tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42289473879767850872024-03-14T04:13:51.844+00:00Running to stand stillMrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-20005617204482290682023-04-21T16:27:00.002+01:002023-04-21T16:33:46.662+01:00The big five-oh!<p>Towards the end of last year my running was going really well. Nothing spectacular, just good consistent running with the odd PB thrown in for good measure. I was looking forward to 2023 and, although I had relatively few races in the calendar, I was hoping for good things.</p><p>Then, on the first day of the Christmas holiday, I finally succumbed to Covid-19. Despite being triple vaccinated, I was rough for ages. I felt worse than I did when I had pneumonia 7 years ago. I spent two and a half weeks in bed and 'recovering' just in time to go back to work in the new year. But I wasn't really better. My sense of smell didn't return until mid March, I was constantly tired and my running was shockingly bad. I still went out and did my long training runs at the weekends, when I wasn't busy doing stuff for school, but there were a real chore and unbearably slow. I consoled myself by saying that a) at least I was out there doing something and b) it was time on my feet that counted and I was doing plenty of that! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7Ox18MX6FQvALqamw1V8aUSmWZberTQEghvzpvlpOiJ1Ym77ec7uHOjKYanVn0BbBiwJizBftqSvBCgHh0xXGE9rWu_GmRgiLXjMLFH6XLSDDHjTbAlzz8xVxpLQ7Y9JGNd-pHL0LJGs2j7SNeU-AehGrp_PwIOV-raO4MJxifGJ-eUyDtgvKJrq/s4032/IMG_2974.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7Ox18MX6FQvALqamw1V8aUSmWZberTQEghvzpvlpOiJ1Ym77ec7uHOjKYanVn0BbBiwJizBftqSvBCgHh0xXGE9rWu_GmRgiLXjMLFH6XLSDDHjTbAlzz8xVxpLQ7Y9JGNd-pHL0LJGs2j7SNeU-AehGrp_PwIOV-raO4MJxifGJ-eUyDtgvKJrq/w320-h240/IMG_2974.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We set off to Boston with friends, stopping for a few days in New York on our way. We went from a cold, grey April in Hampshire to a heat wave! It is a bit of shock to realise that it is 32 celsius at 6.30pm in the evening - at that temperature the only reasonable thing to do is drink an ice cold beer! While we were in New York I got to achieve one of the items on my wish list; to run in Central Park. I've been to New York many times, but not for years and in those days I wasn't a runner. It was amazing to run up from our hotel then all the way through Central Park and around the running track. And, for the first time in ages, I was running fairly well. On our second morning Husbando commented that it must be good for my confidence - and it was! We also had plans to run over Brooklyn Bridge - but had to settle for walking as it was hugely crowded and so hot in the middle of the morning. We had a busy time in New York, it is an amazing place, but I always breath a sigh of relief when I leave as it is just too busy for someone who spent her formative years in a much smaller city (London). <p></p><p>We travelled to Boston by train. Easier than a taxi to JFK and an extra encounter with airport security, but sitting down for 4 hrs exacerbated an old back injury. It hurt to put my foot on the floor - but there was plenty of time before Marathon Monday. It was great to be back in Boston. We changed our hotel after an indifferent experience last year, so were staying near Faneuil Hall rather than in Back Bay. Boston is a small city - everywhere is an easy walk away - and we thought that, if we weren't right next to the expo, we might spend less on merch! After collecting our bibs (Husbando was running this year too) we did go to the expo - and were underwhelmed! Rumour has it that Adidas locked out their competitors - so unless you were in the market for pet insurance or guttering there was very little on offer. Luckily of us (but not for our bank balances) <a href="cid:E70E8177-28C6-44F0-A68B-3A10824BF6B7@home" target="_blank">Marathon Sports</a> had set up a 'brand house' pop up store in addition to their regular store on Boylston. And all the other local sports retailers had significantly upped their game. This year I took all my Boston Marathon jackets with me - wearing a different one each day. It really is wonderful to see all the jackets from previous years. There has been some controversy about the quality of this year's jacket - but I bought one anyway! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHwwxlVrTpkwRy9DdS1FKYauTCtAvI7aQ2ew9ijEgzORfUYjbHdEr5jPpN9fA1PNL4q3o9w8KGglhvc4ZgX6D2wSOZ9j-SKOXd-2LRQUQVV4i6zWiyQk7SqaoGDPf52ewvJrTPN7POrnXEnPEZwlWsm4JruE0qw4RfZjhks7wSEX_ovuMa5a_2vm-/s4032/IMG_3165.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYHwwxlVrTpkwRy9DdS1FKYauTCtAvI7aQ2ew9ijEgzORfUYjbHdEr5jPpN9fA1PNL4q3o9w8KGglhvc4ZgX6D2wSOZ9j-SKOXd-2LRQUQVV4i6zWiyQk7SqaoGDPf52ewvJrTPN7POrnXEnPEZwlWsm4JruE0qw4RfZjhks7wSEX_ovuMa5a_2vm-/s320/IMG_3165.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>On Saturday I made my way to <a href="https://www.parkrun.us/danehypark/" target="_blank">Danehy Park parkrun</a> in Cambridge where I had volunteered to act as tail walker. This was a lovely newish parkrun, much smaller than Jamaica Pond with only 118 runners even on marathon weekend. I walked with two first timers who were great company. I hope I didn't put them off by extolling the virtues of parkrun. We were so busy talking that I couldn't tell you where each of the three laps started and stopped! The walk was just what I needed to give me the confidence that, back issues not withstanding, I would be able to at least walk Boston and, with a tiny bit of running, be able to make the cut off. <p></p><p>The rest of Saturday and Sunday passed uneventfully, we visited <a href="https://www.democracybrewing.com" target="_blank">Democracy Brewing</a> at least once - because once you've found somewhere that good why wouldn't you? We all headed off for an early night, although to be fair we'd hardly been burning the midnight oil. I was diligently flossing my teeth when I managed to ping out a filling. I stared at it in disbelief and then poked my tongue in the gap to confirm that it was in fact a filling. Thank goodness for Google - a quick search revealed that there was a pharmacy still open at 9.30pm on a Sunday, and it was only a 5 minute walk away. I bought some stuff to fill the gap and then discovered how hard it is to manipulate a tiny bit of filler into your own back tooth. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6kbl4Y2zHl1pMktgYfYYrhySAEIuZKeK6AFsunCTaz-zvLjx_XqWjjU2nFRV1R7VtNSacYJGiBD21i76QfxnqOldHE2_AS26PYxnEL2zPCBAUmNt79Zx3OImP6SXbPaUsDpWGeb5Bu-tNo9f_tmA3XBsUrOxKjwS-wWy84_4uocHrStRavDXTDTgl/s3024/IMG_3193.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6kbl4Y2zHl1pMktgYfYYrhySAEIuZKeK6AFsunCTaz-zvLjx_XqWjjU2nFRV1R7VtNSacYJGiBD21i76QfxnqOldHE2_AS26PYxnEL2zPCBAUmNt79Zx3OImP6SXbPaUsDpWGeb5Bu-tNo9f_tmA3XBsUrOxKjwS-wWy84_4uocHrStRavDXTDTgl/s320/IMG_3193.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Monday morning dawned, cold and damp. We'd been promised 'light drizzle' with showers 'later in the afternoon.' What we got was persistent drizzle from the outset with occasional deluges throughout the morning. But that was ok, I had a hat, I'm not made of sugar and running in the rain means you don't get overheated! What was important was that I had made it to the start of another Boston Marathon. I even accepted the fact that this could be a very slow one. Sub five hours was what I had in my mind. <p></p><p>I started too fast. As always. Very hard not to as it is so downhill for the first 10k. I'd taken a selection of painkillers which seemed to take the edge off the tooth and back pain. I told myself I would get to 10k and see how I felt, then to half way etc. fully expecting the wheels to come off big time at some point, but also knowing that I had time to get from Hopkinton to Boston. Despite the awful weather, the crowds were out in force to support us. The girls at Wellesley were even louder than last year - you could hear them for ages before you could see them. There was lots of support on the infamous Heartbreak Hill - far more than last year, which is probably why I ran up it faster than last year. Nutrition was a bit of a nightmare. I'd taken six mini malt loaves with me so I could have one every four miles, and a packet of six shot blocs in case I fancied something extra. It soon became clear that my amateur dental work couldn't cope with the stickiness of either. I had five malt loaves and five shot blocs left at the end of the race! I didn't want to risk experimenting with the gels that were on offer on the course - I've never got on well with them anyway.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCu-Lll-p8FLqycwpB_JCdDYfRSdQv0GUsLgfbHWE-X8WeVXevbgwK1_-FGexyibjFJpVKVdHLfU_0UD_uh-777vVS6t_Xo5Pn4xVre2eSEQykMYkKJXxO9dURGgUV2UwEmrJ9IisK8tuwvOXggBcsu3pnWC5dKb9tq55EzWvyz9pS4wS5YmNFf1le/s4032/IMG_3195.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCu-Lll-p8FLqycwpB_JCdDYfRSdQv0GUsLgfbHWE-X8WeVXevbgwK1_-FGexyibjFJpVKVdHLfU_0UD_uh-777vVS6t_Xo5Pn4xVre2eSEQykMYkKJXxO9dURGgUV2UwEmrJ9IisK8tuwvOXggBcsu3pnWC5dKb9tq55EzWvyz9pS4wS5YmNFf1le/s320/IMG_3195.