#and a fair bit of it could be taken as dnf

[thatgirlissopeculiar]

Dream’s dnf fanart likes

December 29th

various versions of Dream hugging George from the Dream Team Gingerbread House stream

George, embarrassed, reading the Christmas card from Dream, while Dream watches

Dream and George using cookie cutters from the Dream Team Cookie baking stream

top: Dream hugging George, bottom: George hiding behind Dream, both from/inspired by the Dream Team Gingerbread House stream

two versions of the moment when Dream grabbed George and made him decorate cookies, from the Dream Team Cookie baking stream

the Dream Team hanging out after the streams, George lying with his head in Dream’s lap

various little drawings of ‘dnf crumbs’ based on pictures posted before the Dream Team streams (the bunny snapchat filter, the dnf coloured candy canes, them in their Antarctica fits etc etc)

dtkq watching the World Cup, Dream with his arm around George (and karlnap hugging) as they cheer for Messi

[scenetocause]

⭐star⭐

ah thank you anon!!! i'm gonna do climb up to your lips because altho i already did the logan ask i have an embarrassing number of thoughts and feelings about. my own fic. good god. but specifically about girloscar and i've been really fighting the urge to write a bit from her perspective because it's unnecessary authorial indulgence but also whatever, doing it for free aren't i.

Oscar's going to fucking die. They can't seriously be making them play Twister, this is like some sort of torture. The team shouldn't be torturing them, they're meant to be driving F1 cars soon. If she DNFs this weekend it's absolutely on marketing.

She says it to Mark, who tells her it's just a bit of fun, mate. Don't worry, he's probably shit at it. Which tells her Mark doesn't know anything about Lando Norris because the guy can contort into a shapes Oscar's never seen before but now very much haunt her dreams even when he's just meant to be sitting in a press conference chair.

It's not fair, being given a hot teammate. She could've had someone weird and awkward like Esteban but the need for a seat, to secure her future, was too strong to worry about the other side of the McLaren garage until she was there and it was suddenly her problem.

Lando's really nice, too. Helps her out, isn't anything like as annoying as she'd expected him to be. He's taken to spending meal times with her and giving her bits of his food and things, probably because he's a fussy little bitch but Oscar still appreciates it. The company, the way he doesn't seem scared of her being a girl, the sort of sad illusion he could be her boyfriend or whatever.

Logan says it's just teammate stuff, that him and Alex do that kind of thing, too. But Oscar's pretty sure Logan's never had Alex bring him a hot chocolate and a brownie just because it was a bit chilly in the sim room that morning. She doubts Logan is having to play Twister with him, either because Williams is a humane team with sane people doing their PR.

Sweating her way through a game of who can look the stupidest between her and the world's hottest, bendiest man has got to be some circle of hell. At one point she somehow ends up having to stick her arse practically in his face and she wishes she'd worn jeans, even if that might make it even worse, just in case he can see her whole bush up the leg or something.

When she admits she's in a world of trouble it's not just because she has no idea where her left foot can go now. Trying not to look Lando in the face is fruitless because he's giggling and keeps wriggling around, getting her attention so she'll laugh with him. Maybe it's awkward for him, too, having some girl he'd rather not touch having to climb all over him.

She knows she doesn't have a chance with him, that he's just being friendly. Lando dates models, influencers, whatever. Pretty, little girls with long hair who tell him he's big and strong or something, not someone taller than him. She can compete with him, not instagram hotties.

It's fine. Oscar could probably get her own instagram hottie if she liked. Or some guy who worked in finance, could look after her future. Handle all that shit, probably be nice enough to her. Mark was suggesting it the other week, that that'd be a good way to plan things out and Oscar's practical enough to know it makes sense.

It's just that she's being really stupid about being in love with Lando Norris. And guys in pinstripe suits make her pussy dry up.

Wanting things comes naturally to a racing driver. And usually there's a set way of getting them: be good enough, win. It's just that she's not going to magically become half a foot shorter, skinny and with a lingerie deal any time soon, so that's not an option.

"You're not putting your foot between my legs." Lando's blushing, mouth wet and panicky-open, like he's going to make one of those screeching noises she shouldn't find cute.

Conceding is the only option. Because Lando's not just laughing, his voice is a croak and he looks - obviously, he's not but - like he's turned on. Like Oscar could push him back onto the mat and kiss him and he'd wriggle and moan just as much as he is now. Like he'd want her to touch him and she knows he doesn't, would probably freak out if he knew the way she thinks about him.

(face down in a pillow, getting fucked raw, that flush high on his skin while he's making all his weird, whining noises and begging to come, still begging for her to hold him afterwards so she can stroke his sweaty curls - it's started invading her thoughts at the worst times, like right now)

Limbo is even worse. She's shit at it and he could probably get under something an inch off the ground. It's awful, Prema challenges were never like this; she might not know how to cook eggs but at least Rob didn't, either.

Lando's clearly insane because he's won both the first rounds, has got this challenge in the bag, except he makes the third one all or nothing. By this point, Oscar had figured it'd probably be slime wrestling or something equally awful but instead they get to sit down and play jenga like relatively normal people.

He absolutely lets her win. Which is shit, as she explains to Logan later.

"I think he just wanted to get away, y'know? Like, obviously he doesn't want to spend time with me, that's fine."

Logan raises his eyebrows, fringe standing on end where he's been running his hand through it. "Didn't you just say he followed you to your driver room and talked about Halo for twenty minutes?"

"Well, yeah but I think he was just hiding from Sophie." And they'd had hats to sign, so it sort of made sense to do it together.

Logan sits back, stretching his legs out in front of him and crossing his arms. "You know how many times Alex has been in my room?"

The fuck would she know that. "No?"

"Zero. Nada. Zilch." Logan looks smug, for some reason. "I've never been in his, either."

"So?" Clearly Williams have different rules. It's not like they're in Logan's room now, sitting out on the patio in front of the motorhome nursing sparkling waters.

"I am just saying," Logan's grinning, like he knows she isn't going to listen to him and thinks it's hilarious. "That doesn't sound like a guy who doesn't want to spend time with you."

[fernlessbastard]

Oh man, I'm excited! Writing is definitely a pain in the ass (I've taken many years of novels, creative writing, debate, etcetera). Your story is incredibly enthralling and so accurate in regards to characters, I'm surprised anyone would find anything (such as repetition of certain words) bothersome.

