Three things new, well one of them second hand

Whilst everybody was enjoying the long Jubilee weekend, I made the most of it by running on the Sunday, Monday & Tuesday after having self imposed rest due to my niggling injury. I ran 4.5 miles on the Sunday.  I then ran the Bexley Parkrun 5k at Danson Park on the Monday.  This was the first time I had ran a Parkrun not at Bromley, so after 25 runs at Norman Park, I finally defected!  But it was nice to run a different course and this is where the first of the three new things come into play and No I am not talking about the Parkrun itself. 

My first new thing is my newly acquired personalised barcode tag.  Depsite me laminating previous barcodes, a few have been destroyed after going through a 40 degree wash cycle.  I found a company on the tinterweb (www.littlehugs.co.uk) that creates tags which you can attach to a variety of things, as you can see mine is now attached to a pair of my running shoes.

Tuesday evening I was back out with PWR and ran 6.4 miles.  I also did a couple of gym sessions during the week concentrating on my core workouts.  I still have a bit of belly that needs to go!

On the Saturday just gone, Bromley Parkrun was cancelled due to the Bromley Paegent of Motoring, so defection was on the cards again.  This time I chose the Crystal Palace Parkrun and this is where new thing number two came into play.  On the extra Bank Holiday Tuesday (Thank You Ma'am) we had a family drive down to Worthing, where I purchased a second hand running buggy courtesy of an ad in the Runner's World forum.  So this was to be the maiden voyage with my new coach, Max my little boy.  I was actually 1 of 4 running buggy pilots at the run and despite me running what I considered a respectable 25:08 on a hilly course, I was last of the buggies, but it was my first time :-)

Despite my pleas, Max wouldn't smile for the camera, but he was giggling as I ran round and also encouraged me half way round with "Daddy, run faster"

During the week I entered the Beckenham 10k.  The predicted weather of rain and wind didn't materialise on Sunday, so the conditions were quite pleasant; maybe a little on the warmside?  As I was collecting my number, I saw one of the buggy pilots from the previous day.  We had a quick chat and both she and I were without buggy this time.  Also, one fella approcahed me and said "Oh you are the Jogging Hippo, I follow you on Twitter"  it seems the Project 26.2 legacy lives on ;-) I then found some fellow Petts Wood Runners and had a chat with them before we made our way to the start.

This is where the third new thing comes into play and that is a new 10k PB of 47:48, knocking 3:30 off my previous best and the course was not flat either, although the Garmin profile doesn't make the 2 hills x 2 look that tough http://connect.garmin.com/activity/187407115.  Nevertheless I was very happy with my run.

The event was well organised, the stewards encouraging and I couldn't resist one of the fairy cakes on offer afterwards!

Until next time TJH.

Any excuse to get a photo taken!

Hello again, I have a few things that I would like to share in this blog instalment.  Firstly, in my last blog I mentioned there was a little surprise for the Petts Wood Runners at the AGM which I couldn't reveal at the time.  Well now I can.  All the attendees at the AGM had the opportunity to have their photo taken with the Olympic torch.  We were asked to not reveal this until the official tour of the UK had started, hence why I couldn't reveal it in my last blog.  Maybe not exciting for some, but I was well chuffed to get the opportunity to hold a little bit of history.

Running wise it has been a mixed bag.  Last Tuesday, due to the glorious weather most of the club groups headed into the woods for the evening run.  This made a welcome change from pounding the pavements. Alas for me half way into the run, whilst trying to avoid a hole I almost ended up flat on my face.  In the process of trying to stay upright, arms and legs flailing everywhere, I managed to tweak my hamstring and also inadvertently punch one of the girls in the group in the backside (sorry Emma).  I was asked if I was OK to continue, I said yes because A) the old fashioned male bravado kicked in, "Yeah i'm alright" and B) I didn't have a clue where I was!  So I soldiered on, having to stop occasionally to stretch and then probably pushing it a bit too hard near the end of the run.

What it did mean though was after being bravado man, I put my sensible head back on and therefore no track session on the Thursday, no Parkrun on the Saturday and no club training the following Tuesday.

However, I have cycled to work a couple of days which is 10miles (one way) I am back at the gym working on a bit of upper body strength and core and also back doing Pilates.  Pilates entails me watching the instructor in awe as she effortlessly demo's the positions, showing normal, advanced and easy options, followed by me breaking out in a sweat and then chuckling to myself as I struggle to get 50% of the way in the 'easy' position.

Thursday night was the final get together of the Project 26.2 gang.  The plan was to meet in Hammersmith at 6pm for a group run followed by a few beers and some nibbles.  Unfortunately, I didn't leave the office until gone 5:30pm and depsite the group waiting around for 15 mins, I along with Justin (him of barefoot marathon fame) missed them, so we both moved straight onto stage 2 of the evening 'beers'.  I did even send Danny (editor of Men's Running magazine) a text to say I was running late, but I later found out that his phone had recently been stolen.  So somebody somewhere is probably confused as they have received a text message from a Hippo!

I was gutted to miss an the opportunity to go for a run and even more so to find out that Nell McAndrew had also joined the group for the run!  As you will see below this didn't stop me having a photo taken though, and Nell was a genuinely nice lass to talk to.

It was really good to catch up with everybody (although a shame a few of the gang couldn't make it) and say thanks to everybody who was involved in the project as I know I was very fortunate to get the opportunity to have all the support and guidance.

I have already posted the original of this photo on Twitter, so thought I would enhance it slightly :-)

Until next time, TJH