The weirdest parkrun

Week two on the road to Berlin was one of multiple runs & no major distance. It included a weekend of two parkruns (yes really) & ended with me picking up a cricket bat in anger for the first time since last summer & quickly swapping that bat for some anti-inflammatories.
I found myself managing to fit in lunchtime runs on Tuesday & Wednesday, taking in familiar routes around Westminster & Battersea. Other than some occasional achilles pain there was very little to write home about. The sun was out on both days & the change in temperature made the runs hard work, but still worthwhile. On Tuesday I'd recognised the need for sunglasses so packed them for the Wednesday run, only to leave them on my desk! For the second of the runs I varied my route and was pleased to see just how much of the Thames Path has been opened up after the building work around Vauxhall has finished. Running around there in the past had involved playing with the traffic & on many occasions that traffic wasn't overly friendly.
The goal of a lot of my London runs is to avoid road crossings which just delay & frustrate so to have more riverside paths available affords me more options. These two workouts weren't anything other than easy miles & a nice way to get out of an office for a while, I'm still a couple of weeks away from wanting to bring speedwork back to the table.
My intention to introduce cross training into the marathon schedule remained just that as a busy week in & out of work limited my opportunities to really do much, hence squeezing in lunchtime runs. The weekend was a different matter entirely. April 18th was pencilled in from a few weeks ago, the first opportunity to run the parkrun at Hatfield Forest. Karl was on Run Director duty for the first time, affording me the chance to run the route if our volunteer roster was sufficiently strong enough. So I was an interested party as Karl spent the week asking, requesting & pleading for volunteers. Our winter route is quite heavy on marshals & being a new event it takes time to build up a community of runners and volunteers.
By Thursday evening it was clear that the event would have enough manpower, so I could start thinking about running. Of course my immune system had other ideas adding some fun to the occasion with a nice head cold. I was dosing up on anything I could get my hands on to ensure I could still line up at parkrun.

Hatfield Forest parkrun (Winter Course)

Although not RD, I was still helping out with course setup & then had the opportunity to do one of my favourite volunteer roles, the first timers briefing. I always enjoy welcoming people to the parkrun family & introducing tourists to Hatfield Forest. This was my first time delivering the briefing that I'd written for others & it gave me an opportunity to see how the content worked.
Once the debutants had been briefed I could get on with my usual pre run routines & readying my Garmin.
It was nice to socialise with our runners, although I did need to introduce my booming voice so that Karl could get everyone's attention at the run briefing. Being in the middle to back of the pack for the briefing made it very clear that we need to get our megaphone fixed. Everyone starts off politely listening but soon conversation drifts in & without projection the Run Director's message gets lost. Karl persevered though & soon we were under way.
I was running alongside Emily, neither of us wanted a time so a social run was the order of the day. This would be the first time I was viewing other runners on the course, so I was hopeful that how they negotiated the route would be how I intended. Alas the need to shout keep left before the U turn suggests that wasn't the case! With runners soon approaching in the opposite direction, the guidance was needed, perhaps a sign move is required to make this clearer. Our attempts to make the U turn itself easier to negotiate have resulted in a teardrop design. Unfortunately some runners now skirt round the front of this rather than follow it round, perhaps we're overthinking this one and a simple cone will do.
Our first km was negotiated in 5:52 & now we had a nice downhill to take us onto the road, followed by the only real climb on the course (if you could call it that). Here I was presented with another observation, our signs ask folk to stay on the left hand side, but runners (including myself) will take the racing line & cut across the corners, shaving distance off of the course but also not ideal for a route that can include traffic.

Carrying far too much timber

At the top of the climb & just before the first cattle grid is the 2km marker & we'd got there with a 5:36km. The gates to negotiate the cattle grid are of reasonable width, though this is a two way gate for those at the front coming back through past 4km. We're hoping they'll be widened in line with other gates on the property in time, though they are sufficient for our current runner numbers.
The route is simple for the next 800m as you simply follow the road to the exit of the Forest. I was expecting to see runners flowing back in the opposite direction, so much so that I was starting to wonder if we had a rogue sign somewhere & folks were taking an altogether different route!
Thankfully my fears were quelled when I was able to spot the front of the field as we passed the access road. Once we reached the forest exit it was time to turn right & follow the tree line across to the entrance road. There is a natural route to follow here as a cable run had been dug previously & provides the most even footing (though only single file so to overtake you need to take on the far bumpier terrain). After negotiating a ditch you are soon at the Forest entrance, passing 3km & turning right to follow the entrance route.

Brought out the airplane!

There were a couple of cars for us to contend with. Unfortunately we're in a flux period where the Forest is operating it's Summer hours, but conditions haven't improved sufficiently so the parkrun route used is still the Winter route. This is something we're continuing to monitor as a team & work with the NT on, keeping a marshal at the front gate to radio through to run HQ when cars enter the course & now encouraging runners to shout CAR when they have one in the vicinity. Thankfully for us the drivers behind us were patient, allowing us to get through the gate & onto the access road, staying a distance behind us.
Conditions on the access road were reasonable, always a bit more mud than the main estate road as traffic doesn't frequent it. Nothing of much concern on this occasion & we were soon heading back onto the estate road towards 4km & the muddy crescendo.
No mud this time around! The improved weather conditions had dried out the majority of the crescendo, making it very easy to negotiate & get onto the Boardwalk. Our pace had been decent throughout & was now increasing as the finest finish view in parkrun (what? I'm biased) came into view. Predictably I carried on pushing the pace, not really being much of a gentleman once I could see the finish! One of the ways I probably carried on re-straining my groin was with ludicrous sprint finishes, so this time I just dialled it up to 8 rather than all the way to 11, sneaking the finish ahead of Emily by three seconds.

