Afan Day 2

So the weather Gods didn't listen at all. The weather started with minor drizzle before turning into a fully formed downpour.

More on that later, I am sure.

Right now I am sat in lodge bar, with a pint of lager, my arms, hands and wrists are starting to ache. The less said about my backside the better I feel. I am also nursing a pretty impressive bruise on the inside of my right knee and I have no idea where it came from.

Today was tough. Very tough. Well tough for me. I am sure the others loved it (they found it tough too). Well apart from Geoff who had some issue with his front shocks on his bike that meant he couldn't go as fast as he wanted to. So he was just frustrated.

Anyway the day started with an epic cooked breakfast. This was much needed and we all stocked up for the day.

We didn't realise what a day it would turn out to be.

Geoff was the proverbial boy on Christmas day, a new run had just opened and he was really looking forward to being able to ride it before his brother. Which naturally meant lots of lies about how easy and long the route would be.

So all kitted and wrapped up we stood in the car park ready to set off. I made a schoolboy error of setting the Gib-pro off from the start and although I have gotten some decent footage the camera battery died before the really big decent. Although Nick and Geoff both had their cameras so there are some photographic evidence from the day.

Off we set, mostly to a chorus of 'oooh that hurts' or 'why am I doing this again?' A word to the wise padded shorts are a must when mountain biking. I am so glad I have mine even though it still hurts to sit a saddle.

Off we went to the foot of the mountain to start the long, long, looooong climb to the top of the new run 'Blade'. The climb actually shares segments with another route called Skyline. Which probably gives you an idea of where this run ends up.

Now a little admission. I am getting better on downhill sections - still reached some parts that are beyond my pay grade - but I really suck at long climbs. Shorter bursts I can do but today was a slog. So I decided to multi-sport it. Every time I felt I could not climb anymore I would yell 'cyclocross' jump off the bike and run/walk for a little bit.

Simple really.

Right so the accent began. Slow and steady for me and rapid and well done for everyone else.

And the accent continued.

And continued.

In fact most of the day was spent climbing.

I am sure it wasn't but I can only remember two major sections that were quick and mostly downhill and one of these was the very last section.

Now I am not complaining. It was amazing and the scenery here is incredible. However when the rain is pouring, your bum is very sore and the strength has gone from your legs constant climbing can get a little thin on the nerves.

To cheer myself up I decided to manual every slight mound I came across. This lead to my new nickname Chris 'manual' Gibson.

Similarly we have come up with other nicknames for people.

Paul 'clipped out' Sheehan.

Geoff 'one more climb' Flower.

And...

Nick 'p***** in a puddle' Simmons.

In fairness we are working on the last one.

So, yes, we rode and rode for nearly 5 hours. All with the promise of Welsh Rarebit at the end of the ride.

The final decent was, I think the correct term is gnarly! It was steep, sheer, rocky and fast. The switchbacks were very sharp and sudden and I must admit there were moments where I did not think I was going to make it without a massive bail.

But I did. I may have gone slower than everyone else but I made it, in one piece and without crashing badly.

It was so much fun in the end. Absolutely loved it. When it is a little bit drier it will be such an amazing route.

Once I am better at climbing though, of course.

Anyways went, cold and very sore we finally reached the cafe and saw Geoff talking to the guys there about his damaged shocks. We then took ourselves up for a bit of refueling only to find there was no Rarebit!

Gutted.

We did manage to make do with some well sized jacked potatoes. Other than Nick who had awesome looking scrambled eggs on bread.

A couple of cuppas and a slice of cake and we were good to go.

Nick and I had left our bikes down next to the bike shop, the guys there had decided to put the hire bikes in the shop rather than risk them getting stolen. To be honest, I didn't think that would have been an issue but apparently so. Thanks guys from Skyline, I was so impressed with them I bought a t-shirt (which is very nice but Geoff has the same one as well!).

A quick 4.5 miles home along cycle tracks (not less than 2 miles Geoff) and it was shower and recovery time once again.

The rides today are here and here. Yesterdays is here.

