Prague as our next destination and we'd done a bit of research on Trip Advisor on how to get there.
Trains run frequently from Prague main railway station (which itself is worth a visit with its grand old Art Nouveau booking hall) which is about 5 mins walk from the National Museum and a joint (for 2 persons) return ticket was 262ck (approx £8). Once arriving at our first Church we bought a discounted ticket that got us into 5 attractions for 165ck (approx £5) which was a fair bit cheaper than the organised tour we saw for 700ck (approx £22) which included public transport and only entry to 2 attractions and whilst we didn't have a personalised tour guide, we really didn't need one as there was plenty of (free)information available in English. There was a local taxi service which charged approx £1 each to ferry you from the Bone Church end of town to the main town - the driver provided us with a map and suggested a walking route through the town - we also booked him to collect us at the end of our day and take us back to the train station - perfect!

After arriving at Kutna Hora train station, it was pretty easy to find the route into the town - we just followed everyone else! Past the Philip Morris factory and you come to a crossroads type area in the suburb of Sedlec, to the left is the Cathedral of Our Lady and to the right the Ossuary of Sedlec (afore mentioned Bone Church).

Cathedral of Our Lady (click to view full size)




The Cathedral was first a Bohemian Cistercian Monastery founded in 1142AD and has had a troubled history due to debt & conflict, it is home to breathtaking architecture and detail.

Sedlec Ossuary (click to view full size)




Sedlec Ossuary or The All Saints Cemetery Church is decorated almost entirely of human bones, originally piled in a pyramid by half blind monks in 1511 - the current 'design' was by Frantisek Rint and was created by the remains of approx 40,000 people and you'll be glad to know the bones were disinfected before hand! The Ossuary is a far less creepy or solemn than the Paris Catacombes and even had a little gift shop area at the entrance, where you could purchase afore mentioned taxi tickets.
We then got our taxi to the main town of Kutna Hora, we were dropped outside the impressive Gothic Cathedral of St Barbora.


We sat outside here to eat our packed lunch (hmmm ham & cheese butties) and watch what appeared to be a young sparrow hawk or kestral be harassed by one of the local stall holders, who decided it needed a drink
This cathedral was not dissimilar to the other one, so I wont bore you with the simuilar interior photographs (although the are not any less impressive), however from up here there was an impressive view of the town below
After lunch we embarked on the rough walking tour marked out by our taxi driver, which was cool as it took you past pretty much all the interesting looking architecture and places and also the Czech Medieval Silver Mine museum, which was slightly odd. We had a very strange tour - basically it was timed tours, so we had to leave our bags locked up then rush to join a tour that was about 15 minutes in (although that was fine, I really don't think I could've managed the entire tour), the tour shows the history of silver minining and it's importance to Kutna Hora and takes you into a real mine. Now I'm only 5'4" and I banged my head about 5 times, thank god for the hard hats - at times it was so narrow and the ceiling so low you were almost crouched, not very comfortable ending up down a hill about 300 yards away from the museum. At first we thought our tour guide was uninterested in giving the tour but it turns out it was her first tour in English which was why she was constantly looking at her notes and her intonation wasn't great, but all things considered it was a way to pass 45mins.
The town itself is full of interesting buildings, churches and this stone fountain, currently under renovation.
However we found a much better way in the form of a bar that advertised Staropramen for 28ck (less than a pound) for half a litre - bargain! after a couple we headed to meet our taxi and back to Kutna Hora train station, back to Prague for another meal at Jiny Stav