Nonetheless, I do understand wanting it to be perfect and I hope reading/proofing over it goes well for you two. ❤️

-🎲 anon

Thank you so muchh

And don't worry, it's not that my boyfriend finds it bothersome and such - it just knows that I'm an insane perfectionist about my writing, and if I later find some repetition or a wonky sentence I will proclaim that I've brought dishonour to writing as an art form and I'll never write again (I'm a little bit dramatic like that UwU--) (also I'd definitely end up writing again, it'd just take like a long time and I'd rather finish IUTMTM before the death of the universe/lh)

To be fair it is in a decent part that perfectionism that lets me write the way I do. Like, yes, writing badly is much better than not writing, and I do my best to live by that, but editing is a different issue - I've had at least 7 drafts of chapter 2 as of now (and I only change the draft when I decide there's a big part I want to rewrite from scratch)(I actually could post like the first draft here - that could be interesting, idk, I'll maybe consider it)

But yeah, I will slave over a draft until I've squeezed everything I humanly could out of it, in which case either I think it's actually genuinely good and I enjoy reading it (and I'm very critical of my work), or until I decide it's hopeless, and just simply rewrite it completely from scratch, either keeping only specific passages, the general idea, or sometimes nothing at all

Tbh I think it's got to do with the fact that it's not a medium that's "native" to me, so to speak. Losing Face was my first actual piece of writing, with my previous "attempts" (mostly stories for school) consisting of like, much less than a thousand word each. I started writing a dnf/xdnf smut after my bf dared me to, which got abandoned at 2k words (I low-key wanna post that at some point too as a little crack one-shot, but i'd have to decide if I want it to be an actual piece of writing, in which case I'd have to finish it, or if I just want it to be a "look, this is where I started" kind of thing). I was praised for my art, so I gravitated towards that, and the more I did, the more embarrassed and ashamed I felt of my unrealised "affair" with writing. I'd write elaborate descriptions of headcanons and scenarios, fishing for compliments to have an excuse to actually write something. I don't remember how I started truly writing, but it absolutely had to do with the support I always get from my partner. And oh god, how I adore writing. I've always loved telling a story, but what truly makes me obsessed with it is playing with language itself. I love painting mental pictures. I love elaborate metaphors. I love portraying ugliness in a raw way that paradoxically makes it strangely beautiful. I love the words that don't just express their message through literal meaning, but also through how they visually look, how they sound, what core and pre-/inter-/suffix they have, how many syllables they have (my favourite go-to example is in Will Wood's "Front Street" - "the gnashing teeth will masticate the bones from the flesh"); I love using those words to juxtapose feelings (such as describing something as both raw and ugly, and yet beautiful exactly because of that). I love portraying ugliness in a raw way that paradoxically makes it strangely beautiful. I love playing with rhythm and momentum and run-on sentences, I love playing with formatting, to make the text flow on the page, I love using subtle sarcasm and making fun of the characters and their flawed logic through a flat narrating tone, and I love sprinkling characters' unreliable, subjective thoughts with nothing to distinct them from the rest of the text aside italics (I think it's much more immersive, adds to a "pov" lets the narrative evolve with the way characters think, and allows for a better flow of the text that ""(...)" he thought"). I love having a narrator with that subtle sass where the "insults" are indirect. When I write, I have several tabs open with thesauruses and dictionaries, not because I don't know the words I use (I make sure to keep my language authentic and to not overuse complex words just because - they all have a purpose, and 99,99% of the words I look up I already know), but because if I look up synonyms/translations then I have all the possible words in front of me and I can compare exactly how they look and sound (I'm heavily visual, ironically enough). I love pulling from more common Polish metaphors/sayings to form a more elaborate, non-obvious sentence/metaphor in English, and I love using translating as a tool to look for synonyms/replacements that maybe aren't an obvious alternative. I love writing scenes that feel genuine and real, and including the "ugly", human parts. I love writing flawed characters, I love describing their inner worlds, I love writing their streams of consciousness - I love turning them into real people (to the best of my abilities).

I love writing for the process. And it's funny, cause I don't exactly have that with art always. I'll be honest - I don't always love sketching and doodling. I do love watercolours. I'm sure it's honestly visible in how I paint, but playing with colours, layering, shading, shapes, undertones, etc is just my favourite thing in the world. But doodling by itself? Heavily depends, and a good portion of the time I just want to see the doodle ready, or to skip to watercolours, if I'm painting (although recently I've been getting better at just enjoying the process). But writing? Sure, sometimes I just want it over with, but the only reason why I'm able to go through all the drafts and countless edits is because just like with watercolours, I simply love the process of perfecting it, even if it gets frustrating.

TLDR I absolutely adore writing as an art form, holy shit it's literally so cool and language is even cooler and just

Writing<333

OH also btw I have since checked my document, and I misremembered - chapter 2 is 8k words--

[leserattevirginie]

Evocation by T.S. Gibson (Synopsis and longer, rambly thoughts under the cut)

Genre: Urban Fantasy Romance Star Rating: 3,75 ⭐️

Plot: ⬜️ Plot holes big enough for a herd of elephants ⬜️ I think I’ve read this before. (Unoriginal to the max.) ✅ Enjoyable but not super memorable. ⬜️ You have my undivided attention. ⬜️ Mind = Blown

Characters: ⬜️ Mary Sue is in the house! ⬜️ These are cardboard cut-outs. ✅ Good main cast, but the rest is forgettable at best. ⬜️ Generally well written. ⬜️ Complex ⬜️ What do you mean characters? These feel like real people!

Personal Enjoyment: ⬜️ DNF ⬜️ Somebody free me from this hell (but also no, I won’t DNF) ⬜️ WTF did I just read??? ⬜️ I don’t like it, but I also don’t hate it. ⬜️ It’s a good book but I just never want to pick it back up. ⬜️ No strong feelings either way. ⬜️ Enjoyable read ✅ What a page turner! This is fun! ⬜️ I think I’m in love ⬜️ (new) all time favourite

World Building: ✅ This takes place in our world. ⬜️ Worldbuilding what worldbuilding? ⬜️ This feels like a TV set. ⬜️ Not super deep, but present. ⬜️ Detailed, believable. ⬜️ You bet every single ant has its own 100 page backstory!

Pacing: ⬜️ drags/is rushed in all the wrong places ⬜️ Inconsistent ⬜️ something undefinable feels off ✅ mostly fine but the ending feels rushed ⬜️ dragged a bit in the beginning but picked up eventually ⬜️ I don’t love it it but it fits the book perfectly. ⬜️ Good/no complaints ⬜️ Amazing! Could not put this down!

Writing: ⬜️ This is painful ⬜️ I’m cringing ⬜️ Not great, but not bad either. ✅ Neutral (Didn’t really notice.) ⬜️ Elegant but not overly flowery. ⬜️ So beautiful I actually stopped and noticed it. ⬜️ I’m not sure if this is just a bad translation. ⬜️ I’m not confident enough in my language skills for this language to comment on the quality of the writing.

