Follow the whole nine yards here (a 95 part series) :- Half Marathon Blog

Why I am running:- West Coast Eisteddfod Bryn Seion Church

For details of how to sponsor see this post

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I will start today's post with a confession. I have run this distance before on several occasions. In fact I will blog my old route along the Taff Trail tomorrow in the the hope that a Cardiffian with expert local knowledge will be able to confirm that the distance was 13 miles. I was never too concerned with precision in those days and I may be a mile or two out.

One thing that has always concerned me though, is the vital question of glycogen depletion. I have posted a YouTube video below of unprepared runners 'hitting the wall' . This experience which invariably occurs somewhere between the 15th and 20th mile of any long distance run is also referred to as 'the bonk' . Some of us are very reluctant to be caught 'bonking' in public especially when you consider that it involves an unseemly display of wobbling invariably followed by total physical collapse.

I understand that this phenomenon has to do with a metabolic adaptation to burning body fat for energy which occurs once stored glycogen reserves have been depleted. I leave it to any experts out there to correct me on the details if I have erred.

All in all it seems like another good reason to stop running at around the 13 mile mark. But still I would be interested to pick up any tips on how to handle this from full marathon runners. I realise that with proper preparation the body will make this adjustment smoothly and no public embarrassment will ensue.

Hitting the wall is similar , in terms of its symptoms and effects, to hypoglycaemia and at this point I have another confession to make. When I was young and foolish ( youth has fled and only folly remains ) I suffered occasionally from a form of 'exam nerves' which I treated with prescription beta blockers . I have long since forgotten the name of the course and qualification I was pursuing. I read the warnings on the label and decided that since I was young and immortal they did not apply to me. In particular they cautioned against combining alcohol consumption and physical exertion. Naturally I opted to combine the two in the form of a good Friday night out at my local pub followed by a brisk nine mile walk in the Brecon Beacons the following morning.

Result? Disaster! My blood sugar collapsed as it was bound to do under the circumstances and I was left rolling down the side of a ridge at the back of Pen Y Fan because I was no longer able to stand let alone walk to the car. Families out for their Saturday morning constitutionals looked away in embarrassment assuming I must be drunk or insane. I did made it back to the car and after a short drive to the nearest convenience store and an emergency Mars bar I was fine again. Of course I was very lucky. The incident occurred within reach of emergency transport and I had someone to drive me . Under different circumstances this episode might have had much more serious consequences and I DO NOT ignore warning labels on pill bottles any more.

Anyway....just in case I change my mind and decide to got for the full 26 miles....any advise on avoiding 'the bonk'?

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OK so that was just a cheap trick to get your attention. We aren't really setting up a Welsh dating site. What we are doing, however, is appealing for dates to complete a long standing project - the Welsh Calendar site. So if you can think of any dates we've missed that are worthy of inclusion please feel free to comment on the blog ( or below ).....Read More HERE

The Tonypandy Riots 1911

Today we are pleased to announce that Sheila Lewis .will be contributing a short story to our second edition. Original writing from Sheila Lewis Tom Stephen's Riot:-

Read more about eto and buy edition 1 here

The Tonypandy riots on the Wikipedia

From the intro:-

"Tom Stepehens Riot is a work of fiction based on the actions of a courageous man of that same name, whose main concern was for the safety of his lady and her two young children when riots broke out at Tonypandy, Rhondda, in 1910.

Tom was step-father to my Great-Aunt Blodwen.

Blodwen Williams had been born in December, 1905, and was just 18 months old when her father died. She had a brother who was four years older. Their widowed mother tried to earn a living from her dress-making by carrying her sewing machine from house to house often walking many miles each day in the hope of finding employment.

Blodwen married my Great Uncle Theopholis Beddoe in December, 1930. Both remembered the night of the Tonypandy Riots. Blod told me how Tom Stephens braved the crowded streets for her familys sake."

An excerpt:-

"The shouts and screams of men and women hit my ears. I began to walk more quickly. I was approaching the Empire when a small group of women and children raced towards me.

Dont go that way! they shrieked. Youll be killed! They disappeared into the gloom and I saw more women and children approaching. Their screams and cries mingled with the far off shouts of men, and I moved closer to the shop walls to avoid being knocked over. The womens breaths were laboured; the effort of running on empty bellies was proving too much, and one woman seemed about to collapse. With her sisters help, I put her into the shelter of a doorway, then had to leave them I needed to get home.

I travelled towards Tonypandy Square, and as I drew nearer I could see a host of people; their numbers seemed to have increased a hundredfold in just a few hours.

Outside the Bridgend Hotel, the crowd was almost impenetrable. I could barely make any headway as I forced myself along the wall, hoping to avoid an injury. The silhouettes of the Mounted Police loomed high above the heads of the miners; truncheons were raised up and smashed down like pistons. There was no escape we were too tightly packed. I could hear the agonised cries all around, and battled hard to keep my feet on the ground in my attempt to cross Gilfach Road.

The Lord only knows how I managed to move through the solid mass of bodies. I eventually reached the other side of the roadway, and flattened myself against the wall of the corner building. I could hear the sounds of breaking glass and the screams of battle."

From Tom Stephens Riot by Sheila Lewis

Eto is a new bi-annual magazine featuring original works by Welsh fiction writers and poets. We will be releasing a full list of contributors and contents shortly. If you wish to be considered for publication please email the editors using the contact form on this page .

Visit our sponsor sites http://americymru.net and http://kindleauthors.blogspot.com

No I haven't developed a stutter. Just a quick note to let you know about the latest developments over on the Welsh American Bookstore site.

Mindful of the fact that it can sometimes be difficult to find individual titles amongst over 3000 catalogued items we thought we would add a 'Featured' feature to assist you. If you look at the graphics below you will easily see where it lives and how it works. It will display 4 or 5 of the latest featured titles and the product page will link to any relevant author interviews or reviews we have on the site.

All in all a handy feature for checking what's new or for occasional browsing if you're stuck for something to read and looking for new ideas. Enjoy

Click here to visit the Welsh American Bookstore

NEW TITLE: Travels of a Welsh Preacher in the U.S.A.

Peregrinations of William Davies Evans During the Later Nineteenth Century

Welsh author Margaret Morgan Jones publishes her great-uncles account of his travels in the USA in 1880. AmeriCymru spoke to Margaret about the book and her future plans.

Buy Travels of A Welsh Preacher in the U.S.A. here

Book of the Day: 9/23/13 'Travels of a Welsh Preacher in the U.S.A.' Interview with author Margaret Jones

"I became involved with the project of translating Dros Gyfanfor a Chyfandir (Over Ocean and Continent) by Reverend W.D. Evans (my gr eat-uncle) after the authors direct descendants had traced me down on their visits from the U.S.A. to Wales. Because the book was written in Welsh, Evans descendants had no idea what the book contained. On one visit, they put me on the spot and asked me to translate this page and that page, so I told them that I would translate the whole book for them."

Read more...

A brief note for anyone experiencing difficulties contacting the Welsh American Bookstore. This is a temporary problem. The contact form will work perfectly once we have finished sending out our monthly newsletter. Unfortunately the server only allows us to send out 150 emails per hour. Since we send out in batches of 150 hourly we hit the maximum figure consistently for about 48 hours while this is in progress. We will be done with the mailing some time today. Meanwhile it is easily possible to contact us on AmeriCymru or here or via americymru@gmail.com. We apologise for any inconvenience.

As for the 'suggestions' button....it is still available but only for logged in members. It became necessary to remove it from public availability after it was picked up by spammers and the inbox filled up with the usual torrent of viagra links etc.