Mental Health Awareness Week 2024

I've spent all day convinced it was the Third Tuesday of the month and so thought it should be #RunAndTalk and that I had to miss it because I had to travel to Altrincham for a meeting and so wasn't sure if I would be back in time and so was planning on doing the session next week....only it's actually next week anyway...but I've written the blog post, so here it is!

This year's theme is "Movement - Moving more for your mental health"

Some people hear about hashtag#RunAndTalk and worry they can't "Run" or even "Run and Talk" at the same time, but I'm here to say that it doesn't matter! Movement can be anything that gets your heart rate up a little bit and so for example for me this weekend it was:

Friday evening - Northern Lights hunting around dark side roads in the rural countryside near me which meant I got to fulfil a lifelong dream of seeing them as well as getting my steps in rushing about trying to find the best location to see them!

Saturday morning - parkrun with my husband Alan, as usual to start the weekend with a positive activity (I always take a selfie, but this time after staying up late for the Northern Lights on Friday, no one needs to see our tired sweaty faces!) parkrun is an important weekly activity for us, I met Alan at parkrun and made wonderful friends as a result of my first parkrun and so I now it's a staple positive way to start the weekend whether I'm running, walking or volunteering - there is always a way to participate in parkrun and add a little movement to your day. parkrun of course was my gateway to joining the wonderful Hyde Park Harriers and making some amazing friends and adding another positive weekly run routine into my calendar.

Sunday - A trip to the wonderful Spurn Point a beautiful Yorkshire Wildlife Trust site and an 8.5 mile walk up and down the point and climbing up to the top of the lighthouse - a beautiful location and a nice flat walk for anyone who wants to get back into walking without hiking up hills.

Ever since I discovered running and movement to help me manage all aspects of my mental health (which has been challenging for pretty much my entire life whether it was depression, low mood, OCD, anxiety or low self esteem trying their hardest to pull me down) 

I've always been fearful of "what if I can't run?" (Thanks anxiety and the ability to catastrophise something normal and fun!) and so more recently as I've battled a hip injury (after a few other injuries and post-covid breathing issues in the past few  years) I've allowed myself to be creative with other ways to "move" and enjoy movement for my mental health - here are some of the things I've found helpful:

• Skiing - yes I appreciate this is still active, but weirdly didn't hurt my hip as running was doing so and you don't have to travel overseas, you can head to Castleford Xscape Snozone for a lesson or a session, or just watch others from the restaurant over the indoor slope.
• Walking - walking is not to be overlooked, it allows you to be active, raise your heartrate and can be easily incorporated into a busy life - you can maybe get off a stop earlier from your bus, walk around the block at lunch to get daylight and fresh air, or even replace a coffee catch up with friends to a walking catch up - you'll also find you might talk about different things whilst walking side by side than you would in a fixed face-to-face setting. It also has an added bonus of daylight and exploring - on Sunday we saw deer running on the beach!
• Step goal - Similar to above, setting a step goal will make sure if you are mostly home based, you are still keeping your body moving - I was on a 43 day 10000 step streak before realising at 11.57pm I was 600 steps off 10000...I lost my streak! But I'm having another go at beating it!
• Swimming - after our trip to Spurn at the weekend, we were a bit tired and sore, so we took the opportunity to go swimming at our local pool Pontefract - Aspire in the Park it was a different way to move and I'm hoping to be good enough at some point to try another triathlon - I need to get better!
• Cycling - I bought a fold up bike last year that weighs 14kg (the same weight as Ipa and Maya cat together!) and my plan now the weather is generally better is to park at the park and ride and cycle the 6K to work - on some days this will be quicker than driving to work and on all days it will save me the cost of parking!
• Pilates / Physio / Yoga - I love all of these things, but definitely benefit from doing them in a class setting best, I can recommend Pilates with West Point Practice who offer zoom or in person sessions and I try and do 10 minutes of pilates / physio each day to keep my injuries at bay, by only setting 10 minutes it gives fewer excuses not to do it and each week it means I do at least 70 minutes of positive movement that I might otherwise forget

These are only suggestions - they work for me and I'd encourage anyone who wants to improve their mental health with movement to try lots of different things until you find something you enjoy and is easy to fit into your day, ideally every day. Good mental health is something that benefits from small daily positive acts repeated every day - so even if it's a walk to the bins - it all counts and it all helps!

