Reflections

As seems to be traditional at this time of year and on the back of SPOTY I thought I would do a review of my year. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed not to make the shortlist. Oh well, there is always next year. I think Bradley Wiggins was a deserved winner. Great sporting achievements and he has actually got a personality unlike some former winners.

So to my own review of 2012

This year of running all stemmed from me watching my mates Fat Pants & CJ running the London Marathon in 2011 and deciding there and then I wanted to run the London Marathon in 2012. Then I was lucky enough to be selected for the Men's Running magazine Project 26.2 which helped officially turn me into a 'Runner'.

Time for a Stat Attack. Official events that I have taken part in this year are;

Marathon x 2
20 Miler x 1
16 Miler x 2
Half Marathon x 8
10 Miler x 3
10k x 3
Parkrun (5k) x 28

I wear my Garmin for 99% of my runs and according to my GarminConnect account I have logged the following miles this year

The other thing that is recorded is PB's over certain distances and I have to say I am loving the following picture :-)

My next Marathon, I will make sure I take the racing line, to try and save myself a bit of distance!

For 2013 I want to be chipping some time of the Marathon & 5k. Not sure I will be getting close to the 10k & Half Marathon? I will have to wait and see.

So as well as the events, miles and PB's. I now don't just run, but I do interval sessions, hill sessions, threshold runs, I have started running a Cross Country event or two and I now actually stretch regularly!  Having joined Petts Wood Runners, I have been part of a race committee and help organise an event which made me appreciate the effort that is put in by running clubs when hosting an event.

 

I also raised over 5k for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.

This year has not just been about me though. Mich my wife and been an absolute star either looking after Max (our boy) whilst I have been out on my long Sunday runs or coming to events and waiting for me (with Max obviously) at the finish.

What for me is a bonus is that Mich (begrudgingly at first) has taken up running. She has completed half a dozen Parkruns and is now a member of PWR also. Mich already knows that I am earmarking a 10k for her to do next year. Max also completed his first official race and he was beaming from ear to ear (as was I) when he had a number on his t-shirt (just like Daddy) and then he got his own medal as well.

 

I am very proud of both of them!

 

Max & Mich have also turned into Parkrun tourists.  Mich has now ran 5 different Parkruns and Max has now completed Parkruns at 6 different venues in the running buggy.

 

Me & Max at Dulwich Parkrun last Saturday

 

Running now seems to be a big part of all of our lives which can only be a good thing!

 

As was highlighted in the SPOTY, it has been a fantastic year for British Sport and Mich, Max & I were privileged to see 3 Golds being won by the Paralympic team at the Olympic Stadium as well as seeing the Young Sport Personality of the year Josef Craig earlier in the day win his heat in a world record time (before winning Gold and breaking his new world record again)  Even now, Max still talks about the 'Caralympics'

 

Here is to a cracking 2013.

 

Merry Christmas

 

TJH

Mad Dogs & Englishmen

Oh and English Women as well.

Running seems to be at a premium at the moment, but there has been some increased focus on hydration.

Tuesday night I didn't go out running with PWR as the wife is back running so she went instead.  I was planning on a Wednesday lunchtime run.  Took all my gear into work and went to get changed and then realised I didn't have any innersoles in my trainers!  I wear Sorbothane insoles and had forgot that I had switched them the previous week.  Wednesday night was my work Xmas bash.  Thursday was officially one of the longest days of my life!

After a six week absence I was back at Bromley Parkrun to record my 40th Parkrun, now only 10 away from the first t-shirt!  Managed a 23:35.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/250594357

Sunday morning was the Ditton Turkey Run, hosted by Maidstone Harriers.  With a relatively late start of 11am and only a 45 min drive from home, most people would assume, oh a bit of a lie in.  Not in my household as I have an alarm clock that at the moment a) I can't turn off and b) I can't change the alarm from going off at 6am!

So my pre-run prep included porridge, a game of monster bingo and doing some puzzles on the floor with my alarm clock Max.

At 9am, I let the wife know that I was off and she had to get up (she had been practising hydrating Saturday Night)

I picked up a Matt a fellow PWR and arrived in Ditton at 10am.  We collected our numbers and met up with a group of fellow PWRs.  There were 25 PWRs there in total.  One was missing due to over hydration on the Saturday night!

This was one of the PWRs Grand Prix events, an internal club competition where you are racing against runners of similar ability to yourselves.  This makes for healthy competition and means as well as having our racing snakes competing, it also means that runners from our Tuesday night Group One also can and do take part.

Now this is the reason for the title.  It was cold, not as bad as it had been, but cold enough due to the cold wind.  Some people thought they would keep warm by wearing 'Onesey' Reindeer outfits and along with them, there were Elves, Santas, a Christmas Tree, a Christmas Cracker, a full size Turkey, a sexy Nurse to name but a few and the icing on the cake was a man in a Mankini, yes you read that right, a man in a Mankini!

To prove that there were mad Englishwomen as well and mad Englishmen, one lady wore a sexy Christmas outfit complete with hold up stockings and then finished the race in high heels (I am pretty sure I saw her during the race though wearing trail shoes)

I went crazy and wore a Santa hat!

The course was challenging and very muddy in places, although I am told it was worse last year!  I did see a couple of people take full blown stumbles, not nice in the conditions.  The marshalls from Maidstone Harriers were great, I particularly liked the comment from one at about the 1m mark shouting "Well done you are doing well, you are nearly there, actually that last bit is a lie, never mind keep going"

I finished the 6.4 mile course in 117th place with a chip time of 53:37. 



This race event has to be one of the best value events that you can enter!  For an entry fee of £14 you get the following;

• A well organised and fun event
• A well marshalled nice course in Kent (muddy, narrow in places probably not a PB race)
• Chip timing
• A nice medal
• A long sleeved t-shirt
• A mini Christmas Pudding
• Mince pies and hot drinks afterwards
• Free entry into a raffle

I would highly recommend this event and will be back next year.

Until next time
TJH

Back running and focussing on hydration

Last week, after having 8 days rest I went out for a run Tuesday evening with PWR.  I joined group 4 and offered to be sweeper, that gave me the perfect excuse to be at the back :-)  We did 6.25 miles at a 09:40m/mile pace and despite feeling a bit leggy in the first couple of miles, I had a good chin wag with a couple of the others so the run went quite quickly.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249068562

Saturday morning I was back running a Parkrun, in fact looking at my Parkrun stats page, I didn't manage to run a single Parkrun in November.  This Saturday, I had my maiden run at Hilly Fields which is in Ladywell/Lewisham.  The race is only just over 3 months old and was set up by a PWR member

The name of the park gives a bit of a clue to the terrain and as I tweeted on Saturday morning, it should have been called (C)hilly fields as when I left home at 08:30am the temperature gauge was showing -2.  Conditions underfoot were a mixture of frosty grass and tarmac and in some places quite muddy due to the recent rain.  I managed a respectable time of 24:11.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/249068571

It was then time to due an intensive aerobic workout, chasing Max around soft-play for an hour before going to watch football and then back home to get ready for the Petts Wood Runners Christmas Bash.

A very good evening was had by all and I made the following observations...

