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