Stortford 10, Hulking Up & Feeling the heat

One race, one hulkamanic, one session of tempos in the heat. A very productive week & one of lower mileage, which was probably needed. I also got to watch some excellent films on running & meet the team behind Like The Wind.

Gym

After not managing to stretch or roll following the very long run on Sunday I resolved to get myself out the front door & to the gym early on Monday morning to at least cycle & get some life into the legs. For reasons that continue to defy logic I drove to Dunmow, fearing the change of visiting Stansted!

Half an hour on the bike at an easy pace over random gradings followed by a few leg presses was all I fancied doing. I had no desire to push myself, using the session solely for recovery purposes, turning the legs over rather than working them. For some reason on my drive west later in the day I felt a Burger King was a good idea. Instantly regrettable, absolutely junk. If I'm going to have a burger I should at least make it a good one!

No Hills

As I was based in Cheltenham for a couple of days for work I'd packed some kit with me, the intention being to get in a hill session on Tuesday morning. My hotel appeared to be halfway up a long hill into town & appeared to offer a great opportunity (if hill climbs can be called that). I clambered out of bed & realised that this would not be happening. The calves & achilles were both a bit tender, with running group planned for Wednesday evening I'd be better served by some rest.

Instead I headed into the town & found a great breakfast spot, Boston Tea Party, indulging in the Marathon milkshake with some Chorizo Hash. Alongside the sports pages, sunshine & a nice breeze I couldn't think of a better start to the day.

On my way out of town I noticed a Caribbean restaurant & hoped that work would wrap up at a decent time to allow for a visit on my way back to the hotel. Finishing earlier would also remove the need to just eat with teaspoons, a skill I had to acquire with my takeaway curry the night before!!!!

Fortunately the work went well, we worked at a very steady pace but cashed in with a decent finish. The jerk chicken was excellent, although heat wise it became the gift that kept on giving! I was half tempted to order a pint of milk on room service!

Tempo session in the heat

Wednesday was disgusting. I was required in London so dumped the hire car & attempted to commute by rail into town from Cheltenham. A mere 4.5 hours after leaving my hotel I'd achieved this, also treating my colleagues to my artistic interpretation of office casual man in a wet t-shirt competition!

By the time I got home I was thoroughly bored of the hottest day in a generation. After the evening commute home & walk up the hill in Stansted I was once again soaked through & fed up. I was due to join up with my running group for some tempo work at half seven & with under an hour at home I hoped to at least stop sweating for a moment before heading out the door. I struck gold with a Vimto freeze pop from the freezer. I was tempted to see how many others were left in the freezer & attach them to myself!
If I needed convincing that this was a foolish thing to do, sweating my way through our warm up stretches appeared to be the confirmation I needed! My attendance at the coaching sessions is sporadic, midweek is usually when I'm living the Travelodge lifestyle somewhere on the M3. Every time I do get there it feels like a worthwhile experience though. Josie puts us through some drills & then we look into repetitions of various distances & effort. I was determined to get some speedwork in, even if the Flitch offered shade but no real respite from the heat, albeit we were in the shade.
Wednesday's challenge involved 5 x 200m, each with some rest in between rather than an easy paced recovery. There were three of us, including Glen who has been ever present at parkrun since I shamelessly plugged it at my first session. Now he's the one who evangelises parkrun to anyone that joins us, runners that pass, random strangers! With there being three we took it in turns to run the 200m, tagging in the person waiting so that they could start & you could recover.
I was covering the 200m in around 40 seconds, although the last stint was suggested at 33 seconds by the Garmin, a time I'm struggling to qualify. The other runners were affording me about 2 minutes of rest maximum between these tempos. I felt decent, making more use of my arms without losing rhythm & running tall. Josie was happy with my form, picking up on my improved arm work & commenting that I was staying more vertical.
After putting everything into the last 200m, Josie enquired if I wanted to carry on as beforehand I was keen. However once we'd been given the target of completing 5 I'd focused all of my energy on just that. I politely declined & jogged back before we started a mile of warm down.
I find these sessions very rewarding, there is a social aspect in running with other people & being invested in their progress. It is also the first time since becoming a runner in 2010 that I've had any focus on technique & any changes are focused on improving what I already do rather than stripping everything back to basics. Next time I'm there (missing next week due to the Yateley 10k) I might take a camera & gorilla pod with me, I've never seen a video of me running, finish line videos don't really show the whole story & I'm intrigued.

Like the Wind: Trails in Motion

I've been a fan of Like the Wind since the launched last year. I was growing bored of the tired, constantly recycled rhetoric that was served up by normal running magazines. Every quarter they'd be a 10k plan, the same stretches, a kit review, 50 pages of adverts & it was very rare that the magazine would last once the holiday it was bought for was over. Every time I bought one I knew going in what it would deliver, it was simply a distraction to get me through a journey.
LTW offered something different. Stories written by runners, beautiful illustrations, interviews, poems, normal photos, not the same old generic posed running models that no one really is & no one should aspire to. I've every copy of LTW at home, if anything I'm guilty of not reading them enough. It's too easy to get distracted by technology & not switch off & simply read an article or two. Perhaps I'm just savouring them, dipping in and out to truly appreciate the articles. I mentioned in a recent blog post how one article had moved me to tears, issue #5 had a great piece by Kevin Betts on why he ran. Nothing in Runner's World or Men's Running or AN Other Running Magazine had ever stirred my emotions. Yet LTW makes you think. Read, think & appreciate.
Since launching they've also had a few extra curricular events dotted around London. Some of these I was unable to make, some I avoided, reluctant to be a socially awkward loner staring awkwardly into my drink. I've learnt a lot over the past year & though the fear of being socially awkward hasn't quite left me, the confidence gained through parkrun has at least pushed it away from the surface.
When the Trails in Motion event was announced I was happy to see that the date worked for me & booked a ticket. Paul & Emily would also be coming along so if need be we could all be socially awkward together! A brief & expensive visit to the London Marathon shop for some trail shorts, followed by a feeding at Nandos later & we had arrived at the venue.
There was time for a drink beforehand as the LTW team were setting up. The agenda for the evening was fairly simple: short films, an interval, then a longer film. I was sceptical how well I'd cope with this given the heat & my ability to snooze during films! I won't go through every film, some were good, some I found to be very arty product placement. Most had a message I could understand though, others inspired. Why We Run featuring Bernd Heinrich had me ordering his book the day after to get to know more about his back to nature philosophy. Before the interval we were introduced to James Poole, straight off the plane after the Western States 100. The silver belt buckle appealed to our sense of run bling, though I'm not sure I could manage the effort to attain it!
After the interval we were treated to our feature film, Finding Traction, the story behind Nikki Kimball's pursuit of the Men's record on Vermont's Long Trail. Kudos to Kimball, she didn't appear to take any editorial control of the film, which showcased every emotion, often in quick succession. Over the course of nearly an hour we were taken on Kimball's journey both through the event & her running career itself. Kimball tries to be a role model girls & raise funds for a local running collective in Vermont. Instead she's a role model for anyone that finds her story, showing what is possible. Her efforts to use depression as a force for good was something that struck a chord with me, appreciating it might never escape you.
After the films we had an opportunity to chat with other attendees, I said hello (albeit briefly) to Andy from Windsor who's also heading to Berlin. We also spent a few minutes talking firstly to Simon from LTW & were then joined by Julie. It was interesting to hear how much of their time & life they'd put into the magazine, the first edition was literally funds originally set aside for a new kitchen! Their passion for running & LTW shone through & after a throw away comment when interviewing James earlier Simon had planted a seed for an article I've offered to write for them, The Culture of parkrun. I confessed that my usual bullshit heavy writing style might need to be refined for actual publication, though Simon was happy to suggest even more BS, as long as it's not libellous! So that's the next challenge, actually write something of merit on parkrun, it's culture & the part it has played in my life.

