Maria Runs - Maria Runs

Making bows

Hey peeps

It is the end of a busy week for me, so I am trying to catch up on blog land! The giveaway prizes will be dispatched over the next few weeks.

During half term I practised making bows and coloured icing on some mini Christmas cakes, so I have a little “how-to” on here. I used the mini Christmas cakes I made the other day, which I covered in marzipan so the bows would have something to stick to (and because I love marzipan).

Colour your icing first of all. On the course they said that Tescos ready ice was the best one, and we used Sugarflair gels (instead of runny food colouring that messes up the consistency of the icing). They also said to put some tylo powder in there, which helps it to set and keeps it stronger, but I have not got any of that. Only use a teeny tiny amount of gel- you can always add more, and knead it in. Use icing sugar if your hands get sticky.

To make spots, roll out the main colour, then put little balls of the other colour all over the icing. On the course they suggested keeping back a bit of each colour, or doing a small amount at a time as if you are doing spots if you do not have enough you cannot squash it all back together and start again. I winged it!

Then roll it with a rolling pin- it makes cute little spots! I think I should make the balls even smaller as these spots ended up quite big!

Then cut up your pieces. For each bow you need 2 fat rectangles for the loops, one thinner shorter rectangle for the centre, and two longer pieces for the ends.

Get the two loop pieces and fold them over.

Then pinch them together in the middle- try to push up the bows so they don’t flop (easier with the tylo powder I think).

Stick the two ends to the cake (using warm water brushed on) in an upside-down V. Then wrap the centre part around the bow loop middle.

And put the bow part on the ends (again use some water).

Then admire your pretty bows!

🙂

They are too pretty to eat! 🙂

After that I fancied some tea, so I went for…

Kind of latte- some warmed Ecomil hazelnut milk topped up with Christmas tea. Yum.

By the way if you look up Sweet and Floral on facebook you can see loads of the amazing cakes decorated on the courses- someone did spots with white and bright blue which looked fab.

Are you all about the decoration or the content? Normally my baking is “rustic” I would say- I am not into the presentation that much. But I did have such fun doing it and at certain times of year (e.g. birthdays/ Christmas) I like the fact that decorating something makes it look more special.

Have a fab weekend peeps- fingers crossed for not too much rain for my 10K run on Sunday.

WIAW- feeling fruity

Hi all- thanks for all the emails about the prizes- glad everyone is excited (I am too) and I will be sorting them out soon.

Did you all celebrate WIAW 40th last week? I wonder if Jenn knew how big it would get!
“

I chose Friday as my day- my last day of half term.

Breakfast– Porridge made with hazelnut milk and raisins. A bit too sweet for me, but very hazel-nutty. Forgot to take a photo, but I am sure you can imagine.

Then I went on a run- just over 4 miles to stretch my legs and remind them of faster running before the weekend.

Post run snack;

Nuun and a peanut butter z bar (these are so yummy).

Lunch;

Small wholewheat wrap filled with mashed roasted squash and goats cheese.

Plus a fig and a pear.

Afternoon snack;

An orange (I hate peeling oranges so I scooped out the flesh with a sharp knife).

“Latte” with hazelnut milk + Christmas tea, plus an almond fudgy bar.

Dinner

Bean bake and home-made bread.

Dessert

A delicious caramel apple bar. The plate is so dirty as the bar went splat when I was getting it out of the tin! Not so pretty haha!

I didn’t eat that much fruit actually- I was thinking that I ate loads. Ah well. What is your favourite fruit? I find it hard to choose- in the summer I love watermelon and mango, but at the moment I am loving figs, pears and apples.

Today I had parents evening after work (and another one tomorrow- means I miss body pump boo) so I did not have my normal Wednesday run. Ah well, the rest might help with my weekend 10K?

Night

Winners!

Hey!

I am excited because today I get to announce the winners of my giveaway! No random number generator screen shots I am afraid- I went old school with names on paper in a hat (well, in a pot).

So the winners of the 3 Teapigs prizes are:

Laura

Rachel

Lara

The winners of the hampers of Nature’s Path cereals are:

Jessica

Lucy

Marijke

The winner of the Rude Health cereals is:

Bronagh

The winners of the Nuun packs are:

Sarah

Rose

Congratulations everyone!!!

You also all get some Seedstacked bars, plus some baking from me. So please email to me (emailme (at) runningcupcake.co.uk) your delivery info’s. How exciting! And thanks again at helping me to raise money for such a brilliant cause.

Yesterday I had a total rest day- I was thinking I might try a short run after work, but my legs were sore and so I opted for some yoga, general stretching and lots of foam rolling instead. Today I was feeling OK so went on a slow 3.something mile run after work, plus more stretching and foam rolling. I have no idea why races make me so much stiffer- last Saturday I did a 10 mile run and was fine on the Sunday. I suppose I did run a little faster, but not much, plus it was way flatter than my normal runs. I think maybe I tense up, and maybe the adrenaline gets me! Anyone else find that?

I have parents evening the next 2 nights, and then we are going away on Friday for the weekend (to do this Robin Hood 10K )so I might manage a short run on Friday after work, but that will be all. So a sort of rest week really.

Anyone else doing any more races this year? I just realised that I could still do the Watford Autumn challenge (remember my accidental cross country race last year?) but Andy has used a veto on that one! I think this Sunday will be my last one of the year 🙂

Great South Run- a long recap!

(You have been warned)

Hey! Thanks so much for the best wishes- stick around for a very long recap of my weekend! First of all, despite getting out my race kit to take photos, for some reason I packed my mp3 player and Nike+ away when I put everything else in my bag, so they got left at home. Whoopsie.

