Category: My Life

Running My First Organised 5K

Getting ready to start my 5k down Blackpool sea front.

A couple of weeks back I did my first organised run, which was a 5K on Blackpool sea front. I was somewhat dreading it, but I’m really pleased with how I did.

I’ve only been running for a few months and it’s the first time I’ve been pounding the pavements since my 20’s. Even back then, it was the odd run on the canal while I was bored due to unemployment. It was sporadic at best and I never stuck to it once I finally found employment. I wish I had, but that’s the folly of youth and the dreaded hindsight.

I remember being quite good at sprinting when I was at school, and for a short while I also thought I’d take up long distance running. I did one organised run (aside from the runs I did at school), came near last, and stopped bothering about carrying on with it.

Fast forward to today, where I’m on the cusp of 40 and I’m worn out from the daily grind and the constant tiredness that comes with parenting two kids. I decided I needed to do something to make me feel better about myself, give me more energy, and generally just be healthier. That something was running.

I’d be lying if I said it was just me who decided to get out there and run, as it’s thanks to my wife. She hit upon the same realisation as me over a year ago, and she was someone who absolutely detested the idea of running. Since she started, she’s regularly running longer than a 5K, has joined an all-female running club, and has done many organised races. This includes the London Landmark’s Half Marathon that she did earlier this year.

Aside from wanting to do it for the challenge, she also did this to raise money for Guide Dogs UK (our daughter has a severe visual impairment, amongst other complications) and ended up raising over an incredible £8,000. To say I’m incredibly proud of her is an understatement.

Anyway, while I don’t think I’ll be running a half marathon anytime soon, I do want to regularly do at least a 5K every week, and I’ve been spending weeks building myself up to that.

I started doing the Couch to 5K Challenge using the handy NHS app. It does a fantastic job of getting you up off the sofa and easing you into it. However, about halfway through, I decided to ditch it and just go at my own pace. The reason for this is that I felt it was holding me back. By the halfway point I always wanted to carry on running for a couple of extra minutes when it was telling me in my ear to stop and walk. I felt like I’d just got past the point of needing to be directed and would just slow my pace or walk when my body was telling me to.

I also switched up my regular running route to one that would take me through fewer windy streets where I had to cross roads every few hundred metres. It’s now a long stretch by a main road where I don’t have to contend with as many crossings. Plus, it just feels better on my legs and feet, with the added bonus of it being downhill for half of it. Though the route back is obviously the opposite!

I had a few problems with my right foot for one week, so I had to take some time off to recover. When I got back on it, I decided to just try for a full 5k as I knew I had the Blackpool race coming up. I finished it in 35 minutes 13 seconds, which I was really pleased with. Although I was sweating like a pig when I finished and my legs felt like jelly.

I find the hardest part of running is not being out of breath, but dealing with aching legs and trying to push through it. By the time I was running down Blackpool sea front with my wife, it was the opposite as I had to slow down once I got to the halfway point and my lungs needed a rest. But it was 25 degrees (77 degrees to any Americans who stumble across my blog) with very little breeze, and very humid. At the halfway point I took a bottle of water from a steward handing them out and walked for a bit, guzzling the whole bottle in about 30 seconds. For the rest of the race, I alternated between a few minutes running and a minute walking.

Here we are with our medals. As you can see from the medals, there was also a choice to do 10k, but I’m definitely not ready for that. My wife could smash it though.

My final time? 34 minutes 31 seconds, shaving a good chunk off my original 5k time. I crossed that finish line feeling awesome. Then I looked at my watch and realised it had only tracked 4.87km. But it’s all semantics, as the course was measured to be 5k and I know I did that distance. To hell with my Strava.

The race was on Sunday 12 July. I took some time off to recover and…. I just never went back to it. I’ve been using the excuse of the heatwave we’ve been having here in England, but I need to stop being lazy and get back on it. So, after work tomorrow, I’m heading out to do another 5k. I’ll keep doing the 5k’s for a bit now until I feel comfortable enough to increase that distance.

I guess I can now call myself a runner.

Helping With The Washing

That bunch of clothes on the dryer above is Ivy’s way of helping. She saw me getting the washing out of the washing machine and approached saying “I help.”

She then proceeds to just shove them on the dryer, one after the other, in one big bunch. She wouldn’t let me help her either, saying “no, I do it”, which is not surprising as she’s fiercely independent (anyone with a three year-old will have a similar experience).

In her little head she thinks she’s helping, and she’s at that age where everything is an enjoyable learning experience and boring-ass chores feel fun. Yeah, it means the job takes twice as long for me, as I have to take everything off that she’s put on there. But I would never not want this experience. It’s cute as hell and it’s little moments like this that I’ll fondly remember, especially once she’s a grumpy teenager moaning about helping with chores.

They’ll get to an age one day where you’ll miss these little moments from when they were tiny. My 7 year-old already likes to moan when we ask him to do chores, yet there was a time when he would be like Ivy too. That said, Noah also has unprompted moments when he wants to help, such as with helping me clear weeds in the garden. I’ll always let him help and cherish that time with him, because those moments don’t last forever.