Couldn't resist a sprint finish!

The Eat

This was the first occasion I'd brought my famed sausage rolls to the forest, I figured that with hot food not possible owing to a cafe refit, some food might be appreciated. They were still warm, in fact still on the baking parchment as they weren't cool enough to move so I just found a massive box instead to transport them in when scrambling for the door at 0645! We even kept our visitor from Great Notley, Pete fed, though only once we'd confirmed all of those finish tokens they keep losing were accounted for!

Hatfield Forest parkrun (Summer Course)

How is this possible? You can't run two parkrun over a weekend can you? Fear not folks, this was an unofficial outing as we assembled a group consisting of the core team, friends & family, volunteers & those that ran at our pilot event. With the weather improving, I wanted to gain some input from other runners on what signage they'd expect before we put together the technical setup maps to cover the route.
We had three groups of runners in total & in order to keep everyone running at a comfortable pace we split into 35, 30 & 25 minute groups so that everyone could take it relatively easy & be able to take in the environment without feeling too pushed. Each team had a radio & a map allowing me to lead out the 35 minute group first. The other groups would follow at five minute intervals, the idea being as a handicap that we'd all finish together.
The route itself is showing signs of drying out nicely. At the time of writing we were hoping to launch at the start of May, though there is a lot of bad weather due in the next week that will likely delay that, we're continuing to work with the NT who have the ultimate call on what route we should use. Even the muddiest section of the route, Halfway ride between 2.5-3km was close to dry. In fact the speed in which the forest has dried has led to the former muddy trails being quite uneven now, though Simon from the NT wasn't overly keen on our request for a cricket roller to be taken out to the rides to make them more runner friendly.
Our biggest concern is a ditch just after 2km that appears to be deeper than when we first surveyed the route, we just need to make sure that we brief people appropriately. The spring weather has also increased rabbit activity, meaning some parts of the route have some rather nasty rabbit holes, another thing to add to the run brief!
I was comfortable with the pace, it was well within my capabilities, though between 3-4km I felt some pain in my lower back. I must have landed solidly as the lower back just appeared to get very solid for a moment, but quickly resolved itself so I didn't think anything of it & got on with the rest of the run.
Everyone appeared back at The Shell House car park at a similar time, though Simon & Paul from the 25 minute group couldn't help themselves, deciding to enjoy a nice sprint finish. We'll call that another aspect of the route check, testing the footing of the final few hundred metres to assess the potential for a strong finish! Once everyone had checked their Garmins & gathered breath we started to talk as a group about what everyone like & where they'd add extra signs, cricket flags or cones. The course was well received, though the jury was out on how they'd compare speed wise. Currently with the weather improving the winter course is fast owing to the lack of mud at the end, though back in January for our fundraiser the finishing times were around 2 minutes slower at the front of the field. A bone dry summer course would have potential to be quick, the difference being it is 90% off road compared with around 40% of the winter route.
The feedback & lessons learnt in the first few weeks have allowed me to produce a very comprehensive summer route map, although I'm learning to laminate nothing until it has been in use for a while!

The Cricket

Once cake & conversation had been consumed I was driving the Alfa round to the other Hatfield of the Hertfordshire variety to partake in the last net session of the spring training. Attendance hasn't been brilliant & I was making up a quartet of those training so I was quickly changing from running to cricket gear.
The session started well, I bowl what could nicely be described as slow filth, but at times that filth not only guys wickets but also includes top spinners that gain far more bounce than my height should achieve. I was getting into a reasonable rhythm, having not netted since February it was important to get some overs under my belt before the season begun. I was even able to make a subtle change to my run up, delivering from almost over the stumps, making the most of any away movement I could get & keeping a lot more of my deliveries from straying down the legside.
Then the net session descended into farce. As mentioned previously, my back had made a brief moan during the summer route test. Upon landing I shuddered with pain as my lower back went once more. I was straight out of our lane and onto the floor to try & stretch it out. I tried a couple more deliveries, more stretches & retired to a bench to find some nurofen amongst my kit. With numbers so low, dropping down to three really wasn't a desirable option. The suggestion was made that maybe batting would be easier, so I very gingerly put my pads on & shuffled up to the other end of the nets to give it a try. I hadn't batted in February so this was the first time I was picking up a bat since August. It turns out I was fine, as long as I didn't try to actually hit the ball. Defensive shots were fine, but the moment I tried to hit through a ball it stretched my back out. I warned the guys that I wouldn't be batting for long & stuck to defensive shots in order to get through. This was almost working, still moderately painful but just about ok. The need to jump to defend a back of a length ball led to me walking straight out of the net. The jarring sensation when landing was too much & I couldn't achieve anything by carrying on. I tried to deliver a few balls of spin later on to try & ease the load on the other bowlers but it was clear that my body was not responding well at all.