Prague Day 2

Prague Day 2
Wenceslas Square, Petrin Hill & the Old Town Square
Day 2 of our Czech adventure saw us head out in the opposite direction towards the National Museum, as it turns out this was literally 3 minutes walk from our hotel and whilst we weren’t too fussed at what was inside, we took a few photos of the impressive building and it’s view over the infamous Wenceslas Square, which is more of an oblong by the way.
Národní Muzeum
View of Wenceslas Square
I’ll be honest, Wenceslas didn’t really live up to the hype, sure there was really interesting architecture if you looked up, but it was mostly shops/restaurants.. Nothing to do per se. We passed through in under 10 minutes and after a slight hitch with figuring out the tram system (we were told to validate tickets at the station, rather than once on the tram), we were off to Petrin Hill!
Petrin Hill is a fantastic place to have a picnic whilst enjoying the view over Prague, you can either walk up (if you’re mad) or take the funicular railway (I do like saying ‘funicular’ quite a lot) which has two stops; one half way up and one at the top. At the top of the hill are some very pretty gardens, an observatory, a grotto and a mini Eiffel Tower – Petrin Tower which you climb to the top of for even more amazing views over Prague – including a nunnery, which ties in nicely with the 12 Stations of the Cross that surround the tower.
Petřínská Rozhledna
View from Petrin towerThere is also a ‘Labyrinth’ on the hill which unfortunately sounds way more impressive than it is – a simple mirror maze that takes all of 30 seconds to get round, with a final hall of amusing mirrors.. A whole 60 seconds of fun, unless of course you’re a child in which case its money well spent.
We walked part way down the hill to the 2nd station for the funicular railway and then caught a tram on to the very popular Old Town Square – home to amongst other things, the Astronomical Clock, very expensive ‘Irish/English Theme Pubs’ (avoid like the plague unless you enjoy paying £4 for cheap, crap British lager) and the worst ‘Aquarium’ I’ve visited (it was more like some rich dude’s fish tanks – nothing exotic or exciting).
The Old Town Square itself was quite busy as it was the World Cup, so like our home town of Manchester, there was a Hyundai Fan Park which consisted of large screens to show the matches, along with food & drink stalls, the difference in Prague was that A. These were open all day and B. When the football wasn’t on – they had an orchestra playing classical music – all for free! The beer wasn’t overpriced either at 50ck for ½L of Budvar (around £1.80) – in fact the only problem was the lack of somewhere to sit in the shade as it was over 30c most days we were there!
Of course before we left the Old Town, we couldn’t miss the world famous Astronomical Clock (and tower) – every hour on the hour the clock face opens like on the Children’s TV Show Trumpton - and at the same time a man in traditional dress plays a trumpet out of the tower!
Astronomical Clock
After we made our way back to the hotel tired and hungry, we found a very nice pub/restaurant called Jiny Stav which was a traditional Czech cuisine restaurant, although they do have English menus. Whilst there were some amusing translations on the menu (such as Pork Medallions from Italian Guy) the food was top notch, so much so, that we ate here another two times during our 5 night stay!

Prague Day 1

Charles Bridge, Kafka Museum & Prague Castle
We arrived in Prague on the Sunday evening, our flight getting in around 11pm, our taxi driver Ihab from bohemiantaxis was fantastic, recommending the best times for visiting the Charles Bridge (after 10pm or before 10am) to avoid the tourists, as well as a few bars & restaurants to try. Arriving at Miss Sophie's around 30 minutes later we checked into our ultra modern room - but not before the guy on reception gave us a map of Prague and highlighted the places nearby we could get food/room supplies. Miss Sophie's could be filed under the heading 'Boutique Hostel' with its ultra modern & minimalistic design. Whilst there are several dormitory rooms, there are also apartment style rooms (self contained with kitchenette) and en suite rooms - which is what we chose. Our room included a fabulous wet room style shower with an enormous powerful shower head, as well as a fridge - handy for keeping the beer cool. We had full use of the kitchen facilities in the basement along with a lounge area complete with record player (and records!) and DVD's.
Monday morning we took a leisurely stroll towards the Vltava River, which was about 10 minutes away from the hotel. We wandered up towards the Charles Bridge and crossed over it and on to the Kafka museum which was one of the best museums I've visited, as well as objects of Kafka's and his life story, there were also rooms that were built upon his worst nightmares. Outside is another oddity in the form of a moving statue/sculpture of 2 men urinating. Not far away was the Lennon wall, a John Lennon inspired graffiti wall as well as a bridge with hundreds of love padlocks attached – a fast growing declaration of love across many cities.
With the day still young we then opted to climb a very tall tower at the end of the Charles bridge - with amazing views over the city, from here we tacked the steep hill up towards Prague Castle. At the Castle there are some guards with cute pastel blue suits, although they must have been sweating their socks off in the heat! There was also Prague Picture Gallery within the Castle, that thankfully has free entry 4-6pm on Mondays, as it was pretty disappointing and personally didn't think it was worth the £5 entry fee!
Vltava River
Sculpture outside the Kafka Museum
John Lennon Wall
Love Padlocks
View from the tower at Charles Bridge
Guard at Prague Castle

After all this we walked back to our hotel exhausted, we thought we'd check out one of the local micro breweries recommended as somewhere good to eat also. Pivovarský dům was literally 2 minutes away from the hotel and served lots of different beers including coffee and cherry varieties. We had a lovely meal with some great beer, highly recommended, after this we went back to our room for a well earned sleep!

