It's official. I have made all the way through my half marathon training without sustaining a single injury! (Unless I get hit by a bus on the way to the race.) Other than the time I signed up for the Hackney Half with ten days to go, this is the first time I have ever … Continue reading One Day To Go
Today I am going to post about something which is, bizarrely, rather a contentious topic. Running with headphones. If you ask advice on the best headphones, or the best songs to run to, or how long you should make your half marathon playlist (two hours and fifty-four minutes, for the record), you are GUARANTEED to … Continue reading Running to Music
Before I get started writing about the race, I want to answer the Big Question, which is: should a vegan be entering a race sponsored by Cancer Research, who fund animal testing? I've thought long and hard about this, and as you can see, I did enter. I see it the same as taking part … Continue reading London Winter Run 10k
Unfortunately, with my terrible lurgy at the end of January, RED ended with more of a fizzle than a bang. I did make an effort to do some kind of exercise every day, but for a week I was too ill to do any of the things that I would normally count as a proper … Continue reading The end of RED
I have spent most of the last three days in bed with the full works of temperature, headache, vomiting, not eating, sneezing, coughing etc etc. I went out on an ambulance observation shift on Wednesday and I can only think I caught something from one of the patients. In the last twelve hours I have … Continue reading DID I MENTION THAT I WAS ILL?
What did I tell you? I thought maybe going vegan had made me immune to colds because I hadn't had one since April 2018, but clearly not. I started coughing and sniffing a bit during yesterday's long run, but assumed it was just the cold air irritating my lungs. I felt quite exhausted in the … Continue reading Sick
Hope, in reality, is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man - Nietzsche I completed my last Long Slow Run before the Olympic Park Half today. 19 kilometres in nearly freezing temperatures, to the Olympic Park and back. I remember the days when just running to Stratford and getting a … Continue reading The Last Thing That We Need is Hope
For many years I was a regular attender of the Whitby Goth Weekend, which is an opportunity for goths to convene by the seaside with a huge suitcase full of footwear, drink too much beer, meet people from far away that they only previously knew on the internet and pay little or no attention to … Continue reading National Running Show and Cannon Hill parkrun
My Other Hobby is genealogy, and during a rather bored moment the other week I decided to combine the two and come up with a parkrun Family Tree, that is, a tree comprised of the nearest parkrun to the birthplaces of me, my parents, my grandparents and my great grandparents. It looked like this: The … Continue reading South Norwood parkrun
This weekend's activities have been Things I Would Have Done Anyway - South Norwood parkrun and a RunThrough 10k in Crystal Palace - and finally I find myself without enough time to post some musings on running and mental health, although that may mean I will not have time to post about South Norwood parkrun … Continue reading RED: How Running Saved My Sanity
January 5th: Northala Fields parkrun (see last entry). January 6th: After staying up too late drinking cocktails with chillis in them and discussing the minutiae of running watches, I was in no mood to do anything and would probably have spent the entire day watching TV if it were not for this blasted initiative. Instead, … Continue reading RED: Days 5 to 10
50 today! No, not 50 years old, I just look it. It was my 50th parkrun! The venue I chose for this momentous occasion was Northala Fields, which is somewhere nestled in the outskirts of North West London. I chose this one because a) it always sounds quite nice when people talk about it on … Continue reading Northala Fields parkrun
This is a day on which I would not normally have exercised. A rest day, if you call getting up at 4:30am and doing twelve hours' work rest. I reached my 12,000 minimum daily steps target as I got home just after 8pm, a sizeable chunk of that coming from hunting vegan sausage rolls in Waterloo. (They … Continue reading RED: Day 4
This January, I'm taking part in the Mind (mental health charity) initiative, RED (Run Every Day). The name is a bit misleading, because the rule is that you actually have to exercise every day in January, not necessarily run. Actually running every day is probably a bad idea for a lot of people, especially those prone … Continue reading RED January
Last New Year, I decided to give the New Year's Day parkrun a swerve entirely, figuring that New Year's Eve was a night sacred to drinking and that New Year's Day was a perpetual right-off. I ended up in some shit 80s club standing around with a load of bored, grumpy people and a Star … Continue reading New Year’s doubleparkrun: Grovelands and Oak Hill
The relentless search for a sub 36 parkrun finish to end the year continued this week with a trip to Dulwich. I was going to do something entirely different, but when I found out that the London Vegan Runners were visiting this lovely, off-flat, corner free, immaculately tarmacked and picturesque parkrun I felt my ship … Continue reading PB Chasing: South London Tour
I will start with the good news, which is that on Wednesday I got myself a new overall 10k PB on the running track. I set myself a target of 1:10 (previous PB being 1:10:54) and employed a tactic which was basically running just a little bit off flat out and trying to hold it … Continue reading PB or not PB?
The Christmas Cow Fest (a convention of Cow Cowl clad tourists) took place this weekend at the relatively new Wendover Woods parkrun in Buckinghamshire. As I was at work on Friday, I could only take part in the parkrun section of the festivities and not the drinks the night before, which by the look of … Continue reading Wendover Woods parkrun
This isn't really a blog about running. It's actually a blog about the weather, in which I have to go for a run occasionally to truly experience weather at it's most weathery and come back with material to moan about. I woke this morning to fresh looking skies, a dry garden and a mild weather … Continue reading Long Slow Wet Muddy Hilly Run
This weekend a rare and wondrous thing occurred, in that I asked Work to change my day shifts to late shifts and they actually said yes, which meant I could slip in a sneaky unplanned parkrun before work. I toyed with the idea of trying out Clapham Common but after a stressful week I decided … Continue reading Burgess parkrun (again)
I decided to go with the triathlon in Seaford. The prospect of official race photos with those gorgeous white cliffs in the background was what swung it. Not being crushed to death by a tractor was also a big incentive. Anyway, I thought I'd update as to how triathlon training is going. At the moment … Continue reading Seaford, Here We Come
Today I am going to do a rare and dangerous thing that never ends well: ask people for their opinions. Six months ago I signed up for the Southend Triathlon. I chose this one almost entirely because of the easy cycle part, which was simply laps along the completely pancake flat seafront road. I'm sure … Continue reading Triathlon Dilemma
It is five years now since I started running, and in the whole of that time I have never, ever run a 5k race or parkrun in less than 35 minutes. Until now. It was back to my old friend, Chase The Moon at the Olympic Park. I always run a bit faster at the … Continue reading Over The Moon
"I'm absolutely sick of getting parkrun times that start with thirty-six!" I proclaimed. "I know I can do sub-35!" And to prove this to myself, I stormed off to the running track and bashed out 33:09. "Right, Barking parkrun! Let's be having you!" I said. Armed with my Cow Cowl, new Vegan Runners vest, Samuel … Continue reading Barking parkrun (again)
You may remember that my last attempt at this race didn't go very well. After a wrong turn at 2km, I found myself horribly off course with no sensible way of getting back on course, got the hump, moaned at the person in charge and went home. My moaning earned me the compensation of a … Continue reading The Race Organiser Greenwich 10k
The places you end up supporting a non league football team. Blackpool, for instance. What a place. It reminds me of those video games I used to play before I started spending all my time running, where you roam a town filled with non-playable characters, simulated humans who slowly and purposelessly roam the streets with … Continue reading Fleetwood Promenade parkrun
I thought running two 5kms with a 90 minute break between would be easier than running 10km in one go. I was wrong! Fresh from Mile End parkrun, Linda, Petra and I assembled in Victoria Park where we were met by various RunThrough miscreants. It was SO COLD. Standing round in damp, sweaty parkrun clothes … Continue reading London Poppy Run
Mile End is the tenth closest parkrun from where I live and one I have been saving up for when it gets too cold to be getting on trains to Darkest Essex. That time has definitely come: in fact the average temperature as per my Garmin dropped from 22c to 6c between my last parkrun … Continue reading Mile End parkrun
I was egg-scused (sorry) from parkrun this morning as I had to go to work. Meanwhile, the Unhappy Eggs parkrun drama raged on. Despite over a thousand comments mostly denouncing the partnership on the original post, parkrun HQ had no intention of backing down. They sent an email out to some concerned core team members … Continue reading parkrun egg-gate continues…
It has all kicked off on Facebook. parkrun have announced their new sponsor is a mass producer of eggs (I will not give them the publicity by linking them) who, like all mass producers of eggs, are well known for doing horrendous things to chickens (warning - link contains descriptions of animal cruelty - no pictures). … Continue reading The new parkrun sponsor