The Conclusion

A good parkrun & then a day of painkillers to follow. I have to accept that stretching & proper warm downs are required, especially when trying to combine running with cricket in a day. By the evening & after a long soak in the bath my back was starting to feel more normal, but it was a reminder of how much I need to manage myself & my fragile frame through to Berlin. Using some cross training & core strength workouts will definitely be beneficial at this stage.
As for my pace at the parkrun, a final kilometre push with a 5:02 tells me that there is still some speed left in me. So far this year I've not broken 25 at a parkrun & normally a 27:40 would be a cause for an inquiry rather than a time I'm happy with. What I was looking for with this run was to come out of the other end of it still feeling ok & with the groin strain continuing to recover. To tick those boxes & then end up injured a day later (albeit in the short term) is frustrating but entirely predictable!
The whole experience of running the course was bizarre. I found that even when running I couldn't switch off completely, looking for how runners were interacting with the course & almost feeling like a teacher with a red pen marking our work as I ran around. I suspect that will always be the case at the Forest & that is part of being an Event Director. For a truly relaxing parkrun experience I'll have to hit the tourism trail once more!

Flitch 10k

How many training plans include a 10k race at the end of week one? How many training plans are written by a colossal numpty who signs up for things on a whim? I'd hope the answer is one and that one is me. If however you're also inclined to running madness, pull up a chair, it is nice to have some company.
I'm not completely crazy, this was meant to be week two! The event had been advertised a couple of months ago and being based at the Discovery Centre in Great Notley meant we would see a high number of parkrunners accustomed to touching the bird and already familiar with the hill of doom. Paul had advised it was 10km and a bit, that bit being a climb up the hill (that GPS still doesn't record!). The route didn't really concern me though, this would be another recovery run, as the groin strain continues to heal.
This would be Challenge Running's debut 10km event, they're usually creating crazy marathons and from my perspective what look to be bat shit crazy ultra runs! Paul is still hopeful one day I'll sign up for the Stort 30 and it'll lead me down that path to more ultra shenanigans. Never say never, 5 years ago I didn't even run, one year ago I'd never volunteered at a parkrun, didn't own trail shoes. Perhaps my injuries are the cause of speed work and distance is what I'm more suited to. I'm built for biscuits rather than sprinting after all.
I didn't know what to expect from the event. Other than the basics, Flitch Way, out and back, hill of doom, cool medal, start time, information was lacking. A friend due to run their first 10k had asked about a course map and the response was, why would you want one?!? Seeing a slightly narky Facebook post the night before from the organiser didn't hold out much hope, this might be one and done for Challenge and me. There hadn't been a pre race email and the website could be clearer, or at least have a mobile friendly version. I suspected it was an adjustment to dealing with a different clientele. Ultras and marathons attract a different crowd to 10k, which is often the first race for many stepping up from beginner or 5k. As I'm finding parkrun, if folks are asking for information, that suggests the information you've published is either hard to find or insufficient. It is then that you take the feedback on board & look at what can be improved. Hopefully everything would be ok on the day & this was just a case of being tired / nervous / apprehensive ahead of a debut event. 

I arrived at the Discovery Centre nice and early, the registration was upstairs and number pick up was easy. Vicky from Harlow parkrun was part of the registration team and the whole affair had a bit of a parkrun love in feel as our new Hatfield Forest community had descended on the event & were mixing with the large number of Great Notley runners. I also spotted some Chelmsford parkrunners. I had posted on the Hatfield Forest Facebook page that one big group photo would be cool, this didn't happen but us Um Bongo folk did manage to pose for a rather awesome photo captured by Katrina. Just as we lined up Paul suggested he'd do a catalogue pose, we all joined him. The result was what I've named the Um Bongo Avengers!

The Um Bongo Avengers - rescuing people through the medium of sugary fruit juice

My pre event fears subsided when Lindley the Race Director delivered a humourous and informative pre run brief, leaving plenty of time to get everyone to the start line which was a bit of a wander. I made a dash for a last minute toilet break at the Discovery Centre so was walking through the field of runners, trying to catch Emily who had my water bottle. On the way I was approached by a parkrunner who shared her runs at the Forest in rotation with her husband. They hadn't been aware of parkrun before and were enjoying their new Saturday morning routine. This was a new experience for me, one that Len and Gerry had mentioned. Len had even theorised that being a volunteer was more enjoyable than running and that being an Event Director was the cherry on top of the cake. I'm still learning faces and names, certainly those that have volunteered I'm starting to recognise. During the run it was great to hand out encouragement to anyone I knew and also nice to receive kind words as I hauled myself around the course. I've been warned by Emily in her debut race blog that I might need to be less enthusiastic with my high fiving!

And stretch.........

Onto the race itself and I lined up with Emily and Karl, though it was unlikely I'd be running alongside them for long. My goal was that beating the hour would be nice, though not overly necessary as how my groin recovered was more important. The course itself was simple, out and back on the Flitch Way, the former railway line between Braintree & Stortford, finishing with a return to the Discovery Centre and a climb of the hill of doom in order to claim a medal. 

The Flitch is bizarre, straight for miles, yet always gives the impression of being uphill no matter which way you tackle it! My only other experience of running it was during the Takeley 10k in August. Back then I found the arrow straight nature quite crushing as I was having a progressively bad day and seeing 2km ahead of you to where I perhaps should have been was not much fun. I started off gently, easing into a 6:00/km pace, focusing on the 10km rather than the extra 300m uphill at the end. At around 3km I felt a twinge, but it didn't last and I was able to maintain pace without any further pain, sometimes the muscles just take time to settle down. 

Soon the front runners were approaching on their return and I gave encouragement to anyone I recognised. Paul was looking in excellent shape, I'm intrigued to see just how fast he could be around a flat 10k such as Pride. I think the order in which I then saw everyone else was Alec, Emily, Jim and Len before I made it to the turn myself. The aid station wasn't ideally placed, being past the natural running line, though as I wasn't there to record a time I stopped to say hello to Nicki & The Sandfords and take some jelly babies on board. 