Postcrossing

If like me you still get excited at the prospect of something other than bills plopping onto your doormat, then maybe Postcrossing is for you. The premise is quite simple, you register with the site, click for an address to send to (you can send up to 5 at first), send your postcards to the address provided then sit back and wait to get one back! Once you receive your card, you register the code that should be written on it so the sender knows you've received it - there is also the option to scan & upload your card to the site.

Be warned though, there are some serious post card collectors out there (one of my first addresseees prefers "map and single view lighthouse, but also will accept Flags, Famous People, British and Foreign Royalty, Disasters, Aerial tramways, Cliff lifts, Lifeboats,Chain Ferries, Carpets, Prisons, Clocks - not too specific then!), so any old tat from the local shop wont cut it!
Most people however, are happy to receive something showing your area, which led to the surprisingly difficult task of finding decent images of Manchester. I think I will be trying out the make your own postcard options from Moo in the not too distant future.
Today i received my first card from Finland, and it was a very cute picture of Moomins, which is great, as i love the Moomins

Race for Life

On July 11th, I took part in my first (of many, I hope) Race for Life. Although this wasn't through lack of trying! (for the previous 3 years I had either found out about it too late, or been on holiday when the races were in Manchester).
The race was at Heaton Park, in Prestwich, Manchester. The race was due to start at 11am and the Race for Life website suggested getting there an hour early, so to beat any traffic we left sunny Salford at around 9.30am (on a Sunday!), only to arrive at an overcast Heaton Park 20 minutes later. Because it was Race for Life, Heaton Park allowed on site parking for a £1.50 fee (although it was advertised at £1 on the RfL site, thankfully Jen brought a purse full of change!). We stepped out of the car in our t shirts to the quite chilly weather and walked for about 10 minutes to the main site.
as a Race for Life newbie,I was unaware of the vast array of stalls offering everything from burgers (at 10am??) to massages! with sponsors including Nivea and Go Ahead there was much entertainment. There was a main stage with a Mancunian celeb (who i'm ashamed to say I don't know, who introduced the Nivea Boys (rather buff men who dance in a camp fashion to S club 7, etc...)and other presenters (who again I don't know as I don't listen to local radio).


The field filled up really quickly with women and supportive family members, I was really unprepared for how much it was going to affect me. Race for life provide you with a number and a paper backing to write on who you are racing for. I had already decided to Race for my Dad & Gran. At this point I was really wishing I had done race for life earlier, everywhere you turn are women with the names of lives lost or battling with cancer, some ladies also had photos strapped to their backs, and it really brings it home how much cancer effects everyone, the whole experience was really humbling and a major stepping stone for me emotionally.
Any ways, the warm up started about 11am, which was a bit late as we were supposed to have started running by this point, but by 11:20 we were assembled into groups: Running, Jogging, Walking.



I obviously joined the jogging group, which should have been renamed the 'running to be cool group'. Unlike the Running group which was full of people who actually, you know, ran. The jogging group comprised of people like me who had spent months training and a shed load of girls who'd obviously done zero training and managed to run past the crowds, then stopped to walk 5 abreast taking up the entire pathway, until there was a downhill section at which point they ran like there was a free vat of blue wkd at the end of the rainbow!. Which meant those of us who had actually trained for the event had to jog/run up grassy banks etc to get around the people who chose to walk and clog the course for everyone else, which happened a lot. I think next time I will join the running group and just stay at the back!
After about 10 minutes I checked my Nike Ipod sensor to see how far I had ran only to find it was broken due to an unfixed software update glitch from apple , that is still broken. Gutted does not even come close to how I felt at this time.


Besides this, I managed to complete the course in 40 minutes, although i'm sure I could have shaved a few minutes by knowing how close i was to the end. The course is quite deceiving as you pass people near the end then the course doubles back on itself up a hill! But at this point I had the prodigy on and didn't care, much love to Jen who waited at the finish line for me!
After finishing I felt sooo relieved, and managed to sit down and enjoy the sponsored goody bag with treats from Nivea and Go Ahead to name a few, actually the go ahead yoghurt bars are really tasty :). Me & Jen then took ourselves off home for swift showers, and into Manchester for cocktails.

So far I've managed to raise approx £150 through on & off-line donations, but there is still time, if you'd like to make a donation, check out Mine & Jen's page!