An exceedingly bad photo of the LTW event

Inspired by the evening, an idea was formed amongst the three of us. Endure 24 is already pencilled in for 2016, but it is an event that we don't get to run together. The only time we're together as a team is when we eat, or drink. So what if there was a running event that combined all three? The Medoc Marathon is precisely that & immediately a number of the guys were interested. So we might as well accept that's going to happen.....

parkrun - Hulking Up

I’d tried to keep my fancy dress outfit under wraps, providing only the subtlest of hints through the week on our social media channels & in the run report. When we were in the planning stages of parkrun I’d looked for potential dates for fancy dress. For a while we’d toyed with the idea of a Rik Mayall appreciation day in June to mark a year from his passing. Potentially this was a bit too niche, so we parked the idea, instead naming our stopwatches Richie & Eddie.

One date in the calendar stood out, July 4^th, American Independence Day. We could let our imaginations run wild & with the day being just over 3 months since the start of the event there was a fair chance that a community would already be starting to establish itself & that folks would buy into the idea.

Aware that not everyone would fully participate, we suggested dressing in red, white or blue as other options. The National Trust café had bought into the idea, laying on a couple of American specials for the day, both Mac & Cheese & Chcocolate Brownies were on offer.

I’d used a bit of subterfuge to lead people off the scent of what I was going to be wearing, turning up to the forest in what some folks presumed was fancy dress. That might be a sad inditement of my own sense of fashion as I consider the Zubaz pants (trosuers to you English folk) to be normal clothes. Sure they might not normally leave the house, but they are awesome lounging gear as the folk in BA’s T5 lounge will find out when Burak & I are rocking them ahead of our BC flight to Tokyo in December.

Setup was going well, the plan for me to ride around on one of the NT’s bikes & assist with the northern section of our route worked nicely, though I’d picked their least capable bike once more. I’d even been enjoying the riding around enough to start looking at a bike for myself. The new role in MK offers a cycle to work scheme & if I end up living reasonably close then it is certainly an option in a very bike friendly city.

One benefit of being on the bike is that it is easy to get up to the front gate from one of our setup areas & welcome our car parking volunteers. We had an additional setup volunteer arrive & as she drove the mile route on the estate route to the parkrun HQ I decided to take a short cut via the boardwalk & meet her there.

We’d had some rain overnight, the boardwalk itself is wooden & we spend our winter briefings warning runners to be careful. My ride out earlier in the morning had been incident free, on the ride back I’d been struggling with getting any of the gears to work, changing all the way back down to 1^st in order to get them to engage. I’d noticed my back wheel slide out a bit & told myself to slow down & concentrate, which I duty did.

Barely 20 seconds later I was on the floor. Not only was I on the floor, the bike appeared to be also on the floor & on top of my legs. Despite slowing down I’d been caught by the lack of grip on the damp boardwalk at one of the subtle turns. The bike had decided it wasn’t a fan of staying upright, sliding out & sending me to the floor on my side. A bit dazed & confused, I sat up, noticing a few things straight away. Firstly, there was a bike on top of me. Secondly, my left shoulder was painful & something was potentially wrong as my arm was at its least painful just hanging there. My right arm was covered in the mud & dirt that adorns the boardwalk surface. I gave my left shoulder a feel, nothing appeared to have popped out & I had some movement. I tried calling Karl the on duty Run Director as I probably needed a hand to get the bike back. Of course the lack of signal in the forest caused an issue here.

Ouch

One option was to wait for our runners to appear, but that could be 15 or so minutes. So after a minute to compose myself I managed to get vertical again & for a moment attempted to ride the bike back to base. The handlebars were misaligned so that thankfully wasn’t going to happen. Instead I had about 400m to walk the bike back, park it at our HQ & disappear for a moment to swear!

I had about half an hour spare to assess whether I could or should run. Luckily there were plenty of folks around who could help with setting up the start & finish area for us so once I’d given them guidance I wandered off, still assessing my shoulder for movement, confident by this stage that it was just pain rather than anything more urgent. We made for an interesting core team that day, me now slightly dazed following a crash, Karl setting a new RD record by being out on the town until half two & Paul back after a few weeks away so was feeling his way back in. Between us we could just about manage, maybe we just needed some more energy.

With that in mind I decided that running or not, the least I could do was get changed into my fancy dress. I don’t know where the idea came from to dress up as Hulk Hogan. I’d had the Mega Powers t-shirt since before my Wrestlemania trip in 2013, in fact I have the contrast of it as well so one idea originally was for Burak to marshal & me the Macho Man to my Hulkster. So I had one bit of the costume, now it was time to assemble the rest. My yellow Sub Sports leggings were an option, but I didn’t fancy wearing thermals in July so picked up some football socks instead. Knee pads, red shorts & sweatbands were also acquired, as was the bandana & moustache (which didn’t make it to the forest). The final item was a pair of cheap yellow shades. I washed off the mud & got changed, tried to get some more feeling into my shoulders, they’d be some posing to do!

Hadn't thought this one through.....

I was thinking that being Hulk Hogan might be a bit niche, turns out less so following his time as a reality TV star in the past few years. The outfit was well received, even minus the moustache, although both Alec & I were usurped by Elvis striding into view as the briefing began. Around a dozen had gone for fancy dress, a decent majority of the rest of the field were at least wearing red, white, blue or a combination of the three. We declared Elvis the men’s winner, Wonder Woman the women’s & eased Karl through his run briefing!

Alec & I had a plan. Run easy, take photos with marshals, run like buffoons in general! We achieved this, though I was aware from early on that I’d done something to my ankle during the bike crash. There was a nagging pain & at a kilometre I was close to calling it a day or waiting for the tail to catch me. Instead I got into my gimmick & remembered all of those that had taken their vitamins or said their prayers to support the Hulkster, it might be slow but I was getting this 5k done!

Forest Shenanigans

The ever challenging forest meant that the ankle never fully settled, but Alec & I larked our way around, posing with every marshal & enjoying the experience. I nudged him on the line with a cheeky speed up, but only so that I could pose my way through the funnel!

I’m glad we tried the fancy dress theme, sure not a huge number embraced it but with every time we try one of these things it will build to the next occasion, with more people buying in to the idea. As Event Director I’ve realised that the best way for people to join in is for them to see me & the team enjoy it. I was happy to act the buffoon & dress up as Hulk Hogan, if I’m willing to do the silly stuff then the fear factor is reduced for everyone else.

Mac & Cheese for the injured & the hungover ones.

