The Reading Half is finally out of the way. By my standards it didn't go too well, with a finishing time of 1 hour and 33 minutes...my goal was always to get round without an injury however, and that was aciheved, so we'll call it a draw and move on.
The next race is a triathlon in May, and before then I have to get myself upto speed on a bike. I intend to cycle into work every day over summer, and build up the confidence and speed on the machine. This weekend I bolted a cycle computer to it, nad I now know that I cycle at about 20 miles an hour, with my target being 25. It should be achieveable, just need to get the feel of putting the power down into the pedals. I also need to sort out some outdoor swimming practice, as I'd rather not have my first wetsuit swim being "in anger".
In other, non-exercise related things, the Descent Team recently finished a rather long campaign (we reckon about a year in total). Byrnie did sterling work as the Overlord, and managed to go into the finale with a decent lead, and we all thought that it would be a brutal death to the heores, however the game was against Byrnie in a quite horrendous way, and in aspects we never really thought about, resulting in a fairly unexpected (and rather un-climactic) win for the Hero team late on Saturday/early on Sunday. Overall it was a good experience, though I think we are all feeling a bit of balance-fatigue and rulebook-exposure. There is a plan to take a session or two's break, and then start another campaign.
We've been having a few Left4Dead online sessions, which are a riot. It's quite possibly the best team-based game I've played, as it actually involves working together (not just playing together). In three weeks time an expansion comes out for it, which should add to the fun no end! My xBox360, on the other hand, is currently sitting at a repair site in Germany, after deciding to stop outputting sound. The Microsoft support system for them is actually fairly comprehensive, and after two phone calls doing trouble-shooting a pickup from UPS was arranged. This weekend I picked up a cheap copy of House of the Dead:Overkill for the Wii, and it's quite possibly the most hilarious game I've played in a long time. Gill and myself spent a cracking afternoon blasting our way through the initial campaign. The entire theme of the game is done out in a camped-up 70's psychodelic horror (the closest film similie I can reference is House of 1000 Corpses, which I'm fairly certain in turn takes it's style from another, older film).
We have a holiday sorted for Wales in a few weeks time, which is promising to be an eclectic blend of walking, boardgames, consoles and food, with the pleasant backdrop of the Gower peninsula. I'm dragging along my bike, a wetsuit and a kite, though I probably won't try and use them all at the same time. Fingers crossed that the weather holds on, as for the last couple of weeks it's actually been rather spendid. I'll also have a couple of crates of games, including Smallworld, if it decides to arrive on time...
If the weather does hold on, then this weekend (Easter weekend) I plan to finish prepping the garden for summer. We spent a couple od days tediously scrubbing and cleaning the decking, ready for a new coat of stain. I've tried to seed the patches in the lawn as well, but it doesn't seem to have taken (and the bloody pidgeons have eaten it all now!). Once it's serviceable then I suspect there may well be a barbeque planned...well, it would be rude not to!