Seeing everyone was a nice motivator and I continued to say hello and high five as I headed back to Great Notley. My legs were feeling decent so I allowed myself to start picking the pace up gradually as we went through 5km. With no alarm bells going off physically I was in a good place mentally, ticking off every landmark (the burned out car a particular highlight) and kilometre, feeling stronger as the finish neared. Having no injury concerns meant I could concentrate on the race aspect and if my legs and cardio would allow me to continue to improve the pace.

By 9km we were leaving the Flitch behind and I could see Jim a couple of hundred metres ahead of me. The athlete / competitor / idiot in me wondered if I could reel him in as my pace continued to increase. I passed a parkrunner who gave me encouragement and soon we were in the field where the race started. At the final bypass bridge crossing I was level with Jim, though he was now walking & I encouraged him to run with me to the end, Hatfield Forest comrades and all. He told me to carry on, he was done so I returned my focus to the trail that would be leading to the Hill of Doom.
Just ahead of me, starting his climb was my parkrun mentor, Len. This time I was the one giving some encouragement, shouting Len's way.
For some reason unknown I decided to push myself up the hill, all notion of this being a recovery run was thrown out the window with the finish line in sight. Despite this being home ground for Len he was struggling up the Hill of Doom so I implored him to speed up or I'd slap his arse on the way past. Perhaps I have no future as a motivator as he didn't speed up, either before or after the slap on his arse! Instead I carried on up the hill, forcing myself to eek out every bit of energy I still had in my legs. I'm well aware that some of my expressions are at times a bit scary or hilarious when running. Katrina captured this perfectly with what could easily be called my Crimewatch face.

It would be appropriate to photoshop an axe into one hand here!

The finish line was actually just before the bird, but we'd been implored to touch the bird to claim the medal so runners and supporters were treated to me saying "I've got to touch the bird!!!" before I joined the queue for a medal.
And what a medal it was, a custom medal designed like an old school style train ticket. A nice touch that added something to the event that a generic medal wouldn't do. I caught up with Alec, Emily & Paul, remembering it might be worth stopping my Garmin. Karl had also finished just beyond me & all were happy with the medals. As I made my way down the hill I stopped to cheer on any Hatfield Forest parkrunners I recognised, another new habit for this race, but knowing how much support can help me in a race, one that is well worth doing.

Post race smiles

The Eat

Great Notley parkrun is the place that knows me as Mr Sausage Roll. There is an expectation that every time I visit I should bring a box of sausage rolls, ready for runners & volunteers to consume. The only downside to this is that it excludes Emily & Paul, who despite hearing how good the sausage rolls are, won't abandon being vegetarians to try them. On this occasion I decided to try something different, My creation, non sausage rolls included roasted peppers, mushrooms, onions & asparagus. The vegetables were combined with goats cheese & chilli jam for a pastry snack equal to the normal sausage rolls. They were well received by all, even if it at first took some persuasion that a vegetarian pastry was worthwhile to our carnivorous friends.

The Conclusion

As an event, on the whole very positive. Save for the slightly stressed post the night before the event & the need for a bit more information beforehand, everything else ran nicely. The distance would have ideally been 10k, being an out and back might make it possible to adjust in the future. The medal was an excellent addition to the event, good run bling is always appreciated and something that is really not hard to achieve now. A repeat event has been announced for September, 2 weeks ahead of Berlin. I'm tempted to sign up as it would be a nice book end, the same route at the start and end of my marathon training.

Awesome run bling! Straight onto the medal moose.

In terms of my running form, I was very pleased with my performance. The fact it was a negative split was largely irrelevant as I purposefully started slowly in order to ease my various ailments into the race. Being able to progressively increase my pace as the run continued was good & lets me know that my cardio isn't as far away as it has felt in recent times. The groin strain settled down quickly & didn't give any further issues as both the pace & distance increased. A 5:17 last kilometre is far faster than I was intending to run, going to show what being an idiot & race conditions can do for you!
Even my hill of doom climb did not go to plan. I appeared to adopt the quicker you get up there the quicker it all ends strategy. The ascend was my fastest ever, 40 seconds, though my heart rate did go up to 180bpm.

The intentional negative split

An enjoyable event & performance, a nice end to week one of the marathon training. It isn't a performance I'll remember in years to come, but it will form the foundation for what will be a busy few months.

The road to Berlin begins

One project ends and so another one begins. Perfect timing you could suggest as no sooner as the parkrun at Hatfield Forest launched my programme for the Berlin Marathon begins. A 25 week plan that will take me to the start line of a marathon for the first time. Will I get there? I'd like to think so, this isn't something I've just thrown myself into without much thought, this has been five years of building. When I first starting running, the goal was never to cross the line at a marathon, it was to try and break the cycle of weight gain and weight loss, to get fitter and in a reaction to my father's passing, try and avoid an early death. A bit of a morbid start, but a back story always helps paint the picture. Now, I run because I enjoy it, I love the competition, testing myself, exposing my weaknesses and for the chance to switch off (well as much as an overthinker can do). And yes, I still run to try and break the cycle of weight gain and loss.
The last point is perfect introduction to the marathon plan. I start this journey at the heaviest I've been since the summer of 2013. My extended break from running at the end of 2014, combined with injuries this year & some perfectly justifiable comfort eating, has seen my weight tip over the 14st barrier & back to the 200lbs mark once more. Sometimes a kick up the arse is what you need though. That used to be 15st on the scales for me, now it's 14. If I'm going to make it through a marathon programme then I need to look after myself better & that includes being more disciplined with my diet. I've let things slip of late, affording myself far too much slack, hedging my bets with the line that I'm carb loading for that marathon in September. From trying to go carb free last summer and having some success to slipping into an all too easy path of finding snacks very easy to locate and consume.
With my mind on the scales and needing to get healthier, I couldn't be happier on Good Friday to be meeting up with friends to make a return to running. Physio Dan was very happy with the improvement seen since he'd first diagnosed the groin strain. For once I'd been disciplined, icing and stretching as much as time would allow. It was still tender, but if I was sensible and held off tempo training to start with all would be fine. I look back now at some of the ludicrous sprint finishes at parkrun and other events and can see how the injury kept reoccurring, I'd be cleverer this time around (keep that in mind for the end of this post).