After results processing in the pub (such a hardship) I made it home & got some ice onto my shoulders & ankle. I was pleasantly surprised & relieved that the damage didn’t appear too great. My ankle had sustained bruising, most likely hitting part of the bike on my way down. The right shoulder was grazed & actually a bit more painful than I’d first thought. With a couple of hours to chill out I was able to get myself cleaned up & was starting to feel a bit less tender by the time I headed into Stortford for a much need trip to the barbers.

Shoulder was good enough to bring out the poses!

Stortford 10

This was a race that has eluded me for years. Usually it has either clashed with a birthday or with a cricket game. This year, with my team struggling for numbers & an earlier start time of 10am I opted to enter. Through the close relationship Bishop’s Stortford Running Club have with our parkrun event I have slowly become a member by osmosis. I’m not a fully paid up member of the club, nor do I don the green & gold (currently) but now with my ED hat on it is hard not to be recognised at local events. Perhaps the high percentage of BSRC within both my RD team & the extended core team of Volunteer Coordinators are slowly making my joining of the club a formality!

Pre Run fuel

Being recognised is no bad thing though, since starting the parkrun I’ve grown into the role, finding myself becoming more comfortable, confident & almost friendlier (ok, less cynical maybe). It was great to pass the 45 minutes before the start chatting to various people from the parkrun, certainly beating my old racing strategy of keeping myself to myself. The rain had arrived & appeared to be settling for the day, despite forecasts to the contrary later in the morning.
The race began with some persistent rain, though BSRC chairman Phil had assured us sunshine would greet us upon our return. I had a reasonable plan, aim for a 1:30:00, although a constant pace of 5:35/km would be interest as my long runs to this point have been far slower. I'd taken a brief (very) look at the kind of pace needed to jeopardise my 10 mile PB, but felt that at 5:16 throughout it was unlikely I'd push a 1:25, especially on a course I'd been advised was not suited to a PB attempt. 
Alec and I lined up alongside each other, he had run a 1:23 at Stebbing back in November so I wasn't expecting to see much of him until the finish line. Strangely I started better as we lapped Stortford Rugby Club to break up the field before heading out onto farm roads and trails. Soon Alec was past and I didn't think anything more of it. My first couple of clicks were really promising, both at that crazy pace for a 1:25 that I wasn't really interested in.

Just two representing Team Um Bongo for this one

After a good start I had one of those moments I knew would come during a marathon cycle but needed to get through. As we entered the third kilometre we met a farm track that was really tacky following the rainfall. I'd followed the guidance to wear road shoes & realistically the rain came down after I'd left home so there wasn't much I could do about it. To compound the mud issue I was very quickly alerted to two very unhappy Achilles and calves. I was barely into the race and felt horrendous, surely it would be sensible to step to one side, turn back and write off the race. I wanted to quit, my pace was getting slower at an alarming rate and I had no interest. It was raining, I felt injured & grumpy. 
A brief conversation focused me a bit more as one of the BSRC ladies commented that she loved the Um Bongo vest. My retort that I wasn't loving run quite so much was instantly rebuffed, I was reminded that many were still on the sofa. Sure they didn't feel injured though did they? The words rang true though & I'm experienced enough to know that my Achilles will normally calm themselves in time. All I needed was a break from this energy sapping mud that was no doubt a contributing factor to my pain and general malaise.
Thankfully some tarmac soon appeared and I used the gravel that ran down the sides and middle to loosen off all of the mud. With some firm footing I was able to expel the demons of the mud and made my way through the next couple of kilometres with relative ease, albeit my interest level and motivation remained on the low side. This felt like a race without purpose and I'm at my best when motivated, this was a journey into running apathy. 
Thankfully just after 5km the young lady from BSRC had caught up with me and as I wasn't in a muddy depression I said hello and realised I recognised her from parkrun. I asked her what time she was aiming for as we had been closely matched at parkrun, she responded that it could be anything between 1:30-40, which was where I was heading. A chap ahead mentioned he'd be happy with a sub 1:40, I told him he'd be ecstatic as he was easily on for a mid 1:30!
We got chatting, for once I remembered to introduce myself & we settled into a decent pace. The time started to fly by & with good conversation I was distracted from my apathy & various niggles. The run actually became enjoyable, as most runs with company are. We were both at different points of our training, but with a marathon in my future & one in Denise's recent past we had plenty to talk about. Just after 5 miles an Um Bongo vest ran through us, Alec had stopped for a break & was now trying to make up time. He chose not to run with us, but didn't make it any more than 20 metres away from us, even when we walked the steep hill through the woods at 6 miles.
Our rhythm continued to be good & soon we were through 7 miles & just a parkrun away from completing. It's a cheap psychological trick, but breaking the race down into manageable chunks is a good way to concentrate & lift the spirits. We passed Team Scofield & Amy one last time on their water station, the enthusiasm giving a nice boost. At the 8th mile Denise said she wanted to walk & for me to run on. With Alec still just ahead I thanked Denise for the company & carried on.
Alec was my first target. His pace had me perplexed as he's been faster than me over 5k & 10k for at least a year. Since running past us at 5 miles he'd not pulled away as I'd expected him to. I reeled him in with relative ease over a couple of hundred metres & as just two kilometres separated us from the finish line I mentioned that a sub 1:30 was still possible, 11 minutes to complete 2km was more than feasible.
I decided to go through the gears, this is far earlier in a finish than I normally would but I wanted to see if Alec would join me, the challenge potentially shaking him from his apparent funk. As my pace got faster it was clear that I was going alone on this one so I got my head down & decided to try & finish strong. A penultimate kilometre in 5:03 was pleasing & I carried this form to the end of the race. As we entered the rugby club I was pleasantly surprised with my pace & Simon from the parkrun core team was on hand to give me a cheer, though he probably now regrets offering me a high 5. A word of warning to all, I'm an exuberant high fiver! Offer your hand at your own risk!
With the final corner approaching there was a chap all in blue just ahead of me, I kicked & managed to catch him. What I hadn't expected was him to reply & dig in himself! I had no choice but to try & get even more of a sprint out & got the placing, releasing a visceral groan once past the finish. A brief hand shake to say thanks for the sprint & I got myself some water & a t-shirt.

A strong finish!

Alec was soon through, about 30 seconds behind me as he'd maintained his race pace but missing out on a sub 1:30 with a 1:30:01. I waited by the line to cheer in Denise as she finished with a 1:31. We caught up after the run & thanked each other for being run buddies. My own time was something I was very happy with, 1:29:26 officially, the last kilometre measured at 4:53. After saying a few more goodbyes & checking in with others in my core team I was heading back to the car, I had a cricket game to get to.

Smiles as Alec works out the race shirt!

Cricket

We had 9 players. Traditionally cricket is an eleven a side game, though this year more so than any other people we've found ourselves numerically challenged. When the opposition mentioned they were also short, the desire to get a game in after 7 weeks of not playing was sufficient that we agreed the fixture.

A quack for me

We were bowled out for 27, taking 25 overs to score them. The opposition then knocked the runs off in three overs. With some off the field issues as well it was the most embarrassing game I've played in. 

Eat

I'd already lined up a G&T in advance of Sunday's exploits. After a chastening day (well 2 hours) at the cricket this got upgraded to a large one! Accompanied by some strawberries & clotted cream they were at least a way to draw a line under an unhappy afternoon.