One thing has been missing from my training routine ever since the marathon: the Long Slow Run, the solitary plod down the banks of the Lea Canal, with change jangling in my pockets, puddle water in my socks, and occasionally a Yellow Belly hanging from my mouth. When I started running, these jaunts were what … Continue reading The Return of the Long Slow Run
35:43! That was my official time at Chase The Moon last night and I'm absolutely delighted. It is only 24 seconds slower than my (not including track runs) 5km PB set at Dulwich parkrun in January. I'm definitely running faster than I was this time last year and I feel that if I take on … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Moon Olympic Park
Today I was in Southend for the second time in two weeks. It's not just the beaches that draw me to my nearest seaside town. When I'm not running, I like to do a bit of genealogy. I am also better at genealogy than I am at running. A bunch of my ancestors lived in … Continue reading Southend Classic 10k
The unprecedented heatwave of 2018 (ie. 47 consecutive days where I didn't have to use a hot water bottle) is now officially over and we are sliding into winter. This means the "I'll just Jeff it, I don't want to get too hot and get heatstroke and die" excuse is firmly in the bin and … Continue reading Winter Training
You know what I'm like with a hill. As soon as my favourite running events company, RunThrough, announced they were putting on a race on the infamous zigzag road loved by cyclists in lycra on fancy bikes and featured in the Olympic cycle route, I was there. Box Hill, near Dorking, is a "site of … Continue reading Beat Box Hill 5km
Southend parkrun comes under the heading of "parkruns I have been meaning to go to for ages but keep getting thwarted by engineering works on the Gospel Oak to Barking line". This weekend was my last real opportunity to do it before it gets too cold for this nonsense, so I was relieved to see … Continue reading Southend parkrun
I am now a multinational parkrun tourist! Last weekend I was in Berlin to see my favourite band, mesh. You will recall that this is the same band that I followed to Bradford, so at least they've upped their game on the glamorous locations. Berlin is home to the new-ish parkrun of Hasenheide, in the … Continue reading Hasenheide parkrun
Yesterday, Facebook Memories reminded me that it was the nine year anniversary of my first ten kilometre race. I wasn't A Runner back then, of course. I led a much less healthy lifestyle which mainly revolved around watching repeats of Airline with my idiot ex-boyfriend whilst getting legless on supermarket real ale, then ordering Domino's. … Continue reading My First 10k Race
Yesterday, I headed to Potters Fields near London Bridge for an emotional reunion with my RunThrough buddies, whom I have not seen for a whole six days. Now the Chase The Sun events are over, we are all feeling a bit bereft, so it was nice to have an alternative evening run to attend. I … Continue reading Run the River
Last year I took part in the Kew Gardens 10k, which is part of the Richmond Running Festival and really enjoyed it, so in 2018 it was back for round two. There had been a couple of improvements from last year, in that the route stayed within the gardens the whole way instead of taking an … Continue reading Kew Gardens 10k
(For the 59 billionth time) This week's excuse for not doing 10k was the fact that I'd been up since the crack of dawn getting the Eurostar home from France and endured a very stressful journey in the same carriage as a family who seemed to think the aisle was a children's playground and who … Continue reading Chase the Sun Olympic Park
I have spent the last week on holiday in France. Last Thursday I did my hilliest 5k ever in the mountains of the Cantal region of France where my uncle lives. My route consisted of 2km of rocky trail and 3km of roads. The first 2km were extremely wet and uneven - it rained heavily … Continue reading parkrun du Bois de Boulogne
I woke up the day after my million mile bike ride with a whole new set of aches and pains to content with. Normally I would find my lower legs and hips were giving me bother. Today it was my upper legs, my knees and my upper back. I had lost all bendiness and was … Continue reading The Race Organiser Regents Park 10k
