Countdown

I was going to blog today about how we're now firmly in the countdown to Christmas (unless you're Frances, of course, who - rightly - refuses to contemplate Christmas until Thanksgiving is over with). I was going to complain about how busy I am and how I'm panicking about being behind the curve with my Christmas preparations.

But I did enough complaining last night.

Instead, I want to blog about what happened to me today. Or this evening to be more accurate. And not to me, but to one of our local communities - Callander.

I blogged at the weekend that I was spending the next few days working with Callander on a Charrette approach to masterplanning. Well, 120 hours and lots of talking, arguing, debating and refining later, the project has ended and tonight the Masterplan proposals were handed over to the community to take forward. We've counted down to hour zero. A vision has been developed that will see everyone pulling together to make Callander a vibrant and successful town that harnesses the benefits of tourism without being swamped by it, that transforms itself from faded grandeur to outdoor capital, and that pulls its community back together at the same time.

It was a great night tonight and genuinely inspiring. I had, and still have, a huge grin on my face that won't wipe off. A few of us have been working for some time to make this a reality, to help the town and its residents work out what it is they want, how they can make the best of the truly stunning place that they live - and tonight it all came together.

Sometimes, just sometimes, those long hours and head numbing frustrations are worth it. And tonight was one of those. Well done, guys - here's to you. Thanks for letting me share the ride...

Computer says...

As regular readers of this self obsessed little blog will know, today was the day of my first ever organised race. I had been saying 'competitive race' but I stopped doing that because it implied that I thought I had a chance of competing - as in doing something more adventurous than just finishing! Well, it turns out that I did not too badly at all (she says modestly!) While we thought my time was around 57:20 for the 10k based on the finishing time on the clock, the official race time has been posted as 56:44. Of which, as I'm sure you'll guess, I am mightily proud. Apparently that places me 671 out of 779 runners, or 77th out of the 110 other women in my age category. And when you take the age-graded results into account (they were beginning to lose me at this point but I think it's a bit like a golf handicap!), my result was actually in the upper half - although the upper half of what I'm not sure since the winner got 92%.

But maths aside, it was a good result and one I'm very proud of. Also one that I wouldn't have believed myself capable of just a few months ago. I started running when the gym I was a member of closed down. Rather than join another gym that I probably wouldn't go to (the one I was a member of was chosen because it was convenient and it was ladies only), I decided to try my hand - or should that be foot? - at running instead. I started off at 2 miles and with encouragement from a number of friends at work slowly built up from there. The challenge was then laid down to try today's race - the City of Stirling 10k - and to aim for a sub 60 finish time. Both of which I achieved today.

That then got me thinking of the other new things I've achieved this year - of which, as it turns out, there are actually quite a few! So far this year, I've:

- run a 10k in less than an hour
- climbed 7 munros
- learned to tango
- adventured in a foreign country on my own for 2 weeks, including travelling by train across Europe to do it
- relearned how to speak Spanish
- learned a couple of words of Russian
- made new friends
- successfully grown my own crop of cherry tomatoes
- long distance walked on my own
- started writing my first 'book'

And it's only September!

But for now, I'm going to take the rest of today easy, put my feet up, rifle through my DVD collection and find something mindlessly entertaining to watch and perhaps even have a snooze. There's a bottle of bubbles in the fridge for later and a small tuna steak to sear if I can get the energy up. And if I get bored with all of that, I can always watch the men digging up and relaying the street outside the flat. Good on them, hard work in this drizzly wet!