Synopsis (fair warning, imo the synopsis pretty much sums up the entire plot):

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society. But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door. Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good…

Thoughts

Don't read this book for the magic! Yes, it is there, but honestly it is mostly decorative. The focus is definitely on the relationship between the three main characters. You could take out the occultism, change a thing or two, and it would work just fine as a contemporary romance novel. Personally, I found the parts related to the curse to be the weakest - the loophole in the contract was obvious, ffs. And the way they dealt with it in the end may have been great for the relationship building, but otherwise it just felt a bit rushed and convenient. I did like the romance, I just wish it had taken them all more than one month (?? or maybe I misread?) to get to where they got in the end. Nonetheless, Watching these three idiots bounce off each other was definitely the highlight of the book for me. I'm not sure I like any of them very much by themselves (maybe Moira) but I do like them together. The book is written in triple POV, and we get a fairly good sense of who they are and what makes them tick, especially David and Moira. (As for the side characters, I unfortunately have to admit I've already forgotten most of their names and what they brought to the plot.)

One thing that struck me as a bit odd was a sort of tonal shift towards the middle of the book. Maybe I imagined it, but in the beginning there was some subtle humour that was slowly phased out. Personally I think that's a shame, because I was sure I'd found a new favourite in Evocation. In the end it is just a book I liked, but didn't love as much as I had hoped I would.

[eh-33]

I’m bored, so I’m going to talk about my ‘unpopular’ f1 opinions.

These might not actually be unpopular, but I feel like they could potentially annoy some people.

I don’t like George Russell - there, I said it.

And the sad thing is, it’s not even for any proper reason. I just don’t like him, probably the same as how some people just don’t like Max.

He irritates me, I don’t enjoy watching his interviews and I generally don’t care about how he performs - if he does incredible, I can appreciate his talent, but I wouldn’t go off about it.

In my mind it’s probably because he feels like such an opposite person to Max - he feels very media trained, always seems to be very calm, says what his team would always want him to say and really projects himself in a specific way to appease certain people or his team (ahem… after Abu Dhabi and merc). He also completely contradicted himself with his Spa take and his Abu Dhabi take which pissed me off.

Whereas Max who is my favourite driver is rash, blunt and sometimes doesn’t say the exact right thing or what the team would want, and can rub people the wrong way, and is just purely himself at all times, no mask, no filter, just him

So because of this I’m definitely not looking forward to George in a merc, however I do think there hopefully will be an adjustment period when he underperforms compared to the car - or the merc just isn’t on pace with the new regs🤞🤞, because I don’t think I can handle seeing him be immediately fast, I wouldn’t enjoy it. But I doubt it, because as much as I’ve only properly seen it on like 3 occasions (spa, Sakhir and Sochi) he can be lightning fast, and he does outperform that Williams, and a Max/George fight may be good to see, as long as Max wins 😂😂

Secondly - I quite like Christian Horner.

I feel like Christian is very protective of his team and especially his drivers. But then every team principal is.

But he always is talked about as a ‘Karen’ which I don’t feel is entirely fair. I think he goes about racing in a cutthroat way - and sadly it backfired on Gasly - but he will always try and somehow protect his drivers until they begin to badmouth him or the team.

He can go too far, he can be a bit whiny, but so can every team principal on the grid, we just don’t hear it as much.

And finally my most controversial take - Daniel Ricciardo screwed up leaving RedBull and after that with his next teams - and hasn’t been able to recover.

Now this is the take that has quite a lot of thought going into it - and I’m not saying he shouldn’t have left, he had reasons and they are valid if they were impacting him that much that he thought leaving would help him. However I don’t think leaving actually helped Daniel in many ways.

Now the reasons Daniel supposedly left RedBull are

because he felt he was becoming a no.2 driver to Max.

because he didn’t trust Honda (big mistake 😂)

because he wanted a new challenge and to ‘lead’ a team.

Now I loved Daniel at RedBull and I still love him as a driver now. But I think moving to Renault was a bad move especially after Renaults 2018 engine - if that wasn’t a sign I don’t know what would be. At RedBull he was known as a could-be world champion and was up there in terms of driver rankings with Lewis and Seb and now 2 teams later he’s known for having a freak win at Monza and being generally disappointing every other race - when he ‘should’ have come in and absolutely led that team and beat Lando - not what I thought would happen anyway, but lots of people did think that.

But here’s the other thing - Daniel was not going to beat Max, even in 2017, Max was clearly getting faster - he just kept making mistakes or DNFs - and by 2018 Max was better than Daniel. The only thing that I think brought them together was Renaults shit reliability. I genuinely don’t think Daniel could have handled Max being clearly better than him in the same car in 2019, because by the end of 2018 Max had taken a turn in his career and sort of got himself sorted, and Daniel main claim to fame a lot of the time was in quali and Max has sorted that issue, so I believe Daniel would have left anyway - because he would have been consistently out performed, except from a select few occasions.

Renault just didn’t do it for Daniel and I think even he knows that, but now at McLaren he has put himself back into the same situation as he was at RedBull - his teammate, a young driver getting faster every season - not as impressively as Max did but still, the point stands - and a supposed future world champion with the right car, then there is Daniel, not getting faster, struggling with the car in some way, getting a few good results to show his worth but overall not getting faster or dominating in the way that is maybe expected.

It’s disappointing when you think about how good Max and Daniel could have been, especially with the Honda engine and the RedBull of this year. But it’s also interesting that Daniel has had problems with each car he’s driven since he left RedBull, and every RedBull ‘second driver’ hasn’t been able to fully manage the car since Daniel left. No one would come close to Max, especially after this year, but I think that RedBull was set up very well for Daniel and he’s struggled since. I can’t say what he should have done, as I don’t think Max and Daniel would have had a good relationship if they stayed teammates, they always raced each other too hard, but I don’t think the years after he left have been good for him, and I think he left RedBull thinking he would be getting better every year and getting podiums and winning, but instead it’s raised further questions about his ability to adapt and perform.

Thanks for reading my ‘Eve rants about f1 post’, if I’ve offended you with my takes, don’t be a dick about it, leave a respectful comment or an ask and I’ll expand on what I mean about anything I’ve said.

If this absolutely slaps, I’ll make more, cause I enjoy talking about f1 and I have many many opinions that would probably piss other people off.

[razor-dragon]

The Hunt Part.4

Note: You asked for it, and after a very long break, I delivered. Hope you all enjoy. Part 4, “Team Bonding”.

Warnings: safe vore, death mention, implied death/ digestion (none really happen), sorta willing and unwilling prey, a bit of DNF, swearing, and I think that’s all. Tell me if I need to add more.

“So... when did you figure out you could do this?” Sapnap asked. George closed the chest he was looting and stared silently at Sapnap, trying not to crack a smile. Dream didn’t even hear the question, he was busy trying to gather an army of wolves. George turned back to the chest and continued to loot it. Sapnap and Bad looked at each other. They had been prying at George for about 30 minutes, but George wouldn’t speak to them.

