tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53318339058256761812024-11-06T02:56:36.310+00:00An Engineer/Programmers's view of the world, politics, Finance, Rowing, Running and Imperial College.Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-7466144870355935082015-06-16T17:28:00.000+01:002015-06-16T19:32:28.650+01:00

Luxembourg Marathon Race Report On Saturday 30th May 2015 at 7pm I lined up for the ING Luxembourg Night Marathon. I ran a personal best of 2h 57m 19s and came 19th overall. I did the first half in 1:27:34 and the second in 1:29:45. Result and photos. What preparation did I do generally? I followed the 55 mile program from Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger & Douglas

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-8022285691524542252014-08-04T00:07:00.001+01:002014-08-04T15:48:01.228+01:00

Finished John O'Groats to Lands End. 1000 miles on bike in 10 days. Smashing. Here is some evidence: I'll write a full debrief tomorrow on the train home. Added the following day: Strava part 1 and part 2. Lowley cottage - RAF Davidstow Moor - Cambourne - Penzance - Lands End ( - Penzance) The first section of the day took us up Seeing that James and I stayed a few miles out

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Penzance, Cornwall, UK50.118798 -5.537592000000017850.0984355 -5.5779325000000179 50.139160499999996 -5.4972515000000177tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-22348037658666995352014-08-03T01:13:00.000+01:002014-08-03T01:13:30.854+01:00

Bridgwater - Taunton - Bampton - Hatherleigh - Launceston - Lowley Cottage Strava part 1 and part 2. Today started with all the right intentions. We knew we had a very hilly day in the wilderness of Devon. A shocking number of bowls to dip into. But a certain someone lost his charger, had gear problems and needed a wheel truing again. Here is the sinner looking very contrite: Add these

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Lowley Bridge, Rezare, Launceston, Cornwall PL15 9NZ, UK50.5854541 -4.31856370000002729.7771126 -45.627157700000026 71.3937956 36.990030299999972tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-36121639994725374772014-08-02T00:28:00.001+01:002014-08-02T00:31:15.528+01:00

Hereford - Coleford - Chepstow - Portbury - Clevedon - Mark - Bridgwater Strava part 1 and part 2. They say that in Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly every happen. That might be true but it was blowing a mighty gale this morning leaving Hereford. And while we are on a My Fair Lady theme: The rain in Somerset fell mainly on our peloton. We had a very special guest today.

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Bridgwater, Bridgwater, Somerset, UK51.127889 -3.003632000000038751.0481655 -3.1649935000000387 51.2076125 -2.8422705000000388tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-78877970617313137722014-07-31T23:05:00.000+01:002014-07-31T23:05:23.430+01:00

Chester - Whittington - Welshpool - Churchstoke - Wigmore - Hereford Strava part 1 and part 2. There are three certainties in a man's life: death, prostate exams and horse play. Us "lads" have got to the point where we are starting to mess around to take our minds off "That pain between our legs". It starts our very innocently with funny poses in pictures: To chucking bananas into each

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Hereford, Hereford, UK52.056397999999987 -2.7159739999999651.97828299999999 -2.87733549999996 52.134512999999984 -2.55461249999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-86156354088118208612014-07-31T00:18:00.000+01:002014-07-31T00:18:46.020+01:00

Lancaster - Preston - Chorley - Adlington - Warrington - Runcorn - Chester 80 miles. Strava part 1 and part 2. There are parts of every great endeavour that will be boring and difficult. When you question why you are doing it. Waking in the morning wanting to hit the snooze button. No longer that adrenalin you had at the beginning firing you along. In our case it is hearing that alarm go

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Chester, Chester, Cheshire West and Chester, UK53.193392 -2.893074999999953453.117285 -3.0544364999999534 53.269499 -2.7317134999999535tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-52086368095322720892014-07-30T00:55:00.000+01:002014-07-30T00:55:19.024+01:00

Gretna Green - (detour to Longtown for new wheel - Gretna Green ) - Carlisle - Dalston - Penrith - Shap - Kendal - Lancaster Strava* part 1,  part 2 and part 3. ENGLAND! That selfie was about 500m from our B&B but was taken at 11 09 am. We had a very slow start. The wall of Greg's back tyre gave way at the end of day 4 so this morning it was James and Mark to the rescue. We set

