2020 what a year

Well we are at the end of 2020 and it has been a hell of a year. Whilst it has been tough and we have had to fundamentally change how we go about our daily lives, we have overcome every challenge. I want to finish the year off by reflecting on what I was able to do during 2020 rather than what I couldn't do.... it's all about perspective 

January 

I was lucky enough to be the parkrun run director on the 1st Jan, which was the day that Hanley parkrun achieved a new finishers record of 507, with our tail walker finishing in 54:16, we have just enough time to pack everything away and shoot off to Newcastle "the Wammy parkrun", also reported their highest number of finishers at 674 (it is very flat you know).  Finally got my new turbo trainer set up in the dining room and started pedalling.  We
celebrated my birthday at the Manchester Beer and Wine Festival and with a night out in Manchester to boot. 

February 

Was about running and working, I had started a new contract with Staffordshire and Stoke CCGs, it was lovely catching up with old colleagues and meeting my new colleagues. We had a baby shower for Emily, it was lovely to see the girls again and we managed to keep it a secret and Emily was truly surprised. The planets aligned and parkrun day also fell on the 29th February, so I proposed to Sean... we take this opportunity to run on this momentous day.

March 

I made a last minute decision to run Stafford half, as there was a couple of running buddies already signed up and I thought why not, its not a bad course and there was no pressure on time. I'm still not a fan of the race finishers t-shirts but do love a good medal! I dug out my sewing machine and started to make my own masks and we moved the trainer from the dining room into the garage, which meant we could have our first ladies lunch. We celebrated Sean's birthday and welcome baby Mia to our group.

April - May

My role changed slightly to support the local COVID response, which was both really challenging but very rewarding to feel I was making a small difference. The weather was lovely warm sunny and blue-skied days, which meant a lot of the jobs in the garden could get done and running in the Sun is always fun. Sean found a novel way to stop his bike and in the process also required a trip to the walk-in centre and now needs a new bike 🤦🏻‍♀️ 

The sun was still shining, the skies still blue and we celebrated VE Day with our neighbours in a socially distance fashion, which was lovely. parkrun bingo was a thing and I did it! I took advantage of the lovely weather, our new sail and moved to outside working briefly... It was too hot and the laptop couldn't take. 

June - July - August 

These were a bit of blur, but the weather was still fantastic and we were getting plenty of use out of our lovely new back garden and enjoyed soaking up the sun. Trying out new recipes and finally getting a hair cut!! I got to meet Mia and Emily, Jen and Liz in the park, which was lovely to see their faces in person.  We also took a long walk around Bakewell!!

Sept-Oct- Nov

We brought a campervan and managed to get a week away touring around the Lakes, Carlisle and Scarborough and getting to know the latest member of our family, Vincent!  We also got another week away in October down to Devizes, the weather had finally turned and October was rather damp and a little chilly.  We brought a fantastic awing for Vincent, which was nice and roomy and although larger it was much easier to put up and they're no more disagreements.  We visited Bournemouth, Bristol and Bath, out of the three I much preferred Bath. In November we took Vincent out for another trip this time it was only 

Dec

Well December and the holiday season has been quiet, but I have managed to smash my 2020 running and cycling goal. I'm not going to lie training has not been fun this last could of months, my mojo has taken a bit of nose dive. This year I decided to run up to Christmas Day and I even got to run a couple of these with Sean when he let me.  Christmas was quiet, with two zoom calls with both families, which was nice and might be the future!  

Anyway I have had a blast, it might not have been the year I would have chosen, but it is the year we got dealt and I played my part, not only as part of the local COVID efforts but also by keeping my distance and washing my hands at every opportunity!  

Here's looking to a much improved 2021

2019 - it’s a wrap!

QUICK STATS: run 1,565miles, bike 477miles, swim 59,230 yards. Races 7 

parkruns 30, parkrun volunteering 25, different parkruns 8 and fastest parkrun 23:57

January-  Ran the New Year's day parkrun double at Hanley and the Wammy; joined Derwent Running Club as a Social member, to help with my Marathon Training when it starts. We had the annual Family New Year's day meal and realising how much my nephews are growing up and a lovely birthday surprise weekend in Manchester for a cheeky parkrun and a visit to the Manchester Beer Festival….oh and how could I forget a haircolour change!! 