A nice end to the week

 The Conclusion

A good week for running. Very satisfied with the Stortford 10 mile result, pacing an a minute a mile faster than my intended marathon pace. After a check up at the physio I'm pleased to be told that no damage was sustained in the bike incident, just bruising.

Woooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaahhhhh we're halfway there

Halfway to Berlin. It should be a celebration but by no means was this an easy week. Both mentally & physically it was draining. Not much point in a grand intro, it kind of explains itself.

Freedom

In nearly 5 years of parkrunning I've never logged a freedom run. Sure, in hindsight all of the planning runs at the forest could be logged, but I never found the time of inclination to do so. On Monday I'd decided that my commute needed breaking up so chucked some kit into the hire car with a few ideas for where to run. As my day meandered I had mentally checked out & hit the road.
One option I had in my head was that Gunpowder Park was just off the M25 & therefore perfectly placed for a freedom parkrun should the traffic play ball.
After a crawl on the M3 I wasn't convinced my attention span would last for that far into the journey, I was completely at the mercy of whatever the motorways would throw at me. Thankfully the traffic was heading the other way around the 25 & once past the M40 the drive was pretty straight forward. I arrived at Gunpowder (complete with new concrete chicane entrance) & was thankful the facilities were open so that the changing in the car routine didn't need to be visited.
On top of deciding to freedom parkrun, I also had in my head an idea to resume speed work. Other than a running group session a few weeks back I've been quite restrained of late. But after some decent returns at 10k & a suggestion of a return to form at parkrun I feel there is an opportunity to slay some personal bests en route to Berlin. With this in mind not only would I be running around Gunpowder park, I'd be fartleking my way round. Jog, Sprint, Walk, Repeat.
After a kilometre to warm up it was into 100 metre sections. The only time I broke the cycle was with a double jog as the 2nd lap started, didn't fancy sprinting past some dogs off a leash! The park was nice & quiet in the late afternoon / early evening, albeit far warmer than I'd expected given the downpour earlier in the day. With a mandatory sprint finish to end my parkrun it was time to cool down & make best use of the air con in the car.
13 sprints, a very satisfactory session & if I can be sensible then speed work can form part of the journey to Berlin.

Squash

They say insanity is repeating the same exercise & expecting a different outcome. When it comes to my squash game, I don't think I'm insane, I repeat the exercise & the majority of the time the result is identical, just the margin of my loss being the only outlier.
I simply don't play enough & have never been a good player, so don't have a wealth of applied knowledge to call upon. This means that though my cardio is good, shot execution is an issue & I'm especially good currently at keeping a point alive when a better, more experienced player would know how to win.
After a close first game, my other ability which is to peak & trough like a sine wave shone through & I lost the two remaining games that counted by a healthy margin. In order to at least give my colleague the feeling of a run out I was happy to suggest we carried on, eventually completing a 5-0 donut. Not being an experienced player I know precisely that I'm doing things wrong, but have only some of the knowledge & insufficient skill to correct it.
Essentially any game of squash I play is a hiding to nothing & a cardio workout that gives me the occasional opportunity to clutch at success. That's not to say I don't enjoy it! If I'd have given up at things I had no ability at then life would be boring. I've never been a natural at anything!

Gym

My ongoing pursuit of paying for a gym membership but not actually using it has become something almost worthy of a graph. A cost vs participation model perhaps, maybe that is a way to motivate me. It doesn't help that the spinning class they are meant to have scheduled on a Monday evening doesn't appear to actually exist, meaning my only option might be a 0610 Tuesday morning class all the way in Saffron Walden.
I'd decided that Wednesday had to include some exercise as I'd be missing running group due to a need for a beer in London with a colleague. So I finished Tuesday by grabbing some kit & promising myself to get out the door at a decent time.
The body clock felt 0450 was the new 0535 & took some persuading that a bit more of a snooze would be a good idea & I pleased myself by being behind the wheel of the Alfa just before 0600 & making the drive east. Stupidly, I know I'm paid up to use the Stansted gym, yet continue to use Dunmow, an extra ten minutes at least in the car, mainly out of familiarity & also to remind myself there is a pool there I should use occasionally.
The whole work out plan was to not put any strain on my calves. So I chose a recumbent bike & set it to 20 minutes random. I didn't push the rpm at all, just got the quads going & watched Countdown on the TV ahead of me. It got me thinking, I could just bring a book along, seeing as I have a massive backlog of them I should read ahead of the great de-clutter.
After the bike I took to the seated leg press & got through 50 reps, which was pleasing. Next time the job is to repeat that & up the weight by 10kg. Pulldowns were hard work & I managed 25, the deltoid apparatus was even harder, 20 of them before I called it a day. I was relatively happy, the cardio was purposefully low energy & the strength work will remain a work in progress. I drove home & rewarded myself with a Cocio chocolate milk, sharing some with Topper, who appears to be indulging in his Make a Wish style status!