This time five years ago, I was in a park in Walthamstow holding a granny bike with the pedals removed, trying again and again to coast down a small slope without falling over, and invariably landing in a heap at the bottom. I was covered from head to toe in bruises and convinced that bicycles … Continue reading Bike Ride to Broxbourne (and Gunpowder parkrun)
When I heard my favourite band, mesh, were playing the Infest festival in Bradford, my first thought was "I wonder if I can combine this with a parkrun?" Bradford, you see, hosts a rather infamous parkrun with a "Teeny Tiny Hill", complete with sign, that you have to run up three times. I have never … Continue reading Bradford parkrun
The summer is almost over. I know this because for me, the weekly Wednesday night excursions to London parks to earn sun-shaped medals are over. There's one I can't get to next week, then the Wednesday nights go back to once a month in the Olympic Park until April. I actually feel quite bereft as … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Brixton
I try to stay quiet on the animal welfare side of veganism, not because it isn't important, but because I find pictures and stories of animal cruelty mainly just upset animal lovers and put non-vegans on the defensive. I'd rather people did their own research and keep my posts to "here is a vegan thing … Continue reading Veganuary: Day 113
Last time I went to Hampstead Heath parkrun, I spotted on their page that the nearest alternative parkrun was one I'd never heard of, Gladstone parkrun. The parkrun website informed me that this park is situated in Dollis Hill, a part of London that I have never set foot in, despite it being only ten … Continue reading Gladstone parkrun
Yesterday was the fourth time I have run the RunThrough Hyde Park 5k. My times from the previous four outings went like this: 25 April 39:17 23 May 39:26 6 June 40:10 and this was quite depressing because one is supposed to get faster and not slower! Anyway, I am delighted to say I have … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Hyde Park
I was less than halfway into this morning's workout yet I had already mentally composed most of today's joyously positive post. Since cutting down on sugar I've lost 2.3kg in 10 days and my resting pulse has gone down to 52 (from 55-60). Even better still, today I followed advice from cycling friends and cycled … Continue reading Cycling Calamities That Could Only Happen To Me, part 59
Regular readers of this blog (both of you) will notice that I have been fartarsing around with my running ever since the marathon with statements such as "Look I chose a parkrun with really big hills so I am perfectly justified in walking half of it" "It's a bit hot, I think I'll Jeff it, … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Olympic Park
On Tuesday I was at the Olympic Park for a run with a bit of a difference. Instead of running horizontally, I was running vertically - up the Orbit, that is, the peculiar helter-skelter-like structure next to the stadium. It's 114.5 metres tall with 455 spiral stairs. I did this event last year and knew … Continue reading Upslide Down
Eight days ago, I decided to get a grip on my out of control sugar consumption. I already knew I was eating too much sugar, and that this was probably the main reason that I was having trouble losing weight, but I was still shocked when I sat down and counted up how much sugar … Continue reading Sugar Free
I was rather nervous about last night's race, not just because of the hills and uneven terrain of Crystal Palace Park, but because the equivalent fixture in last year's Chase The Sun calendar (exactly a year ago) had ended very badly. The race itself had seemed to go okay, but I had been having a … Continue reading Chase The Sun Crystal Palace
During my running career I've been beaten by a pillar box, all four tellytubbies, the Eiffel Tower, a man with one leg and countless small children, but never a ferry. I therefore decided to join the Viewtube Runners for their race against the ferry. The Woolwich Ferry opened in 1889 and transports 2 million passengers … Continue reading Chase The Ferry
A few weeks ago I made a very bold move and signed up for the Southend Triathlon, which will take place in eleven months' time. In a way this is a bigger challenge for me than running the marathon, because I only learned to cycle five years ago and thus cycle like a five year … Continue reading Triathlete in Training
I woke up this morning - the day after my cobble-related accident at Victoria Dock parkrun - to find that my right leg no longer bent in the middle and that I couldn't lift my left arm above my head. This was a bit of a problem as I was signed up for another race … Continue reading RunThrough Finsbury Park