February - My marathon training began, my long runs were getting long!! WE had a girls night out to Bingo again, unfortunately, our luck had run out but we had a great evening catching up and it was the month of my best clean joke for a long time!  "I had a hen who could count her own eggs…..she was a mathemachicken"

March - The long runs keep coming and the aim is to run 18 miles before our week long holiday in Mexico, which I manage not once but twice so I could go away safe in the knowledge that 1 week of lower mileage would not hurt the training too much. Had a lovely week away in Mexico, we were testing out a few theories this holiday..was Mexico too far for a week's holiday, how was Cancun compared to Playa de Carmen and could I pack for a weeks holiday with just hand luggage! The holiday was both informative and successful in terms of our theories, the responses were; yes, no Playa is nicer and yes!! So no more waiting at the carousel of doom!

April - Early in the month means that I was getting into the tough weeks and my longest runs were coming up with a 20 one week and 21 mile a week later running to my parents' house on a very hot bank holiday Sunday!   It didn’t get any easier but knowing they were behind me was a comfort and that my miles would start to decrease helped to lift my spirits in the final mile. We decorated and swapped rooms around in the house, the carpet that had been down since we moved in finally went and both rooms got spruced up!  Our collective weight loss is becoming more and more noticeable and we had to take 8 bags of clothes to the charity shop!!

May -Can only mean one thing Marathon Month, but before the Marathon, we had the Market Drayton 10k and I managed a very respectable time of 50:29, I had secretly hoped for sub 50 but that wasn’t my A race so I let it go and carried on with the taper which should have been easy at a lower miles however it certainly didn’t feel like that.  Then before we know it were heading up to bonny Scotland and finally the marathon is here! 4hours and 3 minutes later and 26.2 odd miles and I crossed that finish line and yet again vowed to never run another marathon again…but I still wanted to run

June - After all the build-up, miles and hours put into training I was able to diversify my training again and with a Pool based sprint triathlon scheduled for September I needed to get back in the pool again que the 5:30am starts and being in the pool for 6am!

July - we are in the holiday season and we were heading back up to Scotland first to go to Rewind 80festiveal in Scone with another cheeky parkrun tourism and the commencement of our Scotland road trip in the campervan, we visited some lovely places and I got to swim in a Lido which was another first for me!

August -  The Hanley park renovations have finished and we could finally run the course 2B and start to use the bandstand again, shame they never did put the sides on it so we could use it as a shelter during the occasion wet Saturday parkruns….final bank holiday of the year before Christmas was an excellent opportunity catch up with friends and walk/wander and stagger the  Hartshill beer mile 

September- after much discussion about house renovations we decided to that wanted to update the garden and make it a haven to come home too and spend time in during the summer months (should we actually get some nice weather) so our GRAND DESIGNS garden work started and finished! I ran the Great North Run again and had a blast this is one of the best half marathons and one everyone should run and I closed out the month with the North West Sprint Triathlon.

October- We had a quick running weekend away to run the Bilbao half marathon and if it hadn't have been long I'm sure that I would have got a sub 1:50 but that is Brexit for you…also the realisation of the over the last couple of months starts to dawn on me that my running has really improved recently, my times are coming down which is great !

November- There was a brilliant weekend away with the girls to Wales and we saw our first snow of Winter 2019, we participated (very hungover) in Pont y Bala parkrun  and I finished in a very respectable 5th, to be fair there were only 24 people and we made up a third of them! I managed to actually get a 10 mile PB at the Derby 10k which I was really pleased with, but then got injured right after it!! Oh and I finish my contract in Nottingham and start to look for my next contact as well as updating my project management skills

December is all about going out with friends, catching up with friends and spending time with the ones you love! Oh and I ran my fastest parkrun in 6 years!!

Heres to 2020 and whatever not only the new year but also the new decade holds :) 

parkrun comeback

The long and short of this post is that after the Derby 10 mile PB I got injured because I'm stupid and not invincible!! There has been a very painful sports massage, rest days, crosstraining and now I'm back running-ish! 

Two weeks ago, I finally got Sean to run our second local parkrun The Wammy, which is a relatively flat and fast parkun, at long out and back.  The only other time I have run here was on New Years Day as part of my NYD double, so this was my first opportunity to run this since I had got some speed back in my legs. 

The Wammy is flat and fast, the place to go for good run time and my running buddies asked me the night before if I was going to go for it.  But with being injured recently, unsure where my form was at and not wanting to put the pressure on myself, the sandbagging excuses came out "nah just going to go for a normal run".

After a brief chat with parkrun RD, we headed off for the start and then we were off......things were going well my legs felt fresh and springy so my thoughts of a parkrun time with a 24 at the start would be a nice way to finish out the year….these were fleeting and as the lactate started to build were replaced with “a low 25 would also be very good”. The course, after the turn around point, is slightly downhill and once again thoughts returned to 24🤔.  

As my watch beeped the 2nd mile, I tried desperately to work it out what pace was needed to for a 24 something finish, but the lactate build up was making maths difficult 😳 The way back felt longer than the way out and the finish felt a long way off. Looking at my watch I had less than half a mile to go and still I couldn’t work it out, every time I did it came out at a 23 at the start and that had to be wrong!!

Then I saw that fantastic finish line and surged for it, crossing the line, trying not to collapse, throw up and stopping my watch all at the same time! the result was officially 23:57 my third ever fastest parkrun! 

A great way to finish the year…..and now I am injured again :( so I am back spinning

Use it or lose it!

More recently I have been questioning if I have the ability to be as quick as I once was. 

Looking at my power of 10 results for the last 9 years of running, there is a clear purple patch for my running between 2013 and 2014; the majority of my PBs were achieved; it was at this time I started to introduce interval sessions and the long tempo runs and the results can clearly be seen.

Although I have continued to keep up with the interval sessions and the occasional long tempo run, you can clearly see the decline in my results for the last 5 years… my heart wasn’t really in it.  I often refer to this period as straining my CBA muscle which, I have to say, is worse than any bone or ligament issue.  You know you should do it, but the burning lungs sensation and aching legs all feels little too uncomfortable so you back off or decide on another easy shorter run.

I have been quite honest about the lack of running mojo for the last couple of years and this year we turned a bit of a corner when it comes to running mojo, it’s definitely back…although I’m still not wanting to push myself into the uncomfortable place of training; the burning lungs and aching legs.

To be honest I’m often torn between wanting to be quicker(getting back to my PB ways) and worrying that this is where it all went wrong last time and why I felt out of love with running.  Perhaps I just need to go with the flow, continue to enjoy the running and trust the process. And to be fair my average pace per mile is coming down, slowly,  and in the last couple of months my parkrun times are coming down to the 25-26 minute range and I even ran my fastest parkrun in 3 years in June.

Over the next few months, I’ve a couple of half marathons (GNR, Bilbao) and sprint triathlon (North West) coming up and the aim for the half marathons is a sub 2:00 for the GNR, possibly a seasons best for the Bilbao and for the triathlon it would be nice to get an overarching PB for this and possibly try for a quick 5k at the end. 

So perhaps the question is not do I have the ability to get quicker,  as we know there are many veteran lady runners who are much quicker than me, but is more about do I have the desire to get quicker and what is the cost I’m willing to pay.

New year, new me??

A good question is it a new me? Well, certainly from a hair perspective I have gone bold and being brave!

Let me tell you a little story.... when I was 12/13 and it was the early 80s, “Born Blonde”, "sun in" hair bleach was all the rage. I  had decided that a blonde fringe looked so good going full blonde was the only way to go....fast forward a sunny Saturday afternoon, sitting with a bottle born blonde on my LONG DARK BROWN hair, in the sun with a plastic bag on my hair (to help aid the processes 😮), as I went to wash off the peroxide concoction off my hair, the fear of impending doom never struck me, until the towel fell from my hair and I finally looked in the mirror!        

Needless to say, it took less than 10 minutes and I was back at the sink with my mums wash-in wash-out brown/black hair colour. For the next 5 years, I had to constantly dye my hair dark brown and had to stay away from perms which in the 80s was the style of choice for any self-respecting teenage girl!!

 

30 years later I was sitting in the hairdressers with a clear plastic bag on my head watching the colour leave my hair, trying to convince myself this time it will be better, time has moved on… computers can fit in your hand,  cars run on electricity and you can get a flight to Vegas for £250! Surely they are not still using Born Blonde…. Whilst I’m enjoying my new hair, to a degree, there is still that 12/13 girl looking back at me in the mirror on the odd occasions.

So what about your running I hear you ask, well I'm feeling a little more like a new me; I ran my fastest parkrun in 16 months and I ran my longest run is nearly 20th months!! I did rest while I had my cold and waited until I had recovered before I commenced training again, so it was a good 5/6 days off, but I got straight back on the plan and even took it sensibly, with some reduced mileage runs rather training to ramp things back to where they were.  So after my mini break and my week back, I have three new records:

My fastest parkrun (27:33) since 19/08/2017 at Fletcher Moss parkrun, which was a nice little course, a couple of small hills which had quite impressive downhill section considering I’m sure we didn’t climb that much. 

My fastest mile (8:03), I can remember the last time I ran a whole mile that quick it was in my last mile of my parkrun, I was picking people off as in the last half a mile and even managed a sprint finish which I have not done in years either!

Finally ,my longest run (11.1 miles) since 28^th May 2017 which I am pretty sure was Manchester half marathon!!   

So it really does feel like a new year and new me 😁

My take on 2018

It's been a funny old year, it started with me not running at all during January😏and has finished with me running every day in December, with a grand total of 135😮

This year I decided to participate in the advent run for December deciding that running every day up to the 25th sounded achievable.  Then, of course, there is the Christmas Day parkrun, next running to pick the car up on Boxing Day and then before you know it there is only 5 days to go and it would be a shame to miss out on running every day for a month.  

  

December, I have clocked my highest mileage month for the year; the miles have not been quick by my previous standards (btw they were never that quick but quicker than now).  People keep asking if I have turned a corner with my running and I’m really not too sure, I do enjoy it more now so perhaps I have.

The BIG question did I achieve have achieved any of my pre-marathon training plan goals?  

• Run 4/5 times a week,  
• A 10-mile run at\za least once 
• Run over 25 miles a week consistently 👍( I think the advent run really helped with that one!)

Looking back over the year and although the miles have been lower than in previous years I have had a lot of great times. Spent time with friends, celebrated weddings, births of babies and travelled halfway across the world to Australia! I have parkran 17 times, being parkrun run director 14 times, volunteered a further 9 times and also sneaked in some tourism to Isabel Trail, Cairns, Bicester and Cannock Chase. 

In terms of what 2019 holds for me: I am stgarting well with a parkrun double run day, then hopefully off to Mexico in March, with a marathon in May, a van life trip to Scotland in July and the Great North Run in September.  I'm going to try another open water triathlon at some point and improve both my time and experience of the swim.  

I've a plan to help achieve the goal of running the marathon with a training plan and a strategy to help me get more miles in the week. I will be (hopefully) joining Derwent Runners as a social member which means I should regularly get 6 miles outside in on a Tuesday.

In terms of the open water swimming, I have had an online chat with a seasoned Iron distance veteran and he has given me some great advice which I will be able to follow when open water swimming opens in the spring.

The other thing I hope to do more is blogging about how my training is going and my other musing that come to me on my runs.

Hope you all have had a great or at least as good as it could have been 2018 and here is looking at 2019 head on and tackling whatever is thrown at us.     
                    

Being (nearly) last and what it taught me….

*grab a cup of coffee*👀

Sunday 16th Sept was my 1st and only sprint triathlon of 2018, I had entered three this year but unfortunately injury and fear had ruled me out of the earlier two so I was determined to complete this one.  

I had been thinking of calling this one quits as well, but a couple of things have happened which has spurred me on, I’ll let you one but keep the other one for another time.  A couple of weeks ago I was at my local Hanley parkrun, other pr’s are available, during my usual slog around with fellow runners, I happened mentioned that I was thinking of pulling out of the  Shropshire Tri and Graham said why not just complete it, it will feel much better than not even starting.

He got me thinking, I have said that to many a fellow runners and triathletes when we have been having similar conversations and my other favourite saying is that there are people who would love to be able to participate but can’t for one reason or another so really it is a gift to be fit enough to toe the start time.  It is about completing and not competing

Fast forward to the morning of Shropshire Triathlon, the weather was warm but drizzly, we woke up before the morning had really started with a quick coffee and bite of breakfast we were on our way.  Sean had said he would come along to be my support crew and so I would not feel too alone.  I did have a number of friends participating but they were in the Olympic Distance so would be set off before me.

After parking up the car and walking to registration, we stuck the race numbers in all the right places with not too much fuss and I headed off to transition to rack my bike and set up my area.  The weather started to turn and the rain started to fall, so thought it best to get into my wetsuit to keep warm.  The Olympic distance athletes were in the water and making fast work of their 1500m swim, getting out looking excited to get on their bikes.

They called us down to the water's edge for the pre-race brief, told us to BE CAREFUL on the bike for our course there was a sharp downhill, so remember that this was not the Tour of Britain and to take care, then a quick chat about the swim….which all I remember was buoys, left, buoys, kayaks and sticking your arm in the air…..now to get in to the water.

This is where my nightmare begins sorry to sound so dynamic, but I'm not a great open water swimmer, I am terrible in fact.  There is something about not being able to see very much, then there is something about seeing too much (was that a fish….), not forgetting the other people around you and then the buoys seem to keep moving further and further away. 

After my Blenheim Palace experience I had been getting in open water more and this year I had been to our local lake a number of times and on my last trip in late July I had made it around the full 750 meters.  It wasn't pretty and only managed around 250 of it freestyle the rest was breaststroke.  Due to work commitments and busy weekends, I hadn't been back since, but I had been in the pool (cough, once or twice).

I digress again, we are in the water and it's not as cold as I was expecting, to acclimate and test my goggles I tried a couple of freestyle strokes and all was good to go.  The water was quite shallow the biggest problem was the amount of silt at the bottom, which really put me off putting my feet down and I tried not to think about it too much….gosh those buoys look really far away!!

 Then the countdown started 5,4,3,2,1,GO…..  I managed to swim around 0.75m freestyle and then the panic set in, out and the breaststroke, people were swimming past me.  As I slowly approached the first turn buoy around 350 in, I knew I was near the back of the pack and my next turn buoy seemed so far away…. I kept remembering Graham's words and just keep swimming, determined not to admit defeat and pull the rip cord, I swam on!

All in all I was in the water for near on 30 mins, got beached on the way out of the lake, stumbled on the out ramp and promptly burst into tears. I have to say a BIG thank you to the swim marshal who gave me a big hug and to Sean for telling me that it will all be better when I get out on the bike leg.

Of course, he was right, although it did take me a while to pull myself together. On the bike leg, I thought of the late Francis Hamlet about how he would tell to crack on and Smashit, then about my dad who is, currently going through radiation and chemotherapy and thought if he can do that then I need to suck it up and crack on.

Soon I was heading back in, having made up some places on the bike and ready for the run, which was not going to be pretty with my glute in its current form.

Lovely to see my fellow niteriders on the course both supporting and participating and of course Sean cheering me on despite the awful weather.

Once I had crossed the finish line, got my medal I headed to Sean for a hug and that’s a wrap for my 2018 season as pitiful as it was, so my results:

Pos Swim      Bike         Run         Total
43   00:30:34 00:52:38  00:30:34 02:02:20

But as they say onwards and upwards, more open water practice needed because I’m not stopping just because it’s hard, while life is hard and quitting is not an option.

Here’s to next year and a more happier race report. 

Saddo stato

Not really much of a post, but as sleep was eluding me and my mind was filled with all sort of trivia such as .... when was the last time I ran under 25 mins at parkrun? 

I have made no bones about the fact that I have fallen out of love with running a little and it is difficult to pin point when things started to go sour; was it during my last proper marathon training cycle, which was for London Marathon 2015?  I thought a bit of stat analysis would help....here is what I have found out and I am not sure that it holds the answers.

My parkrun PB was in October 2013, which is 23:25 

I last ran under 25 mins in May 2014 at Hanley

Here are my stats for Hanley parkrun

As for the other stats from my garmin, well that tells me that my pace has slowed down as have the number of miles run and I suppose your can't have pace if you are not putting in the mileage. 

My race calendar for next year is looking very bare, with only 4 races scheduled and one of those is a triathlon. There is the intention to do more races, but there will be more diversity in races and hopefully an injection of pace! 

You ran on Christmas day?

Yes I did, I was volunteering at parkrun so ran to parkrun on Christmas day, I ran to pick the car up on Boxing day and finally will be running a long run on Sunday with my fellow club mates.

Those who don't run say that we are mad, surely we should be be chilling out, taking time off having a rest, but what happens if this is our rest? I have still spent time with those that I love, I have been able to make my running functional incorporated it in to my daily life.  So my running has had a purpose getting home from work or going to pick up the car after having a drink in the pub.

I was thinking this morning it is each to their own... I didn't get up at 2 am or 3 am to go

to the next sale neither did I spend Christmas day looking online at the Christmas sales, but I did get up and run so perhaps we are not so different after all.

My whistle-stop tour of June and July!

Gosh it's really had been a long time since my last blog!  There are no good excuses to give you!  However let me catch you up; this is what has happened since 1^st June (grab your hat for a whistle-stop tour!)

I have finally finished my HNC course in Sport, Health, Fitness and Exercise however I am still awaiting my final mark!! I am free again from study, all this free time what should I do??

I have become a run director at my local parkrun which is Hanley and I have to say it is the most friendly parkrun there is around Stoke on Trent (ok ok it is the only one around Stoke on Trent) so far I have been RD 4 times and I am notorious for a) not needing to use the mega phone and b) counting up rather than down on the starting line…. Well it adds to the excitement.  

Don't we scrub up well    

Being part of the parkrun family I,  with my fellow directors and a few lucky parkrunners, attended the Stoke on Trent Personality of Year awards evening, we were nominated for the Sport in the community award. Unfortunately we didn't win, but we had great fun during the evening ( I believe there may have been some wine drinking going on!) and it was strange seeing everyone in there proper clothes for once! 

I have been away on holiday to America, we drove down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) from San Francisco down to Venice in Los Angeles.  We had a great time visiting the sights of SF Alcatraz, Napa Valley, Lombard Street, China Town, traveling on a tram to down town and of course Sports Basement to name a few of the sights we saw. Whilst we were there we also ran the See Jane Run Half marathon which gave us great views of the bay area.  

Then we started to travel down the PCH to Santa Cruz for couple of nights, Malibu and finally stopping the last few nights on the Boardwalk In Venice Beach.  Where we also finished off the holiday with the Red White and Blue Half Marathon run along the Santa Monica Boardwalk.  

All in all we had a great holiday not what you could call relaxing but it was still fun all the same.

Trentham encampment 

I managed to get a late entry to the Thunder Run 24 race at Catton Park and pulled together a team of 5 fellow Trentham running mates.  I was a little daunted as we got a team place 2 weeks before the race and also our team only had 5 people in it!! Although we had all said it was for fun…..the pressure was on a little.  I was team captain and organised the team and the timings of the laps, at my initial calculations we would all be running 4 laps of the 10k course with the men in our team running 5.  However it soon transpired on Saturday that my timings were way out and we would all have to run 5!! So this last weekend I ran 50k which makes me a ultra runner!! I know it wasn't all in one go, but I am still taking it!   

All in all we had a brilliant weekend, alongside our team of 5, there was another Trentham Team of 8, a couple of Trentham Solo runners and finally two club mates running with other teams.  It was and is a truly amazing event, like glasto for runners, the camaraderie is brilliant not only cheering on your team, any other local teams and also cheering on the runners who ran past our camp at all times of the day and night over the weekend! 

Thunder Ru 2014 DONE!

We had some brilliant results, our fellow runner Janson Heath won 1^st solo male, and Jill Phillips came 3^rd in ladies solo.  Our team of 8 finished 6^th and our little team of 5 finished 17^th in our category, not bad off no training and only 1 hour sleep in 36 hours!! 

The only downside was the lack of internet (although hardly surprising as we were in a field!) but a lot of my twitter friends were running and it would have been great to catch with them, oh well may be next year. 