- There was plenty of carbo-loading at the buffet.
- Everybody was very well hydrated and I am sure if a company made a Merlot or Guinness flavour gel, it would be a top seller!
- Some people didn't pace themselves and didn't last the duration
- Running ability does not translate to dancing ability
- There was no warming up from anybody before going into full-flow dance routines
- Apparently, one person obviously used to getting goody bags at events, made her own and woke on Sunday morning to find 2 large pieces of cheese in her handbag! (I am told it was Red Leicester & Cheddar)

I mainly concentrated on hydration (as did my wife) for the evening, but had to organise a synchronised dance routine when I saw that people were actually doing the Macarena to Whigfield's 'Saturday Night'

Questions have been asked of me how and why I actually know the dance routine!  Questions that I can't really answer.

Sunday mornings normally mean either a long run or a long sleep.  A long run was out of the question due to me over hydrating the night before and the long sleep was out of the question when Max thought 6am was a good time to wake Daddy to play 'Monster Bingo' (a game he recently received for his birthday)!

TJH

SWAT the DOMS

Just a brief blog. One week ago today I ran the Valencia Marathon and for those that run long distances you know there is a good chance that a day or two later you will be walking like a robot as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) says hello.

Well, I think I have made a scientific breakthrough as I have not suffered any DOMS unlike the London Marathon where a couple of days after the run, stairs were my nemisis.

After the Marathon on Sunday, once I collected my medal, I had a little stretch and then had to walk quite a bit first to find Mich & Max and then to get back to the hotel. This was temporarily interupted for a sit down and a few beers. The after having a shower and relaxing for an hour or so, I donned compression tights and then went for another walk for about an hour before having Paella for dinner with a glass of rijoca. The next day I was walking most of the day as we walked round the city before flying home late evening. The rest of the week, I have had very mild aching legs and no real pain at all.

So my conclusion and 6 step guide for preventing DOMS is:

1) Stretch gently and walk for 30-45 mins straight after the run
2) Have a couple of beers
3) Wear compression tights and walk for another hour
4) Have a good meal plus glass or two of red wine
5) Sleep in compression tights
6) Walk for at least a couple of hours the next day

or to help, just remember S.W.A.T (Stretch, Walk, Alochol, Tights) Until next time TJH

Valencia Part 3 - The Weekend Away

This is a bit like Star Wars where the prequel comes after the the main event, or maybe like Pulp Fiction where the order of everything is a bit jumbled up


VALENCIA THE WEEKEND AWAY
Myself, Mich & Max flew out to Valencia on Thursday evening.  Two hour flight.  The Metro also runs from the airport, so we only had to get one train, nice and easy.  #Tip1 A single ticket costs 4Euros, but you can buy a ticket that has 10 journeys for 21Euros.  Also, one ticket can be used by multiple people.  We saw a group of French students take advantage of this fact.  I felt sorry for the fella holding the ticket though who hand to stand at the gate swiping the ticket to let all his mates through.

A 10 min walk saw us arrive at our hotel (Silken Puetra Valencia), and a simple check-in.  Mich sorted out Max for bed, whilst I went for a wander to buy some bottled water and a bit of grub.

Friday morning, we walked down to the Expo being held in the City of Art & Sciences; a collection of modern buildings with some amazing architecture situated in an oasis that runs through Valencia.

I wouldn't want to be the window cleaner!

Collection was very simple and you collected your goody bag as well which was a smart drawstring gym bag itself, plus a quality technical t-shirt and a buff.  I am not talking about complimentary polishing here, if you do not know, a buff is a material tube that can be used in a multitude of ways.  In fact my Union Jack bandanna is actually a buff!  The timing chip was incorporated in the number (which seems to be becoming more popular now days) so you had to scan that to check that it was registered correctly.  Sad I know, but I had to take a photo.  Oh I wasn't the only one either!

Ooh look, it's me!

With collection all sorted, it was time for excursion number 1 a trip to the Valencia Zoo, known as the BioPark.  Quite simply, an amazing Zoo the enclosure are huge and no unsightly metal fences and it is very well designed.  Being in November, hardly any crowds either yet still t-shirt weather.  A few pics that I took of the residents can be found here.  Valencia BioPark
Late afternoon, we had a wander round the old city before having dinner and an earlish night.

Saturday was Max's 3rd Birthday, so Mich decorated the room whilst he was asleep with balloons and a banner and after opening his cards and some of his presents, we didn't take all of them on holiday, 20kg limit on baggage you see, we went for some breakfast before planned excursion number 2, a trip to the aquarium, known as Oceanografic (apparently Europe's largest aquarium)

Before we went there though, I stopped off at Mestalle home ground of Valencia Football Club to purchase tickets for the weekend's game versus Espaynol. Whilst trying to buy the tickets, I was asked which country I was from, which I though was a bit strange? then I was asked for my passport which was back at the hotel (luckily less than a 10 min walk away), so once back with my passport, tickets were finally purchased. It was only as I walked away, I noticed that the tickets I had been sold were for the Champions League game versus Bayern Munich for this week. Cue arranging a refund (and the realisation of the question about which country I was from) I then had to go to a different ticket window to buy tickets. The bonus was that the same seats cost 25Euros each instead of 40. 

It was quite a walk to the aquarium, probably about and hour.  But once we got there again you couldn't but be impressed.  A huge shark tank with underwater tunnel, beluga whales, penguins, sea lions every species of fish you could think of, including (very important for a 3yo) Nemo!  At 3.30pm we made our way to the show arena for the 4pm Dolphin show.  Max loved this as did Mich and I.  They actually had 10 dolphins performing at the same time which made for a spectacular show.

I know there is only 7 in this pic, but there were 10, honest!

After the show, we decided to have a stroll back to the hotel and look for something to eat.  We had seen a couple of restaurants near the football ground so made our way in that direction, having already passed our hotel and only being a few minutes from the ground I looked at a TV in a cafe window and saw the abbreviation in the top corner VAL 0 - 0 ESP with 10 minutes on the clock.  Mich said maybe it was a repeat of a previous game, but as we went round the next corner, we saw the floodlights on and heard the crowd noise. I thought the game was Sunday evening when it had in fact kicked off at 6pm on Saturday. #Tip number 2 check the date of the football game! 

So I left Mich and Max standing outside the cafe whilst I ran back to the hotel with the empty pushchair, up to our room, to then find both key cards were not working.  Eventually I got back to Mich (after muchos expletives) for her to tell me that Valencia had scored (muchos expletives again) Whilst we were trying to get in the ground, we heard a muted cheer and I mentioned that maybe Espaynol had scored.  Eventually we found our seats with 35 mins on the clock.  The 2nd half was a poor game of football to be honest, Iv'e seen better at The Den ;-).  Oh, and Millwall fans wouldn't stand for all the theatrics even from Millwall players!  The game was not helped by a referee who didn't seem to have a clue and he then awarded an 89th min penalty to Valencia (it was never a pen)  Delgado who had come on as a sub stepped up and notched.  So at least we got to see a goal even if it wasn't from open play.  On the way back to the hotel, I purchased Max a Valencia scarf (his now adopted Spanish team) and we popped into a specialist beer shop to buy  Mich a couple of beer (no drinking for me with a Marathon to run the next morning) The owner saw the scarf and signalled 2-1 with is fingers.  Having forgotten about the muted cheer I promptly replies in my fluent spanish "No Dos, Zero"  I even posted on Facebook that I had seen Valencia win 2-0.  It was only today looking at the results in the paper that I saw Valencia DID win 2-1.  El Raymondo, muchos stupido!  Oh well, at least we got to see over half a game :-)  Incidentally, I am not sure the ground would pass health and safety checks in the UK.