So here is how the weekend went:

Drive to Southampton. Realise I forgot my Nike+ etc!
Get some lunch, then Andy went to the football while I did some shopping.
Got tired so went for a rest in Starbucks. Tried a soy chai latte (I had a regular one before and found it so sweet, and one of the guys working suggested it was the milk..) anyway- it is amazing!
Go for Nando’s with Andy (not sure if this is the best pre race fuel? I had a veggie wrap and sweet potato mash for some carbs!), then spend at least an hour wandering around IKEA- since when did they swap mini dime bars for their own version???
Go to hotel and get everything ready for the morning. Re-read the race information over and over.
Get up and dressed and leave with plenty of time (we were 20 mins away). Spend over an hour and a half in a queue of traffic. Eat breakfast (clif bar) in the car. Not impressed with the directions in the leaflets (follow the signs, er, what signs?? The only signs we saw were signs saying “Great South Run, congestion possible”, oh and one to follow signs for the waterfront which we could not do as the road was closed) then at 10.30 park in a town centre multi storey.
Run to the start- 2 miles away! We passed the 2 mile marker on our way (and the 3 mile, and the 5K, but they loop around a bit). Ask marshalls where the bag drop is- they don’t know. We can’t work out the map. I did get a bit worked up here and start crying as we heard the first wave get sent on their way and we could not even work out where to go- we were just in a field of cars.
Andy went to the bag drop while I went to the toilets, then had to find my way to the back of the last wave (I missed my wave as I was in the toilet).
At last the race started (I went over the start line at 11.20am)- I found it hard to judge my pace, plus loads of people walked before the first mile marker- sometimes due to congestion but other times just because these were the back wave so expecting to walk some of it.
It drizzled a lot so my glasses kept fogging up. At one point I managed to spill nuun all over my glasses when I was trying to clean them and juggle my water bottle!
I enjoyed the run, it was really flat, there was lots of support and some bands on the way around, although at mile 8 I could hear the tannoy announcing the runners who were at mile 9 which was a bit painful- especially as there was a fairly brisk wind blowing into our faces at that point.
800m to go- start to sprint. Realise that 800m is a long way to sprint, so just try to overtake as many people as possible.
Cross the finish line- yay! No idea how long it took me? Apparently there were results available immediately but I could not see where.
Get my bag, put on my foil blanket. I have always wanted to have a foil blanket after a race- it seems hardcore you know? I did not even get one after my marathon! Once of my life’s ambitions ticked off! Oh and put on my medal.
Eat an Eat Natural bar from the goody bag, then wander around and try to find Andy. Yup, in my panic we had not arranged a place to meet- he said “oh it will be like Stockholm and there will be a big finishers pen“- well, no it was not like that!
I wandered around for ages, then went to see if I could find the bag drop in case he was there- I could not find it still! I think after about 20 mins I found him! Phew. Seeing as neither of us had our phones and I had no idea of the way back to the car it could have been much worse!

Walk back to the car- still proudly wearing my foil blanket (and medal!)
Change in the toilets in the shopping centre (I did bring a towel and was prepared to do some in-car gymnastics to change as I did not fancy wearing my sweaty running clothes for the journey home) and here is where the fun began.
We got in the car at 2.25pm. We sat in a queue of traffic in the car park. Nothing was moving.
At 3.30pm I went to get us a Starbucks as we were both hungry (all we had eaten was a clif bar for breakfast and the cereal bar in the race pack).

My new-found love- a soy chai latte, plus a cinnamon roll. That was a rather late lunch and I do not think anything has ever tasted nicer!
At 4.30 we were still sat in the queue of traffic. I kept getting out to look but we had no idea, it really was a total standstill and it was meant to be shutting at 4.45pm.
Finally someone came to direct the traffic and we left the car park at 5.15pm. So we had spent nearly 3 hours in the car park- we were hoping to be home by then.
More bad luck- someone drove into the back of Andy’s car when we were sat at traffic lights waiting to get onto the M25- luckily it does not seem like they did any damage (poor him, he only bought it a few months ago).
Finally get home just before 8pm (dreaded Sunday evening traffic) – quickly make dinner and have a shower while it cooks.
Ah, that is better.

Later on I checked my time and I was super excited- I was aiming for 1 hour 50, but what with all the walking and ducking and weaving I was not optimistic- I had no idea how long it took me. My official chip time was 1 hr, 49.31- so I made my target by 29 seconds! That sprint at 800m to go was well worth it!

We got a pretty good goody bag- t-shirt, medal, that scary coloured drink, a few cereal bars, shreddies, mini toothpaste and mini deoderant (and you know I love mini things), tea (I love tea too!)…

Anyway, I am glad I did it- I think I prefer the smaller races, but the atmosphere at the start line and with all the people cheering was really good. Plus I managed to raise over £250 at the last count, all for Cancer Research. 🙂 Thanks for all the sponsorship 🙂

Today I had a rest day, as my hamstrings are quite tight- I did stretch a lot before I got in the car, but I suppose all that sitting down did not help that much. I have some yoga pencilled in for later.

Oh and tomorrow I will be announcing the winners of the giveaway!

Race kit

Hey peeps!

I am trying to make sure I have everything I need! (We are driving down today).

Tights, capris (not sure which ones to wear yet), top, Cancer Research UK vest, sports bra, socks…

Bottle, nuun tabs, Clif bar (for breakfast), number, timer chip, shot bloks, mp3 player (not sure if I will use it though), Nike+, tissues, face wipes (for after).

And the all important safety pins, hairbands and clips!

I am taking some snacks for after, and will try to change into some other clothes before the journey home.

What essentials do you have in your race day kit?

I am paranoid I am going to forget my trainers!

Wish me luck!

Maria 🙂