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>I enjoyed the race so much more this year. There was no crying in toilets, in fact there was no crying and no toilet stops at all. I ran fairly consistently until the last couple of miles, it was my first reasonable run of the year. Because I wasn't pushing for a time (although at halfway I set myself a revised target of 4hrs10 rather than 5hrs) I could look around, take note of the Citgo sign at a mile to go, really enjoy turning left on Hereford and right on Boylston in a way that isn't possible when every second counts, and enjoy that last few hundred metres up to and over the finish line. <p></p><p>4hrs 7mins and 24seconds - I didn't think it was possible for me to be thrilled a time over four hours, and 12 minutes off a qualifying time for Boston next year, but I am! It gives me hope that I might be able to qualify again for next year, if I work hard and lose a bit of weight. </p><p>Unlike last year, we didn't dash home the same day - which meant that we had a relaxed evening trying to replace some of the calories we'd expended during the day, before indulging in a bit of retail therapy on Tuesday.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbrrA55DdD9jQoRhOMhCbs9ba2C6ULR_VR0ymiHR9QxHIkGHZStTJQraYQhVxJGgm0lQopBfJDkulGaASzEsVhYF9Suaiae-dQAddg9m0Q8sKa-HHcT0Sra4rCybcKkfnYB70kJ5ZvVqtQrembfg49O2hYVC4v9LywPx5RcNBQeElZdwZ0dBj_IDu/s4032/IMG_3243.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbrrA55DdD9jQoRhOMhCbs9ba2C6ULR_VR0ymiHR9QxHIkGHZStTJQraYQhVxJGgm0lQopBfJDkulGaASzEsVhYF9Suaiae-dQAddg9m0Q8sKa-HHcT0Sra4rCybcKkfnYB70kJ5ZvVqtQrembfg49O2hYVC4v9LywPx5RcNBQeElZdwZ0dBj_IDu/s320/IMG_3243.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>We were looking forward to getting home. We'd been away for a week, which is longer than we usually take for a race, and were happily ensconced in the airport lounge when, 40 minutes before it was due to leave, our flight was cancelled. The chaos that ensued was compounded by the fact that the flight on Monday had also been cancelled. An A380 full of passengers were all looking to rebook flights! We were assigned a flight via Barcelona that would leave on Wednesday evening, rather than queueing to sort everything out (4 members of staff would take ages to work through the queues) we phoned the hotel and booked rooms for the night and headed back in to Boston, a bonus day in Boston saw a short run in the morning, a fabulous breakfast (best of the whole trip) and a movie - because it was cold in the afternoon, we had checked out of the hotel and just wanted to sit down! We lucked out on the way home. We spoke nicely to the lady at the check in desk and she booked us on a direct flight with another airline - and upgraded us to first class - quite a satisfactory outcome!</p><p>All I need to do now is qualify for next year..... </p><p><br /><br /><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-2946060000191644862022-06-26T17:28:00.002+01:002022-06-26T20:50:09.080+01:00What goes up must come down, and then go up again and again!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfYMv5bDchnDC_Vsc4TCOwB_wEaXyp8ESuKTc3CqHl71iC1GMcXUb1omKNX_yHgI1c4mxeNytyuCoAqJJPDO9UAnPTgNuy8ftJl6Ya9G1_lyX7pDzRFiHWObTz6dSyAY_vfVazoOKNKnz1diJnTcO6Akal2E8QaUrDMi1dE3_XlKbjCQl6hFdULF1/s2048/81044a41-7391-40d5-b497-5cad7239a752.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTfYMv5bDchnDC_Vsc4TCOwB_wEaXyp8ESuKTc3CqHl71iC1GMcXUb1omKNX_yHgI1c4mxeNytyuCoAqJJPDO9UAnPTgNuy8ftJl6Ya9G1_lyX7pDzRFiHWObTz6dSyAY_vfVazoOKNKnz1diJnTcO6Akal2E8QaUrDMi1dE3_XlKbjCQl6hFdULF1/s320/81044a41-7391-40d5-b497-5cad7239a752.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>No blog posts in ages, then three in one month. That's what happens when all the deferred races happen at once! This weekend saw us leaving, straight from work on Friday afternoon, to head down to the picturesque village of Sydling St Nicholas in Dorset for the infamous Giant's Head Marathon. My entry had been deferred from 2019 - when I'd had to postpone due to Founder's Day at school, two of my friends and deferred from 2020, another had got 'lucky' when a mutual acquaintance couldn't make the race, and Husbando was down to run the 10-ish kilometre race as he has vowed never to run Giant's Head Marathon again after having a nightmare there in 2018. Luckily I'd booked an extra room at the local pub, so we all had places to stay that didn't involve camping in the rain!<p></p><p>The rain stopped as we were eating breakfast on Saturday morning - which is just as well, as a rain might just have been the straw that broke the camels back and resulted in me not starting! I'd had an upset stomach all night and was feeling a little below par. It was just as well our hotel was close to the start as it meant I did not have to brave the portaloos! </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlY_RaWY6o3elAKi4HxrEZ6B0mBvPOyBE86pXBmdSsLzCVrQOfpj9Ln39Xoh2R3VuBSTqEAjidShQrPyhDKv_qkJ5x7iCDLj6A7s7V6AoG9ywZyL6ArM0vTljrFd3OJmZUdufeT8biB7OPdwXhFhnTPn9Acgg5wbMEp_oUaj-_yFl06FDyJ5fv1vi/s885/Screenshot%202022-06-26%20at%2016.22.54.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="885" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlY_RaWY6o3elAKi4HxrEZ6B0mBvPOyBE86pXBmdSsLzCVrQOfpj9Ln39Xoh2R3VuBSTqEAjidShQrPyhDKv_qkJ5x7iCDLj6A7s7V6AoG9ywZyL6ArM0vTljrFd3OJmZUdufeT8biB7OPdwXhFhnTPn9Acgg5wbMEp_oUaj-_yFl06FDyJ5fv1vi/s320/Screenshot%202022-06-26%20at%2016.22.54.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elevation profile</td></tr></tbody></table>The start was slightly different this year, rather than running along the High Street we were off road from the start. We still got the fantastic concrete hill - which makes for a slow first mile but miles two and three are downhill, the only thing you contend with here is the long grass and uneven ground underfoot. As this isn't by any stretch of the imagination a PB course, and because I was feeling rough, I decided to take it easy. I was going to walk all the hills. Normally in this race I end up walking them anyway, but this time I had decided in advance which makes it a strategy rather than a response to inadequate training. That said, it felt like I was travelling very slowly! It is hard to move fast when the ground is uneven and you haven't done anywhere near enough off road running in recent months. My hamstring was still playing up, so I didn't want to push anything too hard.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcPFQO1H6cNPYIKSJDm5QFjyVOYe5w2uZ8hP5tRX3ph9RVVzvOxaWXXCmeGgnC8GbAqv8pInzNSZXdKMpW9Y3uwrY7dZGxa-daXq4VIHBOu-w_Cyzn8iYaoYctnYN72ynM16MZpiEqFCksNcYvDaTGWPE_KWFweJNqnAKiiBmHLZ3DdlhkNEDbBZ_/s2048/92f6501d-7598-43a8-a5c3-ea4edd13e1b2.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBcPFQO1H6cNPYIKSJDm5QFjyVOYe5w2uZ8hP5tRX3ph9RVVzvOxaWXXCmeGgnC8GbAqv8pInzNSZXdKMpW9Y3uwrY7dZGxa-daXq4VIHBOu-w_Cyzn8iYaoYctnYN72ynM16MZpiEqFCksNcYvDaTGWPE_KWFweJNqnAKiiBmHLZ3DdlhkNEDbBZ_/s320/92f6501d-7598-43a8-a5c3-ea4edd13e1b2.JPG" width="240" /></a><p></p><p>I'd also forgotten just how hilly this race is! Over a thousand metres of elevation, with some steep downhill sections that required one to be very goat like to negotiate at anything faster than mincing pace! I ran on my own for much of the race, which was fine, occasionally chatting with other runners, but mostly just swearing under my breath at yet another hill and then admiring the view from the top. The wind seemed almost constant - and almost always it was a headwind! It was so noisy. </p><p><br />Approaching the finish, down hill on a flinty track, I was thrilled to see a friend waiting at the final turn, that gave me just the boost I needed to pick up the pace for the final few metres. I'd been quite surprised by how, well not easy, let's say 'comfortable' I had found the race. I'd had no intention of running fast, or pushing myself and yet I managed to run my fastest Giant's Head Marathon and, alarm from a painful right leg, felt fine afterwards. I certainly wasn't doing the post marathon stagger that had been a feature of my Stockholm, Boston and London! On checking back through past results, it seems that this was a course PB by about 10 minutes!</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaS5SJA8N2GQUtfTaIuQoQFUfKRgawf59lxL-PQIlmws-oGN9nkHQl25BsWIMfsrcbjoZotOxlB4tpoxCDjvcoXXXaRfWuJh3vFn_3JnCV3C-T50SNeDgQZ3BY7rHT7DrCROPo07mKRbM8NL2Bb25LILUduld30aOnu446WTVJwbohBDRQnPF-qB0d/s4032/IMG_9494.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaS5SJA8N2GQUtfTaIuQoQFUfKRgawf59lxL-PQIlmws-oGN9nkHQl25BsWIMfsrcbjoZotOxlB4tpoxCDjvcoXXXaRfWuJh3vFn_3JnCV3C-T50SNeDgQZ3BY7rHT7DrCROPo07mKRbM8NL2Bb25LILUduld30aOnu446WTVJwbohBDRQnPF-qB0d/s320/IMG_9494.HEIC" width="240" /></a></div>As usual, the support from the villagers was fabulous. The race, along with the 10k, the Bell Races and (new this year) the half marathon take over the village for an entire weekend. They provide breakfast in the village hall on Saturday, an evening meal on Friday and Saturdays as well as teas and cakes all day. <a href="https://dorsetgreyhound.co.uk">The Greyhound Inn</a>, with a new landlord who took over last week, was our base for the weekend - they rose to the challenge of runners who wanted early breakfasts. We decided not to take part in the Bell Race on the Sunday, so had a long, leisurely breakfast instead. <p></p><p>I think, despite saying on my journey down to Dorset on Friday, that I would not do this race again, I will be back. The hotel is booked....</p><br /><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-29069041977872550982022-06-19T20:42:00.001+01:002022-06-19T20:42:16.944+01:00Round and round and round we go....<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh649rbHFFzgufhrEJ5dGSP2MUCIppXurGBEyrETFxV74AA2EOsjsYkR7pXODxIjsO9d4g-mJz068t56BNk38Wcc8qrkbfj46mIl4TefTpvhpQs9_TzkylTsEUWdrj2LF1yObphAER2FKirdhp3o5d9rBwDoaNL1u2w4ipdI3jiqG0lTsKNnztwa8L4/s4032/IMG_9431.