After a moment, George closed the chest again. He gave the two some of the stuff he had taken, because they weren’t even worried about winning the game. They just wanted to know about what they had seen last time. “George, come on. We want to know,” Bad tried, yet again, George just stared silently before walking past the two and out of the house.

He felt the communicator buzz. George took it out and checked it. On his screen was a private message from Dream “Are they even making advancements? Or are they just worried about what they saw?” He blocked out the noise of the two rambling on and replied to Dream “No, I’m working by myself. I have a feeling that with me one time more than you, and their lack of work is going to make this game go sideways.” Only now does George realize his teammates are reading over his shoulder. “So you do know what we are talking about, you’re just avoiding it,” Sapnap pries. George cracks a small smile and continues on his way.

...

After what felt like forever, they had made it to the Nether. Dream had slacked a bit for George, to make it at least somewhat fair, because Sapnap and Bad wouldn’t give up till they got what they wanted. Finally, George feels his communicator buzz. He checks it to see another message from Dream and hides the screen from the other two “I wasn’t gunna tell you this, but I have the potion. I can give them what their asking for”. The thought lingered in his head a moment, then he slightly chuckled to himself and replied “Go for it”.

It was an evil plan to say the least, but if the two wouldn’t shut up, he would gladly sacrifice his items to show them exactly what they’ve been asking about. It didn’t take long for Dream to show up to the Nether. George pretended it was no big deal, and just gathered blaze rods. George heard the slight sound of a footstep and smirked a bit to himself. He’s not even fazed when he hears the surprised shrieks of his teammates as glass shatters on the ground.

George shuts his eyes tight as his body compresses down. He only opens them when he’s snatched up. He sees his masked boyfriend in front of him, and he feels his teammates pressed against his back. Sapnap and Bad’s breathing picks up, obviously panicked. George just stays still, almost amused by the situation at this point. Dream reaches up with his free hand and moves his mask to the side “You keep nagging about it, so you’re getting a front row seat,” and with that, Dream puts the hunters in his mouth.

“What the muffin?!” Bad yells out in a panic. Sapnap was quiet but banged on Dream’s teeth in an attempt to escape. Bad brought out a torch and let up the mouth. He sees Sapnap panicking at the front of the mouth, George laying comfortably on the tongue, and Bad personally was to the side but not too close to the teeth. Dream’s tongue shifted and licked at all of them. Sapnap and Bad didn’t like it at all, but George didn’t seem to mind.

After a bit, Sapnap and Bad were pinned to the side of the mouth while George remained in place. Gravity shifted, and George made to move to fight back as he was dragged down the throat. Then Sapnap was taken to the middle, the same thing happened but Sapnap fought, hard. Then Bad joined them. When Bad’s journey ended, he fell right on top of someone. “Get off,” Sapnap complained, and Bad scrambled off him.

“Nice of you two to join me,” said George sounding amused. “What the hell, George. Get us out of here!” Sapnap yelled towards the direction he heard his friend’s voice. A light sizzling sound caught both Sapnap and Bad’s attention, making their hearts skip a beat. “Only one way out,” George replied. You could practically hear him smirking. Then they heard the sound of someone taking damage, then their communicators vibrated. George died.

Both the hunters groaned then reached out and touched the acid. They were insta-killed, and their vision went dark. After a moment, they sat up on the bed where they had set their spawn point. Both hunters looked at each other, then at George who was leaning against the wall by the door looking proud of himself. Then he says into the communicator “Thanks for giving me my team back Dream”. “No problem,” Dream replies with a slight chuckle. George grabs the extra gear he had put in the chest and distributed it among the three of them, then left to go after Dream.

The two stunned hunters sat on the bed with the gear sitting in their inventory, neither of them being able to wrap their heads around what had just happened. George on the other hand was making his was towards Dream, according to his compass. George pulled out his communicator and opened his private messages with Dream “You owe me cuddles now”. The sound of light chuckling came over the communicator, then Dream typed back “You’re clingy, you know that? I love that about you though. Alright, cuddles it is.” And with that, the game stretched on.

[carpedzem]

i am no longer a c!dream enjoyer

me too, I'm c!dream encourager >:)

for real tho, I'm not sure what's the tone of this ask bc word 'enjoyer' is rarely used in this part of the fandom but let me quickly list some thing that can make it better for any struggling c!dream apologists/sympathizers. OF COURSE if anyone for whatever reason decided to simply dislike c!dream that's fair, I hope you will find a new favourite character or just simply a new story to enjoy! I was there for like, 15 minutes as well yesterday sadhas

STAGED FINALE THEORY REAL OMG I'M STILL NOT OVER IT

that means that c!dream still has this big goal he wants to achieve and he was willing to sacrifice himself for it. who does that??? what's that goal? 'a big happy family'? 'normal server'? are you okay buddy?

this is how c!dnf can still w[gunshot]

c!dream and c!sapnap were so hesitate to fight :(((

even I'm truly still really confused by c!rivals, c!techno haven't opened c!dream books yet! I'm not sure if kicking c!dream out is a part of a plan (simply because I find it weird that c!techno wouldn't include c!phil, but idk) but I think he still will open them and we will see what's inside, so c!rivals will get, if not positive relationship, then at least a closure

we still don't know who the Harpocrates is!

we still don't know what's the deal with c!dream and enderboo. and why c!ranboo was in prison. and why he was on one life

c!punz working with c!dream is such a win-win, I could cry. c!punz is smart, he is one of the og8, he KNOWS c!dream plan, and he believes it is a good plan. so this plan, this goal a real good thing and c!dream isn't beyond saving OR c!punz is as evil AND THAT'S SO COOL. I want to see c!dream and c!punz committing crimes together! :D

okay this one. don't put me into troubles for this one sahahah, but all those parallels between c!dream and c!quackity. STREAMS NEXT TO EACH OTHER IN LESS OF 24 HOURS! why why why why why... it's clear pattern here. and for what, for what. i need answers

I still want to see c!dream lore vid SO BADLY I want to UNDERSTAND this man. what's the goal? why like that? there's still so so many questions

in general dreblr hit the ground very hard yesterday. and that's understandable! we lived in our bubble for months, it's not a secret, we were supporting our ideas, we want c!dream to get better (at least one wolf want to). so I think our brains skipped a bit and thought that c!dream will be better when he leaves the prison. but we were the ones who were saying constantly that he is getting worse in the prison. we were screaming and kicking and wondering how much messed up he will be after all of that. it's not a surprise that he is Like That and we know this. what's our real struggle here is that our the best bet for the place to heal was taken away. c!dream once again has no place to get better and that's really upsetting :( but we can still enjoy him being evil and sexy and oh so so smart <3

this being said - c!michael (not the piglin) enthusiasts arise! :D this can be our new place to put our hope into!

even if c!dream will never get redeemed, even if he will be the worst himself and he will be defeated and everyone will cheer - there's one thing what no one can take away from us. early days of the server are canon! c!dream used to be happy! so no matter where his history will go, it will be a tragic tale of a man who lost everything, including himself. and it is something you can sympathize with, always

[bonainfasciculis]

2020 DNF List

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D; abandoned after ~2 hours This is probably a contentious choice to have on a list like this, though I clearly haven’t really given this a fair shake either. I think it’s probably partly to do with the learning curve of its rather involved format? Thinking of swapping this version out for the Switch one instead in the hope that might make it a bit more accessible to me.