 

 

Sunday was Marathon day (see part 1)

Monday, our flight wasn't until 21:15 so we had the whole day to play with.  We had previously seen a unique play park so as this was also Max's B'day weekend we went there.  It is simply a 50ft fibreglass Gulliver. Again I am sure H&S in the UK would have a heart attack, but Max and all the other children seemed to be fine.  In fact the only person who was close to having an accident was a hobbling and aching me as I followed Max around.

Laying down, just like I wanted to be doing

After a nice tapas lunch we again went for another wander round the city.  Before going back to our hotel checking out and making our way back to the airport.

Valencia is a great city and excellent if you have kids and I would definitely recommend it for a long weekend away

Well that concludes the trilogy

Until the next time
TJH



Valencia Part 2 - The Journey

If you have read Part 1, you may be thinking 'bloody hell Ray, you haven't won an Olympic medal'  I admit it may seem that I am dramatising this heroic achievement.  I am also aware that there were 4,835 people in front of me so my time may not be that special.  If I may I would just like to explain why this meant so much to me.

As some of you may be aware, I was fortunate enough to be selected by Men's Running magazine to be part of 'Project 26.2' where they selected 5 men running a Marathon and provided all the help and guidance you could need to achieve their goals.  I didn't think my goal was too ambitious bearing in mind that I had done two marathons 13 & 15 years ago and had managed 04:30 with basic and probably not very structured training.

So I had a physio, nutrition running apparel and a qualified coach (Nick Anderson) that set me a programme to achieve my goal.  I was taught about core strength, interval sessions, speed session, recovery runs.  During this training I managed a 01:38 Half Marathon and a 20 mile race in 03:01.  So my training was definitely showing the benefits.  This in fact in hindsight was probably my downfall.  Everything was going so well, I was over confident that I would achieve a sub4, in fact I changed my target and was going for a 03:45.  Oh was I brought down to earth with a bump.  Having done 16 miles in the London Marathon at a consistent average of 08:35 min/miles the wheels slowly began to fall off and the rest as they say is history.

I was gutted at the time and despite getting a new PB, I felt I had let a lot of people down.  So this time I was determined not to make the same mistake.

Within a week of what I saw as a failure I was looking for a Marathon for the latter part of the year to attempt a sub4 again.  Valencia was my chosen race.

I followed a similar schedule to what I had done for the London with slightly less races (Nick had raised his concerns that I was maybe doing too many races and needed to take some of these slowly)  In truth, I probably didn't do as much as I would have liked and even had an enforced 10 days without any running due to illness right when I was due to do a long slow run.  However, by following Nick's concepts and actually doing what I should have done in the London Marathon on race day, I achieved a sub4!

Could I have gone quicker? Maybe? but I learnt that for the majority of runners, the Marathon needs to be treated with due respect not only with the training and prep but the actual running on the day.

If Nick happens to be reading this, I am sure he wouldn't say this to my face as he is too much of a gentleman, but I am sure he is thinking 'Yes Ray you div, if you had stuck to the plan and done this in the first place you would have more than likely had a sub4 in the London Marathon'

Well, valuable lesson learnt  When I was having my post race beer with Mich my wife, I said "Thank God I have got that sub4" she replied, "Yes but what is your next target going to be"  She know me too well :-)

For me that is the beauty of running. Unless you are Mo Farah or Patrick Makau there is probably going to be somebody better or faster than you.  So your race is always you against the clock, or you against yourself.  Irrespective of everybody else in a race you can set your own goal whether it be to get round and finish, finish without walking, a sub4 or a PB? 

My next goal? Simple, beat 03:58:47 :-)

TJH

Valencia Part 1 - The Marathon

As you may have gathered, I quite enjoy my blogging now. A way of keeping an online diary and documenting my thoughts, opinions and experiences.  A single Valencia Marathon blog would be pretty lengthy so I have split it into three parts or a trilogy if you will so you can choose what you want to read

Part One - Valencia: The Marathon
Part Two - Valencia: The journey to sub4
Part Three - Valencia: The weekend away

VALENCIA - THE MARATHON

Let's cut to the chase. If you are friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter you will know that I achieved a sub four hour Marathon. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, you read that right, the Jogging Hippo ran a sub-4 Marathon! I ran it in 03:58:47, so not much below 4 hours, but I honestly couldn't care less :-) It is a definite case of mission accomplished.

I had set my alarm for 7am Sunday morning, but awoke around 6am and couldn't sleep.  Weather reports all week had forecast rain and Saturday night there had been thunder storms, but a glance out of the window and a check on the Internet suggested it may now just be overcast.  Which was fortunate as I hadn't packed one the marathon runner's essential piece of attire, the 'black bin liner'

My other faux-pas (not sure what the Spanish equivalent is) was that I had not packed any safety-pins.  I assumed that they would be with my number and didn't really check properly until I got back to my hotel room on the Friday evening.  With an abundance of pharmacy's in Valencia.  I didn't envisage too much trouble obtaining these.  However, my first attempt showed this wasn't going to be the case.  My miming of running a marathon and pinning a number was obviously not up to scratch as I was offered nasal strips and plasters.  I resulted on drawing a picture.  The lady behind the counter immediately knew what I was talking about but then said 'No' they don't sell them.  I then text Ian (a fella I see from time to time at Millwall, more about him later) asking what the Spanish was for safety pins.  His girlfriend is Spanish.  Whilst waiting for a response, we found a poundshop, although I suppose in Spain it is a Euroshop and just as I found my quarry, I received a text with the same word.  So Spanish lesson time, if you need safety pins, you need to ask for 'Imperdibles'

Once I eaten my breakfast (bananas and cereal bars) and sorted myself out (getting dressed, plasters & Vaseline, if you know what I mean) I left my hotel at five past eight and was actually in the orange pen at the start by 08:35.  This is where my initial plan went out the window somewhat.  I had found out by chance that Ian was also running the Valencia Marathon, he had run the Berlin, his first Marathon in 03:57, git ;-).  So we suggested trying to meet up amongst the 7000 other runners by making a beeline for the 4 hour pacer.  It seems that the orange pen was for International runners, as when the person on the PA started announcing all the different countries taking part, it seemed all the cheers came from the Orange pen.  Incidentally it was announced that there was only 45 runners over from the UK.

With the orange pen seemingly the international pen this meant that the 4 hour pacer was in the Blue pen with about 1000 people between us!  However, due to my now traditional "you look daft" (my wife's words) Union Jack bandanna, Ian managed to locate me.

We had a chat and Ian said he was aiming to beat his 03:57.  I said I was just aiming to beat 4 hours.  At 9am there were fireworks which we thought indicated the start of the race.  5 minutes later we still had not moved.  I thought maybe it was a staggered start, but then we were asked to all move back.  This is the first time in an event that I have actually had to go backwards?  I actually started my watch as I crossed the start line at 09:09.  I knew Mich would be waiting for me at the 10k mark.  Ian and I ran together chatting away and Ian said I was probably keeping him is check, as I was conscious not to go off too fast (bitter memories from the London Marathon).

