Adarq.org

Quote from: LBSS on September 05, 2019, 04:46:30 pm

got visa, leaving for london in ~15 minutes. our expected place to stay tonight fell through and i can't reach my gf now to confirm booking an airbnb so might have to leave for the airport without knowing my actual destination tomorrow, lol. heeeere we go.

i missed this, you're moving to London? when did this happen - belgium was the plan last i read (or is london just en-route?)

i'll be down there quite a bit over the next few months as my gf is currently living there, lets park run!

happened over the summer, gf decided that she wasn't ready for grad school and that removed the main reason we'd do belgium: master's costs $2000 there rather than $25-30,000 here. (she's british but doesn't qualify for home tuition because she hasn't been living here in the past three years.) so i'm starting a master's at UCL in a couple weeks.

anyway, park run for sure. or chase the sun? i've done one of the latter, they have chip timing. now that i'm in a place where there are lots of races, i like the idea of doing what adarq doing a while back, running a bunch and using races mainly as a "hard" training day. maybe park runs to train and chase the sun runs to attempt PR, because they're expensive but chip timed and therefore more legit? will consider. lots up in the air at the moment, but i'm gonna start training again ASAP. it's so nice and cool here, can't wait to run.

want to do one next weekend? i'm out near leyton, so hackney marshes, walthamstow, and wansted flats all look pretty close. latter the most so.

Quote from: LBSS on September 05, 2019, 04:46:30 pm

got visa, leaving for london in ~15 minutes. our expected place to stay tonight fell through and i can't reach my gf now to confirm booking an airbnb so might have to leave for the airport without knowing my actual destination tomorrow, lol. heeeere we go.

oh shit! i hope that works out all right tonight! am afraid i'm not able to offer you a place to stay as i'm not in town tonight, but if you need a hand getting settled in the coming weeks hmu

thanks man. we found a great airbnb, thank god. gonna be here the next few weeks while we look for places to live. we'll probably end up in the east, mile end/bow or out here. where's your gf live?

Quote from: Joe on September 06, 2019, 04:34:13 am

Quote from: LBSS on September 05, 2019, 04:46:30 pm

got visa, leaving for london in ~15 minutes. our expected place to stay tonight fell through and i can't reach my gf now to confirm booking an airbnb so might have to leave for the airport without knowing my actual destination tomorrow, lol. heeeere we go.

oh shit! i hope that works out all right tonight! am afraid i'm not able to offer you a place to stay as i'm not in town tonight, but if you need a hand getting settled in the coming weeks hmu

thanks man. we found a great airbnb, thank god. gonna be here the next few weeks while we look for places to live. we'll probably end up in the east, mile end/bow or out here. where's your gf live?

We're also in east london, and Mile End is my nearest parkrun, so if you end up out there we could do some regular training runs together.

Am sadly not free for parkrun next week (14/9), but would be keen to get involved in future adarq.org squad parkruns, though!

Btw, I've heard Singburi on Leytonstone High Road is one of the best thai places in london, so maybe check that out

Quote from: gukl on September 05, 2019, 04:51:34 pm

Quote from: LBSS on September 05, 2019, 04:46:30 pm

got visa, leaving for london in ~15 minutes. our expected place to stay tonight fell through and i can't reach my gf now to confirm booking an airbnb so might have to leave for the airport without knowing my actual destination tomorrow, lol. heeeere we go.

i missed this, you're moving to London? when did this happen - belgium was the plan last i read (or is london just en-route?)

i'll be down there quite a bit over the next few months as my gf is currently living there, lets park run!

yes! adarq.org london park run meetup!

who else is here and wants to run?

can't wait for this park run/race meetup. that's going to be fun.

one day i'll run with you folks.. somehow.

ETA: it's funny, that's three adarq.org members whose gfs are drawing them to london.
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hah. that's cool.

- run 9.43 km in 52:59
first 4km with gf, extra slow because she was struggling on the back-to-back. explored olympic park, it's nice. about 1.5km in the other direction from where we're staying from the park we ran to yesterday, and more pleasant to get to (less time on busy roads).

- stretch

adarq come over for the london marathon next year. 26 april 2020.

- run 4.6 km in 28:30
with gf, hence slow and short, just exploring and loosening up. jet lag pretty bad last two nights. better something than nothing. wansted flats has some dirt paths, which are nice at least in the woods (by the council flats there's a lot of trash) but it's not lit and there was almost no one there -- okay for me to run alone but gf wouldn't be comfortable. gukl, what's your gf think of living here?

- stretch

So she's kinda of grown up there, she's just gone back to live with her family - it is not the nicest area in London but it's kind of home for her I think. She feels fairly safe walking around at night and stuff I think. The area is a lot better than it was prior to the Olympics from what she tells me though and all in all a reasonable place to live.

London marathon I'm DOWN!

So she's kinda of grown up there, she's just gone back to live with her family - it is not the nicest area in London but it's kind of home for her I think. She feels fairly safe walking around at night and stuff I think. The area is a lot better than it was prior to the Olympics from what she tells me though and all in all a reasonable place to live.

London marathon I'm DOWN!

Cool, thanks. Yeah it seems like it's kind of gentrifying at the moment. We can't afford/wouldn't necessarily want to live anyway in the fancy neighborhoods. Leyton is bustling and super diverse feels very livable, at least so far. I really only get creeped out in places that feel empty or hollowed out and Leyton feels lived-in. Lots of families, lots of different languages and cuisines and styles. We put in an offer on a place last night, so now we pray that that owner accepts and that our references all clear. We'll find out about the former today, we hope. If he's cool with the offer -- and he should be, we offered what he was asking and were the first to do so -- then we'll find out about the latter early next week. Deep breaths.

BTW meant to say this before but I'm super down for some northern hikes (or fell running?). I have a buddy from Islamabad who's moving back here soon with his wife and is really into trekking and mountaineering; he attempted Aconcagua last January. He's also talked about putting together some long weekends in the hills. Let's do it.

wednesday

- run 11.47km in 59:02
ran to and then around in victoria park. beautiful, got turned around a few times, went a bit farther than i intended.

- stretch

thursday

- walk a lot
spent most of the day wandering around london while gf studied. wouldn't ordinarily log but i walked at least 12-13 km over the course of the day, which is much above normal. the last time i walked that much and then tried to run a normal amount afterward i hurt my shin. hence no run yesterday on top of the walking.

wednesday

- run 11.47km in 59:02
ran to and then around in victoria park. beautiful, got turned around a few times, went a bit farther than i intended.

This is where I do 90% of my running. It's gorgeous. Nice little food/produce market on Sundays too.

I actually ran there Wednesday too, maybe we went passed each other that day.