And finally, if you are struggling, there are places who can help - asking for help is the first, but often hardest step, so if you aren't able to find the right words, ask a friend, relative, colleague or professional to help and here are some suggestions below.

• Samaritans. To talk about anything that is upsetting you, you can contact Samaritans 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can call 116 123 (free from any phone), email jo@samaritans.org or visit some branches in person. You can also call the Samaritans Welsh Language Line on 0808 164 0123 (7pm–11pm every day).

• Mindwell - https://www.mindwell-leeds.org.uk/ - MindWell is the mental health website for adults in Leeds. It’s funded by NHS Leeds CCG to bring together information from the NHS, Leeds City Council and the third sector into one ‘go to’ place.

• SANEline. If you're experiencing a mental health problem or supporting someone else, you can call SANEline on 0300 304 7000 (4.30pm–10.30pm every day)

• National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK. Offers a supportive listening service to anyone with thoughts of suicide. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Helpline UK on 0800 689 5652 (open 24/7).

• Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). You can call the CALM on 0800 58 58 58 (5pm–midnight every day) if you are struggling and need to talk. Or if you prefer not to speak on the phone, you could try the CALM webchat service.

• The Mix. If you're under 25, you can call The Mix on 0808 808 4994 (3pm–midnight every day), request support by email using this form on The Mix website or use their crisis text messenger service.

• Papyrus HOPELINEUK. If you're under 35 and struggling with suicidal feelings, or concerned about a young person who might be struggling, you can call Papyrus HOPELINEUK on 0800 068 4141 (weekdays 10am-10pm, weekends 2pm-10pm and bank holidays 2pm–10pm), email pat@papyrus-uk.org or text 07786 209 697.

• Nightline. If you're a student, you can look on the Nightline website to see if your university or college offers a night-time listening service. Nightline phone operators are all students too.

• Switchboard. If you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, you can call Switchboard on 0300 330 0630 (10am–10pm every day), email chris@switchboard.lgbt or use their webchat service. Phone operators all identify as LGBT+.

York 10K 2023 Race Report

 

Covid took an awful lot away from many of us and continues to impact our lives. I hated not being able to run with HPH, parkrun and races so it was a huge relief when things started up again and I was able to run in different areas and with more people than just dragging Alan out with me to do laps around the village. 

My biggest frustration remains the effect Covid seems to have had on my fitness (and indeed Alan as well). During lockdown, being told I was only *allowed* to run once a day meant I got quite fit and even managed a 23.24 "not parkrun" in September 2020 which was edging closer to my previous peak times back in 2016. Having the privaledge of being able to work from home throughout the majority of the pandemic meant that both myself and Alan avoided covid until late March last year. We travelled to Vegas in February and ran a half marathon with a decent time  around 2hrs 8 and even a day before I tested positive I ran a 24.31 at Pontefract parkrun. 

However, since we both caught covid last year, all fitness has felt like a literal uphill battle (with that hill ressembling Post Hill most of the time!)  We signed up for the Leeds Marathon (and I still need to write a blog about this!), but Alan had to drop out a few weeks before and I had a lovely race and smiled all the way around, but was very much nearly a personal worst in terms of my time of 5hrs 8 minutes. Neither of us has had a "long covid" diagnosis, so I can only imagine how tough it is for people who have, but just when we were getting back on top of our running fitness last year, Covid put a stop to our hopes for a return to racing. There isn't anything obvious that has held us back from returning to fitness (which is almost more frustrating) but being less active has meant I've put on weight and putting on weight has meant it's been harder to run and I've lost fitness. (I just want to point out that I'm not someone who judges people on weight as it's a very complex issue, but I'm at a point where my clothes don't fit and my thighs are rubbing together and I just like to feel more comfortable when I run, so I'm hoping that some more focussed activity and more considered nutrition choices might return me to a body that I'm more comfortable in) 

We have signed up for a few things that we've not been able to complete such as Ilkley Half recently and so when Alan messaged me this week to point out there were still spaces for York 10K this weekend and did I fancy it, I jumped at the chance. 

The one and only time I have ever run York 10K previously was back in 2016 and I remember enjoying it, but feeling a bit disappointed with my time of 46.28 (!). It's not as "flat" as you might think, but is a lovely route with lots to keep your brain interested and so I was looking forward to it today, especially as the weather this morning actually resembled summer!