The Comeback

What I needed was a nice, simple route to get back into rhythm with. Instead I appeared to be at the Forest, giving the summer route a once over! In early March with a spell of good weather we were all hopeful that the parkrun would move to the summer course quite early. On Good Friday it was clear that it still needed time to heal and recover. Conditions weren't awful, halfway ride that leads you into 3km was the worst part of the course, still plenty of mud here. I spent the majority of the run at the back with Len, chatting all things parkrun as I moved with all the speed of sloth.
There is a minor downhill just after 2km, normally a nice section to enjoy, except for when your groin twinges to remind you to slow down. Just a minor tremor, it would be sore throughout the rest of the run, but more out of tenderness and being used rather than injury. Run completed I felt good, glad to be back in trainers and running again. As soon as I finished I was stretching & after laying on some breakfast for Paul & Emily I was icing throughout Good Friday. Minor pain is to be expected, the muscle won't be 100% for a while. I wasn't due to run again until the Bank Holiday Monday, Dan had asked me to get in two runs before my regular neck & back visit on Tuesday so that we could assess how I was recovering.

Saturday brought my third week of parkrun Run Directing & again numbers grew, 139 people deciding to spend their Saturday morning running around a Forest! We still weren't graced with sunshine, I'm starting to think I've offended whoever sorts the weather out. Instead we were greeted with what can be phrased "perfect running weather" - i.e. not good for anything else.

6 go mad in a forest....

Post Chocolatemas Run

The Chocolate Boxing Day was actually the official start of my Berlin program. Despite my previous protestations about my weight, I realised there was little point in fighting against the National Chocolate Egg weekend. I don't really know the history behind Chocolate Egg Weekend but much like the December holiday of Eating Alot & Present Days, I whole heartily approve. I'd presented myself a small Creme Egg, rather modest egg, though this barely made it through Pre Chocolate Friday. Thankfully my stocks were replenished over the weekend & it was hard to prepare for my Post Chocolate Monday run without naturally consuming more.

My plans were easily hatched as Harlow parkrun ED Vicky had mentioned she was looking to run 18 miles but in 4.5 mile sections. A 4.5 mile saunter would suit me nicely & the chance to run with a friend and see some new scenery made this an easy choice.

Our route was simple, take the tow path from Harlow Mill and run to Sawbridgeworth, then climb up through the town & take the pavement back to Harlow. As I'm looking for new routes to take in whilst marathon training, running the tow path was nice, I can see myself taking the train to Harlow and running back to change things up during the next 25 weeks.

Unfortunately the rest of the day was far less fun. I left Vicky to continue her run & subjected myself to DIY stores on a Bank Holiday. Suddenly the prospect of running 18 miles didn't seem to bad! Nothing of note to report on the injury though, it held up nicely throughout, the downhill sections back into Harlow stretched it out, but no major issues.

The Exercise Bike is Boring

The Hal Higdon plan that I'm following bases itself on 3 runs a week and cross fit activities. But these activities have to be meaningful and useful. With that in mind I've been clearing out the garage and trying to make it more appealing to work out of. A spare TV will be going in there & I'm dusting down the rowing machine & also bringing the exercise bike out of retirement. Each cross session has lengths between 30-90 minutes as the plan matures. Realistically I'm not sure I can do any one activity other than running for that long, everything else just bores me.
On top of the rowing & cycling I also have the much discussed DDP Yoga to try & crack, I always make a start but never progress past the first couple of workouts. Given the state of tension in my neck at the moment, a reaction to both bad posture & stress no doubt I could do with really getting into the Yoga. Sean has also recommended the Nike Training Club app, seeing that it is Chromecast compatible certainly makes it a possibility to use as well. I'm also planning to make a return to swimming. I had made decent progress with lessons, but after a horrendous end to the year they fell by the wayside. In truth, I might even join a gym & really look to mix up what I do, potentially doing some classes as well (getting dizzy just thinking about it).
The reason I need to consider all of this is because after all of two minutes on the exercise bike I was clock watching. I had some good old wrasslin on the iPad but was still bored with the sheer mundaneness of it all. 20 minutes of boredom is not what the plan intended! I can't get to Berlin alone on just running (well I could, but I'd be better with some cross training) so it is time to put the effort in on my days off.

parkrun goes Mexican

Sadly not an expansion into another territory for parkrun, more a meeting of the minds behind the Hatfield Forest event. On Thursday night I invited the guys over to mine as we ran through the IT side of parkrun & went through various ideas and analysed how the first few events had gone. Up to this day I've exclusively been on Run Director duty, my time off rota starts with this weekend, so that'll be the first true test to see what information I've managed to share properly & what remains wrapped up in my head, needing to be articulated on paper.
I offered to cook as ordering in food or heading to a pub to sit round a tiny laptop would be impractical & it was to my massive Mexican cookbook I went to. I'd recently served up Carnitas to Mum & Steve so returned to that recipe, adding refried beans (from a tin, haven't added that to my repertoire yet), Mac & Cheese, plus a side of homemade Coleslaw. The food seemed to be generally approved of, probably putting more pressure on me to serve up something equally good next time we all meet up.
Spending time with the guys away from parkrun itself is a good way to catch up & also share ideas without the pressure of an event going on. We can look at what did & didn't work from weeks previously, making sure that we shouldn't repeat the same mistake twice.