As I mentioned yesterday, Victoria Dock was my 20th parkrun venue and I am now an official parkrun Tourist. My first parkrun was Finsbury Park on 4th March 2017 and I did it twice before thinking that I might like to try one that was slightly less challenging on the hill front - so off … Continue reading parkrun Tourism parts 1-20
Today was a special milestone in my parkrunning career: my 20th different venue. Doing 20 different venues makes you appear on the Most Events page which in turn entitles you to join the UK parkrun tourists Facebook group where you get the top secret link to purchase a black, white and yellow cow print cowl which … Continue reading Victoria Dock parkrun
Seven months ago, I said: and I must admit that this bold statement was at the forefront of my mind as I struggled around Richmond Desert, sorry, I mean Richmond Park this morning. With the temperature hitting 33 degrees, my body informed me that running was unavailable and walking was the only available substitute. Therefore … Continue reading Richmond parkrun
Running a 5k in 30 minutes is often seen as the holy grail for beginners and talent-deficient runners, and it's my big goal for the rest of the year. My current PB is 32:46, set in November 2017 on the running track, so it seems like something I can achieve if I focus on it … Continue reading A Weighty Issue
I have recently had a change of rota at work, with my nightshifts being replaced with 11am-11pm shifts. This has the very exciting side effect of enabling me to do an extra parkrun every month, so long as it is within 30 minutes travel of work. There are three parkruns that fulfil this criteria, and … Continue reading Burgess parkrun
I have not a lot to say about this week's race as it was pretty much exactly the same as the last month's. It was significantly hotter, but also significantly less mudder so I am hoping those two factors cancelled each other out and my time (40:11, exactly a minute faster than last month) represents … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Wimbledon Common
A couple of days after this year's London Marathon (one week after I ran Brighton), a story doing the rounds on my running groups was causing widespread outrage. Jake Halliday, a sub 4 hour marathon runner who had raised nearly £50,000 for Bloodwise, had lost his running number somewhere near the end of the race, … Continue reading The Marathon Cheat
Inspired by the wonderful day I had nearly killing myself at Hadleigh, this weekend I went off in search of more hills. I didn't fancy another 4am start and I had somewhere to be in the afternoon, so Hampstead Heath seemed like a good bet. Also I seem to be accidentally on a mission to … Continue reading Hampstead Heath parkrun
I have been wanting to visit this Hadleigh parkrun ever since I went on a history walk up to the castle last summer. It looked like a mountainous beast of a parkrun, with a hill to put Finsbury Park to shame (the course boasts double the elevation overall, and an 18% gradient in several places). … Continue reading Hadleigh parkrun
It's the final day of Veganuary! Tomorrow, I could rush out and buy a doner kebab, a cheese board and a kilo of Yellow Bellies if I wanted to. But you know what? I don't want to. I'm going to stay vegan. ... well, I say "vegan" but I'm going to qualify this a bit. … Continue reading Veganuary: Day 31
The latest edition of RunThrough's evening run series took me to sunny Wimbledon, home of tennis and Wombles. I will admit that if I hadn't got the season pass, I would probably have given this one a big miss as it is a trail run and I might have mentioned once or twice that I … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Wimbledon
When I signed up for the Westminster Mile nearly a year ago, I had some great ideas about doing lots of speedwork to train properly for it and do a super-speedy flying feet mile. It started well and by November I was down to 9:51. Then The Marathon happened and everything went to pot and … Continue reading Westminster Mile and London 10000
This will be a fairly quick review, as the course was completely unchanged from last time, my time was almost exactly the same, and even the weather was pretty much identical. I went out last night with four goals: Run the whole thing (ie. no walking) Don't get lost Don't have a tantrum about inappropriate … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Moon Hyde Park
