Juneathon 2016 - week 1

Links: Week 1 (01-05) / Week 2 (06-12) / Week 3 (13-19) / Week 4 (20-26) / Week 5 (27-30)

Last year I completed Juneathon - a fun challenge for no reason whatsoever where participants run (or some other kind of exercise) and blog every day in June. I decided to do it again this year, but rather than blog every day for a month (which gets a bit tiresome, as you may remember from last year) I'll just do a weekly summary. Like last year I'm going to try and run every day, with a 5km minimum for it to "count".

Juneathon 2016 week 1

Wednesday 1st June

June started on the 1st, like it does most years. I like June 1st because it's my birthday. This year it's a Wednesday which is a fairly dull day for a birthday, so I thought I'd go to work. I cycled in, and ran some of the way home.

Cycle to work...

...and run back to Putney

I often run to Putney and get the tube form there, at a little under 10km it's a nice distance to turn your legs over without it being a something that needs planning or takes too long.


Thursday 2nd June

A lot like yesterday, but the other way round - a short run in to work from Clapham Junction and a cycle home.

Run to work from Clapham...

...and cycle home

I've only got back on my bike recently after not riding it since autumn last year. I tend to go in phases with cycling. I certainly feel it's overdue another phase.

Friday 3rd June

Mrs is taking me to Dublin for a birthday weekend so I elected to work from home today. I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to get up and run round to "Uncle David's House" to drop off our house keys.

Early morning run

"Uncle David" is David Fellingham, proprietor of West Wimbledon Cattery, our current preferred kitty hotel for when we're away from home. We discovered last year that he also does home feeding visits, which is really useful for weekends like this when we just need someone to take care of Saturday and Sunday.

Home form Sigma Sport

I also picked my old Fuji bike up from a fantastic service at Sigma Sport in Hampton Wick - these guys are excellent and my bike is better than I'd expected a five-year old bike that's been out in all weathers could be. Might be time to take on the old "three hills" route again, haven't done that for a while.


Saturday 4th June

With last night's birthday weekend celebrations ending up with a few rounds of Irish-strength cocktails at gone midnight, getting up for parkrun was going to be hard. We changed our plans from a trip to Naas to "just get to the nearest one" which turned out to be St. Anne's parkrun.

This is a beautifully manicured park to the North of Dublin. We arrived to find very little evidence of parkrun - obviously we hadn't forgotten that Irish parkruns start at 9:30 *cough*. But with 45 minutes to kill we ambled around the park, before the usual colourful collection of parkrunners began to assemble at 9:20.

We took the run easy, partially because of our delicate state, partially because we were heading over to Glendalough afterwards for a "proper run". I'm pleased to have chalked up my second non-UK parkrun.

Every new event is a #NewPB

We got a little mention in the run report: "We also welcomed our parkrun tourists today - Norman & Kate Driskell all the way from Wimbledon Common parkrun. We hope you both enjoyed your visit & our parkrun route" (we did, it was lovely thank you Gillian) and they insisted on taking a photo for their Facebook page.

Doing our best "not at all hungover" faces (photo courtesy of St Anne's parkrun)

After a cup of tea and some reviving breakfast at the visitors' centre, we hopped back in the hire car and set off for Glendalough. There was a lot of traffic. The weather has been glorious in Ireland for the past week, and the hot sunny weekend had brought everyone out and into the hills.

As we got there the queue for the car park went right up the hill, a local Garda was turning people around and sending them to alternative car parks - which turned out to be an enterprising farmer's field, and a kid on the road charging €4.

The main routes at Glendalough are marked by coloured arrows. We decided to take the red route - the longest and with the most altitude gain. Mrs is in training for NDW100 and I'm training for the Chiltern Challenge Ultra, so it was a good specific session for both of us.

Board walk; exactly what it says on the tin

Most of the first half was hiked, steep inclines, up to a long section of "board walk" - a path made from old sleepers and with chicken wire and fencing staples to improve grip. It went up, and up. After that it went up, and then up a little more.

The red route

Up, up, up, and wheeeeeeeeeeee down again...

Eventually, we got to the top, were greeted with a fantastic view, and then a glorious 5km run down a well finished gravel roadway - talk about a run of two halves!