Topper, Cocio brand ambassador

Not so Fast Friday

I've kept the last bit about the Gym & Topper indulging in some chocolate milk in the blog as I'd starting writing this on Wednesday last week.
Unfortunately Topper's decline was becoming all too evident. Even before the weekend I had mentioned to Paula that it was time to start thinking about the when it was time to say goodbye to him rather than the if. By Thursday evening he was stumbling across the sofa, personality was still all there but physically incapable of much. Paula decided that it was time, something that was absolutely the right call as he sat up & launched an exacerbated & defiant hiss at Roo for no apparent reason other than frustration.
I went to bed in the knowledge it was the right decision, no emotion. The morning was a different matter completely. All my running kit was out, ready to take to the Fast Friday event in the evening. I realised that this would not be happening. I was up early & decided to catch an early train into London so that I could be back for the evening visit to the vets. Even this wasn't easy, I was all over the place, a brief run to the station probably a good thing as it stopped me thinking.
Work was a complete write off for the day. I could find little to distract me & called it a day just after 2. It was a nice day outside & I wanted to head home & spend a couple more ours with Topper before it was time to say goodbye.
The local shops had none of his favourite chocolate milk or ice cream so I instead headed out into the garden & made use of the sun lounger. Both Roo & Topper are house cats, they only get to see the garden when supervised & the chance to eat some grass or lounge in the sun is something both were eager to partake in.
If it weren't for the belly & lack of mobility it could have been any time over the past 7 years as Topper enjoyed the sunshine before retiring to first the shade, then back to his spot on the sofa. As he'd had enough & I headed to the sofa so that he could come & go for a fuss as he pleased.
Soon Paula was home & it was time to make the one way trip to the vets. The poor boy couldn't even spin around in his box & the vet was satisfied we'd made the right call. Paula said goodbye first, leaving me to sign the paperwork, say my own goodbye & thank the vet for keeping him going for the past 8-9 months.
We walked the short journey back home & shared a brief hug. We're very separate people now & I wanted my own space & to give Paula her own space to grieve. I decided to find that running kit meant for Fast Friday, laced up & got out the front door.
I wanted to run, feel some pain, let every emotion out. I was angry at the whole inevitability of the situation & wanted to find some kind pain, some kind of release. I wanted to hit the wall, wanted to be sick, I had no plan other than to run as fast as I could & to hell with the consequences. For that moment the marathon was irrelevant.
For the first time in a while the iPod came with me on a run & I just chucked it on Wrestling themes & angry music, Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff seemed a very apt first song. Despite a lack of sunshine the sunglasses were also on. They were essential, a self defence mechanism. Without being able to read my eyes I was just another runner out there, no one could see the pain, or the tears if they happened.
I took on one of my usual Stansted routes, the north to south loop. This is usually a 40-42 minute saunter, a 7km that I take on the easy side. My average sits at 5:57/km As I went though the first kilometre in 4:50 I felt confident that at least one of my earlier aims would be achieved. This would be a monumental crash & burn. An easy crossing despite rush hour had me heading back into Stansted & a 4:49 2nd click. When the wall came it would be crushing.
I had bugger all rhythm, just a desire to keep running as fast as I could until the wheels came off. By the time I made it through Stansted & onto Lime Kiln Lane my pace was still strong. A 6th click of 5:45 suggested that I was becoming unstuck, but grade adjusted saw that as 5:07 owing to the double climb totalling 27m. It was only in the final stretch towards home that I started to feel a bit sick, quickly realising that despite wanting all of those things at the start, I didn't really want to be chucking up as I passed a pub on a Friday night! I carried on picking the pace up, pushing all the way until home, grabbing a water as I walked straight into the garden & onto the sun lounger once more.
With a 34:47 I'd taken over 3 minutes off of my best around the same route. Not that I cared at that moment in time, I was incapable of doing anything other than lying down. The run had achieved it's aim & incapacitated me, at least temporarily. My breathing was all over the place, my chest was tight (remaining so all night, muscular, nothing too worrying I promise, more like I'd strained something), my calves throbbed away & my body tried to regulate itself with as much sweat as it could muster.
It was such a dumb run on so many levels. Sure, I was due for a fast run & ultimately it would have probably been quicker given track & race conditions, but this was not a wise idea. This was 7km of attempted suicide pace that could have had repercussions for the entire Berlin plan. For someone who thinks & over thinks to the point of distraction this wasn't well thought out. Just go out & run, run as fast as you can & try to convert all of those emotions into physical pain.
It was cathartic, a means to an end.

Angry, frustrated, exhausted

Neither of us felt like cooking so we shared a Dominos. Another poor choice & one that no doubt I'd regret. We don't share much time together now, we're separate people leading very separate lives, but at least on that evening we could share the memories Topper had left us with.

parkrun

What I needed after what could be politely described as a shit day was a bit of a pick me up. Thankfully Saturday provided exactly that for it was parkrunday & also Great Notley's 1st birthday. I had hoped to head across for the event myself, but the problem with becoming an Event Director is that occasionally you have to be in charge at your own event. So instead we dispatched Karl with a remit of stealing tokens, finish poles, parkrun tape & any other paraphernalia he could fit into his car.
With Paul & Sam also away this was the first time any of us would be on RD duty without anyone else in the core team to help / assist / shout at. This is no bad thing, we had the roster filled up after a bit of encouragement & this suggests the event is starting to become self sufficient. By the morning I was inventing new marshal points as more folk had come forward to help.
Setup was relatively easy, aided by my new hobby, riding a bike as badly as possible around a forest. Even with my limited cycling knowledge I realised quickly I'd picked up a bit of a stinker from the NT's collection of hire bikes, the gears not really helping!
If ever I wonder why I've put the effort in, mornings like Saturday at the Forest are the reminder I need. It was time to compartmentalise my own issues & be parkrun Chris for the morning. It was just what I needed. Sure we had an injury, potentially lost a couple of runners who carried on unsuccessfully after the injury, sure I was a hot sweaty mess after cycling for setup & then running to find the injured runner, but I didn't care, it was fun! parkrun Chris is the best imitation of myself as Mr Folds would call it. I get to do something I enjoy doing & in turn our parkrunners get to share that experience. I'd be happy if it was 10 people showing up. Instead on Saturday we saw a record 196 take part. There is a friendly rivalry between our core team as to which RD will be first to pass 200 runners, with me not being on duty now until the end of August my opportunity appears to have passed based on the ongoing success & growth we are seeing.
After a pretty efficient close down I hurtled across the A120 to join the Great Notley team for results processing. Ably assisted by Vicky from Harlow I don't think I've had an easier set of results to confirm. Hardly any issues, a welcome relief after a hectic morning. All of the GN team looked great in their loud shirts & grass skirts, all buzzing from the festivities still. I'd encouraged our runners to join them as without Great Notley & Len's welcoming team they'd be no Hatfield Forest event.
With an hour to kill before the Great Notley VIP BBQ at Len's, Vicky & I descended on Tezzos to pick up beer, about the only thing Len had asked for. Karl joined us as we left & then it was onto Rayne to pick up fellow VIPs Emily & Paul, uploading some parkrun photos on the way.
Once at the BBQ we relieved Len of cooking duties so that he could socialise. Plenty of familiar faces from the first year of Great Notley were there & it was good to spend time with everyone away from our Saturday morning fun, especially since us Hatfield Forest folk spent time learning our craft at Notley. At one point there were 6 Event Directors in attendance & someone suggested a photo. Someone else had the even brighter idea of the photo taking place on the trampoline (me). After a couple of minutes of uncoordinated bouncing around me managed a photo, quickly escaping as Gerry our ambassador seemed to be channelling his inner Tigger!

Lots of Event Directors, one trampoline....

I'd decided to stay off the booze for the evening as Sunday's long run was an important one. That didn't stop me acting as barman for Karl as he requested refreshment. I supplied Alan Partidge's favourite, a Ladyboy (three separate drinks, a lager with chasers or Baileys & a G&T). Both Karl & Jenna were happy to carry on sampling the delights of Len's Shot Shack, it didn't bode well for the GN Junior parkrun pilot in the morning where Jenna was due to lead the warm up!!
I got away at a decent time & sorted my running kit for the morning. Even getting to bed at a reasonable hour for once. The alarm was kind of set, I knew I need to get out by 8am, would see how the snooze vs body clock game went in the morning.

Relaxed & almost smiling....

Sunday - Breaking through another barrier

The plan said 18 miles. 18 miles / 180 minutes. The three hour run. I had an idea of a route, I had an idea of what nutrition I should take with me. What I had no idea of was how my body would react.
I took the iPod with me once more, I'm still not sure whether it will join me for my lap of Berlin. It could prove a distraction, it could be handy if I need a lift. I was also trying out a new Asics shirt, it had been on the expensive side (very) but I liked it & I'm not sure how big Um Bongo is in Germany!
My route was simple, although included a tough start. North west out of Stansted towards Manuden & a climb of Mount Manuden before following the track to Rickling. There was a bit of rain in the air, something almost welcome based on the recent hot spell, though it did give me the fear of chaffing were it to continue!

Definitely a bit of bed hair going on!