Finally to finish, things I have learnt so far;

1. It is better to hire bikes because things always seem to go wrong with them which requires lots of money to fix - Geoff.
2. When nature calls you go where ever you need too - Nick.
3. Manual over everything to look better than your ability level truly is - Chris.
4. Staying in bed all day is probably the right thing to do when it is hammering it down outside - Nick the Meerkat (yes he is here, no I don't know why he hasn't blogged yet).
5. Even when you are doing everything possible to get over loosing your nerve after a big crash, these things take time - Paul.
6. There is never just one more climb - All apart from Geoff.
7. Enthusiasm will get your through even the most difficult of rides, but only if you also have the skill to deal with the terrain, the breaking of your bike and your moody friends - Geoff.
8. There are parts of new rides that when the rain has been falling for months on end do in fact look like the Somme - All.
9. A hot shower cures almost everything, but for everything else there is a foam roller - All, especially Nick. 
10. Finally, whatever the weather, whatever the conditions under foot/tire and regardless of how good, in the zone, or whatever. Being outside with your mates is still the way to do it, especially if you are doing something that you have a mutual interest in.

I am going to sign off in a minute to enjoy the football and some more beers. Before I do, I have really enjoyed being here again however it does consolidate the feeling that I have already found my sport. I am a trail runner. Next time we come I will take Nick up on his idea to bring our trainers and take a day to run some routes up among the mountains. 

Excellent thoughts. 

Right beer and football time.

Laters,

Chris.

Afan Trip Day 1

Day 1

Departure was meant to be 7.15 am, however I was running late and so Geoff picked me up at 7.30 and we headed off. Into 45 minutes worth of traffic so Geoff could collect his kung fu shoes from the post office depot the other side of town. Eventually having fought our way back across Maidstone we collected Paul and then off we went to pick up Nick.

I have no idea what time we hit the motorway but I think it was about 9 ish. Fortunately we did not seem to hit a lot of traffic but what traffic we did hit slowed us down for what seemed an age, it is always the same when you are excited to be at your destination isn’t it? We stopped twice for coffee and food and a very quick whip around for money for the Severn bridge into Wales (a ridiculous £6.80).

Finally we wound our way around and up into the Afan Valley and arrived at Afan Lodge, our home for the next 3 days. Only we were a little early (!?) which meant we could not sign in and get our rooms as they were not quite ready. However the owners (who are amazing) said we could use the facilities to get changed and head out for a ride and they would look after our stuff until we got back. Winning!

So all changed and ready to go we headed down to the lock up to collect our hire bikes (Nick and myself) and get bikes off the roof rack (Geoff and Paul).

Hire bikes are always a little bit of a lottery, sometimes they are perfect for you and very comfortable to ride and other times not so much. This time it would seem we have gotten lucky, although if I was to be horrendously critical I feel my pedals are too close to the ground.

Anyways the best thing about my hire bike is it is bright orange, so absolutely no complaints from me about that!

We set off to do the Wall route which I remembered from my last time in Afan. I don’t remember quite so much climbing on the fire roads though – seems a few parts along the way are closed over winter for repair and I can’t imagine the UK’s recent heavy rain has helped matters either. It’s also worth adding here that the first climb did not make me flake out this time! The difference was actually eating on the way to Wales and not relying on breakfast alone – lessons learned and all that.

So we climbed, climbed and climbed some more until we finally reached some downhill sections. I set the Gib-pro up for recording and off I went, my normal slow cautious self but much more confident and, I feel at least, much better in terms of form when riding along. The Gib-pro (Samsung Tocco in a pencil case) let me down a few times and I only managed to get two sections of footage.

The other downside is the heavens opened, a lot, it’s funny being on the mountains you can see the rain rolling in and then it hits you. Unfortunately this seems to happen in about 30 seconds. Which means that you get just enough time to say ‘look at the clouds I think it will rain’ and then you are drenched, all the way through which is obviously nice.

This meant that the footage from day one is both sporadic and very grim as the rain got everywhere. I also forgot to bring spare sellotape so am not sure how much of the second ride the Gib-pro will survive for but I am sure I will find a way around it, somehow.

I managed to climb a fair bit, but even with getting gearing right and staying in my saddle there were parts where I had to push, I am just not a very good climber on the bike. I am much better than I was in October but it is all still a work in progress. Maybe one day I will be better?