I said to Ian before we got to the 10k mark, that Mich might be concerned that I was behind schedule as I told her the approximate time I should be there.  I saw Mich and Max and managed to high-five Max as I ran past and after passing I heard Mich shout "You had better get a move on"  I laughed as I said to Ian "There you go, my official time keeper thinks I am behind schedule already"  I then said to Ian, "Listen mate, I don't want to ruin your schedule, if you want to push on, go for it" so we wished each other good luck and he kicked on.

The weather was not as expected and it was showing 19/20 degrees.  Water stations were every 5k, so I was taking a gel just before each water station and then making sure I had a few swigs of water shortly afterwards.

The support was top draw with lots of bands and music along the whole course and one point there was a group of locals about 20 of them all dressed as Sponge Bob Square Pants and at another point there was about 40 odd people dressed as cows?  I am not sure why, but they were very vocal and it brought a smile to my face.

One thing I did notice is that quite a few of the local runners had people cycling along side them handing them their gels and water.  This got me thinking that maybe I should get Mich to cycle along with Max sitting in a trailer handing me my gels and water.  I might run this past her, although I expect a two word answer with the second word being 'off'

At 16 miles I did my first mental check.  This is because it was at 16 miles in the London Marathon that I started to think that something wasn't quite right.  I knew I was running at a sensible and within target pace and I felt quite good.  At 18 miles there is a stretch of about a mile that goes through an underpass.  There were speakers that were blasting out music that any nightclub in Ibiza would be proud off.  The one tune that was playing as I entered the underpass was the bongo song, if you don't know what one I mean, click below for a listen.

Top Tune!

You could see this euphoric music brought a smile to everybody's face.  I even felt like putting on some white gloves, start raving and get the whistle posse going!  The downside to this was that satellites and tunnels don't really work well together, so average mile pacing went a little bit out of the window for a mile or two.

At 20 miles, I was feeling a bit tired but OK  but I didn't want to get too confident as I know 'The Wall' can be hit at any time. Now was the time to start the mind over matter battle.  I told myself that all I had now was a 10k run, something which I have probably done over 100 times.

At 23 miles I started to feel it a bit, but now I told myself I just have over 5k to do which is the Parkrun distance and despite slowing my aim was to keep under a 09:30 min mile which I was sure would still get me my sub4

In the last 10 miles I also saw Mich and Max twice more which I wasn't expecting and that was also a nice psychological boost.

Despite my pace slowing, during the last 3 or 4 miles, I was passing quite a few people.  In the past and paticularly during shorter races, I have taken pride in passing and beating others (my competitive nature) but I took no pride seeing people struggling and suffering in the last few miles as I had been in that position myself just over 6 months previously.

With 1k to go, going by watch I was pretty sure, barring a disaster I would achieve my goal.  The final couple of hundred metres is on like a jetty/pier construction with water either side which definitely makes for a unique experience.

I saw the clock was showing 04:01 which I was a bit confused about as I was expecting it to show something in the region of 04:08 or 04:09 as I hadn't crossed the start line until 09:09.  As I crossed the finish line with arms aloft I stopped my watch on 03:58:49 and I was so happy and relieved that I had broken 4 hours.

A smile cleverly disguised as a grimace

I then instantly felt absolutely and completely exhausted.  As I walked down the finishing funnel and collected my medal along with a whole load more goodies (whole bag of oranges, a gym towel, various drinks & pastries) doubts started creeping in.  Why wasn't the clock showing 04:08/9.  Did losing reception on my Garmin bugger up my timing?  But I was sure I had kept under a 09:09 min mile average and my watch time of 03:58:49 surely had to be right?

After 10 mins or so I found Mich and Max waiting for me.  Hugs and kisses plus me saying "I think, I am pretty sure I have done it"

There was then the debacle of getting out of my sweaty running gear and putting fresh clothes on in the public with Mich holding aforementioned gym towel trying to protect my modesty.

We then took a slow walk (after all I had just run a Marathon) back to the hotel, so slow in fact that Max actually fell asleep in his buggy which meant an opportunity to find a bar and sit outside supping a few cervezas.

It wasn't until later that evening after having a meal and some rijoca that I got official confirmation that I had indeed achieved a sub4.

Chip time aka 'Tiempo Real' is all that matters. 

Note above how I came 1st for Petts Wood Runners.  Pretty impressive when we have approx 250 members.  I won't let the minor detail that I was the only PWR running get in the way of my glory :-)

My garmin stats are below
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/245159408

Incidentally, Ian got a new PB of 03:53:56.  Well done mate!

TJH

Park Running

Despite me being a regular Parkrun participant, this is not about Parkrun.  This brief(ish) blog is about something which I do far more infrequently, in fact only the 2nd time since I left school.  But something I will be doing more often.  I am talking about Cross Country running.

Sunday was the 2nd event of the Kent Fitness League series http://kfl.canterburyharriers.org/ 

Whilst Petts Wood Runners are not formally part of the league, we can run as guests as long as we provide our name in advance.

The Petts Wood Runners men's captain Chris 'Typhoon' Turner had suggested and arranged this and his efforts were rewarded with 30 runners attending from PWR.

I arrived just gone 10am on an absolute glorious autumn morning with my support crew, my wife Mich and my little boy Max and we soon saw the PWR flag and made a beeline for this.  We then, along with quite a few other bystanders watched 4 or 5 PWR's trying to erect our club gazebo.  I would have helped, but too many cooks and all that.

Luckily, John (the club secretary) arrived to save the day and promptly explained that it was inside-out and within a couple of minutes we had base camp.  Once everybody had gathered we had a bit of a chinwag and then had a quick team photo before making our way en-mass to the start.

PWRs (with gazebo the right way in the background)

We congregated at what most of us thought was the back and then realised we were at the front!  Not a problem for maybe 4 or 5 of the group, but for most of us mere mortals a little worrying that we would be caught in the stampede.

The race was due to start at 11am, but there was a welcome delay as we paid our respects to our fallen countrymen and women with an impeccably observed 2 minute silence.

Then the klaxon sounded and we were off and it was a stampede.  I tactically filtered my way to the middle of pack (can also be read as was overtaken by half the field) and tried to get into a rhythm, but this was a little difficult due to the muddy conditions and the twisting turning nature of the course.  I was quite surprise when my Garmin beeped for the first mile, that I looked at my watch and I had run a 7:46 mile!

I pretty much tried to maintain the pace and slowly began to pick a few people off.  The course was 3 laps and just shy of 5 miles.  Near the finish, I kicked on and manage to overtake 3 or 4 people and then out the corner of my eye saw this chap about to fly past, this resulted in an all out full on sprint for the last 100 metres.  He beat me by a whisker :-(  However, after checking the results, I would like to point out that he was 6 years my junior, plus I didn't want to push it too hard with a Marathon coming up 7 days later.  Well that is my excuse anyway :-)

Almost out of the frame due to electric pace (Yeah right!)

Just after the finish line we shook hands briefly and then both returned to being bent over with hands on our knees gasping for breath. My official time was 38:58 (his 38:57)

http://kfl.canterburyharriers.org/xc_result.php?id=4138

but I didn't manage to stop my watch until 39:08 as I didn't have the energy to press the button.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/242380967

The PWRs were then rewarded afterwards with some Banana cake made by Sian and her little boy Sam (Sian, if you are reading this we now expect this every Tuesday night!)