We set off from South Milford at 7.30am and were there in half an hour which left us around 90 minutes to pick up our numbers, grab a coffee and queue for the toilets - this took a lot longer than we'd have predicted and toilet queues were huge and slow moving. We got to the start pen for around 9.20am and we crossed the start line around 9.33am which we were grateful for as there were rumours that they might need to delay the start.

The first couple of KM are a bit up and down through the outskirts of York City Centre and Alan and I always planned to run together and we decided to try keep close to the 1 hour pacers (who were very amusing teasing me with lots of comments about the most annoying HPH members...it wasn't as mean as it sounds typing it out!)

I'd set my garmin to pace us for 6 minute KM and we were ahead of target pace for the first 6KM with sub 6 minute KMs. We loved running past York Minster and all the twists and turns around York confusing lots of early morning shoppers and there was lots of good crowd support most of the way around. I spotted fellow HPH Ande who regularly runs in group 2 when I'm leading, but delivered an amazing performance and should definitely consider jumping up to Group 3. We also bumped into my friend Tana who is a lapsed HPH and had a great race and we had a bit of cat and mouse with over the final 1.5KM..

At 6KM we had to slow a little and have a few walk breaks as we were running up and over several bridges. There is a lovely part where you run over the runners in front of you and can wave! We managed to run the last 800m which was a slightly psychologically challenging out and back along the edge of York Racecourse. We crossed the finish line together and were pleased with a 1hr 02 mins and 43 seconds. 

The goody bag was decent with a medal, a carob bar, packed of crisps, bottle of water and electrolyte tablet. We'd opted to decline a t-shirt as we both have too many, but it was a nice looking navy blue one. 

I had such a lovely time running this morning in the sunshine with Alan and seeing some friendly faces. My time was over 20 minutes slower than it was 7 years ago, but I think I enjoyed this race even more as I'm now much more grateful to be able to do things that 3 years ago seemed like they might never happen again. 

Goals for 2023

The fact that I had to look up my 2022 goals doesn't bode hugely well for whether I managed to achieve them...

This is what I came up with....and a guess of how I've done so far!

Daily

• 10 minutes of reading (at least) - Yep!
• 10 minutes of writing (at least) - Nope!
• 10 minutes of daylight (at least) - Yep!
• Only have treat food (chocolate, takeaway or booze) if I've had my 5 a day fruit and veg - Nope!
• 10 minutes of activity - cardio or resistance (at least) - Nope!
• In bed to allow enough time to sleep for c8 hours - I'll find out my average soon on my Lifecycle app, but I have a feeling that it won't be quite 8 hours
• 10 minutes of physio exercises - Nope! 
• Listen to one new piece of music every day - Nope! I did get up to 55 songs in my playlist so a good 310 off what I was aiming for
• 1 hour everyday away from social media/phone - Nope!

Monthly

• Read 4 - 5 books (4.33 is needed to hit my target of 52 in the year) - Pretty much achieved
• One new place visited - Did quite well..but didn't track
• One walk in a beautiful location - Did ok, but need to do more
• One thing planted - achieved this
• One item/box/bag donated to charity/recycled - nope
• One blog post (at least) - nope!
• One gym visit/strength session - better, but nope!
• One new film watched - think I managed this
• One catch up with friends - not too bad, but need to be better
• One craft session - only managed a couple of these
• One letter/postcard - not in general, but did well with postcards whilst in Vegas
• Lead/coach one run club session - Yep I think I was there consistently on this one
• One live music/theatre/comedy trip (either attended or booked) - Yep pretty sure this was achieved
• 12 days veggie only - nope - did make a effort to eat much less meat though!

