Hayley has been prepping for a half marathon for the past 3 months and she finally did it! In 2:01! So proud.. We went to support her in her town called Newbury (England) and the excitement and energy was crazy!!!!! Such a big audience and so many runners. This run was no joke but I suppose people will do strange things to get noticed, that being, running 10+ miles in a banana suit...or
ballerina tutus, Hawaiian grass skirts, or run around as superman, batman,trojans, astronauts (complete with a giant bulb on your head), scoobydoos, men in dresses, men in wigs, the Pink Ladies, Adam&Eve ..I also saw a guy in a wheel chair, cute small elderly couples, a bunch of hand holders (which I imagine to be slightly annoying whilst running)..... Oh. Yeah. I also saw a blind person..a BLIND PERSON! His guide, which was prbably his wife, and him were connected by a rope. Now if that isn't literally inspiration, I don't know what is.
We sat at the finish line and it's a funny experience sitting here because some people actually look like they've run a half marathon LIKE A NORMAL PERSON, while others look like they've just got up for their morning jog. It is quite an accomplishment but seriously, after running non stop for 13 miles some people still manage to have loads of energy, smiling, celebrating, and revving up the crowds. AND THEN there are others who show no emotion or sense of accomplishment and simply just break out into a full blown sprint. They don't even look tired and not a drop of sweat is to be found. They must be those funny people who do these things for fun .. and have only just reached their half way mark. Easy-as-pie.
I don't know if you can see Hayley's facial expression in the pink but she is basically bawling. There are obvious tears. Shocked and confused, we think something terrible happened somewhere between mile 1-13 but in the end she tells us they were tears of joy. So inspiring. I want to run one but apparently if you are too slow a van will pick you up if your trailing too far behind and you just get disqualified. That would probably be me.
Over the weekend we got the grand tour biking up and down her entire city and spent the rest of the lazy afternoons playing
scrabble. I have to say, there is so much bloody SPACE in all of England. There are huuuuge wide open fields full of absolutely nothing but sheep and gorgeousness. Even the houses and neighborhoods are ridiculously spread out. All the houses are made out of brick
and come with a shed in the middle of these giant back yards that are so huge it could probably fit another house. After the race, we (Me, Hayley, Theresa, Alex, her older sister Ellie, and her sisters boyfriend Guy) drove up to this view point and sipped her celebration champagne with the sheep.
On our way home, we stopped at the Oxford Univ. campus to have a look around and good God, it is utterly GORGEOUS! There are 26 colleges which all have massive courtyards and look like cathedrals. There are also churches and museums all over the place, but it confuses you because they look exactly like the campus. It was sunny and we walked
through the outside shopping center where I should've bought an OXFORD hoodie to fool people into thinking I study here, but unfortunately I really didn't think of it until now.
Hm. Must be nice to have this MOAT outside your dorm...
To round this up, YESTERDAY Theresa and I (who are now the only students left in senghennydd court) took the train to Bristol (also in England) to celebrate my flatmate Adam's 20th birthday. I was only there for a day but yet again I noticed the ridiculously spread out everything and all the brick houses, businesses, and buildings. We met at our friend Matt's dorm in the University of Bristol (which are basically student hotels) and later went out into the city center.
Ohhhhh yes.. I do appologize, I have not dropped out of school, I'm on spring break for 3 whole weeks! weee
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