St Ives 10k

Yesterday I run the St. Ives 10k and I was second!

Last week I met Giacomo, an Italian taxi driver that has been living in Cambridge for 19 years and who took me to the station once a few months ago. He's a runner too and we talked about running. But I never saw him again till last week. Then we talked about running (of course) and we went training together the next day.

He usually trains with Giulio, another Italian, born in Cambridge.

The thing is that we went together to the St. Ives 10k and run. It was not such a massive race as the London 10k, of course, but there were a few good runners. The winner was way better than me and won easily. I had a good fight with three other runners for the second place and had to push really hard for the last two kilometers, but it was good to be runner up and specially running half a minute faster than in London.

I finished in 33:20. You can see the results here.

And a picture of the podium below.

Time for farewells

It's been months since I last made my contribution to this blog, mostly because as soon as the kids go to bed, I follow after! especially since Leo is not a great sleeper, although it seems to be getting better now.

However, I am finally realizing that this year really is coming to an end.

All our meetings with friends lately seem to be farewells: last Wednesday was our last day at toddler group (Bounce-a-Round) and Diego got a little goodbye present (which was terribly sweet of you all!); last night we had a Farewell dinner with the MBA wives (picture below); next Tuesday is the end-of-the-year (=my last) Bible Study Group dinner... and on and on it goes. We are regularly invited to Pub nights and dinners to have a chance to say our goodbyes to people who are already leaving... and it's soooooo sad!

Even though I know that closing a door means opening another one and moving on to more exciting things I still feel I'm desperately trying to make the most of my time left here.

This morning I had a lovely walk with the kids through Trinity's gardens, out to Garret Hostel Lane, over the bridge and back through Clare College an on to the Market where we bought fresh bread and focaccia before walking home for lunch. The kids enjoyed meeting a squirrel, a mummy duck with her seven ducklings, loads of canada geese and the white cows on the fields behind King's.

I know Seville is beautiful, but I'm going to miss Cambridge.

British 10k London Run

Yesterday I run the British 10k London Run and it was good fun. I finished 14th in 33:53, which is much better than I expected. You can see the results here.



People at JBS are quite impressed and some even asked me if I can make it to the Olympics. No way. It might look like if a 4 minutes difference between me and Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini is not that much, but closing that kind of gap is literally impossible.

But anyway, the most important thing is that the fundraising for New Foundations is going well.

You can see more pictures here.

Running for others

Sunday I'm taking part in the British 10k London Run 2008 to raise money for the charity New Foundations.

Almost everyone at JBS knows about it and support so far has been amazing, but according to Google Analytics there are a few others around the world who visit this blog regularly, maybe because they find it useful, informative, entertaining...

If you are one of those and you want to help, you can sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/paco

To spice things up a little bit I donated 25 pounds and I bet that if I don't make it to the top 25 in the race (out of 25.000 entrants!) I'll double my donation. If I make it, you can double your donation. Many of my friends have taken me on this bet. But it's up to you.

Any contribution is welcome. New Foundations runs medical projects in the Niger Delta where £5 will pay for:

• seven patients to be treated
• 10 children to be vaccinated against measles, tetanus, polio and given Vitamin A
• over twelve months 3 people will receive sight
• three treated mosquito nets for children
• Just 80p can provide an antimalarial injection that saves a childs life

Many thanks. I'll let you know how I did as soon as I can, probably Sunday night.

Grantchester

Today we finally made it to the Orchard!

I had walked to Grantchester with mum and dad when Paco was in Paris for his MBAT but after stopping to see friends on the way it was too late to make it to the Tea Rooms. This time I went with the MBA ladies.

Well, we didn't have the same glorious weather we had when my parents were here, but it didn't rain, we got some sunshine and we certainly had lots of fun and ate en excellent tea!

Meanwhile the kids loved climbing up the trees, including Diego who decided that the best way to do it was barefoot!

Here go a few pictures: