Heading South!

Wow. We have finally got here. After 4 months of planning and organisation and over 10,000 miles of travelling we finally made it from the hot sands of Doha to the wintry climes of the South Atlantic Falkland Islands.

Getting here was a bit of an epic journey over 2 days of travelling. While I have been reasonably well traveled over the last few years, I was quietly dreading the marathon we were about to undertake. As it turned out, the drive up to Oxford on Saturday was probably the worst part! Saturday is changeover day during the madness of the Summer holiday season in Cornwall. By travelling up on the Saturday we were going to be stuck in the middle of the weekly mass exodus of holiday-makers out of the Southwest.  And stuck we were… in fact we were at a standstill only 20 minutes into the journey. Great! This set the tone for the rest of the journey, and 8 hours of traffic jams, driving rain, poor visibility and monotonous boredom later, we finally arrived at RAF Brize Norton.

We stayed the night in Gateway House at Brize. Basic but comfortable (and cheap!), and with plenty of time to kill on Sunday, we were able to take in some of the beauty of the local surrounding area. This area has a very English countryside beauty about it - very different to the rugged wildness of the Cornish coastline. The surrounding villages and towns would sit quite happily on the front of a postcard and it was a shame we did not have more time to take such views in.

Stage 2 of the journey South was scheduled to begin at 11.59 pm on Sunday night. We were all pretty tired from the agonizing car drive the previous day, so God knows what we were going to feel like on arrival in the Falklands. I had purchased Max Brooks' World War Z to read on the plane, so images of zombie-like, sleep deprived, stiff and achy passengers emerging from the plane were springing to mind. We had all deliberately not got any sleep during the day, in the hope of sleeping more easily on the overnight portion of the coming flight. By the time we were in the departure lounge we were all definitely ready to sleep – that is apart from Evie, who was going wild in the soft play area… I'm not quite sure where she was finding the energy from mind you.  The last thing we wanted to be hearing at this point was there was a delay on the flight by an hour.

To be fair the flight, in the end, was not really that bad. Yes, it was long and of course there were times of boredom and lack of comfort. Any glimmer of a hope of being able to utilize more than 1 seat was extinguished by the number of people in the departure lounge waiting for the same flight – it was busy with a mixture of civilians on their way back to the Falklands and military personnel on their way to Mount Pleasant. Getting decent rested sleep in an upright seated position is near impossible, and being confined in a small space for 19 or so hours made me sympathetic to the plight of caged zoo animals. However, we did have a surprising amount of space compared to many flights I have been on, were fed well at regular intervals and did have a swanky preloaded I pad to entertainment us. What really did help was the short stop at the volcanic and barren island of Ascension; yet another island relic from the British colonial past. We were able to get off here and stretch our legs in the fresh air for a couple of hours. This definitely served as a welcome break in the journey. Only another 8 hours to go…

"Bloody hell, it's windy!"

First impressions on leaving the plane were dominated by the strength of the wind and the difference in temperature, which was significantly cooler than the temperature we had left in the UK. At least the sun was shining (for the moment).  We were met by my new head teacher, Karen and were then driven to our new home. We had done our research on the Falklands, so the poor nature of the roads and the barren outlook of the landscape unfolding around us were not a surprise. What was a pleasant surprise however, was the inside of our new home – the size, finish and comfort was much more than we were expecting. This surprise was mirrored by the girls, who had already set about apportioning out the bedrooms. For me exhaustion was seriously setting in now. All I could think about right at this moment was where was the kettle?

Come in number 16. Your time is up!

This week is disappearing quicker than the money in my bank account (and that has been seriously fast this holiday!). As I write the final UK chapter (for this year anyway) to the blog, it is already Thursday. My emotions are a heady hotpot of worry, nervousness, stress, excitement, happiness and eagerness to get going; all on rapid boil inside me. There is however,  a delicate underlying flavour of sadness at leaving my beautiful Cornwall behind again for another year. It has been at times a hectic stay over the last 6 weeks or so, but I have loved breathing the salty Cornish air, running and cycling in quiet(ish) country lanes, sea swimming with great people and definitely tasting the locally regionally-brewed nectar, that is real ale. Of course I am not the only person in this family and I am pretty confident that the girls (all 3) have had a great time also. Olivia and Evie have touched base again with both sets of grandparents and notwithstanding the dreaded dental work Caz had to undergo, I think she has been able to sort of unwind from the stress and strain of working in Doha. I definitely think some time off relaxing in the Falklands will do Caz the world of good.