For 2023 I'm going to try and keep it simple, but also track better! (I've just built a spreadsheet)

Daily Goals

• 10 minutes of reading (at least)
• 10 minutes of writing (at least)
• 10 minutes of daylight (at least)
• Only have treat food (chocolate, takeaway or booze) if I've had my 5 a day fruit and veg
• 10000 steps each day
• In bed to allow enough time to sleep for c8 hours
• 10 minutes of physio exercises
• 1 hour everyday away from social media/phone

Yearly Goals

• Run Leeds marathon and help a coaching group run it
• Swim again in a pool
• Finish my novel
• Start writing a new novel
• Read 3 books about owning a forest
• Work out how much it costs to own a forest
• Work out how much money I need to buy a forest
• Investigate courses on forestry management

Monthly Goals

• Read 4 - 5 books (4.33 is needed to hit my target of 52 in the year)
• One new place visited
• One walk in a beautiful location
• One thing planted
• One item/box/bag donated to charity/recycled
• One blog post (at least)
• One gym visit/strength session
• One new film watched
• One catch up with friends
• One craft session
• One letter/postcard
• Lead/coach one run club session
• One live music/theatre/comedy trip (either attended or booked)
• 12 days veggie only
• 12 new songs listened to

Wish me luck!

World Mental Health Awareness Day

Today is World Mental Health Awareness day and the theme for 2022 is 'Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority' and it's been on my "to do" list to write a blog post about this theme for #RunAndTalk for ages, but I've not necessarily been taking my own advice and making writing, something that is very important to me, a priority. However, before it hits midnight...I will get this post out!

With everything that is going on around the world from the cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine, climate change and the aftermath of covid there is much to make us think that good mental health is just a "nice to have" on top of our basic needs, but in reality the line between physical and mental good health is not really a line at all as the two are so closely interlinked. I was fortunate enough to be invited to #LIFI2022 (by the lovely Claire Booth who sadly couldn't make it on the evening) and watched a panel discussion chaired by Bryony Gordon speaking to Gail Porter, Luke Ambler (Founder of Andy's Man Club), David Harewood and Sarah Hughes CEO of Centre for Mental Health and the topic was "How do we talk about Mental Health?" The conversation and stories shared were incredibly moving, distressing and laugh out loud funny and at the Q&A I was able to ask my question that was as a Mental Health Champion and leader of #runandtalk I was aware supporting people is sometimes tough for an empathetic person and I believe it's important to put your own airmask on first so you can continue to help others. The panel all had great ways to ensure they retained good mental health including, singing, dancing, walking their dog, getting out into green spaces and down the bed with their kids for a big cuddle. (PS I kinda want Sarah Hughes to run as PM as she's so clear and direct on what needs to change to make the bigger improvements we all need! She made the complete point that without our basic needs being met - food, shelter, warmth - then we can't prioritise mental health and that the government and Labour party must do more!)

Like many things, if you don't prioritise your own mental health and the mental health of those close to you it will potentially reach a crisis point when you have no option to take a step back and make it your priority.

I'm not one of those people that is going to tell you that you can "choose your hard" and that you have choice over how to react to any challenges that life throws at you as sometimes you just won't have the mental resilience to do so.  And as much as I love running and know that the benefits to my mental and physical health through being active is immeasurable, I also recognise that some people can't run or be active in the same way and so instead I what I will say is try as hard as you can to every day take 10 minutes to do something that you know is positive towards your mental health and do that - for me it looks like:

📚 10 minutes of reading as I drink my coffee before heading out to work

🏃🏻‍♀️ Going for a walk/run around somewhere green and within daylight (Really important at this time of year to leave the house/office and see the daylight for a few mintues!)

👩‍❤️‍👨🐈‍⬛🐈 Spending time with my husband and cats

🎨🖌10 minutes of arts/craft/creative writing

🙋🏻‍♀️ Volunteering (as a guide leader or run leader)

I often find that a quick few minutes writing in my diary at the end of the day and a few moments planning a short (and importantly achieveable) to - do list helps me prioritise the things that contribute well to my own mental health.

Last week, I also prioritised my mental health by spending some time chatting to a Burn Out Coach This time last year I took two months off work inbetween jobs for a variety of reasons. Reflecting now I could sense at the time I was overwhelmed, but now I know I was definitely burnt out and my personal resilience levels were very limited from both stressful events in relation to my family who live 5 hours drive away and a particularly unpleasant set of events at work that essentially constituted constructive dismissal and meant I had to resign with no role lined up in advance. 

Ultimately I thought that taking 2 months off work would be all I needed to recover, but the persistent low level migraine headaches returned after I'd stopped taking medication and they are still around to this day despite my work situation improving signficantly. 