This weekend I did a lot of running related stuff but not a lot of actual running. Most of this centred round the Hackney Festival of Fitness. But first of all, there was Wanstead Flats' seventh anniversary. I didn't want to run because a) I was doing the Hackney 5k later b) it's a trail … Continue reading Hackney Festival of Fitness
Three weeks of veganness! And to be perfectly honest, it has all been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought by now there would have been at least one episode where I cracked and raided the cheese cabinet, or accidentally ate a burger and found it to be full of trotters. … Continue reading Veganuary: Day 21
My first 10k back was indeed a shambles - but not for the reason I thought it would be! The race was part of The Race Organiser's summer Royal Parks series, and took place in lovely, hilly Greenwich Park. The first 2km went really well, my legs felt fine and I was moving at roughly … Continue reading The Race Organiser Greenwich Park 10k
I have still done fuck all running since the marathon. I went out for a trial run round the block (less than 1km) on Wednesday and it felt fine at the time, but the second I stopped I felt like I'd been kicked in the shin and the pain didn't go until the next morning. … Continue reading My Time on the Injury Bench
I've read several times that prospective vegans worry about giving up cheese, but that after a couple of weeks without it, they suddenly started to find it rancid, repulsive and disgusting and are never tempted again. I think they are probably lying. A decent cheese is without a doubt the thing I've missed the most. … Continue reading Vegan Cheese
I have now survived an entire week as a vegan! And to be honest, it's actually not been that hard. I have worked most of the days since my last post, and as I work near Waterloo, there's a Marks and Sparks, a Tesco, a Sainsbury's and a Pret to choose from, all of which … Continue reading Veganuary: Day 8
I saw the work physio yesterday. He spent a while prodding my tibiæ (I had to Google the plural of "tibia") and poking them with what looked like a vibrating tuning fork, before agreeing with my self-assessment that I had a case of shin splints but no fracture and needed to take a week or … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Finsbury Park
I survived a full day as a vegan! Day 1 saw me on a training course at my workplace's annex in Arse End. Arse End is a small enclave of London which is mainly industrial estates and a crap Sainsbury's that never has what you want (even if you're an omnivore) so I prepared myself … Continue reading Veganuary: Day 2
Tomorrow will be the first day of my fully vegan month! Before I should start by explaining that I am a bit of a fussy eater. I do not like: Courgettes Cucumbers Tomatoes (unless cherry, or cooked) Lettuce Pretty much all herbs and spices, particularly garlic and coriander Carrots, unless mashed Margarine Any food from … Continue reading Veganuary: Day Zero
I'm conceding defeat, putting myself on the injury bench and taking a break from running for the next couple of weeks. I thought my legs were just knackered from the marathon at first but now I think it's something more than that, the distinct feeling of "shin splints" in both calves (but thankfully not the … Continue reading Newcastle parkrun
All those people who gave annoying, unsolicited, know it all advice in the run up to the marathon? I'd love to say they all conked out at 20 miles and shut up, but sadly not, they're all now boasting about how little time it took them to get back up and running again after the … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Hyde Park
A week on from the marathon, and I'm still perplexed as to why every single person I speak to doesn't want to hear about it in minute detail. I am telling them anyway, including random people I never normally speak to at work, the scary HIIT instructor at the gym and absolutely anyone I interact … Continue reading Post Marathon Delerium
My next challenge is something completely different. I'm giving veganism a whirl! I read about Veganuary (a campaign organised by the Vegan society, challenging people to eat like a vegan for the whole of January) earlier this year, but didn't think it wise to make drastic changes to my diet whilst marathon training. So better … Continue reading Veganuary!