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh649rbHFFzgufhrEJ5dGSP2MUCIppXurGBEyrETFxV74AA2EOsjsYkR7pXODxIjsO9d4g-mJz068t56BNk38Wcc8qrkbfj46mIl4TefTpvhpQs9_TzkylTsEUWdrj2LF1yObphAER2FKirdhp3o5d9rBwDoaNL1u2w4ipdI3jiqG0lTsKNnztwa8L4/s320/IMG_9431.jpeg" width="240" /></a>I've run at Endure24 on three previous occasions as a solo. On those occasions solo runners were a rare breed of nutters who would rather endure running all by themselves than form a team or buddy up with a friend to run in a pair. Even without a support crew, Endure24's laps make it a really good choice for solo runners as you are never are than 5 miles from the aid station and the temptation of your tent. For teams there seems to be a party atmosphere with runners taking their turn to run laps while their teammates eat, drink and make merry. It's a little different for pairs. More of that later.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">Way back in 2019, the last time Endure24 was at Wasing Park, one of my best friends (also running solo when not lazing around in an ambulance) suggested that we really should run together as a pair as we could just use our surnames as out team name. It seemed like a great idea and we waited eagerly for entries to open so that we could book our place for 2020.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">That obviously didn't happen due to Covid-19. Virtual races became the norm, it was hard to imagine running with friends again. We had high hopes for 2021, but for various reasons the event changed both date and location - this didn't work for us so we deferred our entry. We talked about it </span>occasionally but it was still a bit of a shock to check the calendar and realise that I was somehow due to run Stockholm Marathon, Endure24 and a hilly trail marathon all in the space of 22 days. What could possibly go wrong?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">We had a brief strategy meeting at a post parkrun coffee but that was really limited to 'as you've got the day off on Friday can you grab a space for us to set up camp?' and a brief agreement that a lap per hour was acheivable. I was still frantically packing late on Friday evening so that I could set out bright and early on Saturday morning. Friday was a blisteringly hot day, the forecast suggested that it might be a little cooler, with an outside chance of the odd, brief shower. I threw in a waterproof jacket, and, as an afterthought, a coat. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Saturday morning dawned warm and sunny. I grabbed a bottle of factor 50 sunscreen, threw it into the car and set off. Of course I arrived before John, but thanks to the photos he'd sent and a friend of his telling me that I couldn't park there because John was saving the space, I managed to locate his tent! As we had to arrive by 9am if we wanted to drive to the camping area we then had to hang around for three hours. So we decided that food would be a good idea. We'd both bought enough food to feed a small army, but a bacon roll seemed like a better plan.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The race village was less busy than in previous years, but we still had quite a queue at the catering tent - we wondered how they would cope when things got busy. Only having one person able to take payment seemed like it might slow things down a lot, but we weren't too worried - we'd be too busy running and eating our own food to need to use the catering tent. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtEMEf_0wsy2FnP5hlXmat09V79VjQTqV58KGABbAtGuN2p8pdYiaxjXH70R9QlT4hvrXEaMsOn_PqDf8GwLOYdthfEQOi-MM3rCekkjHvU-YdVsxjMJHxpkl9YBpDxMyuufgycDVwtQp7nXvOxeHrrgaB5eMcLH5bpZPSH9CpsQlMOihNMgE8IqQN/s4032/IMG_9434.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtEMEf_0wsy2FnP5hlXmat09V79VjQTqV58KGABbAtGuN2p8pdYiaxjXH70R9QlT4hvrXEaMsOn_PqDf8GwLOYdthfEQOi-MM3rCekkjHvU-YdVsxjMJHxpkl9YBpDxMyuufgycDVwtQp7nXvOxeHrrgaB5eMcLH5bpZPSH9CpsQlMOihNMgE8IqQN/s320/IMG_9434.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table>John ran the odd numbered laps and I took the even ones. The course was basically the same as in previous years, with a few of the more technical areas smoothed out, and an extra loop around the camping field to make up the distance. We used a white board to communicate and keep track of lap times. We were visited by one of John's children and his wife. Strange to think that when we booked to do this event John had yet to meet his future wife! On paper it all looked to be going rather well. We were ahead of our schedule. The weather had cooled down considerably and there had been a few showers of rain. But I was in pain. I found the fact that someone was waiting for me so they could run quite stressful. I could ignore it for the first couple of laps, but the stop/start nature of running as a pair seemed to make things worse. I'd run my lap, get a drink, stretch a bit, sit down and just as I was starting to relax it was time to start again. After four laps I left a note saying I was going to run/walk my fifth lap and then consider my options. And at the end of my fifth lap I left a message saying that I was going to have a cup of tea then toddle off to the massage tent and would not be running again. I had a little cry and felt a bit sorry for myself while drinking my tea but it was pissing down with rain so I don't think anyone will have realised!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">At the massage tent I was met by Shelley's smiling face and bionic fingers. The thought of anyone touching my leg made me feel a bit nauseous - but it helped a lot. While I was on Shelley's table John appeared in the tent. He booked the next slot with Shelley, and I laughed about the fact that I had apologised for not waxing my legs! It was probably about 9.30pm when John, still on the table said 'I'm done, I'm not going out again!' I could have jumped for joy - if I'd had any energy left. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5FgR4FUO6osrUPhopNCXMrTxw0YiokBIybaiMkhkd7YehHOjzWjW4YA7zpypmyZZbC1IuaaXyQ4RhBML_mI0mznN3Lam-597zRJ5lGyfwbr6rvNKNZwBFrxTUWvupy6fXkasHV0pnUy8DJq65R-3aTaoi4uIUTT-pN3lRVHmxBsmgws4DsXFcUvvE/s4032/IMG_9453.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5FgR4FUO6osrUPhopNCXMrTxw0YiokBIybaiMkhkd7YehHOjzWjW4YA7zpypmyZZbC1IuaaXyQ4RhBML_mI0mznN3Lam-597zRJ5lGyfwbr6rvNKNZwBFrxTUWvupy6fXkasHV0pnUy8DJq65R-3aTaoi4uIUTT-pN3lRVHmxBsmgws4DsXFcUvvE/s320/IMG_9453.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>We set off to investigate the hot food situation. John joined the very long queue, I went to the beer tent to get us a drink. He was still queuing when I got back. The queues were exacerbated because they kept running out of food - we eventually got our food just before 11pm! We were happy with out decision to stop, the weather was cold, wet and windy, we were both suffering, we had nothing to gain by carrying on. We weren't enjoying ourselves so we decided to get some sleep and see how things looked in the morning. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">It looked sunnier! After a cup of tea and some porridge I decided to do another lap, to even up the distances between us. It was sunny but still chilly so I went out in my leggings intending to walk. It got warm rather quickly and I regretted the leggings! John did another, rather speedy, lap followed by one more form me to take us both to 35 miles. We handed out timing chips in there and then so that we wouldn't be tempted by 'just one more' lap!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The benefit of not following our plan is that we actually got to spend some time with each other and we, hopefully, haven't totally wrecked our bodies for next weekend. I think we both felt that running as a pair could be our least favourite way of doing Endure, having said that I have never been part of a larger team, maybe I can rectify that next year. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">As always it was good to see running friends, some of whom I don't think I've seen since pre pandemic days. It was amazing to see some of the truly amazing running going on around us and to chat to other runners. Our running vests got lots of comments, even if we only got one mention from the commentator - who sounded as though he had bitten off more than he could chew when he realised what he was announcing that Team Bigg Dick was about to cross the line. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4bgx6nTWXLi_PjwYV-Lb9Q9f4v021Nhly9t6EbtBEqB3aRMIOWN9LVeO2ioPMAKndOYZItKriwib9zxEan8O8iBJgk6rIOuF6A2qaqJ5TJYXfNmmXjUC8Y9uN4qMMdxgz66SakFAzVqi-NK_E4a_ApArSLCWIUBpwGqSqz1SxUKjtbdH4JfcRqiO/s2016/WhatsApp%20Image%202022-06-19%20at%2012.01.03%20PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="954" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4bgx6nTWXLi_PjwYV-Lb9Q9f4v021Nhly9t6EbtBEqB3aRMIOWN9LVeO2ioPMAKndOYZItKriwib9zxEan8O8iBJgk6rIOuF6A2qaqJ5TJYXfNmmXjUC8Y9uN4qMMdxgz66SakFAzVqi-NK_E4a_ApArSLCWIUBpwGqSqz1SxUKjtbdH4JfcRqiO/s320/WhatsApp%20Image%202022-06-19%20at%2012.01.03%20PM.jpeg" width="151" /></a>Overall it was a good event, different to previous years which is inevitable as the management has changed. I am not convinced all the changes were for the better. Charges for supporters were new this year, but I am not sure how rigorously this rule was enforced. In the past solo places have always sold out really quickly and solo runners were the exception rather than the rule out on the course. This year it seemed like most runners were solo and the large teams were the exception. I haven't looked at the results and compared them to previous years - so it may just be my perception. And the catering was a nightmare! I pity anyone who, based on the efficient service offered in previous years. opted to rely on it this year. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br /><p></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-50503622091711680022022-06-08T10:13:00.001+01:002022-06-08T10:13:27.627+01:00Stockholm Marathon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Having managed to persuade a friend to run a second marathon the search was on to find a suitable destination to tempt him out to play. We needed somewhere 'interesting', preferably somewhere we hadn't been before and definitely somewhere that was easy to get to. Stockholm seemed to fit the bill. It had the advantage of being held on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, which meant that we could have a day to relax, post marathon, before flying home. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Six of us, five runners and a solo support team, flew out on Wednesday of half term, we spent the first few days doing 'tourist stuff' of which there is plenty. We barely scratched the surface of this beautiful city. We had factored in an afternoon to 'do the expo' based on Boston, Paris and London marathon expos we thought that this would be just about enough. I think we spent about 30 minutes there - and that was only because I was so cold that I went back to buy a long sleeved top at the last minute. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Saturday morning dawned bright, sunny and much warmer than the previous few days. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Just what does one eat, and when, for a marathon that starts at noon? Noon, for heaven's sake! Right when we should be thinking about finding somewhere to eat lunch was when they were expecting us to start running! Sunglasses were retrieved from bags, sunscreen was liberally applied to exposed skin and we headed to the start. We'd been told that all bags must be checked by 11am and so, along with everyone else, we decided to arrive just before 11am to start the fun, pre marathon warmup of standing in queues - the bag drop one wasn't too bad, but the queues for the portaloos were HUGE as there did not seem to be enough portaloos for such a big crowd. We then waited, in the sun (24c) on the astroturf, trying to understand the announcements over the tannoy, before deciding that we might as well try to make our way to the start. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The Swedish national anthem was sung at the start line, and then we were off. It was very crowded at the start and there were a lot of people who had optimistically predicted times much faster than they were going to achieve as they were walking within the first kilometre! Quite near the start the course split - without any warning - this was a bit alarming, even more so when we later heard that the winner of the marathon had been sent the wrong way TWICE during the race. He ran an extra 1.1k and despite this extra distance he missed breaking the course record by less than one minute. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Poor signage was a feature of this race. The kilometre markers were few and far between, the water stations were frequent, but most of the volunteers tended to stand behind the tables (which were only on one side of the road) rather than in front of them handing out cups. This meant that if you wanted to grab water you had to slow right down and pick a cup off the table - it got quite congested! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The route was beautiful - we were taken round lots of beautiful buildings, over lots of bridges as we hopped from island to island. It is just as well that the scenery was stunning because the crowds were somewhat muted. It felt as though they were waiting for the person they knew to run past - they would cheer them and then fall silent again. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">I'd run the first few miles with Husbando, but knew that he would want to run faster than me. I was in some discomfort with Morten's Neuroma and hadn't really trained for this race. I wasn't overly worried as I was just doing this one 'for fun!' I wanted to get home in under four hours, but that was it. Husbando wanted to get a BQ (Boston Qualifying) time. Given that his target was four minutes faster than my PB I'd have been silly to try to keep up!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The route is far from flat, that and the surprisingly warm weather, seemed to take their toll on a lot of runners. There were lots of walkers from the halfway point onwards. You generally get one or two people who have blown up having gone out too fast, but this was different, I was running past people who were walking all the time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The finish line was in the Olympic Stadium. Here there was a little more crowd support, but I think I was oblivious to it! Monday night track training kicked in, I moved to the inside lane and picked up the pace! Not sure how fast I ran that last 300m, but it bought my pace for the last half mile down to 8.15min/mile (overall for the marathon was something like 8.42min/mile and I'd slowed down for the previous few miles). </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">The rest of the gang had run well - PBs for two of them, including a BQ for Husbando. Post race faffing occurred. Funny how hard it is to even walk the minute you stop. Husbando is now eagerly awaiting the opening of the Boston marathon registration process, the other PB has told us to shoot him if he ever mentions running a third marathon. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Would I run Stockholm marathon again? Probably not, it felt a little disorganised at times, but I would definitely come back to Stockholm. I would very probably run a half marathon. In fact I think that foreign half marathons might be the way forward. They don't take over the whole trip the way a marathon does! My other regret about this trip is that I didn't get to do a Swedish parkrun. It wasn't sensible, or practical given the timings, to run one on Saturday and, because I had to be back in school on Monday, we couldn't stay to run the extra 'Sweden Day' parkrun on Monday. Hopefully we can go back to Sweden soon...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeDxCR9HJZzXtCDrOKm2yCqg0jii9yyRUjfRpnEG-T9ntf4502na7c57xUv4WDtxSAew4F_hCstCxO-mNE30p_AdlHaNHi9OE5xz64OvzOrgImZXycu4czVmGEDLS1xR4UhdCDTcTKwC0fPQXxYHGsmiEpY91xqpEaP0-O6tJZ3d40JqWko-G7X7Uq/s669/Screenshot%202022-06-08%20at%2009.23.50.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="669" data-original-width="418" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeDxCR9HJZzXtCDrOKm2yCqg0jii9yyRUjfRpnEG-T9ntf4502na7c57xUv4WDtxSAew4F_hCstCxO-mNE30p_AdlHaNHi9OE5xz64OvzOrgImZXycu4czVmGEDLS1xR4UhdCDTcTKwC0fPQXxYHGsmiEpY91xqpEaP0-O6tJZ3d40JqWko-G7X7Uq/s320/Screenshot%202022-06-08%20at%2009.23.50.png" width="200" /></a></div></div><br /><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-47171403276403804512022-04-19T17:02:00.000+01:002022-04-19T17:02:31.146+01:00It's all about the jacket.<p> I've blogged before about my long journey to run the Boston Marathon. For those who haven't already heard more than enough about the on again, off again saga these posts may be a good place to start: <a href="https://mrsbridgewater.blogspot.com/2021/05/every-second-counts.html" target="_blank">Every Second Counts</a> and <a href="https://mrsbridgewater.blogspot.com/2021/05/every-second-counts.html" target="_blank">The Dream Is Over</a>. If you are up to speed already please get yourself comfortable for the next instalment!</p><p>I love Boston, it is a fabulous city, small and friendly. We used to spend a lot of time over there with work - but in those days I wasn't a runner and the words 'Boston Marathon' meant nothing to me. That changed when I started running, and the quest to qualify for this iconic race began. I went from being comfortably below the cut off in 2020 (race cancelled) to a 'squeaker' in 2021 - the same time, with a reduced field due to Covid, meant I was 1 second under the cut off - but we couldn't travel to the USA in October 2021 due to Covid restrictions. I was 15 minutes under the qualifying time for 2022 (thanks to running London Marathon), a very comfortable margin in the year that allowed all those with a qualifying time run. It looked like we were on our way at last. It was nerve wracking taking the pre flight Covid tests. It was still possible that everything could fall apart if a pesky second line appeared. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjukIjn_XkiE8ksblfQlQVIw3pLzJAkRB48zckB3vfcWXK7sfgzty37yLiTzUjukASjbLDgd_kqpzz1kywgFePt7KGIsGV-NwnzZU6JtANHvlKmGiXB2P7RVW5vvA3D4fGZxe0u6bzOwsti6VfDajZ2nuEFM3nOM5jsxmLRl9cih_TvKxOhTQFqw4/s4032/IMG_8325.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjukIjn_XkiE8ksblfQlQVIw3pLzJAkRB48zckB3vfcWXK7sfgzty37yLiTzUjukASjbLDgd_kqpzz1kywgFePt7KGIsGV-NwnzZU6JtANHvlKmGiXB2P7RVW5vvA3D4fGZxe0u6bzOwsti6VfDajZ2nuEFM3nOM5jsxmLRl9cih_TvKxOhTQFqw4/s320/IMG_8325.