I am confident that once we finally get to the Falklands, the sadness of leaving Cornwall will be quickly  dispelled by the excitement of settling into a new home and somewhere so reassuringly different to our Middle Eastern home of the last few years. Don't get me wrong, I am under no illusion that all will be rosy with living in the Falklands. For one thing, at about 7000 miles and an 18 to 19 hour plane journey, it's a bloody long way away from the UK. Just this fact alone presents a number of challenges in living there. This increase in remoteness means even less opportunity to see family and friends for one. I certainly won't be popping home for the odd weekend - Skype it is then Mum and Dad! It's also going to be another couple of years of missing the Cornish Pirates playing down at the Mennaye - something I loved to do before leaving for the Middle East. Well, maybe they will be playing in the Premiership at last, the next time I do get to see them... you never know. The weather is going to be colder on average than the UK, and being only about 2500 miles from the South Pole, A LOT colder than Qatar! A good proportion of this holiday has been spent mining a hole in the bank balance to build, practically from scratch, a new Winter wardrobe for all of us. Aside from school uniforms and work clothes, we have all been living in flip flops for almost 3 years. What makes this prospect worse is the fact that it's Winter in the Southern hemisphere at the moment. My fingers and toes are already tingling at the prospect of running and cycling in cold like that again - cue flashback of cycle commuting to Penryn, Winter 2011...

Although these are significant negatives (and there are others), I do believe and hope that they will be far outweighed by a number of positives for moving to the Falklands. Despite the cold, the opportunity to lead an outdoor life for my family and me is something we have really missed out on in recent years and something that really presents itself on the islands. It's also another part of this wonderful world to experience and savour and I feel that it truly will be a wonderful part of the world in terms of the natural beauty of the land and the variety of fauna on show.  Community life in Stanley, and how well we integrate into this, will also be an important factor in how we enjoy our time there. On this front all the signs do look favourable, at the moment. Caz (being Caz) has made a number of contacts already... Facebook, where would we be without it these days? On top of this, every person we have spoken to with any sort of contact or experience to the place have only spoken of how they have enjoyed their time there.  Lastly, it's another opportunity to develop my career. Although the school will be a lot smaller than DBS in Qatar, the challenge will be no less demanding, and yet possibly even more rewarding.

I guess we will find out soon enough, how all of the above pans out. This time next week we will be well and truly into the settling in process, which will be fine with me, as that epic journey to get there will be over. If I am honest the thought of flying for so long is not the most appealing, to say the least. We have to drive to RAF Brize Norton first, as we are flying courtesy of the RAF. This alone will occupy us for the majority of Saturday. Although fairly seasoned travellers now, I doubt very much whether Olivia and Evie even comprehend how far it is going to be.
"Are we there yet?"
"No Evie, we have only just left the airport..."
"How many minutes more?"
"One thousand and seventy-nine Evie..."

So... that's it for UK for this year. See you in the South Atlantic!

Race week!

A few weeks ago, during the 30 degree Summer heat-wave, this seemed like a good idea. Staring down at the gloomy water, clouds darkening by the minute and a fresh to strong wind howling down the promenade, this idea of swimming 200 meters and running 2 miles in the Mounts Bay Harriers monthly aquathlon was rapidly losing its gloss. The setting for the race would be hard to match anywhere in the world - a unique art deco sea-water lido with a backdrop of the truly beautiful Mounts Bay – especially when the sun is shining and the water blue. Unfortunately the weather last Wednesday was not playing ball.

I have completed many running races, triathlons and duathlons, in all distances up to Ironman, so the distances for this race, on paper at least, appeared easy. However, anyone who has raced anything near serious in these sorts of events will know the shorter the race the harder you have to race it. Mark Cavendish (top professional sprint road cyclist for those not familiar) talks a lot about cycling in the red zone when nearing a sprint finish. This is how I would describe racing one of these short aquathlons. You are in your red zone from the off. 14 minutes of pain for me… but a kind of weird enjoyable pain.

In the end I was pretty happy with my overall performance. Just over 14 minutes for both swim and run and 9^th out of a field of about 118. Considering this was my first multisport event since 2009, I was happy. Next up was the Indian Queens half marathon on the Sunday.

This was a last minute entry as I took the place of someone who was injured. I had decided to do the race out of curiosity more than anything. My last (short) road race was back in 2011 in Doha, and I hadn't competed in the Cornish Grand Prix series since 2009. I knew that I could run a long distance, as I have been doing a lot of mileage in training, however the sum total of my speed work in the last 2 years consisted of a couple of track sessions a few months ago in Qatar and the aquathlon on Wednesday evening. My plan was to run the best I could and hope to achieve at least a reasonable time.