Panorama from the top

Sunday 5th June

We had elected to go back to Glendalough today, but earlier to beat the crowds. We got there before 10am and it was still fairly quiet. Our legs were toast from yesterday, so we chose the orange route (similar area to yesterday, but no where near as high), and then the purple route which is an out and back round one side of the lake.

Orange route, then purple route

Not quite the altitude of yesterday, but still a good hike up

The hillier orange route went well, but I found the flatness of the purple route hard. We both dug in and got round though. On the way back to Dublin we met up with an old work colleague of mine for a coffee at a wonderful cafe called The Grange Kitchen - highly recommended should you ever get the chance.

The Grand Kitchen, Wicklow

After this heavy and hilly weekend I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to tick off my 5km tomorrow - I predict very, very, gently...

Motivation creation

Recently I realised that not having a race to target means that although I go running for fun (which was the point of not having a formal plan), I also eat like a pig and drink like a fish. Oops. Consumed way too many carbs, and way too many units of loopy-juice lately. The remedy? Enter a race or two and get a goal to target.

Mrs, rocking the North Downs Way 50 last weekend

So - fast or far? Competent athletes have to cope with a trade off - they have these challenging decisions to make like “should I be a sub-10s 100m sprinter, a sub-13 minute 5km middle distance athlete, or a 2-hour marathoner?”. If you go super fast, you can’t do it for long; and if you go long, you lose top speed (although Mo Farah appears not to have got the memo on that one). Thankfully, 13 stone 40-year old desk-bound office workers rarely face such a conundrum.

I said a while go I didn’t see the need to enter a road marathon again, right? Didn’t say anything about trail ultras though did I. Therefore - today I entered a couple of trail ultra-marathons.

First up, on July 16th  I’ll take on the X-NRG Chiltern Challenge 2016 - a pretty 31-mile trail race through the Chilterns.

Chiltern Challenge route, 31 miles

But maybe I need bit more motivation?...

How about 50 miles worth of motivation?...

In 122 days, on September 17th, I'll have a bash at the Centurion Running Chiltern Wonderland 50. I’ve let Mrs take on the long races until now (apart form my one painful ultra experience) but watching her ace the North Downs Way 50 last weekend was (and I’m not sorry for using this word) inspirational. I saw her at 31 miles, and at the end. She looked amazing, she was running wonderfully, and was so full of happy at the end. I want that!

Chiltern Wonderland, 50 miles

I really enjoyed a run out on the North Downs Way recently, a 10 mile out and back, and would love to race on that terrain. I say “race”, really I mean “get from A to B without exploding” but that’s really the goal of ultras - to get to the end, ideally in one piece and smiling a bit.

In the mean time I seem to have swelled a little and currently tip the scales at very nearly 90kg. I feel heavy and my clothes are unflatteringly snug. There's plenty of time to fix that, so... game on!

*nervous gulp*

#loveparkrun

I happened to notice that Saturday 23rd April 2016 marked exactly five years since I ran my first parkrun - Saturday 23rd April 2011. Perfect excuse for a rambling blog post - I could (and do) bang on about parkrun for days - but I'll try and keep it to just a few hours.

On that day in 2011 www.parkrun.org.uk looked like this. There were 57 parkrun events in England, three in Scotland, two in Wales, and just one single event in Northern Ireland. Globally there were a handful of runs in Denmark, and Australia was starting up.

Nobody I spoke to knew what parkrun was or had any idea how big it would become. Similarly, I had no idea how hooked I would get!

Welcome to parkrun!

Checking through my email I see I signed up for parkrun on 26th August 2009 - I can't believe it took me over a year and a half to get round to running. I hadn't realised until checking just now it was really that long - what on Earth was I thinking?!

Mrs and I signed up at the same time - she pipped me to the post on the signup button and was assigned athlete ID 40487; I was assigned 40489. Despite signing up at the same time as each other, Mike Watson managed to squeeze in between us and claim ID 40488 - cheeky Mike!

Wimbledon Common parkrun - where it all began

Mrs attended her first event a week before me - I was away in Atlanta on business and she was recovering from an injury - she went up to our home event of Wimbledon Common and volunteered as photographer.