From my brief conversation I've identified a couple of key things that I'm now more aware of including the fact that it's very easy to focus on what I've not achieved at the end of the working day, rather than the positives and that I potentially have unrealistic expectations of myself on what I *should* manage to get done. I'm trying to now make a note of at least 6 things each day that I have achieved. I am also not great at delegating work which has potentially held me back from progressing my career in the past and my coach identified that re-framing this view as limiting the potential for those in my team to achieve more if I don't give them opportunties to take on extra work. And then ultimately she identified that I can be someone who is sometimes too willing to take on the problems of others, I am a good listener, and even better problem solver, but I'm really not good at telling someone when I need help myself or that I don't have the resilience to support them and can be a bit like a sponge taking on too much for everyone else. Somehow I must try and learn how to ask for help as it's something that I find almost impossible to do.

Investing in my conversation with a Burnout Coach isn't really that different to speaking to a running coach or hiring a personal trainer, but it's a bit harder to identify some tangible benefits and impact they are having as you can see your performance improve/measure your running times more easily in a physical sense.  When it comes to mental health, it's likely we get to quite a far gone point before we'd seek help and support and much like running, if we get that niggle investigated early on it's less likely to become an ongoing issue causing us chronic pain.

Finally as a Mental Health First Aider I would also encourage anyone who feels as though they are at breaking point to reach out to someone and start a conversation and equally anyone who is worried about someone in their life, maybe today invite them out for a walk/coffee/chat as caring for others can be as good for your mental health as it is for theirs. And please please do check on your most helpful and supportive people in your life...there is a good chance they are the worst people to know how to ask for their own help!

As always there are plenty of resources available on the #RunAndTalk page and please reach out if you need any extra help signposting yourself to the right support, or want to know where to signpost someone else.

Co - working Spaces

In my new job, I work in a co-working space if I have a meeting, or just want a bit of a change of scenary. Today I was in the co-working space with no particular agenda.

It's a trendy place where I feel both overdressed and underdressed at the same time. There are exposed ducts and brickwork and I look out through large windows onto the old Majestics nightclub building that I spent hours losing my friends whilst we danced with our hands in the air trying to catch lasers. It's now been burned down and then rebuilt as offices for Channel 4, but I've not seen anyone particularly interesting around there. In fact much like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, no one ever seems to go in and nobody ever comes out.

There is apparently a roof terrace, I should ask one of the front desk staff to show me, but I feel like I've been there awkwardly too many times to be asking now, but when I hunted by myself following signs around the building I nervously and purposefuly walked up and down the same corridor before diving into the stairwell and down the stairs before anyone noticed me.

The biggest positive to the space is the coffee machine that will make a latte, cappuccino or americano by just pushing a button and the three different types of tea (English Breakfast, Green Tea and Morrocan Mint Tea) all available to sip during the day. The tea bags are all neatly presented in glass jars with labels explaining the ideal temperature for the water for each tea, but there being no way of changing the temperature of the water that comes out of the "tea" setting of the coffee machine.

In the handful of times I've been there I've observed some interesting behaviour including: 

The interview I overheard between a very young graduate age man and the CEO of a recruitment business that should have been left behind in the late 80s (if indeed should have been allowed to happen) 'Would you speak to your friends like that?' he asked the smartly, awkwardly dressed waffling apprentice type. I pretended to not be listening and spoke to my contacts like normal people wondering if I'd perhaps turned invisible or whether I was exactly invisible to people with egos the size of the CEO?

Today there was a woman who appeared to work for another recruitment firm. She was wearing a smart black strappy jump suit and seemed to be fairly corporate, but was spending a long time on a teams call with a man discussing ingredients for breakfast sandwiches "ketchup and tomato in that one, no, no, no, hash brown, and yes sausage and no, no, no" she stamped her feet visibly angered by the responses she was getting 'crack on, just crack on' she shouted and then hung up, retreating to a table where I heard further breakfast ingredient discussions. I wonder what her job was, she wasn't organising an event from what I could tell and she did mention the word "allergens" several times?

Calderdale Way Relay

I thought I'd run this twice before, but because of an often clash with my birthday, the last time I ran this race was 2017 and I had a chance to do a decent recce beforehand. I remember it being tough, but beautiful and I love a team relay. 