After getting to Rickling it continued north towards Newport via the villages of Wicken Bonhunt, Spatchcock Bolthole & Virginia Bottomley. Having run the reverse of this route I was suddenly aware that it had a decent amount of up & down, though my pace was appearing to be metronomic in it's consistency, rarely moving far for a median of 6:20/km.
On my previous attempt at the route I'd clocked 15 miles, so took a detour via Elsenham this time in the hope this would add the required extra 3. As I entered the 18th kilometre my left leg suddenly felt a bit funky. On the light side, a touch wobbly even. This wasn't a good thing, 18km was no major issue for me so why was this happening? I downed a gel in the hope that it would iron itself out, as even with the shortest route home I was a good 8km away. Looking back at the data, it turns out there was a fair amount of climb in this kilometre & perhaps I'd left it too long between fuelling having taken on a gel at 10km & a Honey Stinger waffle at 12.5km.
My fuelling tactic was gel, something more solid, gel, solid & repeat. Though I had 5 gels on me, this was a fail safe in case I became unstuck as the mileage ramped up. I was also thankful for the slightly cooler conditions as my current running bottle has just a 600ml capacity.
Thankfully the blip at 18km was exactly that & an even better bonus in the form of the level crossing at Elsenham made for a happy runner. As I approached Stansted I realised that the route wasn't quite long enough, I need to somehow add a couple of clicks or head home. Though returning home certainly appealed, my sense of wanting to complete the task set at the start of the run meant that I turned away from home & up towards Forest Hall Park. A small loop & I was finally on the homeward stretch, climbing final hill & by this stage talking to myself. I resolved to give it a bit of a kick to see what was left in the tank & with a final km at 5:37 I was pleasantly surprised.
29.0km clocked, just a shade over 18 miles in 3:03. An average of 6:20/km throughout & one of my most consistent runs to date. Very little degradation in the final miles, leaving me with the 4:30 marathon target very much still a possibility. A run that I was very happy with. I learnt a bit more about consistent fuelling, although still need to find an alternative to the Flipbelt, it puts slightly too much pressure on my stomach & bladder, perhaps some trail shorts are the answer.
The feet were in decent condition as well. This was another long run in the Mizuno Wave Riders & they continued to be comfy, the usual pinch points being vaselined up beforehand.

The Eat

Strava told me I'd burnt a mere 3115 calories & though it would have been fun to reclaim them throughout the day, I decided to be slightly more sensible for once. Unfortunately the sensible was preceded by stupidity. Despite suffering runger last time I ran long, I didn't take on anything of note before heading out to Stortford to test a car. By the time I got home, a basket of impulse buys in hand I was once again ravenous for a bit of food.
Some Torta Gorgonzola spread over toasted good bread was the snack I needed, though the sheer richness of the mascapone laced blue cheese was probably enough to send me spinning for the afternoon. There were plenty of jobs to do at home, but a nap on the recliner in front of the TV was exactly what I needed after the morning exertions.

Hmmmmmmmm cheese

Dinner was a slightly more healthy Mahi Mahi with spelt, rocket & roasted peppers. Soon it was time to retire to the bath to reward the muscles for their hard work. Whomever is responsible for placing Ben & Jerry's Core adverts in my spot at every train station I appear to use is a genius, I've been trying to get hold of the caramel cookie variety since the posters began to badger me constantly! Turns out it is damn good stuff & after 18 miles I'm allowed a treat!

Mahi Mahi, quite healthy for post run!

Earlier in the week I'd introduced a colleague / customer to one of my favourite sushi places in London. We'd been trying to get out of the office for a beer for what has seemed like months & finally our calendars worked. With my tenure at Voda soon coming to an end it was good to finally get out for a drink, especially after the initial reaction to my departure was WTF (and not why the face it turns out).

Damn good sushi

The Conclusion

A rollercoaster of a week. Good running, bad running, good moments & some really sad ones. The fartlek run was good, as was the long run. The angry run was simply dumb, cathartic but dumb. I was angry at having to say goodbye to a friend though, part of the family.

Bye Topper, you silly silly boy

Forest Fives and Tens

A double bling week, that's a success to me. And everything appeared to be fine after the Endure weekender.

Endure Recovery

I had wisely booked Monday off of work. My body seemed to think Endure was still happening as I woke up at around 11pm, then 4am, maybe this was due to the power of the luminous wristband that sat on the bookcase in my room.
With ruthless efficiency I woke up just before 6 & realised that my body clock has no understanding of annual leave. There was little point trying to fight it so I headed downstairs to play on the Xbox for a bit, determined that the day started as unproductively as possible. As I wandered downstairs I was instantly confused. I could walk just fine, DOMS was surprisingly absent. I had no aches or pains, a nasty cold brewing but that was it.
If it wasn't for all of the running paraphernalia that surrounded me I'd swear the weekend was just a dream. How was this even possible? I'd run further & for longer than anything I'd done previously & felt great.
Perplexing as it was, my physical vibrancy wasn't going to get turned into a day of activity. I switched the Xbox over & watched Money in the Bank, tuning in where the show was decent (Kevin Owens / main event) & out (everything else) where not. I think I liked every Endure photo on IG as my procrastination took on new levels.
Eventually I resolved to empty the car & take on one of many jobs I had been putting off for a while. The garage had become a sprawling mess of left overs from the building work, parkrun equipment, cricket gear, bbq, diy & gardening stuff & anything else that would fit in for good measure. After a couple of hours I felt it didn't look much better, it appears to be the gift that keeps on giving.
I broke up the time by making a start on an epic Endure 24 blog post, splitting my time between both activities. I had designs on heading across to Braintree to catch up with friends & my Mum, but this trip also included a visit to the gym & they were apparently closed due to water mains issues. It was as if it was being prescribed that I should be lazy!
So I let the rest of the day pass & didn't achieve a great deal. As the evening approached I was about to stick a pizza in the oven. I decided that I should at least get in some time on the exercise bike to get the legs moving a bit, before returning to the pizza, feeling like maybe a slice of it was earned.

Let's get physio, physio

Tuesday was a bizarre day. I had some awesome news that I'll talk about in future weeks, finally got round to filling in some paperwork that needed doing in order to move on & finished with some inevitable, saddening news.
Sandwiched amongst all of this was my regular visit to Dan the Physio. I explained that I was holding up well after Endure, but had some concerns about my shoulder, calves / achilles as usual & wanted him to check the shin splints. After the usual work on the neck & shoulders, he eased off the calves. He felt the shins were just fine & that by rolling & stretching I can managed any issue there, tight calves being the cause is hardly a surprise. He also couldn't find anything wrong with the shoulder after carrying out some movement tests, putting the likely cause down to a bit more tension as I've upped the miles.
My intention for the next fortnight or so it to scale it back a bit to the bare minimum amount of training to maintain the base I've built up, so this fits nicely, no major issues for now.
As I tackled some still remaining washing up, Topper returning from the vets. The prognosis was not good, there was now nothing else they could do for him. His kidneys started failing back in October & he's been on medication ever since, ballooning in size as he goes. As his weight has increased his legs have weakened so his ability to jump has diminished. Personality wise he is still the same, potentially he's even more affectionate now. It is unlikely he'll make it much further, now it is a case of monitoring how much quality of life he has. I suspect he'll be spoilt rotten over the coming weeks, allowed to eat whatever (his favourites are eggs, ice cream & fish), forgiven for the early morning jabs to the face & fussed like anything.