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>We flew into Boston on Wednesday, travelling with friends, three of us running the marathon and two supporters. It was wonderful to be flying again, fantastic to be back in Boston - especially as Wednesday afternoon was beautifully warm and sunny - so we wandered around the Public Gardens, Boston Common taking in the sights and grabbing a quick beer or two at the wonderful <a href="https://www.democracybrewing.com" target="_blank">Democracy Brewing</a> - we need to go back as we need to buy one of their beer glasses as a souvenir. Thursday saw more mooching about, eating huge portions of food and half heartedly following the <a href="https://www.thefreedomtrail.org" target="_blank">Freedom Trail</a>, we were easily distracted by retail opportunities, and a trip to watch an ice hockey game in the evening. Boston was clearly getting ready for the marathon. A gantry had appeared across Boylston Street to mark the finish line and people were walking around in 'celebration jackets' from previous years. There were lots of 'Are you here to run the marathon? Where are you from?' conversations with strangers in queues. <p></p><p>And then, on Friday, the expo opened. Runners and supporters began to arrive in force! The queues were long, but moved quickly, I'd opted to sign up to the Unicorn Club (Boston Athletic Association considered me have run 'consecutive marathons' despite my previous two being virtual), which meant a separate bib collection and some extra goodies. We played 'spot the jackets' trying to see find the oldest jacket. I saw one for 1994, which is the year we got married. The TV news talked about the marathon, the bar tender talked about the marathon, we talked about the marathon and we bought so much merchandise that a new suitcase was deemed essential. </p><p>Saturday is, of course, parkrun day. When I'd first qualified for the 2020 marathon I'd volunteered to tail walk at <a href="https://www.parkrun.us/jamaicapond/" target="_blank">Jamaica Pond parkrun</a> and eventually I was going to get to do this too. Jamaica Pond is gorgeous, the core team were friendly and coped well with the influx of marathon runners who swelled their numbers from around 100 to a US record attendance of 363! We woke up on Sunday ready to run a marathon, but of course Boston Marathon is run on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots%27_Day" target="_blank">Patriots' Day</a> which is a Monday. It felt a bit odd, we dashed around getting a few more essential souvenirs, had pizza for supper, and compulsively checked the weather forecast. I met up with fellow 'squeakers' at the finish line and we got to see the marathon trophy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVES6vDgFyFEZlt8UOgqUkKw5858P3q8F6qalb3urc6D4ZUPPEmcyg0qK-pnmymYlHBrs6DpqT6z9GQndfBuOKp1FwS0IlGlPxisStZbWAmYoA60YaeD8o0MazRulMBvBpbUZjLZ5oFpOpRfeDUbLFZ7hp-6KJfiI-aCdMQ3OdPrpLSkMV6i2ptvco/s3024/IMG_8336.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVES6vDgFyFEZlt8UOgqUkKw5858P3q8F6qalb3urc6D4ZUPPEmcyg0qK-pnmymYlHBrs6DpqT6z9GQndfBuOKp1FwS0IlGlPxisStZbWAmYoA60YaeD8o0MazRulMBvBpbUZjLZ5oFpOpRfeDUbLFZ7hp-6KJfiI-aCdMQ3OdPrpLSkMV6i2ptvco/w267-h267/IMG_8336.jpeg" width="267" /></a></div><p></p><p>My Unicorn Club membership entitled me to a separate gear check, pre-race breakfast, and luxury coaches to the start. I was also bumped up to Wave 1 (of 4) for the start. This was mildly terrifying as I would be starting with runners who had a qualifying time of under three hours! Luckily we were put in the last corral of that wave - so people wouldn't be tripping over us. The coach to the start in Hopkinton took about 30 minutes and we were accompanied by police motorcycles before being dropped very close to the start - so we didn't get to experience the Athletes' Village. The sun was shining, it wasn't too cold, the portaloos were plentiful and people were friendly. There were hundreds of volunteers making sure that discarded clothing was collected for charity and that we all went, roughly, in the right direction. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmO24X9o90KJ2Vs5JLDrY7O7wn24ad63keVgsc4prBWinZ3DJsLhmG-Vcm8Dr_lZ5cMfoifzDsTBOIoXPlFk_hoKEzpFH_sSyNDCQF2C1qSzxt4dVBXjzFwk_O7Z8uW1tF37GPWNoitqz1cDl42Pngw8uP2e076SOfo2Ckg4I-jtInwUnaPraG8oK/s4032/IMG_8393.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDmO24X9o90KJ2Vs5JLDrY7O7wn24ad63keVgsc4prBWinZ3DJsLhmG-Vcm8Dr_lZ5cMfoifzDsTBOIoXPlFk_hoKEzpFH_sSyNDCQF2C1qSzxt4dVBXjzFwk_O7Z8uW1tF37GPWNoitqz1cDl42Pngw8uP2e076SOfo2Ckg4I-jtInwUnaPraG8oK/s320/IMG_8393.jpeg" width="320" /></a> The start line is marked by a banner, no high tech gantry here - just a banner stretched across the street. The national anthem was sung, there was a flypast of two C-130s and very soon we were on our way. I crossed the start line crying a little bit. I couldn't believe I was actually about to run the Boston Marathon!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'd spent months thinking about this race. I'd listened to so many people tell me that the downhill at the start would kill my quads, to be careful not to go to fast, to save energy for the infamous Newton Hills. Did I pay any attention? Well, a little bit, but I rationalised that live in a hilly area, and that I'd be fine. And for the first half I was fine. I was loving it. I was using the downhills (the first downhill stretch is surprisingly steep) to lengthen my stride and felt really comfortable. My first 10k wasn't quite as fast as my London marathon in October, but the first half of the race was a fraction faster - despite bursting into tears in the Wellesley Scream Tunnel - an overwhelming wall of noise from the local college girls. The route was really interesting. We ran from small town to small town. At the start these were interspersed with rural sections - including a beautiful lake. The support from the locals was amazing! When I got to Framingham I heard my name and turned to see Husbando and a friend cheering me on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyUmabic_oVSCbD6ST9_OU5NlQ8g2gqQAfBuNYCwCeqcOx6ehMgZeR16Cc7gwOm1h68a2O0JwngugPNwst5Sg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was a smidge over halfway, and my hamstring was starting to play up. I was also keeping my eyes open for the next block of portaloos - my body clock had not overcome jet lag sufficiently well to schedule my pre race poo efficiently! I also felt a bit queasy - probably from the pain in my leg. I used the loo, came out and turned straight round again to throw up. I sent a quick text to friends so that they would know why my tracking times had gone to hell in a handcart and, I hoped, elicit some sympathy. I was told that reducing my weight would facilitate a negative split! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From there, my race was a bit of a disaster. I couldn't keep water or any nutrients down, my leg hurt and I knew that the toughest bit of the course was ahead. The Newton Hills aren't particularly steep, they just come late enough in the marathon that you feel them. And they go on and on and on! The most famous hill is 'Heartbreak Hill.' I was conscious that I needed to save some energy for the big one, so was rather surprised when I got to the top of a long, steady, uphill drag to see a sign that said 'Congratulations on summiting Heartbreak Hill!' I might have survived the hills but I still had about 6 or 7 miles to go. I still couldn't even keep water down, I was thirsty, hungry and running (if we can call it running) on pure will power. I walked a lot in the last few miles, all the time doing mental maths about possible finish times in my head. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I set out to run 'about 4hrs' and was pleased to calculate that I could still do that. I wanted to run, but as we came into Boston I was taking frequent walk breaks. I was adamant that I would run from the moment I turned right on Hereford and then left on Boylston. We'd walked this section frequently over the preceding few days, it really wasn't very far at all, and the bit on Boylston was slightly down hill. However, over night someone had put a massive up hill section on the stretch of Hereford Street between Commonwealth and Boylston. I swear crampons would have been useful. I think I sort of ran up it, and then someone had added an extra three or four miles to the previously short section of Boylston Street. I knew Husbando was in the stands at the finish, and the crowds were roaring us home, so there was only one thing for it; to grit my teeth, pick up the pace and run. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I crossed the line, burst into tears and gave Husbando a hug across the barrier rail before making my way shakily to the VIP tent, a worried looking medic insisted on walking with me until he was sure I wasn't going to do anything daft like pass out in the street! Loads of goodies were available, but I couldn't face them. I went straight back to the function room in the nearby hotel where a veritable feast had been laid on for Unicon Club runners and their supporters. Husbando ate enough for both of us, I think I tried a beer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Looking back, a time of 3.52.39 is a one I would have thought impossible 4 years ago. It is a Boston Qualifying time and, given how awful I felt in the second half, I am very happy with it. The run up to the race was plagued with niggling injuries, a stressful term at work and not enough long training runs. All things to bear in mind for the future. Boston may be a net downhill course - but it is not an easy marathon. It is an amazing marathon - I hope to be back to run it again!