They won’t be perfect when they do help. But those imperfections are what helps them learn. Focus on the process, not the outcome.

I’ve just realised I’ve never mentioned Ivy on my blog before, apart from announcing our pregnancy in this post. There is something I want to share about her soon as it’s a cause I need to bring more awareness too, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Our Christmas Present Is A New Baby

The Mulrooney family meeting Father Christmas who has come on a sleigh to local streets.
Noah is quite clearly thrilled to meet Father Christmas! This is part of a mini Christmas parade that comes through our area every year. They collect money for Pendleside Hospice and hand out presents (Selection Boxes) to children. It was worth freezing our arses off!

Christmas 2022 was pretty uneventful for the Mulrooney family, which, at my age, is the way I like it. We did the usual stuff; Noah opening his presents, the Christmas day meal at the in-laws, being lazy on Boxing Day while also attempting to build Noah’s new toys. We did other stuff around it too, such as going for Christmas Eve breakfast at a local pub. Although, this turned out to be a bit of a nightmare thanks to the impatience of a three-year-old. It was standard stuff, but that’s perfect in my book. 

At the same time, Christmas this year felt unique. While we’ve spent time ensuring that Noah has a magical time, much of our focus has been on what comes after Christmas. Because, a few days from now, our new baby will have arrived.  

It’s odd knowing the exact date your baby is going to arrive, providing everything goes like clockwork. Because Alex has chosen to have a C-section, the hospital assigned us a morning slot in which to turn up. As long as we don’t get bumped down the list due to any emergencies, our baby will be into this world without Alex having to go through the stress of a natural labour (which didn’t happen with Noah either, not through lack of trying on Alex’s part). We’ve heard that a planned C-section is much calmer than the emergency C-section that happened with Noah, so we’re looking forward to the process being a lot smoother. Fingers crossed. 

Are we ready for our second child? I don’t think anyone is ever fully ready. We didn’t feel ready for our first child, but we coped and he’s a now a healthy little boy who often drives us up the wall! People keep telling me that a second child is a whole different ball game. While I’m looking forward to the challenge, I know that the job of being a parent is about to get much harder.  

Thankfully, my work has allowed me to extend my two-week paternity leave by letting me tack on two weeks annual leave so I can have four weeks off work. When you add that to the week I’ve had off for Christmas, that means I’ll be having over a month away from work.  

I wanted to do this for a few reasons. First, it’s going to be a lot harder to look after a new born when you’ve already got a three-year-old causing chaos around the house (he won’t be going back to our childminder until the second week of January). Second, Alex is going to struggle to do things while she recovers from a doctor slicing her open (she can’t drive for six weeks), so I want to be there to help as much as possible. Finally, I want to have as much time to bond with my new child as possible without the distraction of a daily job. I only had two weeks off when Noah arrived, and part of that was taken up by studying for an exam I’d been going to classes for. The plan is to be more present this time around. 

I know I’m in a fortunate position to be able to take so much time off work, and I’m super grateful to the company I work at for letting me do this. We’ll be hit on the financial side for a bit, which isn’t the most ideal situation when it feels like everything is going up in price, but we’ve worked it all out and we can get by on less for a while.  

It won’t feel real until I’ve got our new baby in my arms because, right now, I’m still a bit unaware of how much our life is going to change for the second time. I never thought we would be here again, especially after what happened the first time, but here we are. I’m over the moon about growing our little family, and so excited for what’s to come in the future. Although you may have to remind me of that when I’m attempting to survive the day on two hours sleep! 

If you want to read Alex’s thoughts on this, head over to her blog post.

The Songs Of My Life: U2 – Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of

I wouldn’t call myself a U2 fan. There are certain U2 songs that I like, but I never go out of my way to listen to them. Yet in the year 2001 – long before U2 would annoy millions of people by putting their new album on everyone’s iPhone – when I was at the tender age of 14, one of their songs came to mean a lot to me. That song was Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.  

Released on 29 January 2001, I was the second single from U2’s tenth studio album, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. According to a Rolling Stone interview with Bono from November 2005, the song is about the suicide of his close friend Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS. It’s written in the form of an argument where Bono tries to convince Hutchence that suicide is foolish. 

It’s a row between mates. You’re kinda trying to wake them up out of an idea. In my case, it’s a row I didn’t have while he was alive. I feel the biggest respect I could pay to him was not to write some stupid soppy song, so I wrote a really tough, nasty little number, slapping him around the head. And I’m sorry, but that’s how it came out of me. 

Wenner, Jann S. (3 November 2005). “Bono: The Rolling Stone Interview”. Rolling Stone. No. 986. pp. 48–67, 102–103.

As a 14-year-old, I was unaware of what the song was actually about. The original reason I fell in love with it was due to the music video released for the song. Three versions exist, and the version that I fell in love with was the original version (also known as the US version). It features an American football game where a placekicker keeps reliving a field goal he missed that would cost his team the game. The video ends with the linebacker, now a postman, as an old man. He kicks the ball and scores. 

This video captivated me and my brother. It used to play on either TMF or The Hits music channels quite a lot, and always around the same time of day. This happened to be not long after we finished school. When we got off the bus, we’d run towards our home to turn the TV on and catch it before we missed it. We’d then sit there with grins on our faces while we watched it.  

