All in my head?

A blank page. Every blog post starts with a blank page & then I have to figure out what the story of the week was. Sometimes there isn't a story & it is just some rambling. Regular readers might be of the opinion it is always just some rambling.

The last week of April, first week of May did have a story, two in fact. One of an ankle that just wouldn't play ball. Another of a seismic duel between two gladiators (almost) in the condition of their lives.

Would using a hacksaw be easier?

Monday morning, inspired by the marathon, surely it was time for a long run? My ankle had other ideas, the pain down the side of it up towards my knee was not particularly fun. I opted for ice instead & the hope that it wasn't too serious.
Our Endure 24 team met up for the first time on the Monday evening. Gary had suggested The Oyster Shed on the Thames & we gathered to discuss just how we would approach the 24 hour event in June. Paul had been prolific in his preparation, a Risk Manager by day, he'd produced a full kit list & a couple of prospective running orders. The conversation flowed & I set about adding timing into our running order. I appear to be leading us off & due to run four laps, 20 miles within 24 hours, could be fun! Everyone wanted to run during the night, I appear to have the 1am shift.
With the kit list agreed over less than agreeable Cauliflower steaks for our vegetarians within the team everyone was soon checking Amazon to acquire their entire camping range! I've managed to get at least Fergie signed up for a slow saunter around the local parkrun before the event starts, hopefully more of the team will fancy it on the day itself.

A challenge is made

With the weather due to be poor with a bank holiday on the horizon we'd made the call alongside the National Trust to hold back on launching the summer parkrun course at the Forest. I was due to Run Direct for the course change over, so after some discussion within the team Paul started his first stint early by taking the reins.
This meant that I could run the course, which I was looking forward to as James was down from Burnley for the weekend & would be touristing, my sister Clare was also across from America & had been persuaded to haul herself out of bed for 9am to see what all the parkrun malarkey was all about.
Karl from the core team was also due to run, having done his couple of weeks as a RD. By coincidence we'd seen in the results that we'd both previously run a best of 27:40 round the winter course. A throwaway remark about a showdown turned into something rather silly as I posted a promo photo (Karl photoshopped an axe into my hands on one of my delightful running photos) on our Facebook page & it became one of the most popular things we'd done since launching! The question is, would I actually manage to run beforehand?



Taking on a Mountain

By Wednesday I'd decided that my ankle wasn't too bad & that most of the road to Berlin will be paved with minor niggles, there are times when I'd have to just grin & bear it. If I was to catch up with my plan, then finding 10 miles was on the agenda. I chose instead to return with a tough 8 miler.
The loop from Stansted to Manuden to Rickling & back is a route I've travelled on plenty of occasions. It includes the aforementioned Mount Manuden, a delightful 30-40 metre rise over half a kilometre that leaves you grasping for air, only to follow an all too brief downhill with another 2km of slow climb.
My performance was unremarkable but satisfactory. According to Strava it was my slowest over the route, not something that was of much concern to me as I was just happy to get out.

Post run the ankle pain moved right into the ankle joint! After all of the build up through the week for the Showdown, I wasn't sure I could run. The ankle appeared to be fine when running & painful when walking. By Friday evening whether I would run was still in the balance. Ice treatment on the Friday evening & even Saturday morning was effectively numbing the issue. I was going to have to take one of the team in order to deliver on a promise, can't be letting folks down after hyping it all week!

The Showdown

You know you have good friends when not only do they head down to try out your parkrun, but they're also happy to volunteer. With that in mind James got a delightful 6am wake up call as we headed to the forest still for crazy o'clock to setup the course & make Paul's first week of Run Directorship easy. Clare was also going to volunteer post run, sorting out our finisher tokens & my brother in law Dan was going to don the hi viz, combining marshalling with photography.
During the course setup we'd put together a mock up aid station at 3km for Karl & I. Gin & chocolate milk for me, cider for Karl, sausage rolls for us both. I decided to take the table down, just in case the temptation for a mid run tipple was too much!

Not many parkrun events have aid stations....