This book is awesome both in content & size (700 pages), an excellent addition to the book shelf

The Stansted Loop

Friday afforded me the opportunity to run before work and I decided to stay local. Last year I adjusted my wake up time form 0545 to 0535 in order to be able to run before catching the 0722 train from Stansted. Getting up ten minutes earlier usually meant I could get out of the door in time to get some kilometres in, shower & make the train, rather than waiting for the far busier later one. Given my current standing, I put the alarm back to 0520 to compensate for my lack of pace!
It was well before 0600 when I made my way out of the front door. The loop, either north or south is the route I've covered the most since moving to Stansted. Based solely on GPS stats (July 2012 onwards), this was the 18th time I've run from North to South. Surprisingly the last time I ran this way round was in September. I suspect this is because a long but shallower uphill along Pennington Lane is often more appealing than the reverse of the route.
It was also the slowest I've completed the course in. But I couldn't care for the time taken. Getting out & running locally was reward enough for the effort. Another recovery run completed, another tick for less pain being felt & another tick for gradual healing of the injury.

The final activity of week one was the Flitch 10k. First week of a programme & I'm chasing the run bling, when will I learn? More on that in the next update.

Injured and inaugural

This post is nearly a month in the making, as you'll read it has been a busy few weeks. I've tried to update some of the references, but some of the context might be all over the place!

What a couple of weeks. Hard work, immense pride, emotionally and physically draining. Despite this I wouldn't have changed anything, well apart from the extended break from running aspect.

Injured

After establishing the week previously that I have a groin strain, it was time to hop on to physio table and start the healing process. It appears likely that since the original strain in August I've more than likely recovered and reinjured myself on multiple occasions. Of course I should have just asked my physio for his opinion back in the autumn, but the desire to keep running, presume it was something else, not face up to reality are all symptoms this runner suffers from.
Stupidly, I'd taken a lot of time off at the end of 2014 and didn't think to try and get it sorted then, mainly because the issue had appeared to have gone away. Muppet.
The way to treat muscular injuries like this is to break them down, effectively make them worse, then follow with ice and stretching, a bit of massage. Having mocked my lseee brother for suggesting that his "I have a groin strain" was a horrendous chat up line / excuse not to play cricket previously, I now found myself with the same injury! The massage and manipulation on the treatment table wasn't a pleasant experience, sure plantar fasciitis was more concentrated, but this was right up there!
After the first session on Tuesday 17th week, what I probably didn't need was my new driveway, in the form of two tonnes of aggregate arriving on Wednesday morning. My lack of skill at DIY is well documented, the air ambulance usually hovers above Stansted in anticipation whenever I approach a toolbox. Here I had to lay some membrane, kind of secure it and then try to shift all of the gravel onto the new area, freeing up the rest of the drive so it could be used in the evening.
By 5pm I was completely exhausted from my exploits, tendonitis flaring up once more in my wrist, legs killing, back groaning. I ran a bath and chucked some WWE Network on the iPad. Suddenly it was nearly half six. I don't think was a reflection on the Saturday Night's Main Event from 87 I was watching, more a statement on how knackered I was. Screwing up the wrist once more meant not being able to achieve much more in the form of diy for the remainder of the week.
I was back on the physio table to end the week. Because the muscle had been broken down to be worked on it was even more tender the second time around. Progress appeared to be being made though, for once I was actually making good on my promise, stretching and icing regularly.
By my next Friday appointment the extra work had paid dividends and my physio was very happy with the results. At this point I have one more session booked and it looks like I'll be making a return to running over the Easter weekend. In terms of marathon training it has probably set me back all of a week, having spread a 24 week plan over 28 weeks I can absorb the extra rest period with ease.
I'm glad that I finally got the injury checked over. At the same time I'm annoyed with myself for not consulting my physio sooner. I'd concentrated on some of the side effects thinking they were the issue and put myself through it over the past few months. Moving on from this the need to do something other than running has been highlighted. I need to cross train and to build up some strength. I'm too susceptible to injury at the moment, not a good sign leading into my first marathon!