I’m not sure why we loved the video so much. Watching it back today, it’s well shot and the story it tells is relatable to us all. No, I don’t mean that we all go through missing a kick at school. But we do all go through something that went wrong that we keep playing over and over in our heads.  

The more I watched the music video and listened to the song, the more I came to connect with the lyrics. As a teenager, I suffered from social anxiety. I would repeat conversations I’d had with other people over and over in my head. I’d wish I’d said something different or been a bit more approachable. Like a lot of teenagers, I obsessed over how people perceived me, and I wanted people to like me. But my social anxiety prevented me from being the real person I wanted to be. It also meant that I could come across as unapproachable and disinterested in involving myself in social activities with others. I tried to avoid social situations because I got anxious thinking about them.

There were so many moments during my teenage years when I’d get stuck replaying the same situations over and over in my head, wishing I’d done something different. Wishing I’d talked to that girl, or wishing that I hadn’t gotten so pissed off at someone and ended up having an argument over nothing. I always seemed to be ‘stuck in a moment’ rather than forgetting about it and moving on with my life. The lyric ‘don’t say that later will be better’ was always me saying I’ll come out of my shell when I’m ready, rather than going and doing something about it right now. 

These days, I’m far better at dealing with and moving on a lot quicker than I used to. That social anxiety is still around, but it’s not half as bad as it used to be.  

This song reminds me of darker times in my life, but it’s a positive thing as I know I ended up getting through it all to achieve the great life I have today. It also reminds me of having a connection with my brother and bonding over something we both enjoyed. That’s why I love music. It reminds you of periods in your life and the connections you shared with others. 

We’re Having Another Baby!

I’ve got some big news that I’ve yet to announce on my blog. We’re having another baby! 

While we did want another baby, it was still a bit of a surprise. We’d just taken the approach of ‘wait and see’ than actively focusing on it. Alex decided to do a pregnancy test because she was feeling a little different and, lo and behold, it came out positive. Given that it took so long for us to get pregnant the first time, which ended in tragedy, I didn’t expect another one to come so soon.  

Our baby looks to have a head as big as my massive noggin!

Our baby is due in early January, and I honestly can’t wait to do it all again. Everyone said that our baby boy would grow up so quick, and they were right. Now we get to experience all that again. By the way, we don’t know the sex of our second child, which is what we did with Noah too. Having a girl this time would be fantastic, but I’m honestly fine with either sex. 

However, I’m under no illusions that this is going to be easy. We currently have a boisterous three year-old who can be a handful at the best of times. Add a newborn baby into that mix, and I don’t think we’ll be getting any sleep for the foreseeable future. Although I’m hoping things will be slightly easier when Noah goes to school near the end of next year (I can’t believe that’s come so soon!).  

But all those tiring days are worth it when you look into the eyes of your little one and they smile back. Noah has been the best thing that ever happened to us, and our new baby will be the equal of that. It’s magical, and I love the feeling that we made a whole person with a cheeky personality.  

That said, remind me of this in about a year when I’ve collapsed from exhaustion! 

UK Energy Price Woes

Last week I received what I’m sure a lot of people dread to see these days – my new energy quote. I’ve been lucky up until now in that I’ve been on a fixed tariff since September 2020. My bill went up by £20 a month when I moved house, but I moved from a well-insulated new build into an older house that was built in the 1960’s, so I expected to pay a little more. But I don’t think any of us expected what’s happening in the energy market right now.  

I currently pay £100.51 a month, which is amazing compared to what a lot of other people are currently paying. If I were to fix my prices for 12 months, Octopus Energy, my current provider, will fix the price at a ridiculous estimated £542.59 a month, which is around the same as what I pay for my mortgage.  

If I switch to Loyal Octopus, a tariff that’s only available to customers who have been with them at least 8 months, it will go down to an estimated £519.12 a month. While a saving of £23.47 a month would normally be great if I was still paying £100.51 a month, it’s nothing when you get into these extremes.  

Finally, I can switch to the variable rate, which will be an estimated £217.81 a month. Obviously, this is the one I’m going to go for, but it’s still over double what I’m paying now, and variable comes with its own downsides.  

To be fair on Octopus Energy, they’re yet to announce what the prices will be now that the government has announced a cap of £2,500 a year for the typical family (and I like to think we use less energy than the typical family), so it will probably end up being a bit less than what they’ve quoted me. Still, it’s crazy expensive right now. 

While these costs suck up a chunk of my disposable income, I can still afford it. But there are millions of people who won’t be able to afford a rise like this, even when all the help from the government is in place. How does an old person on state pension afford to keep their heating on when the prices are this high? Deaths in the older generation are surely going to go up. I’m just hoping that the winter will be mild, but any cold weather affects older people far more than someone my age. 

While I’m glad the Tories have finally done something about this (let’s face it, it would have been political suicide for them to ignore it), there’s still a lot more they could be doing. Like a windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, or investing more in renewable energy rather than approving more oil drills as Liz Truss is gearing up to do. But Tories will be Tories.