There were a few crashes, Geoff fell off just outside the grounds of the lodge trying to be clever and ride down wet steps. He then managed to crash incrementally and in slow motion which was both hilarious but also a bit of a warning that even the best rider in our group could get things very wrong. He was I think lucky he landed fairly softly as it might have ended his riding there and then.

Nick (human) managed to forge a new trail and go into a tree, or something, I am not too sure as I was not present but apparently it was funny.

The biggest bail of the day goes to Paul who from the sounds of it managed to overcook and turning ended up off track and went head first over his handlebars. All still with one foot clipped in. He has a nice bruise forming on his thigh and was quite shaken by it all. Absolute hats off to him as well as he then went on to complete the final section ‘Zig Zags’ which is the hardest section on the Wall. By his own admission at the time he had lost his nerve but he still rode it and there were sections on there that were quick even if you were pretty hard on the brakes – I know because I was!

Then it was back to the lodge to clean the bikes down. Once we were back the rain, naturally, stopped and we were left very wet and very muddy. Room keys handed out, signed for and paired off we set up to our rooms for hot showers and cups of tea. I am sharing with both Nicks the only downside to the room being that there is no Wi-Fi and the TV reception is a little dodgy.

That of course is a minor gripe.

So dinner time rolled around and a few beers were sunk, some mountain bike videos were watched and lots of food was consumed. Nick managed to devour ribs and chicken, Paul had lasagna, Geoff a steak and I chomped down on some surf and turf. Pudding, of course, followed!

Then it was a relatively early night, we were all very tired from the drive and first days adventures on the mountains in the Afan Valley.

Hopefully day two will bring some better weather and another safe day mountain biking.

Chris.

Eating too many scotch eggs! Oh and not taking it easy on the first runs back (which is a really stupid move)...

Ok so being back running was awesome. As my attempts at becoming a comic book artiste using only MS Paint have failed miserably (see below) I was glad to be out doing what I really enjoy.

Attempts at comic book art...

 

 

So the Parkrun on Saturday was much needed. Although to be honest I should have really stopped there. I didn't though. Mostly because I am addicted, also because I am ridiculous. So on Sunday morning I strapped on my trainers and set off for a longer leg stretch with my friend Sharry. The aim was a gentle trot around the banks of the river Medway (the nicer bits) which was supposed to be about 5 miles - so she claimed.

 





Back running!

 

 

We actually covered just over 9 miles, this was ideal for training for the Sidcup 10 miler. Especially as Sharry was worried she wouldn't be able to cover 10 miles - she can easily - and I have been away from running for 10 days (bloody virus).

 

So for someone who wasn't originally going to run this weekend I had now covered 12 miles. All at a decent pace. My knees, calves and balls of my feet were starting to be sore. I still felt good though. Which is always handy. However when I got home I found two horrible blood blisters.

 

 

Bugger!

 

I wasn't too concerned as the blisters don't really hurt and I can't have fallen off form wise in 10 days. As long as I still feel ok running I would be ok and the blisters were probably a result of landing with a slight pronation that I can work on. Pretty much as I dropped Sharry off home I got a text from Geoff wanting to go for a short trail run. Then it rained, again.

Lots of rain!

 

We have had a lot of rain recently in Kent and as a result the trails have become very muddy and very slick. On Saturday I went for a hike up Shorne Woods with my other half and there were sections which were very, very muddy. 

Lots of mud!

 

 

So naturally we went out for a run. 

 

During the route we came across some of the old chalk quarries up Bluebell hill, these were awe inspiring and I wish I had my camera on me, next time I will be sure to snap some photos for the blog! Anyways after 4 miles of very wet very muddy trails later we rocked back to the car to enjoy jelly babies and a beer. So much for having taken things easy on my return to running following my virus. I felt elated and good for having been out. Even though my trail shoes were now soaked through.

 

This all brings me to today, today I was famished and very tired. I am struggling to walk up stairs without looking like a marionette. I have blood blisters, aching Achilles and sore calf muscles. Not to mention my knees feel sore and they haven't felt like this in a long time. I can't help wondering what has gone wrong - mileage wise I have not done anything too different to what I am used to (and have still covered 80k this month). It isn't like I am running in a way my body is not used to now. As I said before my lay up was 10 days, not 10 weeks I shouldn't be suffering this much, should I?