Super Mario 3D Land; abandoned about 3/4 of the way through the game No great love or hate either way for this game, just kind of got distracted by the other torrent of games that became available to me after getting a Switch. Might finish it someday.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine; abandoned after ~2 hours The premise of this game is great, and I like its rather non-standard approach in defining what a game should look like, but it just plays so goddamn slow. I found travelling across the country extremely frustrating - none of the options were really any good - and it’s unfortunate because that makes up far and away the largest part of what you spend your time doing in this game. The voice acting is also great, but it never takes anywhere near as much time to scan the dialogue as it does to read it aloud, so most of the acting gets lost behind an A button mash anyway. I want to love this game, but I just never find myself wanting to reach for it.

Child of Light; abandoned after ~2 hours Call me petty, but I just could not manage to get past this game’s unbelievably naff rhyming dialogue. It made me want to skip through all the cutscenes and gave me no desire to attempt to follow the story. I thought the battle mechanic was quite interesting and enjoyable - not sure if this is common to other games in the genre, but it was new to me - but between the dialogue and an art style I didn’t really care for, this one’s been left by the wayside.

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap; abandoned after 01:48 I played the original Wonder Boy on a Sega Master back in the day and figured a remake of another game in the series might be fun, but I couldn’t really get into this one. Felt like it was going to be a bit grindy for my tastes. I do think it looks great and switching between the art styles is cool, but I don’t think I’ll be doing much more than dipping in and out, if even that.

Katamari Damacy; abandoned after ~4 hours Heartbreaking for this to be on my list, but I am part of the small percentage that gets enormously motion sick from this game. A huge shame, because it’s one of those games I’ve wanted to play for literal decades now - I pushed through the first couple of levels but I just can’t make it work for me.  The theme song has nevertheless taken up plenty of real estate in my brain.

Guacamelee! STCE; abandoned after ~4 hours I picked this game up hoping for a fast, snappy, lighthearted palate cleanser alongside playing FF7, but unfortunately it didnt quite work out for me. I really liked its visual and thematic inspirations (though perhaps the art style a bit less) but I didn’t find the character particularly enjoyable to move and I found the arena format a bit tedious. I quit it altogether after an incredibly frustrating sequence where the controls just felt buggy and would not allow me to break this stupid fucken block, though I think I actually ended up getting through most of the storyline.

Thumper; abandoned after ~5? hours Look, I really like this game, but its gets to be a bit too much a bit too fast.

[suzysbookshelf-blog]

“DNF” Did not Finish

City Lights (Satan's Sinners M.C. Book 1) by Colby Kay

This is the first book in an 8 book series.

Zoey Porter has been wanting a way out. She wasn't expecting it to happen the way it did. Hanger, President of the Satan's Sinners, is an asshole. Never caring about anything or anybody except his self and his brothers. One night changes everything for the both of them and no one seen it coming. What happens when a sweet girl that's had her choices taken from her is found by Hanger? Will he start having more to care about and want to give her the life back that she lost?

“ DNF”

Why a 2 star rating then I hear you ask, because they wrote it, I am not about tearing down anyone but when you pay money for a book you do expect something, Last year I read 450+ Books, so I know a good book when I see it, I do consider the reviews also, It had 5 stars on so many reviews, I thought it had to be good., well this is my take on it, agree or disagree. Its entirely up to you

After a few days of unbelievable book reading, I have read one epic book after another, so it was safe to say, I thought I was on a lucky streak, Not so I am afraid, first book I have ever read by this author, will it be my last. I honestly don't know as I couldn't finish this one. The events in the book are so unbelievable, yes as you all know  you stretch the imagination a lot when reading, Yet if you are anything like me, you need believablity, Its not fantasy or science fiction, were the impossible becomes possible, It was a romance so you expect romance, this was not the case. or if it was I didn’t finish it to find out. 

 If you put in a subject matter such as ASL( American Sign Language)  then you should at least know some things about it, This story had the main female lead teaching it in two weeks when in fact It takes years to learn ASL. It takes 60 to 90 hours (plus some "practice" time) to memorise a "book" of signs, most people can then string those signs together using English syntax (word order) and have a "passable" conversation with a Deaf person. If this was in the UK we have a completely different way, that takes for ever to learn and I am speaking from experience as my sister is deaf, but taken that all aside for one minute, 

“SPOILER” We had a young woman Zoey who was literally beaten unconscious and thrown out of a moving truck, wakes up days later in a strange environment and acts like an immature kid, and as if its a day at the park.  I would be screaming the place down. A book for me has to have a few elements in place, like able Characters, the inevitable bad guy/girl/wicked parents/gangs/ the list is endless, to be somewhat believable not entirely fantasy but even that is pushing it. As the book progressed I honestly didn't want to know anymore about this young lady.Nor the male lead.  Hanger was a bit of a bully 25 year old been President when he didn't act like he could manage been a prospect. I apologise to all who are fans but not for me I am afraid,( I READ A LOT OF BOOKS) some I review some I don't this one needs a positive thought to finish with The writer has a very good imagination. I wanted so much to like this as it seems to be the first in the series. The rest of the cast didn't fair to well either,  From the reviews already, I believe its doing well , just not for me. Not even interested in the rest of the series, The author has others I will check out. 

[hutz224]

Space cadets I have known

Space cadet, n (slang). A person who appears to be in his or her own world or out of touch with reality.

In the sport of athletics, there are individual and team events. For the latter, there is often a team manager, who carries out tasks such as keeping team members informed, selecting teams and supervising during the event. I have managed various athletic teams over many years. The role can be extremely challenging, particularly when you have a space cadet in your squad.

I have observed many examples of space cadet behaviour during my time in the sport. Given the number of athletes who qualify for the moniker, it could be suggested that athletes are pre-disposed to such behaviour. Maybe there is a space cadet gene. All I know is that space cadets pose a serious risk to the mental health of team managers, who can be exasperated, frustrated, disappointed and/or angered by the behaviour, depending on the culpability of the athlete and whether or not he/she is a serial offender. Given the prevalence of transgressions on my watch, I am happy to still have most of my hair.

