Tuesday was my birthday so Julie woke me up by making cinnamon rolls and coffee. It wasn't the best way to get the body ready for a 13 mile run but I drank plenty of sports drink to make sure that there wouldn't be too much of an energy drop after the sugar spike wore off. We've recently started giving each other "experience" gifts rather than things you can wrap (I took her to Vegas to see Lady Gaga). She did great this year with the gift of a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. I'm very excited about that as I've always wanted to ride in a chopper and doing it over the canyon will be amazing. I was quickly brought down to earth however with the email I didn't want to get. I wouldn't be going to China to run in the world half marathon championships. Over the past 2 weeks we've had nothing but trouble from the Chinese consulate and it seems like i've been sending extra paperwork everyday to try and get my visa sorted. UKA have been really good and trying their best to help with the process but its very hard from 3,000 miles away. I hadn't been given a reason why I wasn't given a visa and I couldn't get in contact with anyone who would give me an answer. The paperwork that I had filled out just arrived back to me and after double checking it I can see that everything is filled out correctly. This now means that I will just stay at home and train with no races before the marathon. I have over 7 weeks to go until the race so if I feel like I need a little test race then it shouldn't be a problem finding one. It will be good to see how I do off of no races as usually I like to get my competitive side going before my big races but I came out well this summer with the first race of the season so I am not worried about that issue.

I arrived out at Greg's house for the run at 8 am and quickly realised that I had arrived half an hour early. I just relaxed inside and kept Angus (Greg's son) amused before he had to go to school. The run was great as we were running nice and easy in wonderful weather. I added on a 20 minute loop at the end as everyone else was running 70 minutes. My legs felt fine although my quads were a little sore from yesterdays workout. I drove home after the run and scoffed down some granola and another cinnamon roll. A new addition to the house has been a juicer we were given recently. This has been fantastic as I love making just plain old apple juice with it. I have tried some different concoctions with varying levels of success and this morning wasn't really a great one. I added a couple of apples, some melon, 2 sticks of celery and a chunk of ginger. It may have been pretty good had I not added way too much ginger so had to just slam the drink to get it down my throat. My next creations are all going to involve beetroot so let me know if any of you have some good mixes.

I ended up in bed watching a couple of episodes of "Modern Family" that everyone has been raving about. I really enjoyed the show and even made it to the end without falling asleep. As soon as it was done however, I hit the pillow and had a great 2 hour nap. I woke up very groggy but a cup of tea sorted that out pretty quickly.

My second run was an 8 mile easy run along the trails. I wasn't feeling so hot but again, the weather was great so I enjoyed it. I actually felt better as soon as I hit the halfway point as it meant I turned around and ran back downhill the rest of the way. I got back to find Julie was getting dressed up nicely as she was taking me out to dinner. I showered and amused us both by shaving different patterns in my week old beard (it all came off in the end).

We drove downtown and ate at Tinder Box, a fine dining restaurant that is set in a more casual environment. We ordered some wine and toasted another good year before we ordered some great food. I, of course, had to get the pork belly for starters and Julie got a mixed green salad. We shared them both and waited for our main courses to come out. Julie had ordered a duck leg confit with their famous jalapeno mac 'n' cheese and I got a nice steak. There was a plan to go to the ice cream store afterwards but I was stuffed (I ate everything plus what Julie couldn't finish) and just wanted to chill. We drove home and relaxed in front of the new episode of Glee that had recorded while we were out. It was a fantastic evening to finish off the start of my 28th year.