Hastings!

Let's get one thing straight: the blame for this lies with my cousin Erica. After her mum's significant birthday last year, we discovered we were both Facebook users, which was quite exciting for me. I have a lot of cousins, and I guess it's natural that I'm closer to the ones closer to me in age. But Erica is someone I've always thought was amazing. She's really arty, which is handy for an artist, and effortlessly stylish and cool. Being friends with her on FB gave me an opportunity to get to know her better which I was very flattered by. So when she suggested at the end of the Great Eastern Run (before my euphoria wore off) that I might consider the Hastings Half, I agreed without a second thought. Or, more importantly, without any research. Because, in case you missed it, the Hastings Half has a hill profile that looks like this:

Not that I hold it against her, of course. In the end, I can only really blame my own stubborn pig-headedness. In her spirit of loveliness, she made sure to look after me, and I arrived in Hastings on Friday afternoon. This was because she thought it would be a good idea to get me out on those hills in advance of the race. She'd actually suggested this for Saturday, but after a brief conflab with Miss P, I suggested Friday for running, and Saturday for a rest day. Sal also suggested a maximum of 3 miles. This wasn't necessarily how it worked out.

I turned up to glorious sunshine in Hastings, with a mild sea mist somewhat obscuring the coastline view, and found my way to Erica's favourite cafe, Little Larder, where i scoffed some yummy lunch and met up with Eri. We nipped home, and got on our running gear, and I was introduced to my home from home, in Erica's rather marvelous "shed". I'd describe it more as a "summer house" - I wouldn't want you to think I was in with the garden tools and the wheelbarrow. As we set out for our run, Erica confessed that a knee injury she's mentioned 2 weeks earlier hadn't entirely cleared up. I realise now, she was just foreshadowing for me. Anyway, we set out for our very short run, and successfully introduced me to some hills, which Erica said were definitely the worst on the course. We then went for a much further run than I thought we were planning, which also involved running up 7 billion stairs. This finished Erica's knee off, so we walked for a while, until we both started feeling quite cool, as the afternoon sun was disappearing, so we ended up running the rest of the way home. Then Erica drove me around the course. You know how when you're in a car, you just don't see hills? Even so, I couldn't help notice that there were a lot of them. Especially the long rise which was quite daunting. Then back to St Leonards for a rather fantastic curry at the Taj Mahal, which more than made up for in friendliness, flavour and pricing what it lost in speed of service and efficiency...

On Saturday, our "day of rest" involved a beautiful five mile cycle ride over to Bexhill-on-Sea, where we looked around the De La Warr Pavillion, a centre for contemporary arts, but really, the building is the impressive element. A rather lovely cafe, coupled with more glorious sunshine, helped us to enjoy it for quite a while. After a spot of lunch, we headed back, and decided to go all-out for galleries by visiting the Jerwood. I learned a lot about the local politics and controversies of Hastings, and the opposition to the gallery from the locals, largely including the fishermen. The gallery is set adjacent to the Fishermen's traditional huts, who aren't apparently overly enthusiastic about the gallery; locals also believe that the loss of the carpark lot, which was able to take coaches, will see a drop in the tourist trade. I suspect they'll find somewhere else to park though.

The Jerwood Collection in the gallery were really lovely, but equally impressive were the carefully designed windows, floor to ceiling, with fantastic views. We watched a film of an artist who had an exhibition on, who was MAD AS A BOX OF FROGS. Which was also most interesting and entertaining. Then we had some rather fantastic cake, which I also heartily recommend.

We had a massive bowl of pasta and vegetables for dinner, although Erica was derisive of the notion of avoiding onions, but compromised by only using a small one. I'd forgotten the exact reasoning, but I've met Sal and Erica hasn't, which is the main difference. To be honest, I think Erica, whilst appreciating that I was clearly getting great advice from Sal, possibly had a similar reaction to the idea of being told what to do as Anita, my pilates teacher feels about my Wii Fit. And I mean, a lot of us feel like that about Sal. That we don't want to be told what to do by a machine. But Sal IS a lot prettier than the Wii Fit. And is also a LOT scarier.

Garmin on the charge, a restful day of culture, and a big bowl of pasta. Time to retreat to the shed. So that was me, all set for the big day. So I thought.