 

I am currently reading Running With Kenyans which has a very interesting note on Kenyan training. Run twice a day (early and evening) and rest and eat the rest of the day. Where rest means do nothing, no walking, no working and no moving.

 

That is what I could have done with today, however my day started with my other half's car not working so I had to push it (with her help) into a bay near our house and then go to work to teach a full day. Mostly spent moving about and being on my feet when all I wanted to do was lie down, preferably in a darkened room or maybe even one of those little relaxation pod things.

  

I also have eaten like a horse today, which culminated with grazing on 3 large scotch eggs when I got in from work. The results of which have left me with a sore stomach and feeling a bit sick - obviously scotch eggs are not amazing recovery food - who knew! 

 

The upshot of all this is that I feel like I have over exerted on my first few runs back, I feel I have made poor dietary choices and that while I lie in bed feeling sore and sorry for myself I feel like I am as far away from an ultra as ever before.

 

I feel very ridiculous today and not in a funny joking sense.

 

And I don't like this feeling.

 

I am having an early night, have drunk plenty of fluids, stretched and had lots of vitamins today (fruit etc).

 

I am hoping that tomorrow is another day, and I will be back moving forward and not like I do now which is a bit like being stuck in reverse. I hope.

 

Chris



Back running and event lists...

Well what a week that was. I have detailed my illness woes but after an evening of shopping and two full days (oh yes) of work I felt that I could at least have a trot around the Maidstone Parkrun on Saturday morning in order to blow some much needed cobwebs out.

Well I say a trot around, as well all know such things are purely relative. I started trotting and feeling great, then got better and more comfortable. My watch it seemed though was having a bit of a fit on me, beeping every few seconds off and on. This is where I had forgotten about fiddling with my watch after my last run! I had been playing around with the settings and had turned on the pacer mode.

This I must say is a brilliant setting and I can't believe I have never thought to use it before. Normally I just 'lock and load' with the time elapsed and the distance covered on my arm. This has worked well so far but as far as training goes I don't think really would help me in the long term to maintain and improve my pace and speed over routes. The virtual pacer was causing the watch to beep away at me so much because I was under or over or on pace. The pace I set was a perfectly maintainable 5:20 per km split and so running just under pace was not too difficult, it wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible by any means. I think it would have been easier to maintain had I not been ill this week!

What I now need to remember to do is to change the pacing to suit the race/distance I am covering. For instance for the 5k Parkrun I can set a faster pace than a 15 mile trail run.

So there I was trotting along with my beeping watch and everything felt comfortable, so naturally I decided to increase the pace and match my watch, as a matter of fact I ended up running the route mostly ahead of pace.

One slightly annoying thing was that my GPS didn't connect until the beginning of the run even though I had been trying to get a lock for a fair few minutes before hand.

So the watch didn't record a full 5k but I still got an official time. This was remember my first run in nearly 10 days due to illness. However I still managed to run 5k in a PB time of 23:36 and come 35th out of 206.

Now I know I always say PBs are not the be all and end all, I think they are mostly useful for showing progress in training. However I am fairly pleased with this time, hopefully I can edge towards a 20 minute 5k and then be able to maintain that pace for longer events. Certainly my legs and breathing feel strong enough to do that. There is though still a long way to go. However it now I think will come down to training and a lot of mental preparation!

I do need to work on running longer and longer distances in order to get my limbs used to the distance and the feeling especially when running with a forefoot strike. One thing that I noticed today was a pain where the ball of my foot was striking the ground. It is amazing how some inactivity for a few days can soften your foot so much. I am also a little worried of the distance being more punishing on joints than I am used to, and the return of chaffing - never a good thing! However it is time to start upping the mileage and running longer distances.

Speaking of longer distances I have taken the plunge and entered my first Ultra Marathon. It's 35 miles and in May so I have plenty of time to work up to it. I think I will enter a few shorter races, especially trail marathons up to the event to get my race pace/distance all where it needs to be. The event I have chosen to enter is the Ox Ultra Marathon organised by White Star Running. There are a few other ones I am looking at as well but for now the Ox is the goal!