Sunday morning arrived with the sound of torrential rain on the windows! Great… I was really hoping for a repeat of the heat of a few weeks ago. Having spent the last few years running in the heat of Qatar, hot racing conditions would have definitely worked in my favour. Alas, this was not to be. I was racing in Cornwall after all. What did I expect?  

There is always a real mixture of emotions leading up to the start of any race. Feelings such as nervousness, excitement, happiness, panic, fear… the list goes on. The more important the race, the more these emotions are accentuated. Leading up to the race I had been pretty relaxed. I entered just to see what would happen. No pressure. Standing on the start line surrounded by hundreds of other runners, feeling slightly damp from the rain, waiting for the gun, the nerves were rapidly setting in… "this is meant to be enjoyable… what am I doing this for… it's bloody raining again… I should have just gone for an easy training run this morning…"

There was just time for a quick reassuring glance to Caz, who was busy capturing this mixture of race day emotions on camera, before we were off. I have to be fair and say the race went well for me, although it wasn't the perfect race by all means. My pacing for the first 3 miles was quite frankly stupid. I decided that I would go out hard and see how long I could hold on. Well, this meant I was leading the race at mile 2, but soon slipped back. By mile 5, I was 5^th overall. Still good, but I was really beginning to think the wheels were about fall off. Visions of me staggering over the finish line in last place were flashing through my mind. What was I thinking by going so fast at the start? The rain had started again as well.

Thankfully my pace leveled out at this point and I was able to get into a rhythm for the next 8 miles – a nicely painful but just bearable rhythm – which enabled me to hang onto a really pleasing 5^th place overall (and 3^rd in the 35 – 39 age group – oh my god I am getting old!). Even more of a bonus was the time. 1 hour 17 minutes was only about a minute off my P.B. set way back in the mists of time of 2008. These small personal victories were crowned by the sweet kiss of congratulations from my lovely wife, Caz, who has followed and supported me steadfastly on all but a few races over the years.

All in all it was pretty successful return to racing this week and already in my mind were the beginnings of plans for races over the next 18 months. However, a more pressing thought was to get back to Penzance and celebrate with a couple of jars of Cornish real ale…

One final word... I have to shout a 'huge well done' to all the Mounts Bay Harriers who completed the race at Indian Queens, especially those who had never raced so far. A half marathon is nothing to be sniffed at, especially in the windy and wet conditions of Sunday. Also while I am shouting, can I also shout a 'huge thank you' to all the marshals, who stood in all that rain and wind for hours on end. Without volunteers like these, races and events that I and others love would not happen.   

Welcome to my new blog!

Hello and welcome to my new blog.

I have never 'blogged' before so you will have to excuse the amateurish nature of the site (at least to begin with). This is going to be a learning experience for me and if you follow regularly, you should share the evolution of the blog into a much slicker, informative and enjoyable site.

Why have I decided to blog? Well, in about 2 weeks my family and I are embarking on a major relocation to the South Atlantic - the Falklands Islands. We will be there for at least 2 years (with the odd trip back to the UK for some warmer weather) and I will be teaching at the Stanley Infant and Junior School. The purpose of this blog will be just another way for family and friends to keep updated on what we are up to, what the Falkland Islands are like and the new experiences and challenges we encounter along the way. I will also probably throw in the odd philosophical ramble about life, the universe and everything from time to time (apologies now...). There will be other ways in which to catch up with us, including Skype and Facebook, but this will be an opportunity for those interested to find out the recent happenings from the Falklands in more depth and at their leisure.

Why the title - Travelling, Teaching and Training? Well, that should be pretty obvious really, especially if you know me. Firstly, I am a teacher and this is the primary reason for me being in the Falklands. Secondly, I have been lucky in that my career has enabled me to see much more of the world in recent years. My family and I have just spent the last 2 and a half years in Qatar, which served as a stepping stone to the rest of the Middle East, as well as Thailand. Now the we are about to find ourselves somewhere very, very different! Lastly, I have a passion for keeping fit in general, running, cycling, swimming and triathlon. This will not be stopping in the Falklands. In fact I am pretty excited at the forthcoming challenges of training in this remote part of the world.

As I wrote earlier, this blog will be a work in motion. I promise to have definitely have something a little more interesting to say in coming posts, but I needed to get the introduction post out of the way first. I hope you enjoy reading and catching up!