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Lancaster, Lancashire, UK54.046575 -2.800739900000053253.971987999999996 -2.9621014000000532 54.121162 -2.6393784000000533tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-77465044126802546242014-07-29T01:33:00.000+01:002014-07-29T01:33:48.721+01:00

Balloch - Dunbarton - Clydebank - Glasgow - Hamilton - Abington - Lockerbie - Gretna Green We started the morning following the route 7 cycle way. This took us through some pretty run of the mill suburbs, intimidating council estates and bleak industrial estates. One long stretch had strange black towers every couple of hundred meters: Very spooky. I thought they might be police watch

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Gretna Green, Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway DG16, UK55.004745600000007 -3.063082699999995436.057961600000006 -44.371676699999995 73.951529600000015 38.245511300000004tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-4232341462129712602014-07-27T23:30:00.001+01:002014-07-27T23:30:40.340+01:00

Fort William - > Glencoe - > Rannoch Moor -> Loch Lomond -> Balloch. Below was our elevation profile for today. Looks like a face on its side. (Only joking but got you to tilt your head to one side). Glencoe, site if the 1692 massacre, was an ominous place. We had just sped along 20 miles of flat with a long climb to go. Unlike Clan MacDonald we knew what fate was to come. I

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, UK56.002716 -4.580081000000063855.9849605 -4.6204215000000639 56.0204715 -4.5397405000000637tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-10668244353876197752014-07-27T00:26:00.000+01:002014-07-27T00:27:20.039+01:00

When I woke this morning and saw the clouds all I could think was "What way are we going to go? No idea, it's a Mist - ery!" Or "The views are going to be Gray-t" Luckily the weather waited until later to turn truly awful but my puns started as they meant to go on. Though in fact it was mostly a day of me asking stupid things. "Midges bite?", "InverNESS is near Loch Ness?" Or "Nuclear

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-75916824637285273862014-07-25T22:41:00.000+01:002014-07-25T22:41:18.402+01:00

Taim, we actually got to Taim. But pain is all I can think about. I would have started by telling you about the walk we took after dinner to see the sun set over the Orkney Islands from The Sign and the random Scot playing Aude Lang Sign on an accordion but I'm in too much pain. I could go on and tell you about the gorgeous start we had from John O'Groats and the selfie I took but my knee

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Fearn, Tain, Highland IV20, UK57.772191000000007 -3.952938000000017457.225405000000009 -5.2438315000000175 58.318977000000004 -2.6620445000000172tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-61841998159371650682014-07-24T09:26:00.001+01:002014-07-24T20:32:57.632+01:00

So far the most sophisticated sleeper I've been on. Whiling the evening away in the lounge car, slouched on a leather sofa, fine 12 year old whisky in hand with the smell of haggis in the air: sublime. It all started with Tam coming to Euston with me. I feel sorry for her because while I got to board the debonair train she had to settle for the drab 70s monstrosity that is Euston. Once I

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-8634008106902244152014-07-23T18:03:00.000+01:002014-07-24T09:20:13.575+01:00

About a year ago one of my best friends, James, said to me "do you want to do John o ' groats to Lands End next year?". "Hell yerr!" I said. My bike was promptly stolen a month later. One new bike* and a year later I'm about to get the Caledonian Sleeper up to the Highlands to start my epic journey. I could have taken a flight to Inverness and the bike would have been free but given the infamy

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-75866733027489020822013-04-16T01:10:00.000+01:002013-04-16T01:10:03.022+01:00

I work with CLOs (Collaterlized Loan Obligations). Each has a name. Some are named after the manager. ING IM CLO 2011-1, Carlyle Global Market Strategies 2012-1, KKR Financial CLO 2012-1, Halycon Loan Advisors Funding 2012-2 etc. Others after things. So there is nearly a CLO for every single park, street, avenue and river in NY (one manager even ran out of parks so they used a park in NY which is

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3291728 -74.65142010000001 41.0995328 -73.3605261tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-67213746436308794592013-04-15T00:44:00.001+01:002013-04-15T00:44:56.155+01:00

I have been in New York for business this week and in the first in a series of post I am going to talk about my runs in NYC. So my next race will be the Bournemouth marathon in October. And as that there is no time like the present, I set my training program to last for 6 month. Yes, a ridiculously long time but I have "Sub 3 hours" branded on the hindquarters of my consciousness by my 3:09 at

