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

Pure Gold!

Yesterday I took a day off work to go to the Paralympics with my wife and little boy. It was one of the best days out I have ever had. It was an absolute gem of a day.

Getting to Stratford via bus and DLR was a breeze as was getting into the Olympic Park and through security. The Gamesmakers lived up to their name and certainly made the games. Every single one we encountered and I do mean every single one had a smile on their face and couldn't be more helpful. I wouldn't be surprised if my boy woke up today with an aching hand, I am sure he got a world record yesterday for 'high-fives'

We had tickets for the morning session at the impressive Aquatics centre and had the privilege of seeing 4 new world records including one from Team GB's 15yo Josef Craig (which he later broke in the evening to earn Gold). I can only retype what I put in a tweet during the morning and that is the athletes were bloody incredible and I was in total awe of them!

We then had tickets for the Orbit, the crazy rollercoaster looking structure by Anoushka Kapur. Amazing views over the stadium, the Olympic Park and London. I expect a viewing on a clear night would be even more spectacular!

We then found some grass to sit on to have our lunch and sit in the balmy sunshine. We then had a wander round the Olympic Park followed by meeting up with friends and having a few beers in the afternoon

At 6pm we made our way to the Stadium and was seated by 6:30 for a 7pm start.

Bonus 1 was that we were in row 4, bonus 2 was that I had managed to pick the night when we would see David Weir and Jonnie Peacock amongst others.

As you know the WeirWolf and Peacock did not disappoint and the crescendo of noise for all the GB athletes medal winners or not was spine tingling.

The journey home was easy as well! And special mention must go to the bloke on the tannoy at Stratford DLR who was very funny and had everybody laughing with his commentary and adding a real feel good factor.

I must admit when London won the Olympic bid, I wasn't that excited and a bit cynical that it would just increase my taxes and we would probably balls it up. I couldn't have been more wrong (except about my taxes :-)

Watching the Olympics at work and at home was great, being part of and actually experiencing the Paralympics was an absolutely amazing experience and a privilege. I am so glad that my little boy was able to share that experience with Mummy and Daddy

As we were leaving the stadium, Max was in his buggy and bless him, he said "Mummy can I go to sleep now?" The poor mite had had a very very long day but didn't have the opportunity (despite encouragement from us) to have a nap because he was having such a wonderful time and didn't want to miss a thing!

Proud to be a Londoner, proud to be British!

TJH