Forest Five

On Tuesday I also realised that I was signed up to a race. After my visit to Bracknell Forest Runners track night a few week's previously my colleague Kendra had given me a list of local races to sign up to that would work with my trips to our southern office. I'd wantonly signed up without thinking to check my running calendar, you know to see if there was perhaps an endurance event merely days beforehand.
It was even an event designed to mess with my head following Endure, 5 laps, undulating, around a forest! All I needed to do was deprive myself of sleep beforehand & force someone to do a lap after me & it would be like the weekend all over again.
Fearing traffic I'd left my hotel early & arrived with a mere hour to kill before the race. I wandered to the start line (nearly a km into the Forest), wandered back, found the toilets, chucked my valuables in the car, walked back, walked some more & probably covered 3-4km in walking before the start just to keep myself busy.
I was tempted to run with Kendra & her son Callum who was taking part in his first 5 miler. Instead I opted for the well versed plan of winging it on the day. BFR appear to be another club, like Bishop's Stortford that I appear to be an associate member of by osmosis as I recognised many faces & said hi to my Endure lap 1 partner in crime Cindy.
Anyone that had run over the weekend was comparing war stories, I still couldn't correlate my performance with a seemingly zero problems. I felt like I should be suffering, a bit fraudulent for appearing to have got away from Endure without issue.

Bit of a roller coaster, closing my eyes until it was all over

I had been fooled. Fooled, lulled, seduced into believing that everything was ok. Even after a near 2km downhill beginning it was clear that like say a 2003 Alfa bought in February, though everything appeared alright, there were some gremlins to be found when on closer inspection. Potentially due to being worked on the night previously, both achilles decided to voice their displeasure at the physical nature of the activity. A hamstring that until Lap 5 on Sunday had behaved itself impeccably in 5 years of running was also having a moan. On top of this my breathing was all over the place thanks to the lingering cold brought on from camping being illness inducing.
Other than those symptoms & a general lack of moral fibre, my pace was just weird. I wanted to see if a 44:00 @ 5:30/km was possible, although I hadn't researched the course, or sustained that pace since the HBO a few weeks prior.
This soon became a grin & bear it kind of run. I made an effort to thank every marshal around the course. There was a delightful rollercoaster of a down & up just after halfway, actually by the end of the uphill I'm not sure delightful was the right term for it. I found breaking the run into 2km sections helped & once I was through 6km the back of the run had been broken & I felt more inclined to push whatever I could out of my legs.
My pace was better for the 7th kilometre & a marshal advising us that it was all downhill from that point onward raised a cheer from the runners in & around me. A lady from Reading RC cashed in on the descend a bit more than me, though my pace was increasing I find it far too easy to lose form on a downhill. As the finish came into sight the course flatten out & I decided it was time to really test the legs. Impressively I was able to manage a full sprint finish, reeling in a few that had passed me on the downhill.
I collected my goody bag & liked the unique medal, popping it round my neck whilst waiting for Callum & Kendra to finish. As they approached the finish Callum dropped Kendra with an almighty sprint finish home, recording a 48:53. A great debut performance at the distance & a sprint finish I'd be proud of! I said my goodbyes & made my way back to the car to cool down a bit. A much appreciated Mars bar was found in the goody bag & I headed back to my hotel, trying to work out what to do for dinner. I was in a bit of a state post run & really couldn't be arsed with getting changed, or sitting in a restaurant. Knowing takeaway was my only option from this point I then decided I didn't even want to wait for a curry & chucked the hire car into a McD's drive through.
Dirty tainted food, but it was fine by me.

Funky medal, sweaty face

parkrun

I was back on rota for a fortnight of Run Directing down at Hatfield Forest. As James was staying at the house he'd been added to the roster for pre & post event work, although he didn't appear to be overly inspired by us leaving at 0645.
When on duty I try to avoid anything that might induce swearing, I'm already far too fluent at dropping the F bomb without further encouragement. I'd forgotten this golden rule as Nick Helm's Hot & Heavy was already in the CD player. We'd made it halfway towards the forest before I asked James to source something else.
The course was setup in decent time (with me on a bike no less) & with Amy taking on the Volunteer Coordinator role under Karl's supervision, I had time to remember what exactly I was meant to be doing. Thankfully all of our volunteers were in place & ready to go, it was just time to greet the runners, get through a briefing that had a second page & then relax for 15 minutes whilst they ran the course.

Lots of volunteers, no runners though

That is the theory at least. With 18 minutes already passed & no finisher in sight I ran back to our storage to borrow one of the NT's bikes. I could hear some clapping & to my relief the runners had started to file in. To confuse me further, Mark who was running in my 50 shirt as he ran his 50th run was approaching me & appeared to have maimed himself on the course. Not only this, he'd finished first & was apologetic for doing so. He did at least provide the reasoning for this happening. At a cross roads in the forest some runners had carried straight on rather than right. One mortified marshal returning to HQ confirmed that they'd been a bit of an issue. Having experienced this myself on my volunteering debut I was keen to stress that these things happen. I felt it was right to follow up further to reassure & we even caught up at the Hoohaah on Sunday. In hindsight we were missing a lanyard for this position, sending a volunteer out without sufficient information or guidance. That won't happen again, we'll have spares of everything should something go missing.

So we'd lost runners once, you'd have to be really unlucky for it to happen twice? It appears the NT's herds of cattle are a mischievous bunch. Always intrigued by our signage, they'd managed to nudge our penultimate turn from a left to a straight on arrow. This is how Mark found himself leading, thankfully he sounded on to the runners that had overshot & corrected the sign for those that followed.
A reluctant first finisher & definitely the only time my 50 shirt will ever cross the line first! Thankfully all of the runners I spoke to that had missed turns were in good spirits, understanding that these things happen. Some even commented on getting even more free kilometres in!
The rest of the event passed without incident & we chose to take the bikes out once more to assess the two turns where the issues had occurred & collect the remaining signage on the course. I found myself even enjoying the ride. I was such a useless cyclist at school that I even failed cycling proficiency! I think when I rode during our event a couple of weeks back that would have been the first time in 5 years. Sure the quads ache within a kilometre, but it was nice to ride, something I might do more of at the forest.

A very long weekend

James was down for the weekend, making a return to Hatfield Forest parkrun on the Saturday & taking on the summer course for the first time. That wasn't the only reason for his visit, he'd tried to catch Katherine Ryan's latest show a couple of times in Preston & Leeds but had no joy. She was due to play at Udderbelly over the weekend & after acquiring some tickets on Stubhub a plan for a weekend was formed.
So Friday night comprised of gin, comedy & (sadly) dirty McD's food for the train home after the queue for Duck & Waffle was simply too long.

All set for comedy

I'd like to suggest that Saturday evening had some variation. In reality all that changed was we stayed out for longer. Street Feast's latest venture Dinerama had recently opened in Shoreditch & it offered the chance of lots of food varieties & plenty of drinking options. The idea to visit only came about on Thursday so most folks had plans already. Vicky & Cali joined us as they were en route to comedy in Bethnal Green & we managed to grab a table under cover, handy as the rain started to come down soon after we got there.