And with that I think we are all caught up, I will try not to leave it so long next time I promise, however I do have a couple of busy months with, training for Great North, Robin Hood Half, Amsterdam Marathon and also Rewind 80 festival in August all to look forward to. 

Kirsten photo bomb

and the prize winner is......parkrun

Whoop Whoop parkrunner of the month awarded to yours truly, what a lovely surprise.  

And now for my thank you speech, I would like to start off by saying thank you ........ well mainly #parkrun for giving me and everyone a FREE, WEEKLY, TIMED RUN....not a race.  parkrun and extended parkrun community you have helped my to 

a) improve my running 
b) make loads of new friends 
c) help me to be volunteer 
d) buy new trainers 
e) buy new running kit 
f) eat cake on a Saturday before 10am and not feel guilty 
g) stopped me drinking too much on a Friday night
h) appreciate the local parks in my area
i) have more time on Saturday, run (coffee and cake) all home before 11am
j) wear more fancy dress 
k) improve my hill running (have to look strong and encourage everyone else on)
l) nearly be a funnel chucker 
m) get to use my laminater (clutching at straws now)
n) have a taster of cross country with our muddy patches
o) improved my down hill run (getting desperate) 
q)when incorporated as part of my long run, helped me to push that little bit harder at the end of a run
r)  have I had shoes/ what about running kit..........

ok I am sure that there will be a load more of ways that I will think that parkrun has helped me over the past 2 years, but for now I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to parkrun UK and especially parkrun Hanley 

The year started well

I had the honour of running Bushy Park parkrun on 1^st January 2014 all down to the fact that I have a wonderful partner who organised our New Year’s Eve celebrations that were only 40 minutes away from Bushy. 

Ok it might not be everyone’s cup of tea to get up at 6:30am in New Year’s Day and pull on Lycra running capris and a head off in the dark, dank and drizzly morning at 7:30am!  I

suspect that a large majority were nursing hangovers and wondering /marvelling exactly how they ended up in bed not only underdressed but in their JP’s as the last thing they remember was singing along to meatloaf on the karaoke.

Now don't get me wrong I am not knocking it, if you can do it GREAT. However, long gone have the days where I could drink most of the night and still function the next day; feeling sick to my stomach is not something that I relish and the next day is always a write off for me and I always feel incredibly guilty about. 

Back to Bushy, if you don't know it already Bushy Park is a mecca for all parkrunners, it was where it all began back in 2004 with just 13 runners in Bushy Park, Teddington.  Bushy regularly gets well over 500 runners each week, it really a sight to behold, they have great signs like when you are in the audience of a TV show “Quite please during the run briefing” which made me giggle, and “caution hazard” signs which made me wonder was the marshal the hazard or something else!

I really enjoyed the run and you would think that being one of 571 finishers on the day and being over 100 miles away from home that I wouldn't know anyone. Well you would be wrong I met and chatted Joanne Sinton-Hewitt the wife of the brains behind the concept of parkrun. Only the week previous we had met the week before at my local parkrun where both her and Paul enjoyed the hills of Hanley parkrun before joining up for coffee at the church café afterwards.

My second encounter was Neil Hankey, who noticed my Trentham top, we got talking about how he was a native of Stoke on Trent and had run Hanley parkrun on a number of occasions when he visited home, which was all very nice but it was close to the finish and I really wanted to go sub 25 minutes for my 1^st parkrun of 2014. 

Aalst it was not to be (25:12 and finished 240th), but I can't really blame Neil it was a very wet and muddy finis. I think that if I had pushed on hard I may very well have performed a spectacular faceplant in the finish funnel, not something I would have wanted to be remembered for!   

I'm very close to celebrating my 50^th parkrun and I'm hoping that on my 2^nd day of being 40 I can also celebrate being 50!

To find out more about parkrun check out these links: 

"This is parkrun" video http://vimeo.com/10348812   

Weekly parkrun podcast http://www.marathontalk.com/parkrun.php

The parkrun website http://www.parkrun.org.uk/

The historical chart of parkrun “the zombie effect” http://www.parkrun.org.uk/results/historicalchart/

My local parkrun Hanley http://www.parkrun.org.uk/hanley/

My parkrun history http://www.parkrun.org.uk/results/athleteresultshistory/?athleteNumber=199129