Hello all! Thank
you for reading!!
It's been a frustrating
few weeks with my body just refusing to play ball. At the start of
the year it was illness that was stopping me from running. I recovered from
that only to have my calf problems return. This time rather than it being
my right calf it was my left! I therefore decided to be sensible and cut
my running right back to the minimum to give it chance to recover.
I have been spending
my time on the exercise bike in the gym rather than pounding the
streets. This has helped but I have still continued to have issues each
time I have run. Some weeks my sum total of running has been a slow plod
round parkrun on a Saturday. This is obviously not ideal seeing as in a
little over a week I will be at the start line of my 50 mile challenge!
Last week was slightly
better with me managing three runs for a sum total of just over 10 miles!!
I have decided that I am
not going to gain a massive amount of fitness by pushing myself now and so
focussing on recovery rather than training is my best course of action. I
guess it is the lesser of two evils:
Be slightly fitter but arrive at the start
line injured or be less fit but injury free.
I am hoping that my base
training, my experience of distance running built up over the past 4 years
and a large slice of guts and determination will see me through!
But enough of the doom
and gloom.
I
am really excited about the Thames Trot. Those who know me know
how long I have been preparing for this race. I can't wait to get
on the trails and start running (however slowly). This week I have
started my preparations of the big day. I have managed to
borrow a friends running backpack and will be trying that out for comfort at
the weekend. I have booked my train ticket to the start, and have
started making a list of the things I need to prepare the night before and the
items I need to take out on the course with me. I have also been
looking at the maps of the race and trying to familiarise myself with the route
I will be taking. It's all very very exciting.
I should
also remember the reason I m running it. I am passionate about
raising money and awareness for Mosaic Family support. They help
children when they lose loved ones or people close to them. They are
a small team who do am amazing amount of work in the community to help
kids through some of the hardest times of their lives. The money I
raise goes directly to them and I have seen the good it does. Here
is a link to their website:
I have set-up a
JustGiving page for my fundraising. I had aimed to raise £500 but,
thanks to the generosity of friends, I have already exceeded £650.
This will be charity matched by LV= so my final total is already over
£1000! If you would like to donate, please follow this link:
Thank you!!
Last Wednesday was a very
special run as it marked the return to our lunchtime running group
of colleague, good friend and running guru Jon Braund, after nearly a year
out through illness. Jon is an inspiration having fought his illness
with determination, dignity and a smile on his face. He has always stayed
positive and has made an excellent recovery and it is fantastic to have him
back running with us. And after nearly a year out he was still
quicker than most of us and trotted up the hills like they weren't
there. I guess I'm going to have to get used to watching his backside
disappearing into the distance once more!!
parkrun Tourism
Despite my injury issues
I have still managed to visit a few different parkruns over the past few weeks.
One of my targets for the year is to take my total number of different
parkruns over the 50 mark, so I will be aiming to visit new venues at
every possible opportunity. I am also aiming to volunteer as much as
I can, therefore when I am visiting new parkruns I am offering to give them a
visitors view of their run by writing the race reports!
Saturday 9th Jan - Poole parkrun -
parkrun 72
Down visiting family I
was once again running at Poole parkrun (my 6th visit). Despite the heavy
recent rain, the team had adjusted the course to avoid the new lakes and rivers
that had formed and, just short of 9am, we were directed to the revised start
line.
There was a small camera
crew at the start filming for the charity donation site MyDonation so most
people puffed their chests out and struck their best running poses before
cracking on with the task of running 5km.
My calf once again
"went" on the way round, but I loved the run just the same
because it made me slow down and enjoy the run. I chatted with people on
the way round and had a very enjoyable splash in a some muddy puddles by the
play park. After the run I just hung around chatted some more, cheered
finishers in and generally just "had a laugh". What better way
is there to spend a Saturday morning!!
I managed a
tough 27:51, but once again finished the run with my legs in worse shape than I
started!
Saturday 16th Jan - Didcot parkrun -
parkrun 73 at venue 34
Continuing my parkrun
"tourism" I decided to head to the next closest parkrun to Winchester
that I had yet to cross off my list, Didcot. Just a short 50 minute drive
up the A34 and I was soon parked up in the shadow of the power station and
ready to run. The event takes place in Ladygrove park in the centre of a
small housing estate, next to Didcot FC's footy pitch. It comprises of 3
laps around a small park (mainly on grass) and then a longer loop out alongside
the railway line and in to a finish at a different part of the housing estate.
As far as parkruns go it
is a strange one. The park is one of the smallest I have run at, and the
event team have clearly worked hard to squeeze a full 5km route in. It is not particularly picturesque, however the team are really, really welcoming and
there is a real community feel about it with lots of families and groups of
friends running together. I was made to feel really welcome and it really showcased what parkrun is about. Community, friendship and a love of running.
There is ample free
parking and basic toilet facilities. There are also showers that can be
used in the nearby sports centre after the run. I probably wont go back to
Didcot as there are nicer runs in the area, and plenty that I have yet to visit, but I was glad the I went and it was nice to meet them all.
I ended up running a
steady 27:43.
Saturday 23rd Jan
- Gunnersbury parkrun - parkrun 74 at venue 35
Sarah, Olivia and I were
heading up to London for the day and so I convinced Sarah that Gunnersbury Park
would be a convenient place to park and coincidentally there was a parkrun
there! We headed up the M3, M25 and M4 early on Saturday morning, getting
to the park at around 830. The museum in the grounds is being heavily renovated
so finding the loos was a challenge but they were clean, if a little basic.
The park itself is fairly
big, and big enough to house a single lap parkrun, somewhat of a rarity in the
parkrun world. The run is all on tarmac paths and is downhill for the 1st
km, making for a quick start. With 400+ runners there was congestion at
the start but it soon thinned out. The route heads down to the bottom of
the park, past the lake and then back up to the museum. It runs along the
front of the museum and round the edge of the park, before looping round the
far side of the lake and back uphill for the final KM to the finish.
The run was just the
right mix of fast and challenging and the park was tailor made for
parkrun. There was plenty of free parking on site and we left our car
there for the day whilst we were in London. However it was only on
returning to the deserted carpark that we noticed how many patches of glass
there were from previous break-ins that we realised it probably wasn't the
safest place to leave your car for the whole day! Fortunately ours was
fine!!
My time at Gunnersbury
was only 2 seconds slower than the previous week with me running 27:45.
Next week
This
weekend we are visiting friends in Stoke and I will therefore be visiting
Hanley parkrun in Stoke-on-Trent. I will continue to be on the
exercise bike leading up to the big day, but will try to get one more run
in. It is then all about preparation!!
See you
soon!
James
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