Quite how I'd run was open for debate. 2014 was a great year for me, with my 5k time getting down to 23:08. In theory if I was at my best I should beat Karl, who's lifetime best was a 25:51.
In reality I'm at the start of a new training cycle & not doing any speed work yet, where as Karl is in good form, focusing on pace having generally covered longer distances in the past. The fastest I'd completed a parkrun in this year was a 26:23 round Gladstone in February, other than the last km of my previous attempt around the forest & the back end of the Flitch 10k, I hadn't achieved anything of note in terms of pace.

The entire core team was on hand for the Showdown

The parkrun started with a completely new challenge, how to hurdle a mini as a car had decided to make it's way through our road closure at precisely parkrun o'clock! As we made our way onto the plain Karl was already stretching out a lead on me. He'd tactically started near the front of the field to get away nicely. Never mind, I could catch up on the downhill hopefully. Had I successfully negotiated the U turn perhaps I would have. Instead I found myself on the floor at a funny angle with no idea how I'd got there & more concern that I was in the way of other runners than my own well being! The U turn isn't even factored into our risk assessment, it should be simple but it turns out that Adam the leader of the pack at the time had also taken a tumble (and picked up far more grazes than me). I've no idea how I fell, don't recall ever falling beforehand in 5 years of running. Pay more attention to my footing I guess as the surface is a bit interesting at times around the course.
The impact of the fall was taken on my right ankle, just what I needed a whole 100% of my ankle allocation being dodgy. At this point I gave serious consideration to calling it a day, giving myself a few moments to see if there was damage by running lightly. Thankfully everything appeared in order so I continued down the hill, knowing that Mr Kisala already had an unassailable lead on me. I still pushed myself round the course to the best of my current ability, the first three kilometres were just over the five minute mark & I was pleasantly surprised with my pace. I passed Dan for the first time at 2.5km & commented that I was Flipping losing (or words to that effect) & then quickly apologised to those around me for the profanity, I'm an Event Director now, can't be dropping the odd F bomb whilst running!!!

Everything tightened up for the fourth kilometre, course wise this is where the run should it at it's easiest, yet I keep on slowing down! I've a long history of slow 4th kilometres. The theory that I conserve energy for a final last push appeared to lack credibility when I realised I had bugger all left in the tank! Thankfully Paul had produced a master stroke in this first week as RD by placing super marshal Andrea in the final position. Her enthusiasm is infectious. After some encouragement & a high five I was on my way, attempting to finish as strongly as possible, hauling myself towards the finish line.

We've established that I'm not a photogenic runner

I crossed the line in 25:29, my fastest time all year & though thoroughly beaten by Karl (who ran a lifetime best mid 24), I was very satisfied with my performance, although knackered by the end. I just wanted to collapse in a heap for a moment, but being an Event Director means that you're always on duty when at your own event so I was soon clapping in runners, helping to manage the funnel & chatting with various participants & volunteers.

The Eat

Friday night with James visiting from Burnley way we sampled Aldi's Wagyu Beef burgers for the first time. Excellent quality, especially when accompanied by good burger cheese & added to a Brioche bun.

These were rather decent

Saturday continued to be a busy day. In the afternoon Clare & Dan headed over following their parkrun adventure, accompanied by Mum & Steve with Aunty Jill to follow. I fired up the BBQ for the first time this year & laid on a range of burgers, German sausages, Parma ham wrapped asparagus, home made slaw. I also tried some honey nut cornflake coated chicken thighs & drumsticks. They were decent for a first attempt, room for further experimentation & improvement. Mum also brought her trademark pavlova along for desert, I had certainly recovered from the 5km by the end of lunch.
No sooner had the family left that James returned from the West Ham vs Burnley game & Burak arrived. We're heading off to Japan at the end of the year & we spent some time walking through the itinerary, looking at various accommodation options for our stops in Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka. Burak also brought with him a triumvirate of deserts from The Pudding Stop in St Albans. He'd waxed lyrically about their offerings previously. I've not always been partial to treacle slice or ginger loaf, but these were perfection. With the waffle house also in town, if you have a sweet tooth it appears St Albans is the place to be!

