Shoes, Cheesecake and Smurfs.

I think it's starting to catch up with me that I need some new running shoes. My old, grubby ones have holes in the mesh and, most importantly, don't support my feet well as I learned yesterday. Being as after searching "successful running" one of the first links was "Successful running starts with the sole." I think I'll be looking for some new ones today.

In other news, yesterday was rather slow. I think the humidity made me feel really lethargic. I still managed to go to stop n' shop and buy a few things (including another mango which was a success this time!) I figured it was going to be a slow day but I forced myself (was forced) to go for a run. We did a run that's exactly 3.14 miles long... or the pi run as I like to call it.

After dinner, we scoffed some cheesecake from the cheesecake factory and I WAS planning on using the grill to burn all my old school papers and things I didn't want but apparently that makes too much of a mess... so we finished off the evening by watching Robin hood. It was pretty good and slow in some parts but I really liked the big fight scenes towards the end.

Speaking of movies, the other night I went to see the smurf movie... It was alright apart from the fact that the characters insisted on replacing a perfectly good English word with the word smurf at least once every 2 minutes. I smurf it 3 smurfs up.

Shrewsbury Special 5k Road Race

It's finally here! My post about the 5k race last Saturday has finally arrived due to a mixture of me getting around to writing it and getting the photos from it. Either way, it was a bad race. I came in with a shocking time of 33:29. I'm hoping to get under 32 on one of my next two races, the Spirit of Shrewsbury and the Northborough Apple fest: both within the span of a fortnight. I've actually been training for these ones though so I hope I'll be better.

To start the day off, we had some torrential thunder storms and lightning which delayed the races by about 45 minutes. It didn't take long to heat up while we were running though.

The race started with a torturous hill that pretty much winded me before the race had begun. Good thing there was a long downhill following that allowed me to regain my breath. After that, it wasn't bad but it seemed to be slightly uphill for the longest time and I didn't notice any down hill. After the first mile marker, I thought I was doing pretty good but the second mile marker seemed to take forever to arrive. I just assumed they didn't have one like the Hopkinton race but when I assumed I was about 2.5 miles in, I saw the two-mile marker. This depressed me. However, I wasn't doing that bad. It was only about 21 minutes in. The third mile was what killed me. By this time it was getting very hot and the sun was out making the road comparable to a sauna. After, several ups and downs, I was just looking for some flat but after I turned a corner around 2.5 miles, I was greeted with another big hill. This killed me and I had to walk for the first time in any of my 5k events. I did manage to begin running again at the end to finish the race though.

Congratulations to my father who also ran the 5k with a time of 26:09 and to Emma who did her 1 mile race in less than 10 minutes!

Hebert Candy Mansion

Good morning. Yesterday, after dinner, all six of us (including grandparents) decided to take a trip down to the Hebert Candy Mansion Thursday night car show. We got there quite late so many of the cars had left but there were still plenty to look at and not as crowded as it was last year. 

I tried to get a shot of the sign with someone in an old mustang driving by but they turned a corner and all I got was the back of the car. The cars there ranged from brightly colored ferrari's to cars that look like (nay, were) made in the 1800's. 

I've always wanted one of these.

This is a good one too. The really old car was my favorite though. Not only did it let me experiment with the sepia feature on my camera but I thought it would be really cool to have one to ride around town being as it was the most unusual and awesome-looking one there. 

The last one isn't the same car but I thought it would look cool in the sepia setting being as it was so old.

However, we were at the candy mansion meaning we needed to try out their famous ice cream and topping bar! 

Needless to say, we enjoyed it.

Mango Madness

This morning whilst looking for an apple in the fridge, I came across an odd looking fruit that wasn't quite an apple nor a peach nor pear; It was a mango. Being as I don't eat these very often, I thought that it would be nice for a change. Little did I know, mangoes have large seeds in the center and there is a specific way to cut one and everything. This required me to do some internet snooping and resulted in me following along with a youtube video on how to cut a mango. All in all, it was a very poor outcome.