The first week I ran was Wimbledon Common event #224. First male finisher on that day was Chris Parr who set a new course record of 15:04 that still stands today.  He was first finisher in five of the six parkruns he's completed, including an outstanding 14:53 at Bushy Park a few weeks earlier that even today ranks as the 14th fastest ever finisher at Bushy.

Ahhh, Senior Male 35-39, I remember you well!

In the intervening years I've seen parkrun grow in scale, strength, and profile. Run by a small team of permanent staff and supported every week by thousands of volunteers, parkrun is rapidly becoming part of our national identity.

Every parkrun is based on the same principles and rules, but each develops its own personality shaped by the volunteers, environment, and community. Nature and nurture in balance.

No organisation has done more for grass-roots running and community engagement. No joining fee, no daunting club runs, very few rules and every runner applauded and encouraged - from the fastest to the slowest. Contrary to initial concerns, local running clubs have seen memberships grow as a result of increased interest in running.

When the parkrun community was smaller, a group of us used to go to inaugural events whenever we could. I started seeing the same faces regularly - Louise Ayling, Ian Giggs, Rosemary Egbe, Nicola Tarrant, Vanessa Rayner, Colin Brassington, Danny Norman, and many more.

With so many new events starting in London and around the South East it was easy to go to a new event every week. Without ever really deciding to, I had become a parkrun tourist.

Somewhere along the way I got somewhat obsessed with the most events tables. I've always had a collector/completionist mindset - and parkrun is the perfect avenue for me to be harmlessly obsessed.

Currently 11th on the UK table...

...and 15th on the global table

At one point it would have been possible to have completed every parkrun in the world, but not now - they are starting at more than the rate of one per week, and even with unlimited funds one couldn't catch up (but oh boy think of the airmiles!).

"Lon-Done" once again after celebrating Louise's 250th run at Tooting Common last week

A few notable highlights from the last five years of touring are:

• Just about completing the once-in-a-lifetime New Year's Day triple.
• Forgetting my shoes (Concord, Sheffield).
• Getting up at 4am in order to drive to Marple inaugural with Danny Norman.
• Forgetting my shoes again (Southend inaugural).
• Forgetting my shorts (can't remember which one that was).
• Forgetting my shoes a third time (Pegwell Bay).

Many times I've arrived at parkrun with just seconds to spare, quickly swapping cycling shoes for running shoes, and on several occasions running round in cycling kit as i had no time to get changed. 

Most importantly, I have never, ever, forgotten my bar code. Of course, this may be because I have one in my mobile phone case, one on a wrist band, and two in my wallet.

I've always made it to the parkrun I've been aiming for, and I've never been unlucky enough to find one cancelled (though I did arrive at Brockenhurst 11 minutes late once after getting stuck in traffic then going the wrong way up the motorway in Southampton... The wonderful event team let me start anyway, and I ran as hard as I could - I've never worked so hard for a recorded time of over 35 minutes!).

I've run in beautiful national parks and country parks, city parks, sea fronts and promenades. Up muddy hills, through woody forests, across fields, and on every conceivable variety of trail and path. Small but perfectly formed events with just a handful of runners to enormous established events that attract many hundreds. I've got up very early on many Saturdays, and gone to see places I'd otherwise never have been.

So on Saturday I went to Holkham parkrun on the North coast of Norfolk to join the team for their 20th event. The grounds of Holkahm Hall were stunning - a beautifully maintained park and a glorious estate.

Saturday marked the 185th time in the last five years that I've got up and found my way to a park for a free timed 5km run, and it's the 167th different park I've visited. I've covered 925 parkrun kilometres, and it's taken 4 days, 10 hours, 6 minutes, and 14 seconds.

#loveparkrun #DFYB

Thank you for the last five years, parkrun. I'm really looking forward to the next five, and ten, and twenty...

The Capital Ring (5 of 5)

I've run the Capital Ring in sections over the last few of weeks. This is part 5 of 5.

Part 1, Grove Park to Wimbledon
Part 2, Wimbledon to Preston Road
Part 3, Preston Road to Stratford
Part 4, Stratford to Charlton
Part 5, Charlton to Grove Park

Just a short section left for today, the South Eastern segment. I'd intended to run the ring in quarters, but my injury-avoidance technique had seen that one off.

Today all was fine, so after a few days not running I headed back to Charlton ready to head on back to Grove Park, where I'd started.

