Just wanted to show the Giant pencil from the pointy end.Many people from the neighbourhood have been stopping by to take their photo with it. It will probably become a tourist attraction somewhere.

Tonight I got to go to a free concert given by Boris Grebenshikov, a Russian rock star from the Soviet era. He was performing solo, though he is famous for being part of a band called Aquarium. When he performs he sings in the style of a singing poet, his songs are very sweet and lyrical. The concert was in the open air and it was a very beautiful night.

I woke up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, I can usually wait till my regular wake up time, but this time I couldn't. When I got up I noticed that my electronic mouse trap had a visitor so I took care of that. When I went back to bed I fell asleep easily, but then I overslept. This sort of thing happens to me 2 or 3 times a year. I find that I am really awake for the rest of the day afterwards. Both Celtic and Arsenal made it into the group stages of the Champions league, so 6 British teams made it.

It was my first day back at work after the marathon and I felt OK in the morning, but as the day progressed I began to feel tired. On my walk home I once again passed the giant pencil, which just looks amazing. There were some Champions League Qualifying games today, Liverpool beat Toulouse 4-0 ( agg 5-0 ) to go through to the group stages,Rangers drew 0-0 ( 1-0 agg ) with Red Star Belgrade to also advance.

Local legend Ashrita Furman is once again making an attempt at a world record. This photo shows the 76 foot pencil he and his crew built to celebrate his meditation teachers 76th birthday. I took the photo as I ran by on my morning run, my legs are feeling much better today and I think my recovery from the marathon is going well.

Went out for a couple of miles this morning, my quads are still sore but they loosened up a little after a few minutes of running. managed to make some arrangements for a place to stay when I go to Ottawa for the 24 hour race. Oh! I forgot to mention that my team Wolverhampton Wanderers won yesterday and moved into second place in the Championship, at least for now.

I woke up at my usual time, but after about 1 1/2 hours decided to go back to bed, which I did for 2 more hours. When I went for breakfast I noticed that my Quadriceps were a little sore but that will go away. Other than that I feel pretty good, it's just a case of allowing myself to recover now. After I finished my calf muscles kept cramping but that seems to be OK now and I don't have any problems with my feet.

I had to get up at 3:45 am to get one of the buses to the marathon. The start was quite humid but cool, it warmed up as the day went on. I ran most of the time with my friend Utpal we were both trying to get under 5 hours. We were both struggling a bit late in the race, but my endurance sort of kicked in on the last 2 laps. I ended up running 4:51:43 which is 22 minutes faster than last year. I am quite happy with that.

Hey I have a marathon to run tomorrow! I left work 45 minutes early today so that I could buy a few supplies. I also wanted to take a nap in the afternoon, since the buses to the marathon leave at 4:30 in the morning. I guess I am as ready as I will ever be. This is really my last long run before the 24 hour race in 2 weeks, so if I look at it like that there is no pressure, not that I really think that way though. Last year I had an injury and just wanted to finish so I was happy with 5:13, I will be happy if I am 1 minute faster, it will be a good endurance test.

I don't know why but for the first time in weeks I actually felt heavy when I was running today. Of course when I got home and weighed myself I wasn't. The fact that I had eaten a sandwich about 30 minutes before may have something to do with it though. Anyway it's just 2 days to the marathon and things seem OK.

Yesterday after my run and for no apparent reason I started getting pain in my right knee and thigh and some soreness in my hip.When I woke up this morning it still hurt quite badly. I massaged a couple of points and it seemed a little better and a few hours later at work it was all gone. I don't know what prompted it but I am glad it went away. The weather for august continues to be really strange, with rain and 58 degree temperatures.

This is something you don't see everyday in Queens New York. I saw this goat being pulled by a guy and escorted by a cop. After I took the photo I heard a woman say the her friend, why did they let that man walk a cow down the street.I guess she doesn't get to the country very much.

Finally Wolves have won a league game, beating Sheffield Wednesday 3-1. The Sunday shock though is that Man City beat Man Utd 1-0. Man U have not won a Premiership game yet having drawn their first 2 games. it's early but not a good start. It was a beautiful morning to run and I did with a visiting friend from Scotland. We both plan to run the marathon on Friday so got in a comfortable 1 hour run.

Overnight the weather turned quite cold, when I ran this morning it was about 61 F and there was a nice breeze. I ran early because today was my day to be the guard at our local tennis ground. It was quite busy today but the day was so beautiful that the day seemed to go by quickly.It's hard to believe that the premiership season is in it's second week, likewise with the Championship. My team Wolves have started off the season by losing another game inside the last few minutes. They did however win a league cup game during the week.