Some of you reading this may think that it is a bit daft running this one week before a marathon.  However, as I had an enforced 10 day break recently I thought this would be a good final workout.  I will find out if it was a good idea on Sunday.

Until the next time

TJH

All about running but not much running!

Since my last blog, quite a bit has happened related to running, but alas not much actual running.  In fact my first run was this morning.  So here is a bit of a brain dump of what's been happening and my thoughts.

Under the Weather
In addition to a hamstring strain (see below) I have also battled against an attack of potential Man Flu.  Now as everybody knows, if it had turned out to be full blown Man Flu, I might not even be here now typing this, but luckily it was just a cold.  I was planning on doing a longish run on Sunday but had a migraine attack and had a repeat attack on Tuesday which resulted in a day off work and no chance of me running with PWR in the evening.

Massage or Interrogation
After my 16 miler last Sunday, on Monday I woke with a very tight hamstring. Obviously I didn''t really have much of an opportunity of a warm down or stretch standing in a cold field and then trying to get a train, followed by one and a half hours in the car. I digress. So on Monday evening I had a sports massage and also repeated this again this Monday.  Now I will tell you something, if ever I am captured by the KGB, they won't need thumb screws or have to attach electrodes to my knackers.  All they need is to get a Sport Masseur to come in and start on my IT Band and I will sing like a canary!  I thought I had a high pain threshold, but when it comes to a sports massage, I am a big girl.

Happy Endings
Briefly touching on my 'Halloween Horror experience' for the final time before putting this one to bed. After communications with the customers services and not really getting anywhere, I decided to go to the top and contacted the owner of the company and I am happy to say, I got the resolution I was looking for.

Planning Ahead
November 1st was the day that entries for the Adidas 24hour Thunder Run opened.  So I entered a team of 5.  The logic being that a lap of the course is 10k.  If we average an hour per lap, we can do 24 laps, so four of us will do 5 laps and one of us will do 4 laps.  Along with myself  'Ray' my fellow team mates (all from Petts Wood Runners) are 'Karien', 'Emma', 'Matt' & 'Eleanor'.  If you take the our first initials you get the word 'KREME'  So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you team 'KREME KRACKERED'

I also booked up a family weekend in Barcelona for next year, that just happens to coincide with the Half Marathon, which is nice.

Decisions Decisions
As you are probably all aware the NYC Marathon was cancelled.  I tweeted at the time that I feel this was the RIGHT decision, but made at the WRONG time.  I think most people knew that their wasn't much chance of the event going ahead due to Danny Zuko's girlfriend making a bit of a mess.  My personal opinion is that New Yorkers are proud of being strong, brave and having a 'can do' attitude and maybe this is why they didn't want to make what would have been a braver decision to cancel the event earlier.  Although the cynic in me thinks that maybe from an economical point of view it made sense to get as many of the overseas people into New York?

Final Prep
So with the Valencia Marathon only 10 days away and my prep being interrupted somewhat, I did manage to get a 10 miler in this morning by running to work, with touch-wood, no ill effects

STATS

I have a 5 mile X-country this Sunday and will go out with PWR Tuesday evening and then do a 3 or 4 miler Thursday morning before flying out to Spain.


Until the next time
TJH

A Real Halloween Horror Show!

I apologise in advance, but the majority of this blog is going to be a rant. Before I go off on one, a quick overview of what I did this week. Monday I did hill repeats, these were bloody tough and Tuesday I woke with a bit of a tight piriformis (which has been the bane of my running).  I stretched afterwards, but obvioulsy not enough.  A mate at work (JC, no not Jesus Christ) is doing the London Marathon next year and he saw the benefits of following a training plan (courtsey of Project 26.2) so has asked me to help him with his training, so we did just over 3 miles on Wednesday lunchtime.  He had to stop a couple of times, but did well.  Saturday, I ran the Orpington Parkrun.  The PWR men's captain 'Typhoon Turner' (he talks as fast as he runs, in fact maybe quicker ;-) has organised a Parkrun improvers league, so 19 PWR's were present on a bitterly cold morning, and 5 PWR's were in the top 10!

Jackanory Time

So, are you sitting comfortably then i'll begin.

With the Valencia Marathon only 3 weeks away, I had registered to take part in the London Kilomathon which is 26.2km, advertised as the 'perfect distance'! 

Having paid just shy of £30 to take part, the first warning signs were when I downloaded the instructions this week.  The start of ther race was at the Lee Valley Athletics stadium and the finish was apparantly at the Lee Valley White Water Rafting centre (where the Olympic canoeing was staged).  Therefore, there were buses to take finishers back to the start, BUT you had to pay and buy the tickets in advance.  £3 for runners and £6 for spectators.  So I had no choice but to pay for a ticket, which when I received it was a Powerpoint slide, that I could have just photcopied!

Also the instructions stated that at a certain point in the race those running 26.2k had to collect an orange wristband?

So Sunday morning I arrived at Lee Valley Athletics Stadium and I honestly couldn't tell if I was at the right place, no stewards, no signs, the only give away was seeing some other runners.

The highlight of the day was actually seeing an indoor track and warming up on it.  There was no real need, but it was just a bit of a novelty factor.  At age 37, I am still a big kid.  I don't know how people run on these tracks though with the camber, they must have one leg longer than the other!

Very blue!

After handing my bag in, the runners assembled on the track in the colour coded pens.  Now coded is the key word here, as both 13.1k and 26.2k runners were all mixed and the pens were not based on expected finishing time, so there were faster runners stuck behind slower runners.  Some of the faster runners were so desperate to make their way through they went off the track slightly and missed running over the chip mats!

The novelty factor continued as we did less than half a lap of the track and then was funnelled into a narrow path, therefore slowing everybody down to a walk and then having to run through a narrow gate out of the arena.  All a little pointless really.

The first 3-4 miles were through a drab industrial estate and to add to the grey day and grey scenery, my Garmin was not playing ball and would not turn on.  It eventually came to life after about 1k.

The course did eventually follow the paths around the lakes and canals of the Lee Valley.  Whilst running I was thinking about what to put in my blog this week and whilst the scenery was OK, one word that came to mind and I think perfectly summoned up the atmosphere was 'SOULLESS'  Of the 100 odd marshalls I can only remember two giving any sort of encouragement.

Then there was the split where 13.1k runners were sent one way and 26.2k runners were sent the other way and you then had to collect an orange wrist band.  I still don't know why as it was never checked or needed at any point in the race.

The finish was advertised as the White Water Rafting Centre, this was basically a lie, a couple of hundred metres before the end you had to double back on yourself to get over a canal bridge and the incline was without exageration 25%+  OK this might have only been for 20 or 30 metres, but still, it is not something you need after 16 miles.  Then there was a run into a muddy field.  The inflatable gantry had the word START on it (probably a last minute decision to get one and that is all they could get) plus there was no clock!  The White Water Rafting Centre was somewhere nearby (allegedly)

So I was given my medal and a goody bag (no t-shirt as advertised and no space blanket which would have been a godsend considering the conditions). I then went to the baggage collection.  I think a picture paints a thousand words!

Help yourself to any bag

I then had to interupt a group of 6 or 7 marshalls who were just huddled together having a laugh and ask where I needed to get the bus from.  I was pointed in the direction across the field.  So after a 500m walk I cam across a white mini bus that probably seated 30 people maximum and a queue of around 100 people.