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRp5lxkwwHVse1pCsefxRSj4QyhQrJGI4Qrj_r3km2nXHyjbQR170WHGwxP6qlBXBnNNPln0qWO7Nd6W45-mLZzBggRoBkVOWUm92Pbc3DX2zPJnmrMrvKFN-PSEMAdNThnldkKvb2EWQ8fPJRxnYE_Agdra8F2t5J-7iRk2cg1jQUpdv4fPIQ6n0b/s4032/IMG_8395.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRp5lxkwwHVse1pCsefxRSj4QyhQrJGI4Qrj_r3km2nXHyjbQR170WHGwxP6qlBXBnNNPln0qWO7Nd6W45-mLZzBggRoBkVOWUm92Pbc3DX2zPJnmrMrvKFN-PSEMAdNThnldkKvb2EWQ8fPJRxnYE_Agdra8F2t5J-7iRk2cg1jQUpdv4fPIQ6n0b/s320/IMG_8395.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-50798690381631836102021-10-03T20:27:00.001+01:002021-10-03T20:30:58.814+01:00Imagine what I could do if I trained properly! <p>After a busy week, culminating in a rainy soaked Open Morning at school, we jumped in the car to get up to London. It was possible to locate petrol stations on Sat Nav by looking at the congestion and added time on the map - each petrol station was adding between 4 and 15 minutes to our journey. It was all rather stressful as I needed to get to the Expo to pick up my race number. As we passed Battersea Power Station tube station I jumped out of the car and into the shiny new tube station and took the tube and DLR arriving at the expo at 2.45pm. </p><p>And then the fun began. To be more 'covid secure' we had been told that we had to leave our kit bags at the expo, so I wandered off to find the queue, which ended outside the ExCeL centre. It then snaked, Disney style, through the central plaza and then into one of the exhibition halls for some more queueing! I eventually handed my bag in shortly after 3pm and set off to join another, thankfully shorter, queue to pick up my race bibs. I had two to wear this year - the standard race bib, and an extra one that I still don't fully understand - it seems that all us oldies who got a good for age place were entered into the <a href="https://www.worldmarathonmajors.com/rankings/world-championships" target="_blank">WANDA age ranking championships</a>. There is no danger of me breaking the record for my category - that stands at 2.31.05 - but it came with the promise of an extra medal! It was only at this point we were asked for evidence of reporting a negative LFT. </p><p>Once into the expo it was relatively quiet - I reckon most people felt they'd spent too much time standing around already and just wanted to get back to hotels/homes etc! I tweeted about the long queues and was told that I should have come earlier in the week if I wanted a less stressful experience, which is not helpful to anyone who can't get time off work and/or can't afford an extended stay in London. I toddled off back into central London for supper (I'd missed lunch with the travel and queue chaos), a whole load of cold medication and an early night.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Y4bYn-HDmY/YVn43EpteQI/AAAAAAAADfk/SMdGXW0bulAsrYZBLgRFQKUU4pq6Nzo7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s578/Screenshot%2B2021-10-03%2Bat%2B18.47.03.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="578" height="233" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Y4bYn-HDmY/YVn43EpteQI/AAAAAAAADfk/SMdGXW0bulAsrYZBLgRFQKUU4pq6Nzo7gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-10-03%2Bat%2B18.47.03.png" width="320" /></a></div>The weather on Sunday was much more promising than the torrential rain of the day before. I donned my 'throwaway' sweatshirt and made my way to the yellow start. The yellow start was tiny, I didn't see any familiar faces amongst the runners, but one of the volunteers was the very excellent Danny from the (also very excellent) podcast <a href="https://withmenow.libsyn.com">With Me Now</a>. And then, a few minutes later, my friend John arrived and we posed for a photo because I am, at heart, a teenager and never get tired of having a comedy surname! <br /><p></p><p>It was surprisingly cold at the start. I began to wish I'd bought an old pair of pyjamas to wear too as I was starting to shiver so much that I couldn't use my phone. I just about managed to reply to a message from a friend asking what my plan was, I said 'Put one foot in front of another and repeat until someone tells me to stop!' In reality I had no plan. My training has been less than ideal, I lost my motivation somewhat when I found that I couldn't get to Boston, and the preceding week at school had been rather busy. I'd run a couple of reasonable half marathons, but nothing close to a PB. Husbando and my friends were encouraging me to go for a Boston Qualifying time (3hrs 55 for my age group) but that seemed totally out of the question as I stood at the start line. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yUPjLQqGBHU/YVn84IdTrMI/AAAAAAAADfs/6K_Tl7IFrooJuECXlooOByQeTev9NLU5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s573/Screenshot%2B2021-10-03%2Bat%2B18.47.22.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="573" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yUPjLQqGBHU/YVn84IdTrMI/AAAAAAAADfs/6K_Tl7IFrooJuECXlooOByQeTev9NLU5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-10-03%2Bat%2B18.47.22.png" width="145" /></a></div>I started fast. It was hard not to when starting with a group of fast runners, one clue that I was going faster than I possibly should was when I went through 5k in 23mins 30 secs - faster than I have run a parkrun in a long time. I tried to slow down, but it wasn't happening so I decided to just see what happened. I grabbed water at all the water stations, high fived all the children I could get to on the edge of the course and chatted with my fellow runners. I may have sworn at the anti vaxxers who thought that their idiotic placards would encourage runners. I was delighted to see Husbando just before Tower Bridge - he enlisted the help of fellow supporters to yell out my name! <p></p><p>I went through the halfway mark about 2 minutes slower than my half marathon PB. This was madness! I had a quick loo stop and hoped this might make me run slower when I restarted - it did not! I still felt pretty good at that point, and was doing all sorts of mental maths in my head. I was using my Garmin to keep an eye on my pace, which was fine until we hit Canary Wharf and my Garmin recorded a 6.07 and a 5.43 minute mile! I think, but the time I got to the 19 mile marker, my Garmin said I'd run over 20 miles, so it was back to trying to manually calculate pace. </p><p><br /></p><p>It was during these mental gymnastics that I worked out that I was on for a sub 4 pace and a PB. I wasn't confident enough of my numbers to be sure, but it did seem likely. Which was good because I felt like I was working rather hard at this running thing! At 24 miles I reckoned I could probably walk the last couple of miles and still just about get a PB. It was very tempting because everything was hurting, but I knew that one of my friends was somewhere on the Embankment and Husbando and my youngest child were on Birdcage Walk - I didn't want them to see me walking! But good lord it was hard work! It was messing with my head knowing I could slow down if I wanted to! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ilFbIPHYG_s/YVoDhOeMJqI/AAAAAAAADf0/lYzZsmGg7u8OwL6S4rsFzQPGMXMlTSHhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_6450.HEIC" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ilFbIPHYG_s/YVoDhOeMJqI/AAAAAAAADf0/lYzZsmGg7u8OwL6S4rsFzQPGMXMlTSHhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_6450.HEIC" width="320" /></a></div>The noise on Birdcage Walk was immense. It was almost a relief to turn at the top of St James Park where there were no supporters and onto The Mall where the supporters in the stands were not quite as raucous as those at street level. I could see the finish. I could see the time of 3.39 and some seconds as I ran towards it, I could hardly believe it! Would I be able to get there before the time went over to 3.40? I'd started about 30 seconds after the clock started so knew I had a little bit of leeway. I couldn't see the clock as I passed under it but my watch told me I'd done it. A new PB of 3h 39n 21s - about 8 minutes faster than my previous PB and 15m 39s faster than the qualifying time I'd need for Boston.<p></p><p>I staggered down The Mall, desperately thirsty - but the water bottles had been placed in our kit bags so I had to wait. It never ceases to amaze me how different the runners look on each side of the finish line. Looking at the zombies who were trying to read the little number on their bib to work out where to collect their bag, it is hard to imagine them running anywhere! </p><p>Husbando met me by Admiralty Arch - I foisted my bags on him and we walked along Whitehall to meet up with friends (John ran a 3hr 2min marathon and Helen had completed the virtual) for lunch - burgers and beer! I never eat burgers but it was just what was needed! </p><p>I'm still in shock! My body hates me for pushing it so hard but I am also so incredibly happy with my time - it is beyond anything I thought I was capable of achieving. </p><p>Huge thanks to all the volunteers on the course!</p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-29356600209830942702021-09-20T21:17:00.000+01:002021-09-20T21:17:23.653+01:00The dream is over.