It was a grey day with rain scheduled from mid-morning onwards, I had my lightweight waterproof but no matter how good they are there's always a bit of a "boil in the bag" effect if you're running in it so I'd prefer not to use it.

These stairs are very steep

I'm going to get this rant over and done with - what the hell is it with the ugly, aggressive, and discriminatory anti-cyclist constructions in our parks? Not only are they built from box-section steel and poles capable of withstanding the apocalypse, but they must be impossible to navigate for anyone who is remotely less able or encumbered in some way.

Even I could only just fit through this, it's a really tight squeeze

Got shopping? Sod off, you're not welcome.
Got kids and a buggy? Sod off you're not welcome.
Less able, overweight, or rely on a wheelchair or mobility aid? Forget it!

We're sure you understand; cyclists are the epitome of evil and must be defeated at any cost.

No entry

Now that's off my chest...

Today's run was up for the first third, then drifting back down for the remainder. Setting off from Charlton the climb started immediately through Mayor Wilson Park, Charlton Park, and Hornfair Park. I was surprised to find a city zoo where it was feeding time.

Breakfast!

My right calf that was causing me a bit of trouble last week was twitching a bit, but nothing serious - I was confident I'd get through today's distance with no issues.

My eyes have been open by how easy it is to find parks and paths that look like they could be in the middle of the countryside, despite being near central London. Today was no exception and the first few parks were lovely and quiet.

Underfoot there was a mix of pavement, tarmac, trail, and grass. Despite the rain it wasn't too muddy, and the cool freshness was perfect for jogging.

Severndroog Castle

Come off Shooters Hill and into another park I was greeted by a castle, Severndroog Castle (Wikipedia entry) was built in 1783. Seven counties are visible from the top.

The Castle int he Woods

Heading down now, through various roads and housing estates (there are some big houses round here) - but not before one last view out across to the South.

Great view, the last big panoramic sweep of my Capital Ring circuit

Before long I realised I was near the end. I'd only been trundling, but the day was a short one so still passed quickly.

The end of my circuit

So, back down the side of the school where I started a couple of weeks ago. It's been a really interesting run through many parts of London I'd never been to before, and offering a different angle to some parts I knew (or thought I knew) well.

Pleasing stats - last km in 07:07, and 13.07 total distance in 01:37:00

Up for 4km, peaking at Shooters Hill, then downhill all the way - stable pace throughout

Just a little over 13km in South East London for the final leg

My distance for the Capital Ring over the five legs was 126.5km (78.6 miles) and it took me a relaxing 15 hours 34 minutes and 26 seconds.

(Disclaimer: I've subtracted taken 0.3km and 2 minutes to account for the little extra bit I did from the School on day one as I was following the London Ultra course rather than the Capital Ring).

My reward!

I'm already wondering if one day I could try the whole lot in one go... After all, plenty of people run 100-mile races over far more arduous terrain... Got a long way to go before I can take that on though!

The Capital Ring (4 of 5)

I've run the Capital Ring in sections over the last few of weeks. This is part 4 of 5.

Part 1, Grove Park to Wimbledon
Part 2, Wimbledon to Preston Road
Part 3, Preston Road to Stratford
Part 4, Stratford to Charlton
Part 5, Charlton to Grove Park

As I was walking to the station in the morning to head back to Stratford I complained to Mrs, on her way to work, that my right Achilles/calf was a bit twingy. I decided to run anyway because I wanted to get to the end (no prizes for guessing the end of this story). 

I was blessed with the weather for these days

Back in Stratford and I had a 10 minute stroll across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to pick up the River Lea towpath again. I took time to bounce a bit and do some dynamic stretches to warm up my calf.

Near to the river in quite a desolate corner of the park I was stopped by a tourist with a very pronounced Welsh accent - he asked me where "Trafalgar Square and that kind of thing" was. I pointed at the silhouette of the Gherkin (or as it was christened, 30 St Mary Axe) off in the far distance, and told him it was beyond that. I suggested he walk in the other direction, where I'd come from, and get the tube. He agreed. Weird. I wonder how he ended up there, or where he started from?