It transpired that one of the buses was 'lost' the other bus sitting there was full, but the driver was on a break and wouldn't be leaving for another 20 minutes and the return journey would take 30-40 minutes.  So he we were, 100 odd people standing in a muddy field on a freezing cold morning after a 16 mile being told that it will probably be over an hour before we could get a bus.  As you can imagine, everybody was fine with this, but alas I had left my picnic rug at home and my pile of logs, so toasting marshmallows on a camp fire was out of the question.

We were told that there was a train station out to the right somewhere.  So I along with dozens of others start wandering to the right.  after about 3/4 of a mile we found Waltham Cross train station. Despite having a hoody on, I was now beginning to shiver a bit.  Upon arrival we were told that the next train was an hour away!

So now the next task of ringing cabs began.  I was told a 30 minute wait for a cab because surprise surprise they seemed to be very busy all of a sudden.  I eventually got a cab (sharing with others) and during the 5 mile drive back we saw some less fortunate or maybe hardcore people walking back to the start.

You don't have to be Poirot to work out that I will not be doing this event ever again, and I have some more typing to do in a little letter that will be going to the organisers, although that word should not and cannot be used for the company that put on this event.  I think Cowboys is more apt and this was daylight robbery!

26.2k may be the perfect distance, but this event was the perfect disaster!

Incidentally I did the run in 2:14:24, and will be needing to have a bit of physio in the coming weeks as the old piriformis tightened up again and was giving me a quite a bit of discomfort during the latter part of the race.

And now to top it off, I can't upload the info from my Garmin :-(

I am now going to console myself with a glass of red!

Until next time
TJH

Endurance

Well you won't need much endurance to read this blog as it is a short one.

This week I had two endurance challenges. Number one was reviewing 1200 photos and the batch processing and uploading 900 of them. These were the photos that i took at the Petts Wood 10k last Sunday. I finally managed to get this done 8pm Wednesday evening. If you want to have a look click here PICS

I was glad that I had this completed quite early on Wednesday as I had an early start on Thursday for endurance event Number Two. I got up at 5am had a couple of pints of water along with a banana and some malt loaf, 50 mins later I was out the front door starting my run to work with the little matter of a 10 mile detour. I ended up getting rather wet but managed a 20.4 mile run in 3 hours 12 mins.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/234679987

This also meant that I spent the day wearing tights.  Don't worry, I am talking about compression tights not fishnets and I wore my suit trousers of the top, so none of my colleagues were aware, well not until now if they read this!

That's it.  Told you it was a short one :-)

TJH

The Other Side!

You may think from the title of this blog that this is about me being a Jedi being lured to the dark side? alas not. This is about being involved in a running event, not as a participant but in an official capacity.

I have now taken part in just shy of 30 running events ranging from 10k's to marathons and I probably haven't really considered what is involved in staging an event. This weekend, my running club (Petts Wood Runners) hosted their 6th annual Petts Wood 10k. If I say so myself, it was a huge success. If you don't believe me take a look at the feedback on the Runner's World website.

So I just wanted to give a small insight into what is involved. I would just like to add, this is purely from my point of view and I probably don't do justice to what some of the others do.

As I said this is the 6th year that PWR have hosted this event, having only joined the club in August last year, this was the first time I have been involved. The race has already received accolades on Runner's World for being a well organised race. This in turn I would say brings it own pressures as everybody wants to ensure that the high standards are maintained.

There is a core race committee that starts the prep pretty much as soon as the previous year's race has finished and there are literally 100's of e-mails and phone calls made securing suppliers, sponsors and a million and one other things to do.

Two Weeks Ago:
A group of about 10 of us went round to the club secretaries house to sort out all of the kit for the event. The list is endless, but everything was checked and double checked to ensure that each 'Marshall group' had the relevant signs/markers, Marshall bibs, first aid kit, tool kit, red & white diagonal striped tape (not sure what to call it) rubbish bags etc etc. We then sat down to check that all relevant people, suppliers, residents had all been contacted and so on.

Last Week:
Another group of about 10 again (some same faces, some other volunteers) congregated at our Membership Secretaries house and stuffed 750 goody bags, we had a great production line going making sure every bag was complete. I was on leaflet numbers 3 & 4 :-) It reminded me of the mice factory in Bagpuss (showing my age now)

Saturday Morning:
I ran Parkrun as usual (I would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate my wife on getting a new PB and knocking almost 1:30 off her previous time)

I then went to Willet Rec, where the race starts and finishes to help start unloading a lot of the equipment for the Sunday. This again is where you realise how people help by either donating equipment or utilising their own company vans to help transport the equipment. Incidentally these are people that have their own companies, so they are entitled to do what they want with their vans. I don't want people to think that they were using their work vans without permission for non work-related things!

Also a group had just got back from running the route to give it a final check and make sure that a meteorite had not landed of something maybe not quite as dramatic had occurred. But this reconnaissance mission meant that the Marshall team leaders could be notified of any potential hazards.

Sunday Morning:
Rendezvous time for the 'Rec team' was 7am. Going out for beers and curry on the Saturday night and not getting to bed until 1am was probably not the best of ideas. But, I had my alarm set for 06:10. At 06:17 I awoke (luckily) and then realised I had set the alarm on my iPhone for weekdays only! So minor disaster avoided. A quick glance out of the window presented with me with a starlit dawn morning and a thin layer of frost on my car windscreen.

I arrived just before 7am and within 10 minutes there was already half a dozen of us there , swelling to 20+ by 07:30am. I particularly like this photo which catches the atmosphere of the glorious morning conditions.

Once again the list of tasks to do was endless and it was all hands to the deck erecting gazebos and marquees, marking out the course, erecting the start gantry setting up tables, chairs and so on. I can vouch that a 25 litre water container is bloody heavy! But as well as the big tasks there are also lots of other tasks which people happily offered to do, despite them being far from glamorous but equally important to ensure a smooth running event. Two of these that spring to mind were taking all of the medals out of their individual wrappers and separating the bunches of bananas. A camp kitchen was created to ensure that the troops were kept going with bacon rolls and tea!

By 9am all 100+ Marshalls had arrived and were getting their final briefing before donning luminous yellow and making their way to their allocated spots.

It was good to catch up with Danny Coyle (editor of Men's Running magazine) who had tweeted earlier in the week of feeling under pressure as he had been issued #1 (nothing to do with me) and I managed to get a couple of photos of him later on that are potentially worthy of a caption competition :-) Something for a Christmas blog maybe?

As the start time approached, I had to now down tools and take up my main role of the day as unofficial-official photographer. I had been snapping away during the morning anyway. I can tell you that during the course of the morning I took nearly 1200 photos and any photographer's amongst you will know that bright winter sunshine might be great for running in but it is a bit of a nightmare for taking photographs. Once the main race was underway, I then had to photograph the kiddies race. This was great fun. With all the kids having seen the adults storm off, they had Olympic time dreams of their own. The 2nd age group (6-7 I think) were particularly eager and I was almost caught in a stampede. See exhibit A below.

Once that was all over, I had to make my way back to the finish pretty quickly as the lead runner was expected back within 3 to 4 minutes. I then stood at the finish for over an hour trying to take photos of everybody as they approached the finish line. I apologise now, if anybody looking for their picture has not been captured! I also think I now have RSI in my right index finger.