The one thing I will say is the money doesn't half jump up from entering a 10k to entering an ultra event. I suppose I will start to be incredibly selective on which events I run, or get a sponsor in order to prevent this becoming a very expensive hobby!

Till laters,

Chris

We've come a long, long way together...

Through the hard times and the good. I have to celebrate you baby, I have to praise you like I should...

My current lay up reminds me of the opening lines from the song Praise You by Fatboy Slim. How? Well its quite simple really. What the hell did I do before I ran?

Let me back up a little bit first.

So I have been running regularly for maybe 8 months or so, probably a little less to be honest. Before that I ran semi-regularly ish, not at any great pace or distance and mainly just to stave off stress and annoyance. The most regularly activity I did, sporting wise, before running was 5-a-side football on a Friday night with other teachers. However lately I am choosing running over football more regularly (strange eh?).

Like most regular runners I am committed rather than obsessed. However having been unable to run, or indeed train at all for a week and counting now I am wondering to myself, how did I manage to get by on such little exercise before?

I know there is definitely a psychological aspect to this as well as the fact I am unable to do my hobby at the moment but it is driving me mental being laid up like this. Seriously.

So what has this to do with the song? Well for one it highlights how far my enjoyment of running has come in that now rather than merely running and a coping mechanism for life, I am actively missing not being able to run. It also - I feel - shows that my mind and body as so used to running now that not doing it is a real shock to the system.

Plus it shows how much viruses suck. I mean they aren't even alive in the conventional sense of the word. Wish they would just piss off out of my body.

I walked up and down a flight of stairs today - not because I'm mental just for a meeting - and what out of breath at the end. Out of breath! That's not cool. I had to raise my voice to a class - I am back at work now - and needed 5 minutes afterwards in order to fully recover - an exaggeration but you get the idea. As someone who normally is ill and better in a few days, or just has a nagging sore throat this is pretty pathetic on my behalf. I also don't tend to stop for injuries, mostly just modifying my training to suit. This time though I have been completely laid low. Which is, for me with lots of hyperbole, horrendous (I know there are much worse things that could have happened).

Needless to say this has shoved the 'I will run an ultra this year' training back a bit. Having said that I am aiming to enter some events this weekend so maybe I wont need to put it back too much?

That's enter the events not run the events! I think I will try a run on Saturday/Sunday depending how I feel and then go from there. Lots of ifs and buts though.

Right now I have that off my chest (it's probably just rubbish though) I am off to take more ibuprofen and go to bed.

Laters.

Chris

Should there be drug testing at trail races?

Ok so this is an interesting topic and provided by Trail Runner Mag as part of their monthly blog symposium - check the shiny button (image) below!

Now as people who may have read my prior blogs will know I personally abhor cheats. I do not understand why people would do it. Well I do, we live in a ends justify the means type of culture. Actually blaming culture is probably a bit of an unfair bag for culture as we are biologically predisposed towards deceit.

Seriously, think about it everything you do. It all costs energy. If you can find a way of taking a short cut or of doing something a bit quicker or easier then nature demands that you do that (generally) because it would mean that you might be more successful than someone who is taking a long way round to do something. This feeling of finding the quickest and most efficient way of doing things is one of the key drivers that has helped shape our world, not just through natural selection but also through human engineering and design.

What this means is that we have a biological pressure to find a short way round. Added to this the constant reminders about getting what we want for very little (TV talent shows, lottery draws, cult of celebrity and bankers greed).

Now when it comes to sport people fall into two categories in my mind. 'Participation sportspeople' and 'winning is everything sportspeople'.

Now do not think either is good or bad, or has an advantage over the other because I don't think that is true.

For instance myself I am a participation-er. I want to get better but I don't really care to much about being number one because for me to finish events and to be out running is victory enough. How I would feel if I was up towards the front end of the pack I don't know, and I don't think I could put myself in the mind-set of an elite athlete who is vying for first position, sponsor money, places on a team and to secure their livelihood.

Where was I?