So what am I talking about? What follows are some examples, and they are all true. In most cases, names have been changed to protect the guilty.

1. Forgetting to enter a race. Numerous athletes I know have been guilty of this omission, but it can have even more serious consequences when it is the team manager who forgets to enter his team! 

2. Forgetting race numbers/computer chip/barcode. This is a very common transgression. A couple of years ago, Adam Liams (not his real name) was the favourite to win an Athletics Victoria cross country championship event, but forgot his timing chip. He duly won the event but was recorded as running by invitation, which on any view was a harsh penalty. The second place getter gratefully accepted the gold medal. In AV events these days, you can pay for a replacement number/chip, which is arguably a good way of teaching the miscreant a lesson. The only problem here is that when the space cadet realises his error, you can be almost certain that he/she will not have brought any money to the race, so that the team manager ends up forking out for the replacement number/chip.

3. Forgetting shoes/singlet/shorts. This can be remedied (if you are lucky) by borrowing gear from another athlete, or by running barefoot. But running in unfamiliar gear is usually far from ideal, as Payne Stephens (not his real name) found out when he chose to wear brand new shoes in the Boston Marathon, with dire and painful consequences late in the race.

4. Forgetting to check in sufficient time before a championship track race. This usually occurs because an athlete fails to read the race instructions or entry conditions. Last year, Josephine Nicholson (not her real name) arrived at the track two hours early, enjoyed a leisurely and chatty warm up with one of her competitors, but then realised far too late that she had not checked in by the one hour deadline. She was barred from competing.

5. Running late/sleeping in. In 1990, Stewart Andrews (real name) fronted up one hour late for the second day of the Australian decathlon championship after leading handsomely after the first day. Chris Bradshaw (real name) has a national championship as a result.

6. Drinking too much coffee before an event (14-16 cups!). Alex Watson (real name), Seoul Olympics modern pentathlon 1988. Google him if you don’t know the story. What is not so well known is that in the same event, Alex was busted on the start line of the run for exceeding the maximum number of spikes allowed in his running shoes. Just in time, he found someone with a spike spanner to remove the offending spikes, allowing him to run. The doping disqualification for excessive caffeine came later.

7. Getting lost. This one is the favourite of the long distance running space cadet. The Melbourne Midday Milers hold regular relay events in the Victorian countryside. At an event in the 1990′s, support crew member Ken Chalmers (real name) told everyone that he would jog the four kilometres to the next checkpoint near Angelsea and meet them there. He was found by an SES search party the next morning! More recently, Martin Paulico (not his real name) and Kel Juanita (not her real name) did multiple laps of a beachside carpark (pictured below), seemingly unable to find the exit, while their teammates at the next checkpoint waited and wondered why they were taking so long to arrive. 

8. Getting distracted during a race. In another MMM relay, Ahmed Slim (not his real name) found that his running leg took him close to his holiday house. He decided that it would be a good opportunity to put out his rubbish bins for the next collection. It’s fair to say that when his teammate, Dave Smooth (not his real name) found out why Dusty’s leg had taken so long, he was fairly unimpressed.

9. Missing a relay handover. Too many examples to mention. Excuses include: “I had to go to the toilet”, “I lost track of the time”, “I didn’t realise he/she (the previous runner) could run that fast” and “I couldn’t find the changeover point”. Never: “Sorry, I’m just a bit of a space cadet”!

10. Running the wrong number of laps. In the early 1990′s, there was a much-awaited 5000m showdown between Rob de Castella and Darren Wilson (real names) at the old Olympic Park. The less experienced Wilson dogged Deek’s heels until 200m to go, when he sprinted past and crossed the line well in front. At the same time, the bell rang to indicate one lap to go. By the time he realised his error, Wilson had no chance of catching Deek, who went on to win comfortably. It would be remiss of me not to confess here to my own 10000m DNF in Porte Alegro, Brazil, in 2013, when I mistakenly stepped off the track after 24 laps. 

11. Turning up on the wrong day or at the wrong venue. Another mea culpa here. In 2017, I drove 60 km over the winding mountain road from Wanaka to Queeenstown, New Zealand, to register for the Queenstown Half Marathon. This was on the Friday before the race. I was enjoying a late breakfast the next morning when I glanced at the local paper, only to read (in horror) that the Queenstown Marathon and Half Marathon were being run that day! It was too late to do anything, my race was already over. I was so used to marathons and half marathons being staged on Sunday mornings that it hadn’t occurred to me to check the event date. Doh!

12. Over-enthusiastic recruiting. This is an unusual transgression, but it’s a good story. As he ran around the Tan, JC (not his real name) spotted a likely-looking female recruit for the Melbourne Midday Milers training group. He started up a conversation: “You should join us, you look like you can run a bit”. JC’s proposition was made to none other than Sonia O’Sullivan (real name, Olympic 5000m silver medallist and World Cross Country Champion).

But perhaps my favourite space cadet example is provided by a very good friend of mine, Gus Macmillan (real name), son of Olympic 800m and 1500m runner Don Macmillan. In the late 1980′s, Gus was a promising junior distance runner. He travelled to Ballarat with high hopes of a podium finish in the Athletics Victoria under 20 cross country championship race. In tough conditions, a good run saw him cross the line in second place. Unfortunately, when he presented his tag at the finish line, he was informed that he had just competed in the under 18 event! So you can add “running in the wrong race” to my list. 

This blog has been long because the topic is such a fertile one. Some of my readers may consider themselves fortunate not have received a mention in the article. Stay focussed people! Your team managers love reliability and predictability. They are allergic to chaos.

Until next time, long may you run.

[reviewsfeed-blog]

Good morning everyone!!

I think this week could definitely be called a productive one, as this is the fourth blog post I am bringing to you this week! At the beginning of the year I announced that I was reducing my regular posts down from three to two – and it’s taken the pressure off me a bit. I’ve enjoyed having a more intense week though, as I have had some exciting things to talk about!

On Tuesday, I brought to you an Author Interview with Steve Campitelli, in which he talks to us about his first book of a future series, The Fall, set in post-apocalyptic Australia. I followed up with my Book Review on Wednesday!

Last week I was nominated for the Liebster Award – my first nomination for the blog. I won’t lie, I was a little excited! It’s nice to get some appreciation for your blog once in a while, especially given how much time and effort we all pour into them.

  Books Read

  I began the week by making a start on ReWired by S R Johannes, with high hopes. I downloaded this book from Netgalley, but unfortunately, I just didn’t like it. This is my first DNF for the year. On the whole the writing was pretty good, but I struggled to relate to the main character. The straw that broke the camel’s back came about 10% into the book, in which the story was so clearly rushed to move things along, and it was done badly. After that, I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it.

I’ll have to get something together for a review on Netgalley, but I am not going to bother to review it here. I don’t think it’s really fair to review a book you only read a small portion of.