Once everybody had finished, there was the presentations to all the various winners and as the Rec emptied the clean up operation began. My wife had arrived during the morning so my boy Max could run in the kiddies race. So this meant that they were having to wait around for me as I helped clear up. However, Max was more than happy with this as he now had sole use of the bouncy castle which fortunately had not been taken down. I think I left about 1pm, but there were still people there loading stuff back into vans I felt more knackered than if I had run the 10k course twice.

I purposely have not named any of the PWR's involved. It would not be fair to name or single out any individual and it would be impossible to list all the names. Everybody who helped no matter how big or small (I am talking about their contribution, not their height) is an integral part of this successful event.

So what is the point of this blog? Well it is just me jotting down my thoughts of how I saw the day. It also puts into perspective the organisation required for marathons that have thousands of runners but these will inevitably have professional companies to help host them.

More importantly I think it shows how a lot of the smaller events (hosted by local running clubs) that I and many others compete in can be taken for granted. PWR is a small friendly club with about 200 members and I would estimate that 90% have been involved in some way in helping stage this event, if not this year, then in year's gone past. It is through everybody's good will, good humour and graft that the PWR10k comes together.

So next time you are running an event and there is a person standing in yellow pointing the way or giving you a clap and a cheer, maybe give the odd one or two a little thank you in return (between your gasping breathes obviously)

I can honestly say I am proud to have been a part of this event and proud to be part of Petts Wood Runners. Right, I am off to go and do back slapping have a group hug and shout "right on" as I high-five people, such is my feel good factor. So if you see a news clip on London Tonight in the next couple of days, that a man was arrested on a train for trying to get a carriage involved in a group hug, that will be me :-)

If you want to see the reviews, click here
If you want to run in next year's PWR 10k, bookmark this link.
I am in the process of editing and uploading the photos, so will post a link once they are ready.

Cheers TJH

10-7-7-10-10

As you can guess from the title this blog is all about the 7s and 10s.

First 10
Was my run home from work on Wednesday evening.  Not sure why, but I felt a bit lethargic and the run felt a bit of a struggle, maybe because I pushed it on the Sunday for a new 10k PB?  Any experts out there? Maybe you can let me know how long it takes to recover from a hard run?

What was interesting though was my stats where alledgedly my fastest pace was a 2:43 m/mile?  not sure over what distance that was though?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/229652803

First 7
I was back at Bromley Parkrun on the Saturday and despite going out for a meal with the wife on the Friday night and consuming real ale, champagne, red wine, limoncello and cognac, I was only 7 seconds off my PB.  Not sure that prep is something I will do regularly though!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230590760

Second 7 & Second 10
Sunday was my 7 year wedding anniversary (hence the meal Friday night) and what better way to celebrate than to leave the wife and go for a run :-)  In my defence, I did take her breakfast in bed in the morning. 

So just over an hour drive down into Kent saw me arriving in Sittingbourne for a 10mile road race hosted by the local Striders running club.  And what a glorious morning it was, sunny yet not too hot, no wind and a very nice run in the Kent countryside. 

There was over a dozen PWR's down there for the race and the talk was of the 'undulating' course.  Why is it that 'undulating' is always the word used?  To be fair it wasn't as bad as I was expecting with just one memorable climb, just after 1 mile and the rest was, well er undulating.  I was pleased with my time of 1:21:42

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/230854492

I managed to bump into a chap from work (Kris) so I asked how he got on, "Oh not too bad 1:01, I came 3rd" he replied.  God, I hate these natural athletes ;-)

Third 10
Last but by no mean's least is the 3rd 10 which is the Petts Wood 10k.  This is the annual event being hosted by my club Petts Wood Runners next Sunday (14th October).  This is the first time I have been involved in something like this and I am really looking forward to it and can now really appreciate how much time and effort goes into organising a race.

The PWR 10k always gets rave reviews on the Runner's World forums and was highlighted in the top 5 races in October in this month's Runner's World magazine.  So if you are reading this and are relatively local, there are still spaces and you can enter via HERE or if you want to you can enter on the day.  More info on the race can be found @ www.pettswoodrunners.co.uk

Hopefully I might see some of you next Sunday.

TJH

PB?

If you are a chemist, PB probably means lead to you. If you are in IT you might think Packard Bell or (Apple) PowerBook and obviously if you are into running, PB stands for Personal Best. For me today PB stands for PROUD BLOKE. Today my little boy ran his first ever race. He turns three in November and to be honest he doesn't stop running and bouncing around, so PB could stand for Pneumatic Boy.

I was taking part in The Big 10k event in Bexhill and what is really nice about this event is that they stage three fun runs of 500 metres, 1k & 2k before the main race. So this means there is a lot more opportunity for younger kids to take part.

Max entered or should I say 'was entered' into the 500m. Max was so excited before hand, when he had his own number and as you will see below he made sure he was warmed up and went through a stretching routine

We lined up and lined up with about 25 other kids. Max was the youngest at age 2 and the eldest was age 8. After a countdown of 5-4-3-2-1 we were off. I think the comotion got to him a little bit to start off with and he wasn't sure, but after about 50m or so he got into his stride and then was laughing and smiling all the way. It was a really special moment for me running with him and he ran the whole way without stopping. As you can see, he was focussed on running and had no time to wave for the camera!

As we crossed the line, the tannoy man commented "and here comes Max" "and I have here he is only two" I don't think he believed that Max was two? Being the geek that I am, I had to start my Garmin for his run :-) We completed the course in 3:33 and his average pace was a very respectable 11:54m/mile

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228556192

Max was not only rewarded with a medal but also a couple of Mr Men jelly sweets.

When I asked Max if he would like some water, between his deep breathes he said 'Yes Please' and then he got a massive hug from proud mummy as well.

Once the other two fun runs were complete, it was my turn to line up and Max said he wanted to run with me, so I had to tell him it was a bit far. Just for the record, I managed a new 10k PB of 45:27 knocking 2:21 off my previous best (ooh look there is another thing that PB could stand for)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/228556210

But this weekend was all about my boy and in case you haven't realised I am a really PROUD BLOKE :-) Here is a final photo of me and my boy with our medals from today.

P.S. Max got the same medal as me and I had to run 20 times further!

Until next time
TJH

Chalk & Cheese & Water (lot's of the latter)

This weekend saw the Sievey family have only their 2nd ever camping trip, the first being last week in Oxfordshire. Last week there was a large group of us, so we had help putting the tent up and also dismantling it. This week, we were on our own. So my wife was a bit nervous about putting the tent up. At this I point I must say that I had to 'gently persuade' my wife to go camping in the first place, she is definatley more a B&B type of person. But we arrived in the New Forest around lunch time on Friday and the tent went up with no problems and no arguments :-) So to celebrate we went into Lyndhurst for a Hampshire Cream Tea and very nice it was to.

Saturday was an absolutely delightful day, a bit fresh but glorious sunshine. A short drive to Poole saw Mich, Max and I running the Poole Parkrun (Max in the buggy by the way, not actually running, afterall he is not 3yo until November). A lovely park and a really friendly atmosphere.