Oh yes. So some people are the 'winning is everything types', you know the ones, obsessed with PB's, trying new fad diets and uber-cool workouts that are so new the second half of it has not been written yet. They often do multiple other sports just to improve on their main sport - but you know if they got really good at the alternate sport they might stop doing their main sport! We all know a few of these and in most cases they are very nice people and mostly harmless (like the Earth in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!)

However it can be a path to the Darkside the reason I say this is I always remember a sports physiology lecture I attended when I was a PGCE student (trainee teacher). Well the lecture was for a group of school kids but I was present. Anyway we were watching footage of the 1 hour record attempt in cycling (a sport notorious for doping). Now the reason why I bring this up is that it was a very tight contest however one cyclist had the edge slightly. This edge slowly increased over the hour and by the time the footage had finished the different between the two contestants was markedly different. How would you feel if you were always the other cyclist? Would the pressure to perform, to improve your time and beat someone else, would this eventually make you crack and take something nefarious? Something that would give you a slight advantage over your nemesis? Think every sprinter in the word against Usain Bolt at the moment!

Now these 'marginal gains' I have blogged about before, but whether it is technical, training or coaching athletes of all abilities want to improve. Whether you are a participation fun runner like me or a serious athlete with sponsors and a career, its when these gains take on the form of something banned that I have an issue, but then as I have said my take on trail running so far is that it is not one of those sports, yet.

I would like to believe that the people running trails and ultra events would never consider taking drugs and cheating, but then I don't know what pressures elite athletes are under from their sponsors or coaches. I also believed that Lance Armstrong was innocent and just a victim of his success, so my hunches are often a bit off track.

If people genuinely felt that some competitors were cheating, or taking substances which are banned well then testing has to come through and quickly. It is the only way to keep the sport fair and clean. It would signal also a few things.

First that the sport has reached the big time where the ends are justifying the means, that prize money and professionalism in the sport are worth cheating for. Secondly it would show that the sport is starting to be taken more seriously at an international level allowing our top professionals to start to rank up alongside mountain bikers, snowboarders, surfers and other 'alternative' sports in national in international conscious. Maybe this coming of age for trail running has to happen?

I for one though would however be vey upset and saddened on the day that is felt necessary though! Personally I love the rough and ready feel to trail running. That winning isn't everything and it is about finishing the course. The fact that we are all in it together. As I said maybe drugs testing is part of a sport hitting the big time and gaining legitimacy in the wider eyes of the world. I just feel personally that when trail running reaches that stage a little bit of the soul of our sport will have been lost, and we may never get that back.

Taking things seriously, cheating, Drs waiting rooms and being laid up.

Ok it has been nearly a week since my last post on all things running and that has been because I have hardly ran at all this week owing to work constraints. I ran a lot last weekend (18k in 2 days, I thank you) but this week has gotten away from me. I still have a fair bit to talk about so will break it down as I go in to little bitty chunks that my students would be able to follow!

I shall begin...

Taking things too seriously

So last Friday I finally got myself a much vaunted pair of trail shoes (Addidas Kanadia 5's) in a size 13.5 from the Sweatshop in Bluewater, finally!

Before I talk about my trainers (just for Sarah who loved the blog on my shoe hunt) I have to share the greatest contrast I saw that night. There was a gentleman who was of a larger build buying some running shoes. He was trotting up and down the store fairly awkwardly like a man who had not run since he was a child but now was keen to loose some weight. His son sat on the bench looking bored, as young children are want to do. His wife however was amazing. She explained to the sales guy that the husband had asked for running stuff for Christmas in order to take it up and loose weight and that the trainers were the last piece of kit he needed. She was a typical small mousey wife type but she had an amazing combination of pride and support for her husband. It was lovely to see and you could tell the husbands determination was feeding directly off his wife's support. By contrast there was another couple where the wife this time was buying trainers. She seemed happy with a pair but the husband was not. He was barking orders, demanding the woman get back on the treadmill to run in them for a while and was quite stern and surely. The wife was doing as she was told but you could tell she wasn't really buying the trainers for her anymore. It was all a bit gutting to be honest.

Anyway onto my new trainers! They were reduced in the sale, fit lovingly and are, most importantly, nice and grippy on the slick trails around Bluebell Hill.