I am no longer training for anything (well, a few 10ks, but I can already run 10k) and this means I can do exactly as I like. So with this in mind, I went for a run. I have the Chase The Sun season pass this year, so I can attend as many of the … Continue reading RunThrough Chase The Sun Clapham Common
I loved the Brighton Marathon. And I will never, ever do it again. "Oh, everyone says that," say my veteran marathoner friends. "I said that when I finished my first, and look, here I am on marathon number 59!" But I actually think that (barring some kind of lottery win where I can give up … Continue reading Why I Won’t Run Another Marathon
Photos from Saturday at the Race Village I'll get the important bit over and done with: the weather on the day of the 2018 Brighton Marathon turned out almost perfectly. It was cool and grey for the majority of the race, with an hour of not-too-heavy rain, and a little sun round about the time … Continue reading Brighton Marathon 2018
My case is packed and sitting by the door, ready for the 10:20am train to Brighton tomorrow morning. When I arrive in Brighton, I'll be dropping my case at the hotel and going to the Race Village to pick up my number and a sack full of extortionately priced commemorative attire, hopefully catching up with … Continue reading Two Days to Go
I'm getting a blister on my finger from clicking refresh on the weather forecast. It is a futile exercise; it changes by the hour. At one point it said 19c and sunny - everyone had kittens. It currently says 13c, sunny spells, with a shower in the afternoon. I'll take that. It's silly to obsess … Continue reading Six Days To Go
Feeling about 75% recovered from my cough and cold today, so made a triumphant (ish) return to parkrun. I decided head to Grovelands, a parkrun that I wanted to visit because a) it's not far from home b) it has hills. The hill probably wasn't the best idea in my weakened state but I was also … Continue reading Grovelands parkrun
My current mood is a mixture of the complete dread and anxiety that preceded all five of my driving tests (none of which I passed) and the uncontainable excitement of a small child on Christmas Eve. I have already started to pack some things and I have checked the weather forecast for Brighton at least … Continue reading Nine Days To Go
Running is like drinking alcohol. For a start, they are both things I enjoy. There is a certain irony to this statement, as since I started marathon training I have hardly drunk any alcohol at all. But examine the evidence: Running 5km is like a tasty pint of beer. You can do it in your … Continue reading Running is like…
Today was my 20th parkrun and my 13th different event. Beckenham Place Park had ade it to my to-do list despite being flat, grassy and devoid of hills because it happens to be a ten minute walk from the house where I grew up and where my mother still lives. When I was a teenager, … Continue reading Beckenham Place parkrun
I re-followed the Brighton Marathon Virgins Facebook group the other day. I unfollowed it a couple of months ago, partly because of some annoying comments from self appointed experts (who have no right being in a beginner's group in the first place) but mainly because I was looking at other people's distances and times and … Continue reading Runger
Something yesterday reminded me that after my Dublin Marathon 2016 fiasco, I made a bullet pointed list of things to remember for next time. I had a dig in my computer and found the following in a Word file entitled "Things I Learned From My First Marathon": Four gels is plenty. Any more will just … Continue reading Things I Learned From My First Marathon
Yesterday was my last EVER long training run! I am officially on taper now, which will involve eating Easter Eggs, cajoling my mother around a parkrun, bothering my physio repeatedly and a shedload of Downward Dogs. Once again things did not go to plan as I woke with the onset of a cold and the … Continue reading Long Run – Walthamstow to Catford
Today Brighton Marathon Weekend posted a photo on their Facebook page of two suspiciously cheerful men named Sam and Rob approaching the Brighton Marathon finish line pushing a young girl in a wheelchair, with the caption "3 weeks to go! Are you ready?" Am I ready? Let's see. I suppose I am ready, a bit like … Continue reading Are You Ready?
Yesterday was my penultimate Long Run before the marathon (which is now just TWENTY FIVE days away). I couldn't decide whether to run along the Thames Estuary (from Shoeburyness to Leigh on Sea and back again) or the Thames Path (from Putney to Hampton Court) so I threw the question to a Facebook poll. The … Continue reading Thames Path Long Run
I'll spare you a long entry on last night's Chase The Moon, as it's the fifth I've been to and this could get repetitive! I ran it slowly as a "recovery run", hence a time of 38:27. I didn't look at my watch for the whole race, and I made it my mission to get … Continue reading The Final Chase The Moon
Apologies for the tantrum yesterday! I have resolved never to ask for advice on running forums again, at least when it comes to admitting any form of weakness. You are only a real runner if you easily can run 20 miles in simultaneous mud, rain, wind, snow and heatwave. No headphones or dogs, as you … Continue reading Central London Parks Long Run
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Ainda Vivente Na Lama Do Rio Corrente
Kath's Kith & Kin
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” ~ Alexander Graham Bell
PHOTOGRAPHY, FAMILY HISTORY and LIFE IN GENERAL
Where Distant Family Become Close
Fun With Genealogy
"Nothing haunts us like the things we dont say."
Better at writing than at running
Better at writing than at running
