Since getting my place in May 2017 for in The Big One on 22 April 2018, I’ve deliberately run a lot more races than previously, with more in the pipeline. Those planned still to do: In March, my first overseas race, the Cyprus Half Marathon in Paphos. In places it’s not the most thrilling of routes, […]
at the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, 3rd February The organisers of the Virgin Money London Marathon put on an event called “Meet the Experts”, an opportunity to hear from a range of experts to help those attending (almost exclusively first timers such as myself) to be better prepared by the time we get to 22nd […]
Part of the legacy of the 2012 Olympics is the mountain-bike course at Hadleigh in Essex, including some rather challenging terrain for bikes. Arising from that is the slightly confusingly named Hadleigh 2012 Legacy 10k, confusing only in the sense that one must understand that the 2012 doesn’t refer to the year of the event, […]
So, how did 2017’s running go? I’m pretty pleased.
My 52nd parkrun location for this morning was an icy Druridge Bay, the most northerly parkrun in England while we were spending a weekend in Northumberland. While I was waiting in the cold and then running, Lucy took the dogs for a walk along the beach and found a couple of geocaches. The route is […]
A chilly morning (zero degrees when we set out from home) made for a slightly tricky decision on what to wear for this race, and as I stood around before the start, wearing an extra fleece and still cold, I began to doubt whether I was going to be wearing enough. The large number of […]
After doing my home parkrun last weekend, this morning’s exploration took me to Brundall, just east of Norwich for my 84th parkrun at my 51st different course. It’s a fairly new “countryside park”, and on the small side as these things go, so despite a route looping back on itself, it was still four laps […]
My 50th different parkrun location today was Castle Park parkrun, in Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire. A very pleasant trot around the park with views of a second motte-and-bailey castle (after last week’s Clare Castle) and the infant River Stort, cheered on by a good few spectators including Lucy and two of our dogs, en route […]
Clare Castle parkrun in SW Suffolk today for my parkrun tourism. It was just its fourth run, and so had been my nearest not visited. The run here allowed me to complete the Suffolk parkruns once again. The route is around the country park, a spot I’ve been to a number of times, with the […]
More parkrun tourism for me today: parkrun #80 at location #48 was Southend, joining a couple of friends, one of whom lives in nextdoor Leigh. The course is very pleasant, being three laps of Gunners Park, itself part of a larger nature reserve formed from former military use as its name hints. It includes three […]
A beautiful day for a run today, the Great Eastern Run half-marathon around the streets of Peterborough. One or two people afterwards complained that it was hot and muggy, but they obviously weren’t in the same place as me – I thought it nearly ideal running conditions: blue skies to start with though more cloud […]
A visit to March in Cambridgeshire this morning for parkrun #79 at my 47th location. After a warm-up jog, I quickly got chatting to people – it rapidly became clear that it is a particularly friendly event with a lot of mutual support going on for the full range of abilities. The route is four […]
This morning the King’s Forest Half Marathon, my first trail half. Or rather, half and a bit as it was long: the race director said 13.71 miles though I measured it a bit less. I arrived in good time at West Stow Country Park and put the car in the overflow car park, missing a […]
It was bright and sunny when I left the house, but started raining heavily once in Norfolk, and it was a gloomy scene when I reached the puddle-strewn car park on the edge of the common at Mulbarton just south of Norwich. I waited in the car for a while, and the rain turned to […]
Great news that Mo Farrah has decided to join me in running the London Marathon 2018. I can talk for years to come about running with Mo. Great news. And I’m confident that such will be my speed that Mo will be nowhere in sight when I cross the line. His win today of the […]