I know this because on Saturday morning Sharry and I did a quick 3k trot around Bluebell hill as a warm up. This was loads of fun, we took Nick the Meerkat with us, there was awesome scenery and we got nice and muddy. So far brilliant stuff, it was a little crisp in the air but mostly brilliant winter sunshine and views down over the valley of the river Medway.

We then rocked up at the Maidstone Parkrun. My first surprise was at the sheer number of people there - over 200 - and a very nice chilled out atmosphere. So far so good. Plus its all free, which is excellent!

The idea of the Parkrun, as far as I can tell is to have a free 5k event every Saturday in a regular location that allows people to get together for a communal run but also be timed to help training or fitness programs etc. Yet it is so much more, I saw parents running with their children (who were bloody quick) and older people, younger people a proper mix of runners. Now I appreciate this is the only one I have been too and only the Maidstone one but the impression I got/get is that this is the kind of crowd these attract. Its awesome.

The route itself is good too, a very quick 5k along the river banks around a small parkland and then back to start and finish at the Museum of Kent Life.

Now in order to run a Parkrun you have to register online and then download and print your personalised barcode. This is scanned along with your finishing barcode at the end of the event. That is how they give you a time (times are recorded with positions which correspond to the barcode).

I had registered two runners for the day, myself and Nick. Now with trail events people are fairly welcoming of Nick and as with the Grim run have been accepting of the fact that if he has a number he is a runner. However, and this is not a criticism probably just me getting carried away, but the friendly atmosphere, being able to chat with a few guys I was running with - although once again a lot of my jokes fell on deaf ears. However that festival type atmosphere seemed absent from the guy at the end when I tried getting a finishing time for Nick.

Now I appreciate that he is a stuffed toy, I really do.

He is also the subject of a blog and it would have been a nice touch for his blog for him to have had his own finishing time. Especially as he had been registered for the event.

I do appreciate fully the man handing out the finishing barcodes position, but seriously its a free event and a bit of fun. Or am I just being a dick here?

I have always 'fun run' basically because when I was younger it was the only way I could win any distance events - proper runners never dressed up in fancy dress! Yet it doesn't bother me to wear a costume or to run with a stuffed toy. Why? Because its a bit of fun.

I am not a professional athlete. I am not a serious writer. I am a man who enjoys running as a hobby. Yes there is a serious side to this all, I have rebuilt how I run and I am training to step up to ultra events (deep breath). Yet as soon as its not fun anymore what is the point?

So yes I fully understand and appreciate not giving the meerkat a finishers time, but having had such a great time running the Maidstone Parkrun and having 'sprint finished' with a couple of guys and seen all the families taking part and children loving running it left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth that right at the end someone was taking it a bit too seriously (in my opinion anyway).

Cheating

Talking of taking things too seriously this brings me on to Sundays event in Bromley. The Bromley 10k. This was a last minute event that I ran with Nick the Human and Nick the Meerkat. It was one that I saw in the middle of the week and ended up running it, registering on the day, on the weekend. Other people were due to run but couldn't make, most likely because of the speed at which it all came about.

Once again it sounds like I am griping but I'm not, much, just calling it how I saw it - the very cornerstone of an opinion piece!

I really don't like road races as a rule. I have nothing against road runners - all brothers together type of mentality -  but it just isn't my thing. I am much more at home on trails, in woods and loosing myself in nature.

This run was advertised as 'a 4 lap course along paths through very attractive park land with water stations at various points on the course' which sounded spot on to me.

What it was, in reality, was a 3 lap run around an athletics track followed by 4 laps around a park - with football matches on the go in the centre of the park (aren't Sunday footballers incredible aggressive towards each other?!) the route mostly being on concrete/tarmac paths. The water station was at the end of every park loop.

Again I am not dissing the event, it was well run and there was great support and a very mixed field, plus it was cheap to enter so it wins for that. It was more that I was expecting hills and much more off-road and cross country than what we ended up running. I ran a fairly quick race and nearly beat my p.b. for 10k (was off it by 30 seconds), now regular readers know I don't chase p.b.s or anything like that but just use timings as a way of gauging my progress. However I include it to show that I was not slouching on this run and that my pace was consistent and fairly quick - not record breaking quick - but quick enough!