Pints of cocktail in the late afternoon, this could only go wrong

We started with Busan BBQ sliders, fries & some nachos from Breddos. With the first pint of the day done & dusted James felt it should be cocktails time at 5pm! I remained in charge of the food, following up the first round with some Gyoza from Rainbo.
A second round of cocktails (served by the pint, though a lot of that was ice) & this time we were back to Breedo's to try the beef tacos. Vicky & Cali opted for duck burgers, donuts & mocking me, all of which they appeared to enjoy! They were soon on their way & we decided that open air eating in the rain was fine but it was time to wander ourselves.

All kinds of food at Dinerama

A trip to Brick Lane & we found 93 Feet East. I'd never been so we wandered in. It was like a time warp, back to a student union! Daylight outside & this was the only light we could see as the entire place was decorated in black! One drink & we were on our way, originally to the Big Chill bar but James was smiling too much in hipster East London & the bouncer did not take kindly to enjoyment. Half way through the obligatory feel up I decided to interrupt James' fun & we wandered off to find a more friendly bar.
A couple of more pubs later & it was 9pm, I was pretty much done by this point. It would be rude to head home before the light went so into The George at Liverpool St we went. James insisted on doubling up our Tanqueray Tens, his eyes popping out at the £22 cost! By half ten we were onto the train north, after yet another trip to the golden arches (yes really). No nightcap for me, time to sleep.

Hoohaah Hatfield Forest 10k

This was my second attempt to run the HF 10k. I'd not made the start line for 2014's inaugural event after a delightful weekend of toilet hugging & extreme weight loss. This time around I was looking forward to it. The event last year had sewn the seed for a potential parkrun at the venue as it was the first running event I was aware of at the forest (I was wrong, just wasn't aware of others).
For James, this would be his first 10k, though with another one due next weekend he was more than ready. My ever efficient but not overly friendly body clock performed the half five wake up trick as always. I managed to barter another couple of hours of sleep, but noticed that I wasn't overly with it, potentially due to the gin consumption the night previous. Three slices of heavily buttered Soreen really didn't feel sufficient so I threw myself under the shower to try & wake myself up.
Arriving at the forest but without anything to be in charge of felt quite liberating. I met Sue, Maldon's ED for the first time & it was good to share ED stories. I'm still yet to make it to Maldon on a Saturday morning & will be a long old commute if I don't get it visited soon!
We picked up our numbers & I said hello to Alison & Hannah the Hoohaah team. I cheekily asked if they could mention the parkrun, the response was very much in the affirmative, how about you take the stage & we give you the mic during the briefing?!
We had some time to kill & I spent some time preparing my race kit before chatting to some of the parkrunners present at the event. I bumped into Rich from Great Notley & as James wanted to run to a 55, Rich joined us.
So after a brief appearance on the stage with the mic, where I not only promoted us but all of our local parkruns across Essex it was time to start. James knew his target might be ambitious, but you might as well aim high to see what is possible. A nice flat target time made it easy for me to calculate the splits, 5:30/km, Rich works in miles so I had no idea what that worked out at, probably around the 9:00/mile mark.
Our pace wasn't amazing as per the watch, but I was noticing we were measuring short based on course signage, understandable in a dense forest. This meant I think we were good, but wouldn't be sure until the end. After 3km navigating the forest we were onto the Flitch Way & enjoying the flat & shaded conditions. I'd ditched my sunglasses before the start as it looked overcast, a decision I would soon be regretting.
The weakest kilometre was the 7th & I can only think this was due to the heat & then some boggy, technical trails that had to be navigated. Having been in the shade for a while we were unaware just how hot & sunny the day had become & it really did sap the energy. This was something that I need to take into account for Berlin, it can be terrifically hot there. After my not always perfect pacing record I was keen to check in on James frequently & he appeared to be just fine, with Rich using himself to then pace me, dragging us out a bit more.
As we reached the 8km marker James was on target but told us to run on, concerned he would struggle in the final part of the race. I double checked all was ok & kicked on, Rich was now pushing the pace a bit more to stretch me as the finish line beckoned, setting targets of runners ahead for us to pass. The pace to this point had been comfortable so I was able to go through the gears a bit & get down to a 5:00/km pace. A brief aeroplane to a photographer (sadly not captured) & we were into a nasty little wooded area that preceded the finish. This was a complete momentum killer as hazards both at head height & on the ground needed to be navigated. As we emerged into the field we could hear Vicky on the PA system & Rich encouraged me (like I normally need it) to sprint to the end. Perhaps the pace wasn't quite so easy as I'd previously felt, the resulting sprint finish was a rather weak effort, if the ground were covered in treacle it wouldn't have surprised me.

Medals & smiles (almost)

James followed shortly after breaking the 55 minute barrier at the first time of asking with an exceptional 10k debut. We grabbed medals, chatted to Hatfield Forest parkrunners & then missed out on heckling Vicky as it was prize giving time.
I'd really enjoyed the run & the chance to explore different parts of the forest that we don't see as part of the parkrun courses. No doubt I've now got some new course ideas for the drawing board, though whether the event really needs more routes would be debatable.
James was soon on his way back to the North after a chocolate milk & a shower. His 6 hour journey home wasn't great for his spirits, though I suspect the medal stayed around his neck throughout.
I spend the rest of the day on a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, the first time Father's Day has really hit me for a while. I headed across to Braintree to see my Mum & bring some beers to Step-Dad Steve but found myself having to chuck the Counting Crows CD out as it was reminding me too much of the many things I shared with the old man. It wasn't depressing, I just felt that my driving would be enhanced if I wasn't tearing up! Mum had a load of old photos I'd not seen before, including one from Dad's Japan visit in 1987, which left me wondering if I can recreate the photo when I visit in January.

Dad in Japan. Now just need to find out where this was. And why his shirt to trouser ratio was so bad. And what is going on with the jacket.,,,,

I ploughed my energy into the parkrun run report in the evening, a silly & rather dark sense of humour is something we also shared. Given the amount of fun we'd seen at parkrun it gave me lots to work with, all we needed was some slapstick to really make it something Dad would have properly laughed at. I don't mind these kind of reflective days, it tells me I'm in a good place mentally. Back in February I'd got through most of the anniversary of his death before remembering, my mind was all over the place at the time.
The day finished with a steak, once I realised it was darn late & I could do with eating, then a bath so that I could treat the muscles to a soak after a good 10k performance.

The Conclusion

A thoroughly enjoyable week. Two races, two relatively pleasing performances given my fatigue & lack of speed work of late. My 10k time was good, it achieved the goal set at the start & I was able to get some quicker clicks in at the end. I think I'm in a good place to start reintroducing speed work alongside the mileage & the target of breaking 48 for the first time at August's Pride 10k is something that should be possible. I've got another 10k that precedes it by 5 weeks & Sean is heading down to Yateley with the aim of pacing me to 50 minutes, his reward for hauling me around close to target will be a curry! There is also the small matter of a half marathon PB to aim for & the Dublin trip, also with Sean offers this potential.
The weekend itself was also a lot of fun, spending time out with friends & just letting off some steam was exactly what I needed. It might have hampered Sunday's performance, I suspect I was sweating neat gin by the end!
Looking forward to increasing the mileage again & Friday brings a track 5k, which should be a lot of fun.