<p>The rollercoaster journey to get to the start line of the Boston Marathon is over. I'd been putting off cancelling flights and hotel rooms in the hope that suddenly, miraculously the USA would open up its borders and allow UK citizens to enter the country in October, but today's <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58628491">news</a> finally means that any glimmer of hope is over. </p><p>I suppose I should be proud that I qualified with a fast enough time to deserve a place two years running. For someone who spent the first 39 years of her life avoiding running anything other than a bath that has to count for something. When I started running the very idea of running a marathon, 26.2 miles, seemed utterly unthinkable, and the idea of qualifying for the iconic Boston Marathon was beyond my wildest dreams. </p><p>But, at the moment, I just feel deflated. </p><p>People keep telling me that, if I qualified once, I can qualify again. I'm not so sure. To say that qualifying the first time round was hard work would be an understatement. It was considerably easier when there were lots of races happening that helped to focus my training. I'm also less than impressed with the communications from Boston Athletic Association. Up until today the message, when I have emailed BAA, has been you can transfer to the virtual 'at no additional cost' (virtual is $70, actual race is about $290) without any indication of the date that the decision needs to be made. At last, today, an email has been sent to all entrants saying that the difference in price will be refunded and that the decision needs to be made by Friday. So at least there is come clarity. </p><p>I think I have fallen a little bit out of love with the whole idea of the Boston Marathon. I know that the the friend I was travelling over to Boston with has a qualifying time (with a huge buffer) for the 2022 race, and my other running buddy will qualify easily. The chances of me qualifying within the window available are about as good as a snowball's on Venus and, while I wish them well, I am a little bit envious of them. So maybe I do still want to do Boston? </p><p>For now I have the 'consolation prize' of running London in two weeks time instead of Boston in three. TI had my head so deep in the sand about Boston being cancelled that my training, such as it was, was focussed on 11th October not 3rd October, so my taper will be slightly shorter than is ideal, and I won't do justice to my good for age place. There is also the small matter of having to run 26.2 miles the following weekend to qualify for my 'virtual Boston' medal. That was about as much fun as having root canal surgery last year. </p><p>On the plus side, there is a two day course I need to do for work which clashed with the Monday and Tuesday that my head had very kindly given me off work for the marathon. I'm sure a course, via Zoom, will be more than enough to take my mind off the missing all the fun in Boston. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-87864342319513360392021-09-06T21:49:00.003+01:002021-09-06T22:16:05.607+01:00A weekend in Paris! <p> What a fantastic few days! This summer has been...different. I spent too much time in school, a week away on a course and never really felt I'd had a break from work. So the few days we'd planned away were just what I needed. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rcp0HaaYlNo/YTZmyeULAkI/AAAAAAAADd0/CFod_-W8q2IlgcuOm6ZYxzuMYvkBHhNtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s715/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.06.22.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Rcp0HaaYlNo/YTZmyeULAkI/AAAAAAAADd0/CFod_-W8q2IlgcuOm6ZYxzuMYvkBHhNtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.06.22.png" width="219" /></a></div>We decided, way back in January/February when it looked as though all travel restrictions would be over, that we would travel to Paris to run the <a href="https://www.harmoniemutuellesemideparis.com/fr">Semi-Marathon</a>. There were five runners and one supporter in our group, and we followed the ups and downs of the Covid travel restrictions carefully over the following months. We planned as much as we could and had the inevitable mad scramble to sort out tests and certificates and, eventually, early on Thursday morning we were on our way. Paris was warm and sunny when we arrived at lunchtime, we did touristy stuff that was great fun but not really the subject of this blog, went out for dinner, drank red wine - all that good stuff. <p></p>Friday morning was BEAUTIFUL so, of course, we went for a run - a 5 mile gentle sight seeing trot and photo shoot. There may have been a little grumbling about 'food babies' and slightly sore heads but the run certainly sorted us out and we headed back to the hotel for a hearty breakfast.<div><br /></div><div>Saturday is parkrun day. I'd already run the parkrun in Bois de Boulogne prior to the 2019 Paris Marathon so I was keen to go somewhere new. And if I am totally honest I am not 100% convinced that I could have found the start of that one again - which would have been embarrassing when travelling with friends. Luckily there is another Paris parkrun: <a href="https://www.parkrun.fr/montsouris/">parkrun de Montsouris</a> and after some research we realised that there was a bus route that took us right from our hotel to the park. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tGbmgagqT-8/YTZrUGE-wXI/AAAAAAAADd8/YoziVTzniEUh6V8Qxdw8-wycE-kunbGiACLcBGAsYHQ/s993/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.25.39.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="993" height="228" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tGbmgagqT-8/YTZrUGE-wXI/AAAAAAAADd8/YoziVTzniEUh6V8Qxdw8-wycE-kunbGiACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.25.39.png" width="320" /></a></div>We arrived at the park in good time, which is just as well as we weren't quite sure where the start was, luckily it was near to the toilets that we were also looking for. parkrun in France is a lot more low key than parkrun in England so it is sometimes a little unnerving to be standing in the middle of a park at 8.45am, wondering if you are in the right place, tentatively approaching a stranger and starting a conversation in school girl French, often the stranger will be a fellow Bri (either expat or tourist) who is also looking for the start. Then at about 8.55am parkrun appears by magic! </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s_P70cyFR3g/YTaElsIqCTI/AAAAAAAADec/HaVJDWEP5hgN04-XAVLk-O8wv47lx8KLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s751/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B22.13.20.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="751" height="138" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s_P70cyFR3g/YTaElsIqCTI/AAAAAAAADec/HaVJDWEP5hgN04-XAVLk-O8wv47lx8KLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B22.13.20.png" width="320" /></a></div>The welcome from the event team was warm, the course was explained to us and we walked to the start. I'd arranged to meet up with an old friend of mine who lives in Paris and to run with him - Covid has meant that we haven't seen each other for a very long time. I chattered away as we ran around the park three and a bit times. There was a short (quarter mile) uphill section on each lap but the rest was down hill all the way. And the park is gorgeous. If you had dropped me into the park and told me I was in Kew Gardens or RHS Wisley I would have believed you. We also went over and under a railway track - which the boys loved! There was so much to look at as we trotted round, interesting buildings, pretty plantings and attractive vistas, unsurprisingly the park was being well used by locals - lots of other runners, yoga, boot camps, children playing, dog walking etc. It was so very different to my expectations of an urban park - probably the prettiest park I have ever seen.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9bRZFrR-Pkc/YTaEl5H6e4I/AAAAAAAADeg/oiB5QsliErw2xPGn-lm3lNmcL81NjU8UgCLcBGAsYHQ/s969/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B22.12.38.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="969" height="164" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9bRZFrR-Pkc/YTaEl5H6e4I/AAAAAAAADeg/oiB5QsliErw2xPGn-lm3lNmcL81NjU8UgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B22.12.38.png" width="320" /></a></div>After the run we went to Chin Chin cafe. I've been to lots of post parkrun coffees, but I have never felt so welcome as I did on Saturday, it was great to talk to the team and to other runners - results were processed so speedily we were able to thank the volunteer before we left. One of our group got a parkrun PB so we were all in high spirits for the journey back to the hotel.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, the main reason we were in Paris on this particular weekend was to run a half marathon and I'd be lying if I said that the fact that the French call a half marathon a 'semi' didn't elicit some childish sniggering! When we booked the race we had no idea of what mass races in a Covid era would look like. We'd put in accurate time predictions for finish times and not thought too much about it. The final race instructions put us into something of a panic. The start times were spread out over much longer than we had anticipated, While four of us were due to start at 9.18am one of our group was not timetabled to set off until 11.05am. We had a 5.15pm train to catch and we'd all quite like to be able to shower first. Another consideration was the heat, Paris was, in comparison to Hampshire, roasting hot! The thought of having to run from 11am until 1pm didn't appeal. We began to consider how we could smuggle our friend into our starting pen with us but, just on the off chance I thought I would ask at the expo. I was amazed at how easy it was - I just explained that we were worried about missing our train and asked if a change of starting pen was possible 'Mais bien sur!' was the answer much to our relief. Trying to change t-shirt sizes was a whole different story!