However a very curious thing happened at the beginning of the race. I am not calling anyone out but see if you can follow with me.

Nick, Nick and I started towards the front of the pack. We allowed the people aiming for sub 40 minutes (nutters) to go ahead of us. I then allowed Nick the Human to go at his own pace and race off (he is quicker than me) and settled into a gentle but quick enough pace. A few people surged ahead of me and this was fine and I continued to go about my own speed.

I don't recall the front runners passing me but they must have at some point and I also don't recall people in droves lapping me.

However, when I reached the mid-point of the second lap around the athletics track (still 1 more to do) I spotted people breaking off to go to the park run part of the course. I check my Garmin and I had not run an extra lap by mistake and my split times were still pretty good.

I was also at this time just starting to lap some of the back markers.

I began to get a bit concerned that either I had made a mistake or people had made a mistake or people were cheating.

Now again this is just how I feel and my opinion but I can't believe people would cheat on an event, after all we are not professional athletes just people who are running so I could only assume that the people who left the course early (assuming they did and that I did not make a mistake) had miscalculated and made a mistake (assuming I was not at error).

This feeling began to be compounded when I reached the park part of the course and easily passed those ahead of me.

It was not until the latter stages of the run that the front runners (those pesky sub 40 minuters) sprinted past me, almost as if there were deliberately trying to prove that they were running faster!

It does bring me to a point, and I know that people may not have cheated or made a mistake I may have actually been that slow around the athletics track and not realised I was being lapped or anything like that. However I have not long gone through and deleted a load of old records and routes off my Strava from the times when it was declaring that I had ran twice the distance I actually had and for some reason had me leaping across roads back and forth whilst moving forwards.

When asked why I got rid of all my records my answer was simple, how can I improve if I am measuring myself against something wrong?

In science education we end up teaching about drugs cheats as part of the GCSE course. I am sure that a similar topic is covered at length in GCSE PE. I seriously can't understand why people would claim to have run more, run faster or actively put stuff in their bodies in order to cheat. I guess it is easy for me to say that because it is not a career for me it is a hobby but I feel bad if a GPS has me running a faster mile than I know I am capable of because of a computing glitch. I don't know how I would feel if I was a champion or won a race yet did it on lies and deceit. I think this comes back to what I mentioned earlier, running and sport in general for me is about enjoyment, not outcome. Maybe that is why I will never be a sub 40 minute 10k runner, but if that is the case I will take that. Cheating and taking yourself too seriously is just not what I am interested in.

Drs waiting rooms and being laid up

So as I mentioned earlier this week has been pretty busy and quite stressful in places. We got through the HMI inspection fine but then the day after had parents evening. During Thursday I started coughing, having pains in my back, and feeling run down. Thursday evening I went to bed early but didn't sleep well and by Friday morning was well and truly ill. Fearing a chest infection I took myself to the Drs.

Good lord Dr waiting rooms are depressing. Every poster claimed that simple ailments could be a symptom of cancer. Got a cough? Cancer, Got indigestion? Cancer, Acid reflux? Cancer. I was mortified.  I know the English have a habit of not going to the Drs until things are too late but seriously I felt this was borderline scaremongering!

I don't have anything major, and fortunately I don't have a chest infection (whoot). I do however have a viral infection which is causing my discomfort and worn down feeling. The Dr has ordered me to take complete rest over the weekend and into next week if needed otherwise I won't shake the infection in a hurry.

This sucks massively. I had plans to take my dad mountain biking this weekend and to clock up some miles on the Cannock Chase trails near where they live. All that now has been shelved.

I am great at procrastination but useless at not doing anything. I know that is a juxtaposition but its true, add into that I have very little energy and I am tired and frustrated.

I have essentially regressed to being a baby.

No jokes please!

I can't wait to be back out and running.

Especially as these are staring me in the face everyday.

My trailers!


Also last thing before I go, I have bought a box to keep my medals in! This is because the Bunsen Burner which I keep them on is starting to get full!

Medal box!

 

 

Anyway spoke enough. Until laters.

 

Chris