I came 2nd, not in the entire race but out of the 5 running buggies that were being pushed round the course
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226084395

Incidentally, the three of us ran the Oxford parkrun the previous week. I came 3rd out of 3 buggies that time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224267369

We spent the rest of Saturday, pottering around the New Forest, going to a farmer's market having a pint of the local ale from the Ringwood brewery and generally enjoying the sunshine. We also saw the unofficial golden postbox in Lymington in honour of Ben Ainsle. Apparantly, a local chap (who was later arrested) painted it as Ben lives in Lymington. The official one is in Cornwall where Ben grew up.

When we got back to the tent, I unzipped the front of the tent as was about to start cooking dinner when I realised we had been burgled. We had been raided by a local criminal who is still at large and roaming free in the New Forest. The material of the larder had been chewed through, the culprit had quite a choice including Alpen bars & porridge, but it seems that Squirrels cannot resist Malt Loaf. I had bought a pack of 5 lunchbox slices. 4 empty wrappers were found a few metres from the tent.

Our neighbouring tent had also been raided and they had actually chewed through their tent to gain access to Doritos and a French stick!

Now, I had been keeping an eye on the weather all week and I knew that rain was forecast, but because the glorious sunshine hadn't been forecast, I was rather hoping that the rain might hold off. At 5am Sunday morning I was awoken by the pitter patter of raindrops on the tent and put it this way, as I type this at 8pm Sunday evening it is still raining!

So I got up at 7am and made myself some porridge (kindly left by the squirrels) and later ventured out into the rain to drive to New Milton. Mich sensibly decided to stay behind in the tent.

I managed to briefly meet up with a group of PWR's just before the off and then before we knew it the race had started. The race was enjoyable (once you are wet, you are wet) and a lot of locals made the effort to support the runners despite the weather. I thought it was ironic that we passed one pub both on the way out and on the way back, the name? 'The Rising Sun' There is a bit of a drag of a hill at 9 miles but there were loads of humerous signs on the way up to keep people's spirits up. My favourite was 'FACT, New Forest Half Marathoners have better legs than any other runners'. Also I have to say for the first time ever the mile markers were virtually in perfect synchronisation with my Garmin, never bring more than 0.01 different from when my watched beeped!

I managed a 1:48 and might have been a bit quicker, if I hadn't had to stop to do my shoe laces three times. The third time I finally worked out to do a double knot! I think water must have seeped in through my ears and affected my brain or maybe it was because I didn't get to eat any Malt Loaf before my run?

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226084418

So then it was a case of collect my medal, space cape, make my way back to the car and back to the quagmire, I mean campsite.

Being the chivalrous chap that I am I said to Mich "There is no point of us both getting wet" So I packed the tent up in a monsoon on my own. To be honest it was actually quite enjoyable. I couldn't get any wetter and (despite being told it is virtually impossible to get a sodden tent in the bag) I managed it first time. By the way, I am talking about a 5 berth steel frame 7m x 3m tent here, not a 2 man dome tent!

So all in all a fun weekend. Hopefully the memories of today will have faded enough by next year when I ask Mich if she wants to go camping again :-)

TJH

Exactly what is says on the tin!

Well, on the race number actually.  As you can see it says 'Proper Cross Country' and indeed it was.

This was my first ever cross country race as I don't think you can count running up Tiger's Alley and round the school field as cross country which is the last time I did anything that resembled cross country aged 14.

So, as you can guess from the picture above, the event was the Eridge 10 hosted by the Tunbridge Wells Harriers. This event is held in high regard amongst the running fraternity and regularly gets top marks on the Runners World forums.

As my last race resulted in a very rushed prep, we (Me , Mich & Max) arrived with over an hour to go before the 10:30am start.  So I was able to collect my number and t-shirt with ease and even go to the toilet without having to queue.  As you can see Mich and Max were enjoying the morning sunshine

I met up with the rest of the PWR's and the general conscensus was that it was going to be tough and there were some killer climbs and you would have to be sadistic to find this run fun.

600+ runners set off in the blazing sun and the first bit was downhill, but what goes down must come up.  The race itself is round the Eridge Estate and a lot of the route is on land that isn't usually open to the general public.  There are numerous features that are signposted as your run round, nice views such as 'Lake Serene' and 'Lake Magical' some small challenges such as 'The leap of death' and 'Watership Up' and some in your face, come on then if you think you are tough enough features such as 'Cheeky's Bog' and 'Deeply Steep'

At about 2.5 miles, Cheeky's Bog appeared, as I arrived there was a bit of a queue as people were in single file trying to skirt round the edge of the bog.  Hippos are known for their love of mud, so I thought bugger it and went through it, well I not quite through it.  As I stepped into the bog, I promptly dissapeared up to my knees.  Fortuntaley, I managed to extract myself with shoes still attached, unlike a poor fella at a later bog who was knee deep and had his arms in the mud up to his armpits trying to retrieve his missing shoe!

It was quite novel to see a snake like single file of runners in the distance going over the undulations rather than the mass of bodies I am used to seeing in road races.

In all there was over 1100 feet of ascending in the 10 miles.  At one point I was trying to run uphill, but every couple of steps was walking a bit. In the end I worked out is was actually quicker to power walk up the hill rather than shuffling like Quasimodo.

I completed the 10 miles in 1:44:31.  I was told that this course was not PB material, but as I have never done a 10 mile cross-country this was a PB :-)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/220687957

Oh, and the holy grail at the end was a free pint of real ale from the Larkins brewery.  As a CAMRA member this is about as good as it gets!  So I joined Mich & Max and the already finished PWR's in the sun with pint in hand to cheer home the rest of the PWR's

And do you know what, I think I must have sadistic tendencies as I quite enjoyed this run

TJH

32nd, 5th & 1st

You may think that the numbers in the title are finishing positions? Not so. These are the number of parkruns that I, my 2yo son Max (albeit being pushed in the running buggy) and my wife Mich(elle) have completed!

So this blog is primarily about Mich. I mentioned to her a few months back that Petts Wood Runners were hosting an 8 week beginners running course and begrudgingly (I think) Mich said she would give it a go.

So over the last 8 weeks she has turned up every Tuesday night and slowly began to increase the time running interspersed with recovery breaks. At this point, I would like to commend Mike & Liz of PWR for taking the course, Mich has told me she has enjoyed it and that is a massive compliment as Mich didn't really 'do running'.

I must admit that I have been surprised & impressed at Mich's commitment to doing the prescribed training between sessions. She missed only one additional training session and that was because we were at the Paralympics. Max has particularly benefited from this as this meant he would either get to ride on the bike with me, or we would have a kick-a-bout and play on the swings whilst Mummy jogged round the park.

So this all culminated in Mich completing her 1st parkrun today, 5k without stopping in 36:19 and I am very proud of her!

Mich on the right accompanied by Jo (a PWR member)

Mich has spent the last 4 years either looking after Max or following me round the country whilst I trained for my Lands End to John O'Groats ride in 2010 and the London Marathon in 2012. I hope that I can repay that loyalty and maybe at some point in the near future it will be Max and I waiting by the finish and cheering as Mummy is completing a 10k?

So is there a downside to this?

Firstly, Mich had said she is now going to join PWR, so that now means taking turns on who goes running on a Tuesday night.

Secondly, I will need to keep an eye on my running gear. In the past 8 weeks Mich has already borrowed some socks, a t-shirt, a cap and has even been using my Garmin! Luckily we don't have the same size feet :-)

TJH