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.