After that, I moved onto the book I have been looking forward to picking up all this month – The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. I saw the book for the first time last year and added it to the TBR; months later around Christmas, I saw a two-part TV adaptation and recorded it.

I actually watched the TV adaptation first, on New Years Eve, and I knew I had to read the book ASAP. I loved it!! So far, I am 67% through the book, and on track to finish by the end of the month.

  Books Discovered

  I added The Potato Factory after seeing a fellow bloggers post talking about it. I’ve just had a look to see if I can find the post again, but unfortunately I can’t. I need to make notes when I see posts like these, so I can link them here.

In essence, the post talked about the blogger’s mum being a great lover of Bryce Courtenay, and for a long time [blogger] didn’t pick up any of his books. Now she has – and she loves them! If I ever come across that post again I am going to link it here, because it deserves recognition.

  I bought a physical copy of The Necronomicon by H. P. Lovecraft this week, and I absolutely LOVE IT!! It’s hardback and smells amazing; it has a leather cover, is ridiculously heavy… and did I mention it smells amazing? I will confess that I love the smell of new books and I am not ashamed.

When I brought it back to work, having bought it in my lunch hour, I ended up having a pretty long conversation with a colleague about H. P. Lovecraft and the book itself; which stories he really liked etc. It was a lovely conversation – I don’t actually get to have many of those, as there are very few people in my life as fanatical about books as I am…

Admittedly, I don’t usually spend as much on any one book as I did with that one, but it’s worth it to me; he’s an influential writer, there are lots and lots of stories in there, and what the hell – it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks! That can be my present from myself.

  Coming Up…

Next week is also going to be a busy one on the blog, and I am looking forward to it! I get a couple of days respite before things get underway with a review of A Mentor and Her Muse by Susan Sage on Wednesday.

Following on from that, Susan kindly spent some time in order to get an interview post put together, so look out for that on Thursday!

On Friday, it’s time to share my Reading List for February, as the new month will be upon us!!

I hope you will be able to join me in the week ahead for more things bookish!

The end of another week means it's time for the Sunday Summary! This week I celebrate a number of posts on my blog, as well as sharing the books I read, those I've bought and what to look forward to next week! #bookworm #bookblog Good morning everyone!! I think this week could definitely be called a productive one, as this is the fourth blog post I am bringing to you this week!

[afoolsingenuity]

Sunday Summary // 07.05.2017

This week has been… well… it’s been. I don’t know what to say. It began well with it being a bank holiday weekend (who doesn’t love those?) and so I really enjoyed relaxing. I didn’t even leave the house over the weekend I was relaxing that much. But then I had to go back to work and I know this month is going to be stressful so there was that slight feeling of dread. I like how busy we are as there is nothing better than having a bunch of work to focus on and plan to do but I really do just want a calm month. Just once this year.

A highlight of my week was the pub (I know, when is it not lately?) but it wasn’t so much the pub it was seeing my bestie and just having fun. We walked in and the place was empty! It was such a rarity to have it be empty. We had out pick of tables and chatted with the bargirl about a long distance race she has coming up and whether she plans to do it. We then sat catching up and ended the night crying with laughter over that faceapp thing you can get where you make yourself old or young or male or whatever as we had the best pictures. We ended up having to leave we were crying so much. Hers was great for being male as it randomly gave her one ear which stuck out a no facial hair whilst I just look like I should work in IT and possible be balding and have a paunch. My pictures are below. It’s a strangely fun app. Forgive my very unhappy original photo. Also, yes, I know female is weird when you are female but we wanted to see what it would do… it just gives you more obvious makeup.

Apart from hysterical laughter over nothing, it’s been a much calmer week than last week. I did find out my favourite bar which shut down has been taken over and reopened so yay! Hopefully, the new owners will be just as good as the last ones. It really was a fantastic bar and I can’t wait to go back.

What I’ve Been Reading

This week began with my DNF-ing one of my Last Chance Books. I gave it a fair shot. I got over 100 pages in and I was bored. I kept waiting for a hint of action or something interesting to happen but all there was was a girl in love with her husband who was cheating on her because he’s a dick. Not exactly fun reading. Luckily, I did begin reading The Winter King straight after and that is a good book. Brilliant even. I will be buying everything C.L. Wilson has ever written just so you know. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Forever House as well. I knew I’d like it after my last Veronica Henry book was such a hit but I didn’t anticipate how much I would enjoy it. Isn’t it great when a genre surprises you? I also began rereading The Dark Days Club this week as I have The Dark Days Pact on my shelf. I remembered the slow start but it isn’t as slow as I remember, that may be because I’m reading at a slower pace this time, though.

New To Me

For some reason, I always get more books at the beginning of a month than any other time. I think it may have something to do with those monthly Kindle sales but I don’t like to point fingers. There were two freebies in this haul, though. The Hundredth Queen is my Kindle First book of the month and The Pact was going free on Amazon and who can say no to free romance?

Just one new review copy this week. Black Tie Optional hooked me with the fake marriage angle also, the publisher posed it as being one for fans of rom-coms and the film The Proposal (oh Ryan Reynolds, how I love you so). Basically, there was no way I could say no.

And finally, I took a trip to the library. Some might say I don’t need library books with the number i have to read above… but I laugh in their face and ask where they get such farfetched ideas from. Library books are free so who cares how many I borrow? I had to go, anyway. I both need to read Becky Albertalli’s first book after loving Upside of Unrequited. But also, I found out that my library as the first book in the Captive Prince trilogy and I need those books in my life (if I love the first I’ll treat myself to Kindle copies of the other two). I just like books and I can’t wait to get reading.

And that is my week. A bit more sedate than last time but still perfectly enjoyable. I will go now and absorb myself in Sims playing (I’ve been inspired by Kristen… I may even reinstall Sims 3) when I should be replying to blog comments and catch up on reading for the past 5 days. Have a good week and tell me all the things below.

from Blogger http://ift.tt/2pT4Zr0 via IFTTT

[graemeruns]

Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris

I had never considered running the Paris Marathon until I was fortunate enough to win a free place, courtesy of Running Heroes, a running community that is free to join and has regular competitions that you can enter just by doing a bit of running. As it happened, the race fell in the school holidays, so it provided the perfect opportunity to have a short break with the family and enjoy the many sights that Paris has to offer. We travelled out by Eurostar on Wednesday, spent Thursday morning climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and surveying the views below (the left hand road is Avenue Foch where you can see the marathon baggage tents already erected at the finish),

before heading along the Champs Elysées, taking in the art at the Musée d'Orsay, and finally travelling by Metro to Paris Expo Porte de Versailles to pick up my race number (here’s me looking like a cardboard cut-out before the count-down clock):

On a wall the organisers had printed every one of the 57,000 entrants’ names, and it was a task to find mine despite it being in alphabetical order:

On Friday we spent the day in the Louvre, and Saturday at the Eiffel Tower, which really is quite tall! 