This year I had been training hard for the Vegas Half Marathon and my fitness was starting to come back, so when Danni was asking for people interested it seemed like a great time to sign up. I ran a 2 hour 8 minute time at the Vegas Half on the 27th February and on the 26th March I ran a 24.31 minute parkrun at Pontefract and was finally feeling that after injuries and illness I was getting my fitness back, only the following day I inevitably tested positive for Covid after avoiding it for 4 days after Alan had tested positive.

We were both fortunate to "recover" pretty quickly with us both testing postive for around 10 days and not needing any additional medical support, but trying to run or be active afterwards has really been more challenging that I would have predicted with my garmin proudly declaring recovery times of 60+ hours after a parkrun!

All credit to Danni for managing to arrange a team, the logistics and chase us all for payment and signatures and I was allocated leg 6 again (handy as I didn't get a chance to recce) and she had also paired me up with Jed who I've run with a few times in Groups 3 and 4 before catching Covid. I knew I'd likely be slower than the last time I ran the relay and so was slightly worried when I saw Jed had run a 1 hour 34 Leeds Half Marathon the weekend before the relay! I told him that he'd potentially hate me by the end of the relay as I'd not managed further than 7 miles post covid!

I prepped my kit the night before digging out a running rucksack, the print out of the route, a compass, full body waterproofs, hat and gloves...and no-one checked my bag this time. I also downloaded the route onto my garmin to help if I didn't remember where we were going from the last time.

We planned our travel logistics and I drove to Leeds and picked Jed up and then we got stuck in a very long queue of traffic for the Leeds match, fortunately we'd left a load of time (meeting at 12pm to hopefully get there in 30 minutes) we managed to find a parking space on the road near the start and I grabbed a packed of crisps and used the toilet in a pub nearby. 

Registration was swift and we had about 45 minutes to wait before the mass start and we watched a few teams pass over the baton as we waited for 2pm to arrive.

They set us all off and we piled off down the grassy hill and into the woods where there were a few traffic jams at tighter parts of the route. It was a really warm day and the sun had come out and so we got to run across bluebell lined paths and up and down slopes to the path along a field. 

Fortunately much of the route was familar to me as I do have a decent memory for recalling routes I've done previously, even if it's been a few years, but having a few people up ahead to follow (and occasionally behind to tell us when we were taking a slightly wrong turn) was really useful. 

I had conveniently forgotten just how hilly Leg 6 is with around 477m of elevation across 17.2km route. I got through the first 10K reasonably swiftly in just over an hour and seven minutes with Jed not having to wait for me too much (although I suspect he was very much running at a slower pace than he could have done!) but then for the next 7km I really needed to employ the tactic of walking up all of the hills and indeed along a fair chunk of the flat sections. 

The views as usual were beautiful which almost made the fact I had to walk like a Gorilla up at least 90% of the uphill sections worthwhile and running down the long stretch onto the last section of the canal at the end was definitely good fun!

We got around to the finish and took a slight detour along the road rather than the field, but were able to spot a rather tempting looking ice cream van and we finished in 2 hours 21 which is a good 20 minutes slower than my last attempt, but I'm really glad I managed to get around and finish it. 

We rewarded ourselves at the ice cream van and took a walk to the bus station to get a bus back to the start to pick up my car. Note for future runners the 508 bus goes from Leeds right to the start and it's only 10 minutes walk to the bus station which can make car logistics a bit easier.

I still feel bad that Jed had to slow down and walk/wait for me as much as he did, but I think we both had an enjoyable run out through Halifax and as much as I might regret it later, I do still think I want to do it again...only this time I'll definitely train more and try my best to avoid pandemic diseases!

#runandtalk and Mental Health Awareness Week

Today was a Tuesday, but not a first Tuesday, but as it's Mental Health Awareness Week with a theme of loneliness I put on an extra session as I know that many people would potentially benefit from company if they were feeling lonely.

I've been posting each day on LinkedIn as well to tie in with the theme and I'm hoping that it makes a difference to some people.

I've loved being more social again in the past few months, but it's still quite jarring to get used to and so at times I've had to force myself a bit, or nudge might be the right word to make sure that I do things to make me feel positive and social. I don't want to slip back into a more hermit like existence as I did before 2010 when I joined WI and made lots of really important friends. 

The run was nice as we found some ginnels or maybe snicketts that I wasn't familiar with, saw an interesting carving from a tree in Woodhouse Ridge and some rabbits back on campus and then we had a quick drink and chat at Nation of Shopkeepers where I've not been for years.