The Inaugural

It's taken so long to put this together that we've now completed two weeks (now four!) of parkrun at the Forest.
The week of annual leave before the inaugural was perfectly timed. It gave me plenty of time to address any issues over the pilot weekend and make adjustments ahead of the full launch. By Friday I found myself in an almost zen like state of calm. By treating the pilot like a full event, all of the preparation had taken place. I had a nice long list of people to thank written, got the all important cake and bubbly sorted for the volunteers. During the week I'd taken delivery of what appeared to be the world's biggest megaphone, no one would be missing any of our briefings!!
After the previously discussed physio session I headed over to the forest to meet with Simon from the NT and Gerry, our parkrun ambassador. We ran through final details, including the opening of Elgin's car park, a last minute addition thanks to improved conditions that alleviated any venue capacity concerns. Gerry and I then walked the winter route, the forest was almost perfect, bathed in early spring sunshine, t-shirt weather almost! It was a great opportunity to chat all things parkrun and enjoy the surroundings. We enjoyed a drink overlooking the lake and I realised that in seven months of planning this was the first occasion where I was just relaxing and taking in the surroundings.
I was soon back home, putting finishing touches to the kit, preparing checklists for the morning and more importantly, getting a joint of pork in the slow cooker for a Friday night feast.
Sean, the first person to introduce me to parkrun headed up to Stansted in the evening. He'd be running the inaugural, but not until I'd got some pre and post volunteering roles sorted for him! Throughout the evening I was expecting a last minute pseudo panic attack to kick in, yet I continued to be serenely calm, potential added by some Erdinger and Blue Moon!
Perhaps the panic would instead occur during a night of fitful sleep? Apparently not as at 0535 I was up and awake, ready to take on the world (or more appropriately a Forest). I'm sure the reason I wanted a local parkrun was to allow for a Saturday lie in. Instead I appear to have committed to even less rest!
That said, I'm not complaining, arriving at the Forest at 0700 to unlock (how weird is that? Keys to the forest) felt great, as did handing each of the core team a personalised parkrun t-shirt each. Enough sentiment for now though, we had a parkrun to setup. We'd already taken on Gerry's feedback from the pilot to make use of a Volunteer Coordinator to ease the pressure on the Run Director. The change was noticeable straight away as I had the marshals report to Karl instead of me, freeing me to work with the technical roles.

Last minute sign adjustments

I'd enlarged the roster for the first week and called in friends and family to assist, meaning we had every role filled. Fergie from Oak Hill and Team Um Bongo landed at Heathrow at 0600 and gunned it round the M25 to marshal for us. Berlin comrade from Um Bongo Joely was on marshal, scanner and photography duty. My Um Bongoing brother in law Alec got to run, but as the tail! My Larmer colleagues Emily & Paul kept me sane, looked after some car parking, token support and scanning roles. Paula brought the camera to combine marshalling, photography and then some scanning. If any friend made the mistake to mention they had a free Saturday morning then they were getting roped into the launch event! My Endure 24 Team Um Bongo team mates had been well briefed as the date had been pencilled in since the start of the year. My own brief spurt of tourism was a nod to the impending start date and the likelihood of less touring in the months that follow. As it stands my first Saturday off will be in May as I head to the south coast (via a parkrun) to celebrate my Grandma's 100th birthday.
My parkrun mentor Len from Notley was on hand with his wife Paula to take plenty of photos (nearly 1500 before quality control) and Gerry our ambassador was confident enough in us to run and let us get on with it. Simon from the NT was also running, keeping an eye on things from afar.

Len was reluctant to take a lanyard!

Paul and Sam got on with setting the course up, Karl and I looked after our marshals and technical roles, apart from an absence of runners everything was running like clockwork! I was aware of the time throughout, our runners would be underway as close to nine as we could allow. A manager at work once described me as having a swan like demeanour during a project, calm exterior but probably kicking like anything underneath the surface to keep everything together. I'm not sure what I was outwardly portraying but mentally I was pinballing between calmness and panic, surely we had forgotten something.
Suddenly it was quarter to nine and time to make a start on the briefings. Paul was in charge of the first timers briefing. I planned to hover, but as a huge crowd descended on him I appeared at his side to offer assurance, and usage of the mega megaphone. Normally you see a dozen folk at a first timers briefing, this was completely different. I was hoping to move from the new runners briefing straight into the main introduction. Unfortunately the juniors were whisked away for a club warm up, so there I was, megaphone in hand, perched on a mini stepladder with no one to talk to!

We created a new volunteer position - Megaphone support

Once I called the runners forward we were then greeted with a car or two entering the car park so it was time for crowd management and sweeping the runners out of the way. I had a mere page of thank yous to get through before the main briefing, but with drizzle swirling around it was more important to get to the important parts of the notices and get the runners underway.
In the nervousness of it all I even forgot to get everyone to wave across to capture an inaugural photo. I at least managed to get 3, 2 & 1 in order and our first ever parkrun event at the Forest was soon underway.

Pre Run briefing at the inaugural

We then had fifteen minutes to get the finish area setup and our funnel team in position. The nature of our one lap course means that we can double up some marshal positions with secondary technical roles, so marshals were soon on their way back, ready to take up scanning or clipboard positions. The time between the start of the event & the first finisher appeared to fly by & perennial Essex inaugural course record holder Malcolm Muir dropped a sub 17 time! After 30 more minutes Alec was crossing the line as tail runner, arm in arm with Bernd & Cheryl at the back of the pack. I hovered around the funnel & finish area, a sense of pride and satisfaction taking over as runners crossed the line with smiles.
The majority enjoyed themselves and we got lots of feedback, both good & bad on the course, how the event was managed, marshal positions etc. Trying to make yourself available is an art I'm still learning, in reality just being around the finish area is all I needed to do, people were seeking me out. In all honesty, the most appropriate emotion might be overwhelmed. The sheer volume of people, anxieties about how well it will go, making yourself available to everyone, trying to catch moments of calm, it really was quite overwhelming.
By half ten we'd mostly packed up the course, before processing the results we took a moment to share some bubbly and cakes with our volunteers. The sun had finally come out, typically as all of the runners had gone home and it was nice to spend a brief couple of minutes to relax and enjoy the occasion. Simon from the NT was happy, Gerry was also happy, the whole team appeared to be buzzing, grins across all of their faces. We'd done it, well nearly done it.