In those 3 days I had done my research of where the race start was, where the baggage tents were, how to get to the start (our studio apartment was only 15 minutes walk away, which was good) and worked out when I wanted to leave. So, after a somewhat poor night’s sleep (as is quite usual for me before a marathon) I was up at 6:15am for my usual breakfast of porridge and bread and jam, dressed, packed my bag and headed out the door dressed warmly. It soon became apparent that I didn’t need to be dressed for spring; although it was cool in the shade, there was already warmth in the sun, and the forecast had been for beautiful blue skies, so I was starting to anticipate a rather hot run.

All of my previous marathons have been run in the UK, and I have to say we are rather good, whatever the size of the event, at organising these sorts of things with military precision. Not quite the same in France! I had been led to expect signage in English as well as French, and thought the baggage drop would be clearly marked, but it wasn’t and I had no clue what I was doing, so just followed the long stream of runners right the way to the far end of Avenue Foch, where we then went through security and I had to work out which tent my baggage needed to be stowed following some code on my baggage label. That had taken 20 minutes, so it was already 7:50 before I started heading all the way back the way I’d come, past the Arc de Triomphe (no road closure here, there were still cars trying to weave their way through hundreds of runners, sometimes aided by a policeman’s whistle), now jogging a little because my pen, the 3 hour group, was due to leave at 8:22. Then I hit a bottle-neck where those trying to get to the 3:00 and 3:15 pens were merging with those trying to get into the 3:30 pen, and a proper London tube crush ensued. Emerging through that, like a cork out of a champagne bottle, I eventually found my start with just 10 minutes to go. You can never give yourself enough time, but the 45 minutes recommended by the marathon guide is clearly not enough. 

At 8:13 the wheelchair racers started the marathon off, followed by the elite and championship runners at 8:20. My group was next, but it was started in two stages: the left hand side of the Champs Elysées before the right hand side, so being on the right side I spent 2 minutes longer waiting for the klaxon. That meant there were already lots of runners in front of me, and although it didn’t matter in the end to me, if you are a 2:45 - 2:55 runner you would be wise to make sure you line up on the left side of the road.

Just before the start I was wished good luck by a West 4 Harriers runner, and during the race came across a few other local clubs, although I can only remember a Wimbledon Hercules runner now. Considering there were supposed to be 7500+ runners from the UK participating, I saw very few.

And off we went. The first few kilometres were fairly slow, with a fair bit of accelerating and decelerating as I either got blocked or passed people. By 5k I was already down on my anticipated time by about a minute, so I started to realise that this was what my pace was going to be today, as my heart rate was already higher than I’d have liked. Then both my calves started to tighten up; I’ve had this before in training runs and have not managed to put my finger on why it happens: maybe not enough warm-up (none today!), maybe the fact I hadn’t run all week and should of had a light run on Saturday, I really don’t know. Anyway, it wasn’t helping!

By 5 miles I felt like I had already run 15. My legs just felt heavy, and my usual marathon pace where my heart rate is around 150 was feeling very hard and remained at 4:22/km - about 12s/km slower than it should have been. I can only put this down to the heat. There was a little respite at 6 miles where we entered the Bois de Vincennes, the largest park in the city which appeared to have its own micro-climate, and was cool and damp. But the Paris route is not flat; it gradually rises and falls by small amounts quite a deal, and this was another factor that was causing me some mental anguish: all of a sudden I could be feeling great and in the groove because of a slight downhill, but every small incline was a struggle and my heart rate shot up. And I was only at mile 8!

Up until this point we’d been heading out to the east, but now the course turned back towards Paris. I wasn’t really taking much notice of anything other than the fact I was only 1/3rd of the way in and was not feeling any better. My watch was still saying 4:22/km, so I was keeping a steady pace, but I felt so rubbish that the thought of a DNF started to invade my mind. In my pocket was a Metro ticket and 10 Euros, so it would be easy to step off at the next Metro station and head back to the baggage area and just collect my bag. What did keep me going, though, was the thought of my wife, Yasmin, and daughter, Chloe, waiting for me at the 30km point. It was a target, and although 42.2km sounded a long way off, 30km seemed possible, so if I can get to there I can decide whether to give up or not.

I reached half way in around 1:32:15, so still keeping to 4.22/km, and would have been a reasonable time if I wasn’t already shattered. I hung onto that pace for a bit longer and then I started to drop a few seconds here and there. I completely missed Notre Dame, which is annoying because it was one of the attractions we hadn’t visited during our sight-seeing and was on my list of must-sees. The route soon started to go through a number of underpasses, which was a descent and ascent that I didn’t need but at least shielded me from the sun for a little while. By the time I reached the Eiffel Tower, and started looking around for my supporters, my pace had slowed to 4:40/km. Amazingly, I did spot Yasmin and Chloe among the crowds, and was mighty pleased to see them for that brief time. I even managed a smile!

I didn’t step off the road at 30k and give up but it was all a bit downhill from there on. My pace had dropped to 4.55/km, which I would have been happy to finish with, but whereas my heart rate at that pace is usually a very comfortable 125 bpm, it was currently hovering around 160 bpm, which is what it usually is during a half-marathon race at 3:56/km! So I started to take walking breaks to bring it down; I was actually a little worried it was so high (I am getting on a bit after all!). The walking breaks worked, and I was able to run 1-1.5km before I had to stop and walk again. The walking probably lost me 3 or 4 minutes overall, so it was no big deal, but I’ve never walked in a road marathon before so I was pretty unhappy about that!

In the last mile I was passed by the 3:15 pacer which was a kick in the teeth, so the finish line was a welcome sight when it arrived. From somewhere I still managed to up the pace for the last 400m, but it was a little late. I finished in 3:16:50. You can see my race and analyse it here on Strava.

At the finish I received a medal, t-shirt, and mystery object. I wore the t-shirt on the way home and one of the security guards at the Eurostar applauded me with a ‘Bravo!’ and asked me how I’d got on. The mystery object, I discovered later on at home, was ironically a waterproof poncho, one-size-fits-all!

All in all, my 4 nights in Paris with the family were excellent, and not something that would have been high on my list of destinations to visit without the marathon entry. The marathon itself was not one I enjoyed at any point; then again, I don’t usually enjoy the distance, so that’s not new! I know the reason why I run them is to test myself, but maybe I will need to start to question if it is the right distance for me. I rather like half marathons, and tend to be quite good at those. I’m entered for the London Marathon in 2 weeks time, and I will compete in it if I have recovered sufficiently and the weather looks favourable. After that, I need to re-evaluate my running goals and see if marathons still fits with them. 

Au revoir Paris, tu vas me manquer.