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3291728 -74.65142010000001 41.0995328 -73.3605261tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-49488413661901810452012-02-09T10:28:00.000+00:002012-02-09T10:28:02.711+00:00

It is said that people start to look like their pets. This has happened to me. I don't mean that I have become black, grown a coat and miraculously sprouted ears the length of my face. I mean that what I have been wearing for running over the past couple of (siberian) days has been ninja-esque. Black trainers, black leggings, black gillet and black long sleeve top. The bits of white detail on

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-79900598555660114342011-12-02T08:21:00.000+00:002011-12-02T08:21:23.955+00:00

Today's cultural difference came to light last night when I ordered a port (porto) towards the end of dinner. In Britain I have only ever drunk port after dinner*. So it seemed natural to take a port with my café after dinner. The french were aghast! Every last one of them thought I was mad for having port after food and that I'd completely lost it because I was taking it with my coffee.

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-32915952002912300002011-09-25T13:39:00.000+01:002012-02-09T10:23:36.265+00:00

Just thought I'd quickly shout out to everyone that my gross time for the Berlin Marathon 2011 was 3 hours 9 minutes and (about) 55 seconds. My actual time will be about 30 second less. I'll try and write a full race report in the next couple of days.

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-15090182075346623882011-07-09T09:36:00.000+01:002011-07-09T09:36:24.616+01:00

I guess that when most people get a dog they have some reason for doing so or have some plans in their mind what they envision to be doing with their dog. Some might want a dog to guard their property, others want one to collect shot birds, some want a companion, even collect the newspaper each day and, judging by the number of people that have stopped and talked to me while I'm walking G, meet

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0Les Îles, Lyon, France45.801341138730663 4.9385257785644445.780830638730663 4.8923502785644395 45.821851638730664 4.98470127856444tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-61950834415076764592011-06-08T10:23:00.002+01:002011-06-08T10:25:00.238+01:00

Bless my soul, puppies cry and whine loud at night. Or so I thought. There we were, the first night, ready to go to bed nice and early and we say to ourselves that Georgie will have to sleep in the hall. Literally seconds after we had closed the door to our bedroom she started whining and we thought to ourselves "that isn't that bad." She only got louder.She started howling and

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-42381093701095944722011-06-05T14:27:00.006+01:002011-06-05T15:45:14.379+01:00

So some of you might have seen from my Facebook status that Sophie and I have a dog.She is a black cocker and is 2 months old (DOB 3/4/11). We have called her Georgie (couldn't call her Patrick, David or Andrew0. We bought her in the market this morning. You can find some more pictures of her on Facebook if you want. Obviously we will be uploading more as she gets older.She currently feels very

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-37433144821076945842011-03-16T16:22:00.000+00:002011-03-16T16:23:35.159+00:00

I have of late been taking my lunch in the Parc de la Tête d'Or which is the Park of the Head of Gold or Golden Head Park. And today I had a stroll around the zoo which I had been to before though I didn't see all of it. I thought that I would take a few pictures and post them here. The first is an amur leopard which was just strolling up and down his cage. There was a dad next to me

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-68157831885157183622010-11-20T20:07:00.001+00:002010-11-20T20:07:14.543+00:00

So today was my first day of skiing and the first day any of the ski resorts are open, Val Thorens being the only one. Obviously I don't mean "ever" for both those two firsts. The day was through a company called Ski Mania. Found them on the internet and just booked. I had no idea what to expect except that we would almost certainly be getting there by coach. So it was up at 4 30 to

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-24503988293630996912010-10-18T22:22:00.000+01:002010-10-18T22:23:03.612+01:00

I'm writing this on the plane coming back to London for my graduation ceremony and I felt I really needed to give my pennies worth. You might think "how do I have the time?" Or "Aren't you forbidden from using a phone on planes?" (I write all my posts on by BlueBerry and send as an email). Well firstly my original flight was cancelled because of strikes so I had to

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5331833905825676181.post-38432575486086409892010-09-30T19:36:00.004+01:002010-09-30T20:13:54.373+01:00

I've just signed my self up to the Paris Marathon on Sunday 10th April. This is the first step in a master plan. The first step is obvious. The next is to up the training (from up to 70 miles per week to up to 85 miles a week) and compete in the Berlin Marathon, Sept 2011. Berlin is a very flat course and is were the best times are set. This is so that I can run fast enough to get a championship

Mark Mearing-Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16382090297973453976noreply@blogger.com0