**Disclaimer: I’m writing my latest selection of rants and raves after spending the day feeling slightly peaky. I’m still experiencing holiday #FOMO. Spending over an hour looking at my friends Greenland photos made me realise just how much I *need* a holiday. Unfortunately, no job means no luxuries and no holiday funds. As always all moans and groans and rants and raves represent my own views. Other (far, far superior) and less opinionated running blogs are available**

Happy Thursday. I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable week. I’ve you’ve been away then lucky you. If like me you haven’t, I feel your pain. At least it’s not raining and it’s very nearly the weekend!

Rave: The Big Sleuth

I’m aware that I’ve already raved about The Big Sleuth so suspect that I’m cheating a little, sorry. Thanks to train delays, I had an hour to waste in the centre of Birmingham. As I didn’t feel in the mood for mooching around Grand Central, I decided to see how many Big Sleuth bears I could track down.

I walked the short distance from New Street station to Cathedral Square – I think I had to dodge six chuggers, I could very easily dedicate an entire rant to charity muggers – and discovered just how popular The Big Sleuth is. Hundreds of children and *ahem* adults were admiring the bears. It was amazing to see so many children outside having fun. I actually had to queue to get photos of some of the more popular bears.

Unfortunately, not everyone has embraced The Big Sleuth. One bear in Solihull was so badly damaged it has been permanently removed from the trail. Another bear in Boldmere has been vandalised a couple of times. I just don’t understand some people.

Rant: The weather

Whatever happened to the sunshine and warm weather? I’ve just looked out the window and it’s raining again. It was so cold when I headed out on my run this morning I could see my breath.

I’ve had enough of the autumnal weather and would appreciate it if the sun could make an occasional appearance in Sutton Coldfield. I’ve also had more than enough of the rain. So much for the drought I needed for my research.

Rave: My right heel

I don’t want to curse myself, but I think my right heel is finally starting to feel a lot better itself *touch wood*. It’s still a little bit niggly first thing in the morning, but the pain is now 2/10 rather than the 8/10 it was back in February. I think the combination of wearing supportive shoes when I’m not running and the strengthening exercises I’ve been doing have made a big difference. My right foot feels far more stable when I’m running. Hopefully my right heel will continue to behave itself.

Rant: My left foot

Rather ironically I’m now more concerned about the pain in the top of my left foot. The pain is in exactly the same location as my metatarsal stress fracture a few years ago. The fact that I can still run makes me hopeful that my pavement pounding hasn’t somehow caused a second metatarsal stress fracture. I’m icing the top of my left foot after every run and looking out for any swelling or bruising. I don’t think there’s much else I can do at the moment. However, if the pain suddenly increases I’ll be heading straight to the minor injuries unit.

Rave: The running community

I know that I’ve complimented the online running community before, but I love how supportive the vast majority of runners are. Last Sunday I completed a 55 minute run. More experienced runners find running for such a short amount of time relatively easy, however, after not running for several months, I found running for almost an hour quite challenging. As you can probably imagine, I was left feeling rather deflated when my friend didn’t want to listen to me waffle on about my most recent running achievement. As a non-runner he just wasn’t interested.

Maria commented on my training run on Strava and left me feeling a lot more positive about my run. I’m now making sure I remember to give people ‘Kudos’ on their training runs and rides on Strava. A bit of virtual kindness takes a second and goes a long way.

Rant: Sainsbury’s Spaghetti Bolognese

I’m quite lazy, don’t actually enjoy cooking ‘for one’ and will occasionally buy ready meals to save time and mess. Sainsbury’s Spaghetti Bolognese was one of my favourite pre-run ready meals as I knew one serving was enough to fuel my long runs. As an added bonus my somewhat temperamental stomach seemed to tolerate Sainsbury’s Spaghetti Bolognese, always a good thing as a runner.

Last Saturday I treated (?) myself to a of Sainsbury’s Spaghetti Bolognese meal for one *sobs*in the evening. I noticed that the packaging had been updated and that the Spaghetti Bolognese was rather bland and tasted different. It definitely didn’t taste ‘off’ just different. The following morning I headed out on a 55 minute run. I spent the majority of the run trying to burp discreetly while ignoring the taste of Spaghetti Bolognese. Never again!

Rave: Hero the Hedgehog

Like many other sports fans, I thought that Hero the Hedgehog – the official mascot for the recent World Athletics Championships – was fantastic. As a runner, I loved Hero’s motivational signs.

In my first job, I had the misfortune of having to dress up as Charlie Chalk and Brewster the Bear. I struggled to walk around a restaurant so have a huge amount of respect for whoever was wearing the Hero costume. I’d love to know the identity of the person underneath the costume.

Rant: Manspreading on public transport

I spend far too much time travelling on public transport and quite frankly, I’m getting fed up with men pretending to be cellists. Why do some men feel the need to sit with their legs wide open? Why do some men feel it’s acceptable to invade my personal space? And don’t even get me started on people who put their dirty feet on seats. There’s no need.

Once again, if you’ve reached the end of my latest random selection of rants and raves, then thank-you!

Do you have to dodge people fundraising for charities in your nearest town/city? The charity muggers got such a bad reputation in Birmingham; there was talk of banning them.

Do you have to avoid eating certain types of food before you run? I’m gradually running out of meals I can eat the evening before I run.

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