Tree with a slipped halo

Quite quickly I was faced with a closed footpath - this was to become a theme for the day. I was re-routed, after a few false starts, round some Thames Water building works - but was treated with a tree with a silver band hanging round it. The threads were fine and the band looked like it was just hanging there magically - it certainly drew a double-take.

Apparently it's a history tree (expand the section lower down the page) and there are ten of them around the border of the park - the bands weight as much as 500kg! Over time the tree and the band will intertwine and become one. The interior of the bands are engraved - I hadn't noticed that but I can see from the photo there's something there.

"Stand on top of the world in the UK's tallest sculpture" - the Orbit tower

The plus side of being re-routed around the place was I got some great views. I've been really lucky with the weather this few days. The Orbit tower was very impressive. I hadn't been this close since my trip to the Olympics four years ago.

The Olympic Stadium

More closed pathway

I navigated myself round only to find more closure - this time I couldn't get up onto the famous raised greenway heading South out from Stratford toward Beckton - Thames Water to blame again, but to their credit once I'd worked out what was going on their signage was clear and helpful.

Very helpful signage

Full explanation of the closure

It hadn't been the start to the day I was looking for - plus it was baking hot - but I was on track now and had the long stretch of the greenway ahead of me.

The Greenway

The Greenway runs for several miles and is straight, flat, and fast. It would make a great point-to-point parkrun, but you'd have a hell of a walk back to pick up your bag.

Dropping down off the Greenway I headed into Beckton, and across Beckton park - home of Beckton parkrun, my current PB course (21:13, thanks for asking)! I remember running the inaugural here and chatting to the event director from Valentines parkrun (which I hadn't run at the time).

One of the many foot bridges over major roads

One of the interesting things about this route has been crossing over and through areas I've known well from the past and seeing them from a different angle. The picture above is the A13, I commuted by motorbike under it hundreds of times when I lived in Southend and worked in Docklands, and I've driven under it dozens of times. It's the first time I've ever crossed it on this bridge though.

I'd been mentally ticking off as I go round - the A24, M4, M1, A1, and now A13. All roads I know well but from different perspectives.

Looking out across to the runway of London City Airport

After the A13 I headed under the Docklands Light Railway through Cyprus station, and through the University of East London - which was utterly deserted. The next few miles were dockside, as I ran out round the University grounds and then dropped onto the Thames as the route starts to head West.

"Footpath closed" - I can handle that, but where should I run instead?

My calf was starting to play up now and running was unpleasant.  Running up any kind of incline was starting to get painful. I was hoping to run the ring in four units of approximately 30km. I'd covered about 13km so far, I didn't think I'd get to 30 today.

Look at the size of the pneumatic ram that operates this lock

I ran round the locks and followed the river. The going was hard now, and there was no need to injury myself (I'm not racing anyone or anything after all) so decided it would be a good plan to stop at the foot tunnel.

The North entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel

The Woolwich Foot Tunnel was a welcome sight.  It runs underneath the route of the Woolwich Ferry - I'm not sure I've ever seen the ferry before, I generally only hear about it when it's reported as not running every time there's some wind, or it's raining, or it's a day with a "y" in it... It was running today, however, and was providing sterling service, fully loaded with lorries and cars.

Underneath the Thames!

The South entrance

The South entrance was hidden behind a new development. I was looking for a convenient "out" by now, but there wasn't anywhere obvious to stop for a coffee. I decided to run down the Capital Ring a little further, it was coincident with the Thames Path for a while, and I got a good look at the Thames Barrier with the Canary Wharf estate and Isle of Dogs behind it. Very shiny. I also ran past an enormous canon.

Convenient light-weight side arm

Thames Barrier and Canary Wharf (honest, try squinting)

Eventually I found a convenient break point - the path took a sharp left off the main road into a park, and just a short distance ahead was Charlton Station, so let's call it a day. It's another 17km in the bag, and only 14km left for the last leg. I think I need a few days for my calf to recover - no point getting injured for no reason.

Today's run - the Greenway is very obvious from around 5-8km

Today's run was 17.9km, in a very slow 2:30:56 - I put that down to multiple closed footpaths, crap redirections, and a very slow final few km as I tried not to hurt my calf and Achilles any further. One section left, around 14km by my reckoning. I'll give it a few days before returning to Charlton for the last leg back to Grove Park.