I started by cutting the mango a little to the left of the middle leaving the stem still intact (with my favorite knife- as pictured). It came off easily.

Then I did the same to the other side, leaving that entire top part, with the white center (that's the pit) to be discarded. Seemed like a waste to me. I guess the seeds were more on the right so when I went to cut the second piece (face down) it was really tough. 

Anyway, after all those shenanigans were over, it was time to actually cut it into edible pieces. I took the smaller, more depressed looking half and cut the skin off then just cut it using a knife. I got about 6 pieces out of that. Seems like a lot of work for a small amount of mango. 

For the second half, I tried using some fancy technique that the online reference suggested. I used a small knife to cut slits in the mango then tried to use a spoon to scoop them up. It didn't look as clean-cut or professional when I attempted it but I think it worked. I got about 8 small pieces out of that leaving me with a very depressing end result. 

Are you supposed to only get this much mango? It seemed strange to me. Maybe I'll try it again sometime and see if I can perfect my technique. It seems like such a hassle for such a small outcome. On the contrary, they were very delicious and even both my unadventurous grandparents seemed to enjoy it. 

That's all for now. I still haven't got the photos from Saturday's race but I will eventually! At least it's something to look forward to.

Lazy Day

Being as these past few days have been tiresome and busy, I thought today would be a good day to take it easy. However, I was awoken at some early time o'clock by the melodic sounds of power tools and hammering coming from down the hall. Our bathroom (and I use the term 'our' loosely being as it's actually my parent's bathroom of which I don't enter for months on end sometimes) is being remodeled and the builders have been working on it every work day for well over a month now. I managed to get a picture of it earlier and I particularly don't think it looks too different apart from the fact the walls are now tiled.

It looks a bit bland for my liking but mom likes it and that's all that matters. (I'm sure she'll agree with me there).

Anyways, around 11:00 I figured I should get off 'me arse' (I believe that's the correct term) and do something so I took a stroll down to the Spring street school with my nan. It wasn't as hot as it's been but it was still humid. Not to mention I was attacked by savage mosquitos whilst walking through tree-covered paths!

After we'd finished our expedition through the suburban streets of the bury, I came home to a bright yellow traffic cone outside my house... oh wait, that was actually just Emma back from her first day at soccer camp wearing her neon uniform that makes her look like a giant highlighter. We then proceeded to 'troph' the sushi that was in the fridge but not before I took some artistic photos of it.

Some of the photos aren't too bad I think.

I tried some weird organic brand of green tea that I found in the health foods/ organic aisle at Stop and Shop but it was gross. It tasted really bitter like it needed to be sweeter but it has the same amount of sugar as Arizona green tea. Oh well. I managed to drink it but I still think I'm going to stick with my Arizona brand Green Tea. 

Anyway, that's all for today. I'll do a post about Saturday's race as soon as I can get my hands on some photos. I came in at a disappointing unofficial time of 33:25-ish. Not a very good PB race at all. Bye!

Reincarnation of a Successful Failure

As the majority of people reading this will know, my previous blog was discontinued due to lack of time management and other priorities (a.k.a. I was too lazy and boring to think of anything to say). If you want to see it, it's robertveale.blogspot.com but I must warn you that it mainly revolves around me (very badly) attempting to learn a foreign language. This blog however will cover some random things about my life such as a log of sorts.
A lot has happened in two years. I'll be going into high school next September (taking Honors Maths, Honors Bio, World Civ, English 9A, and French2A). I've also ventured into the land of music since I was in 6th grade. About 3 months ago I bought myself a piano and began teaching myself. Since then I've started getting lessons and still liking it. I will most likely talk about this somewhat in the future. Also, over the past 6 months, I've begun participating in 5k's and just running in general. I'm hoping to get my time to below 30 minutes by the end of the year.
So basically, this blog will consist of my life involving running, piano, vacations and whatever else pops into my head so stick around.