The Long Run

After all of the copious calorie consumption the preceding day, there was a definite need to get some miles hammered out on Sunday morning. On drawing the curtains I realised that would not be a pleasant experience, cats & dogs would be an accurate description of the rain. I parked the running idea & instead hauled myself into Stortford to get a haircut & zoom round the supermarket before chauffeuring of Clare & Dan to Heathrow. They'd be the bank holiday after all for the long run.
The haircut was a bizarre experience, the first time my hair has been featured on someone's instagram feed. I've never found a regular barber, just gone wherever has taken my fancy. This was the third time in a row I'd been to CB's in Stortford, they'd done a good job previously. This time was the best of all three & the young lady cutting my hair was in awe of the naturalness of my quiff that she wanted a photo for her portfolio! After a bit of taming with some product I was able to leave the chair, for once my ridiculously thick hair had a purpose & in Johnny Bravo I had another potential fancy dress option!
Before Clare departed back to the US she took my Garmin with her. Over the course of the BBQ she'd mentioned how:
a) She wanted a Garmin
b) I hadn't got her a birthday present yet.
We also established that
c) My laptop was knackered
d) New Garmin's transfer runs by bluetooth.
With some blue sky thinking & high level solutioning from our innovation facility (the sofas in the lounge) the solution was obvious, Clare should take my Garmin 210 off my hands & I should buy a new watch. A perfect solution to the problem faced! I was in theory running in the morning so needed to pick something up that day. A phone call to Sweatshop in Hatfield established they had the 220 in stock (I wasn't going to go overboard with the 620). I called in after dropping the Americans off at T2 & it was good that I did as the long run was indeed going to happen on the Sunday & Emily was heading over to Stansted to meet me once I got home.

New Gadge!

I quickly got the new watch on charge as soon as I was home & with Emily en route I started to get ready. The run seemed unlikely though as a rain apocalypse happened, flooding the street & overloading our guttering. If earlier it was cats & dogs then this was the rest of the zoo joining them. Thankfully it was a very brief passing storm & by the time we headed out the sunshine was back.
My plan called for 12 miles, Emily's 10, so I decided we'd head out to Manuden & see how our various injuries would behave before making the call on which way we should return.

Rain rain go away....

My choice included attempting Mount Manuden for the second time in a week. At this point our conversation stopped until we'd made it up the hill. A car following us up wasn't overly helpful! I must remembered, especially with a summer of training coming up what routes have shelter, we were exposed to the baking sunshine for a few kilometres here as the track wound its way towards Rickling.
Once at Rickling we headed back South, running along the main road until the Ugley Checkers pub where we took a left & enjoyed a nice long down hill under the M11. From there it was into Elsenham & as we were both feeling reasonable we took the longer route back to Stansted on the main road rather than through Ugley. Our pace dropped off from about 12km, something I attribute to a lack of long runs on my part.
Entering Stansted from Elsenham meant that we had a climb to get back to my house, I explained the logic of Chapel Hill over Brewery Lane & we hauled ourselves uphill. 17.5 kilometres clocked, if Emily had run a lap of our road she'd have clocked just over the 11 mile mark on her Garmin.
No sooner than we'd finished my run was already on Strava, the new gadget working straight away.
Emily was quick to head back post run as Paul was readying a Sunday dinner so I got myself a chocolate milk & spent some time on the foam roller before sorting out some food & enjoying a much deserved bath.

Post run gurning competition

The Conclusion

For a week that almost didn't start, this was one of the most successful I've had all year. The parkrun performance was probably beyond my expectations. The recovery from the groin strain continues & there were no adverse effects following this foray into speed work.
I was also really happy with the long run. The past year I've changed a lot in my running & embracing the idea of running with friends has been a definite benefit. Both Emily & I had been procrastinating about whether to run or not & by heading out together it helped motivate both of us to get running. Starting to get miles into the legs & deciding to put minor injury niggles to the back of my mind can only be a good thing. I have to accept that I will pick up minor issues & I need to assess what will & won't genuinely stop me running.

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.