Enjoying some bubbly with our inaugural volunteers

Drinks over with, it was time to wrestle with the results. Around ten of us huddled around a tiny laptop, with an intermittent internet connection to deal with. We had one funnel ducker that we were aware of so inserted a line into the results at around the time we knew it had happened, everything else looked good, so the results were confirmed & the parkrun supercomputers were soon churning away & emailing them out.

Results processing - Lesson One: Go to the toilet before you start!

Breathe. The run aspect of the weekend was now done. All that needed to follow was to process the photos (Len & Paula had taken 1500 between them), write the run report & try to avoid the phone as endless notifications would follow! I got home and dished out the bacon sandwiches, finally there was a moment to reflect on how the event had gone. Sean was full of praise, Len had commented that the hard work beforehand had paid off. It was barely midday and I was exhausted. Half five starts are easy, it is what I do during the week anyway, but the cumulative effect had me really wanting a mid afternoon nap!

Gerry, myself & Simon.

After some decent food and a bath I treated myself to an early night. I could sleep all the way through to lunchtime I suspected. How wrong I was. From around four am my mind was awake, buzzing at how the day had gone. For the next couple of hours I tried to sleep, it was a fruitless exercise, my mind was completely awake with ideas for the run report, week 2, anything but rest. So at around six I headed down stairs and made a start on the run report. It turned into a bit of an epic that took nearly the day to write. Len's photos arrived mid afternoon & that created another tidal wave of social media activity, so I held off until the evening to publish the report.
We had *just* 188 runners. Leading up to the event we'd played down the launch as much as possible. This is difficult when we had a large social media following from the interest group and fundraising events. Throughout the week I'd prepared everything for 300 runners, but we'd need some luck to go our way to not get near that. Thankfully HQ had also decided to launch Maidenhead on the same day, a similar distance out of London. Another London centric launch was something I was hoping for as despite the advice from HQ, many will still visit Event #1. I'd made appeals to the parkrun tourist community to stay away until our summer route was available, also citing that we expected to not have the summer car parks open.
The tone down efforts had included asking prominent Twitter & Facebook accounts to remove any references to our launch & requests to our local press for no coverage beforehand. We kept our social media posts to information about parking, facilities and introductions to the core team. Despite all this, how many would attend on the day was completely out of our hands. On the Friday Gerry & I had met up with Simon from the NT to run through final plans & then we walked the course. We'd had some good weather so Elgin's 600 space grass car park would be available, at least we'd be able to cope should all of parkrun descend on us.
A glance towards Maidenhead's attendance gave me a wry smile, they saw just over 300 runners, of that field a huge number of experience parkrunners & 88 complete parkrun debutants. Of our 188, 101 made their parkrun debut, nearly 60% of our runners! That number still surprises me, with Harlow, Great Notley, Cambridge & Chelmsford so close, there were still new parkrunners to find! Regular readers will know I'm a huge fan of parkrun tourism, I'm just relieved that our efforts to tone down the launch worked and our event was one that Tubbs and Edward from the League of Gentlemen would approve of!

A local event for local people? Tubbs & Edward certainly enjoyed it

Week 2 felt like another debut, all of our travelling volunteers would not be there, this was the first proper test of us as a team. I'd expected attendance to halve, but 120 joined us. Many that ran at the inaugural tried their hands at volunteering. By week 3 & 4 I felt like we'd settled into the event. I was glad that the rota design had given me four weeks to get my head around how the event should run, as it has allowed me to give stronger guidance to the rest of my team.

Event 3 - Made it onto the second step

The guys in the core team really have been amazing, they've had to contend with my at times crazy ideas and have had the faith to see them through, using their time in different roles to make further notes and contributions. Last week the four of us enjoyed some Mexican food round at my house as I walked them through the IT side of parkrun. The shared enthusiasm tells me that the event will do just fine. In just four weeks there has been a huge amount of evolution as ideas and processes start to come together.

By week 4 we were discussing funnel dynamics

I find myself trying to adopt the policy of being gracious and accepting of positive feedback and thank you's, but also being analytical with bad feedback, looking to how we can do things better. It would be all too easy to be dismissive of negatives and justifying it by pointing to all the positive responses, but in truth you can learn more from failure than you ever will from success. Any criticism is an opportunity for us to do better & my job as an Event Director is to take the emotional reaction out of any negatives and look to how we can improve.

The Conclusion

As my fourth week of Run Directing has come to an end and I hand over the reins I can look back on a very enjoyable month. By the time I got round to finishing this I'd actually made a return to running, but I'll add that into another blog. The smiles and thank you's from complete strangers provided vindication that setting up an event at the forest was the right thing to do. Seven months of hard work and emotional investment in a project that at times was a distraction, but at other times exactly what I needed to take focus away from other things going on in life. Just a month in and I'm finding myself recognising people, learning names and enjoying seeing the enjoyment others are getting from the event.

Getting quite good at randomly pointing

After a month I'm starting to get used to the role of Event Director, which might sound strange as I've been doing it since August. But from August to March all of the work was behind the scenes, we surfaced in January for the fundraiser, but everything else has been planning and preparation. I'm becoming more comfortable with the social aspect of parkrun, with every week making myself more available and chatting to more of our runners. I'm not going to transform from the socially awkward and rather direct engineer overnight, but I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I've enjoyed it so far. Everything Len & Gerry had told me is true, as an ED you get to see the pleasure others get from parkrun.

How this all started.....

To think that a year ago I'd not even volunteered yet! The moral of this story is, be careful who you send tweets to.