This was part of the new Raccoon family we had at work, you can see mom and the head and tail of 2 of the kids. I talked with my sister yesterday and didn't feel I had to post. I have 1 more week to the marathon, in fact I should be finished by this time next week.

The last 24 hours has been a little strange. One of my colleagues at work hyper extended his thumb, another and myself had a mild case of food poisoning, which made me really spacey. We were supposed to get a shipment of Alum' frames from China delivered, but they were delayed. I don't know why but I seem to be hungry all the time, even with just having had food poisoning.

An old friend of mine ( I've known him since he was about 6 ) just opened a coffee shop here in Queens, in fact it about 3 minutes walk from my house. It actually like a gourmet coffee house, that also serves great organic herbal teas and hot chocolate. It's called; The Panorama of my Silence Heart. It's the only one like it in this area of Queens, so I think it will do pretty good business.

I don't think I mentioned this, but I managed to bypass my router and hook up my digital phone system. I have finally dumped my ground based phone company, whose service has not been too good for the last year. I have a temporary phone number while I wait for my old company to switch my number to my new system.This means that my phone is pretty qiet because no one has the other number. Which means no telemarketing.

I ran on my own this morning. I awoke with some lower back pain and my first few running steps were a little uncomfortable, but everything soon loosened up. I think I ran a little faster than I usually do when I run with someone. I ran for just over an hour, finishing with a few laps around our local track, which is the same as the one I will run 24 hours on in 4 weeks time. My friend Tyagananda has a birthday today, he was born the same year but one day later than my sister.

First things first, it is my sisters birthday today so I want to wish her a happy Birthday, Her name is Georgina. The photo is with my friend Abichal who this morning completed 3100 miles in a race in New York City, an incredible feat setting new Welsh and UK records for the distance.

They were predicting another day like this today. Instead we got a nice steady rain for about 7 or 8 hours and it was quite cold. I am trying to switch over to digital phone and the equipment came for me to set it up, but now I seem to have a problem with my router. So if the phone
company drops my service before I get the other one set up I'll be without a land line until I do. Not a biggie.

There was a Tornado in Brooklyn yesterday, the first one in over 100 years. So you see what crazy weather we are having. It was still really humid in the basement today. There is more rain coming tonight and tomorrow so I hope I don't have a surprise when I get to work. I only work a few hours on Fridays.

This is what it looked like in front of my work place this morning. A lot of that water came into the basement, at the time I was on my own and there wasn't much I could do. We spent all day pumping and shop vaccing and finally cleaned it all up.But it is hot humid work and really takes it out of you.

First of all this is my 700 th post on this blog, which is something. Everything seems to be going quite well for me at the moment. My back problem appears to be gone, I am running again and am quite happy about the fact that I will be going to Ottawa at the beginning of next month to run another 24 hour race, this time on a 400 meter track. So I am hoping to improve on the Quebec race. we will have to see.

My back problem seems to be almost gone and I am running pretty normally, be it with tired legs from the 24 hour race. I don't know if I mentioned it but my weight is back to where it was after my raw food diet. I gained a few pounds after I went back to cooked food but have since lost it , I think due to my training. In fact with the warmer weather I occasionally lose 1 or 2 more. I am excited about my running and I am thinking of races that I can run, I had this kind of excitement 20 years ago and I am about the same weight now. Next race is a marathon on the 24th of this month.

This was my wonderful bed in the dorm in Drummondville, it was in a classroom at the University of Quebec.The room was very quiet and air conditioned. I slept very well. For the last couple of days I have been having some pain in my back. Did some special stretches yesterday and ran 2 miles in the afternoon. This morning I went out with Utpal and ran 10 km, there is still some soreness but I think it is better.

This is the Great Britain team at the World Championships in Drummondville.You can get some kind of idea what the town looked like. After the tiredness had worn off I stated to get some sciatic pain a few days ago, I have been doing some exercises and it seems to be getting better. I have a marathon in 3 weeks, so maybe my body is telling me to rest this week.

This was the lady in charge of preparing all the food at the team dorms. As you can see she was always ready with a smile. The food was good and plenty of it.

This is the Italian womens team at the world Championships. You can see that they all have a dark ankle bracelet, this is the electronic scoring chip that we all wore. This was how the race was scored, totals for each runner were posted every hour. Once you knew where to look it was quite easy to see how you were doing.

This is Stipe Leko, he is a runner from Croatia, the only Croatian runner at the 24 hour World Championships. He didn't speak English so I had to use what Croatian I knew to communicate with him, it turned out he is from Rijeka where I have cousins and is 1 year younger than me. he did 151 km, not his best but as you can see he was happy.