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RiEuKNUI9HU/YTZwgdpwbrI/AAAAAAAADeM/76kZhozBH4wP46bkNDQ-jhYkQVzOilNvACLcBGAsYHQ/s776/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.47.58.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="776" height="192" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RiEuKNUI9HU/YTZwgdpwbrI/AAAAAAAADeM/76kZhozBH4wP46bkNDQ-jhYkQVzOilNvACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.47.58.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before</td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><br /></div><div>We arrived at Place de la Bastille on Sunday morning to a seething mass of runners. Paris races don't seem to have an army of volunteer marshals, so it can be a little daunting trying to work out where you need to go! We showed out blue armbands that proved that we had been vaccinated so that we could get to the baggage drop, some of us braved the portaloos and are forever scarred by the experience, and made our way to the start. There didn't seem to be any designated pens - we all sort of wandered towards the start line and were released in waves - I think we crossed the line at about 9.35am. </div><div><br /></div><div>The route was, very roughly, the first half of the Paris marathon but in reverse. Shade was at a premium as the sun beat down. I ran the first 5k with Husbando before we went out separate ways. I wanted to run this as a 'teensy bit faster than marathon pace' run - but I am useless at pacing so just ran. I looked forward to the shade of the Bois de Vincennes - forgetting that the roads were so wide that there was barely any shade. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'd forgotten that there is so little 'crowd control' on races in Paris. In London races the the whole route is pretty much lined with volunteer marshals, often with loads of railings to stop pedestrians wandering into the route of the runners and crossing points would be manned. On Sunday we often had to avoid people darting across the road (with or without children in tow), cyclists and electric scooters on the route. I think these were slightly less dangerous when they were coming towards the runners as we could see them approach - when they tried to overtake us it was terrifying! One lady, very smartly dressed, got quite upset at the runners trying to pass her as she stood in the middle of the road with her five, large, German Shepherd type dogs - one of whom was relieving himself in the middle of the road! </div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uJxRPeFOw4/YTZwNIMLrTI/AAAAAAAADeE/GLNVXffhlAMdHmEPc5Ci8SZMjia1GM9iwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1198/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.44.36.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1198" height="178" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3uJxRPeFOw4/YTZwNIMLrTI/AAAAAAAADeE/GLNVXffhlAMdHmEPc5Ci8SZMjia1GM9iwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B20.44.36.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After</td></tr></tbody></table>Music and cheerleaders along the route provided entertainment, and I spent most of my time doing the mental maths needed to convert kilometres in to miles. The maths gets harder the further I run. I even forgot that a half marathon is 21(and a bit)k - I managed to convince myself for a while that it was 22k, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that people were shouting that there was 1k to go as we got to 20k! It was really hot by now, and I don't think I have ever seen so many people in trouble at a race before. At one point one of the race photographers stopped taking photos to help someone. With so few marshals on the route it really was down to everyone to look out for everyone else. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1kwMjN4ruu8/YTZ-UEDasuI/AAAAAAAADeU/wwwUeUHx6eUASzwXTtxHmbKaJcxPgicHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s752/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B21.46.53.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="372" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1kwMjN4ruu8/YTZ-UEDasuI/AAAAAAAADeU/wwwUeUHx6eUASzwXTtxHmbKaJcxPgicHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screenshot%2B2021-09-06%2Bat%2B21.46.53.png" width="158" /></a></div>The last 500m seemed never ending. It went on for miles as we ran around the monument in the Place de la Bastille, but suddenly the end was in sight. And our one woman support crew was there to cheer me on! I knew three of my friends were ahead of me - turns out we finished at roughly two minute intervals. I was pretty please with being 21st in my age category, until the first finisher in our group announced that not only did he get a PB but he was also 3rd in his age category! </div><div><br /></div><div>I dashed off back to our hotel rather than hanging around - I wasn't braving those portaloos again - and I swear that the 450m walk to the Metro station took me far less time to walk than it took me to run the last 500m of the race! </div><div><br /></div><div>It was a fabulous weekend! Great friends, great food and great to be running abroad again (even if we seem to have spent hours doing covid tests and completing forms). I enjoyed the race, loved my post race hydration and was thrilled to be able to run a half, have a fabulous lunch and be back home in Hampshire by 9pm that evening all ready for the start of a new term on Monday. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-32392639250894247802021-08-22T19:38:00.000+01:002021-08-22T19:38:19.078+01:00The Vitality Big Half<p>I'm supposed to be following a training plan for the Boston marathon. Last Sunday I was supposed to run 15 miles, I got to 5miles and had a 'phone call that meant I needed to go home meaning that I only ran 10 miles. To make up for this I went out and ran 15 miles on Monday. I then carried on 'as per the plan' until yesterday when I arrived at <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/stratforduponavon/course/">Stratford Upon Avon parkrun</a> with every intention of taking it easy...until it started raining and I just wanted to get it done so I could go somewhere warm and dry. </p><p>Today the plan called for a 10k race. Brilliant. Nice and easy. Until I realised I was signed up for the <a href="https://www.thebighalf.co.uk">Vitality Big Half</a>. Race communications were a little hit and miss, but Husbando and I were both signed up, so really we had no choice but to turn up and run. The timings looked a little tight - we were given a 10 minute window to arrive and check our bags, a similar time to enter our start pen but we needn't have worried. The start area was on the chaotic side of casual, we were in wave B, went to the start at the time we had been told, and ended up setting off with the A wave! </p><p>We started on Tower Hill, running out towards Canary Wharf, and through a very long underpass. I loved the fact that all the mile markers (apart from one) had the elapsed time on them. It meant that I could keep a rough eye on pace despite the disparity between the distance my Garmin thought we had run and how far we had actually run. There was a long underpass just after mile one. It was really long, but it was still a surprise to see a 2 mile marker (no time clock on this one) just 6 minutes after I had passed the 1 mile marker! At the pace I was running (and according to Garmin) we were only at 1.75miles! </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p></blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T8edzOiAE_8/YSJ4HRF6nwI/AAAAAAAADdA/cjpDmTw57BgH_iocdzxSIJfkOrnB7Qr1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s238/Screenshot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B17.14.55.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="238" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T8edzOiAE_8/YSJ4HRF6nwI/AAAAAAAADdA/cjpDmTw57BgH_iocdzxSIJfkOrnB7Qr1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B17.14.55.png" width="238" /></a></div>Something very odd happened with my Garmin in Canary Wharf. I appear to have run a very convoluted route and done a little swimming! I managed to add a fictitious 3/4 of a mile to the route somehow - and all before we got to the 5 mile point. Just before the 5 mile point one of the marshals shouted 'You are halfway there! Keep going!' I wanted to strangle that marshal. I was not having a fun time. I had never enjoyed a race less (too many miles in the few days before, not enough sleep and poor diet were taking their toll) - I felt so awful that I convinced myself that I had covid(*) - and I was very aware that we were no where near bloody half way! <p></p><p>Husbando was still running with me. I told him that I was going to get to 10k and then walk the rest. We ploughed on. There were cobbles. Quite a lot of cobbles. I was looking forward to my walk at this point! As soon as we passed the 10k marker I said goodbye to Husbando and started walking. I ate a mini malt loaf, drank some water and then realised that walking 12k would take far too long. I decided to run/walk the rest of the way and adopted a 9min run/1min walk strategy. Luckily there weren't too many spectators to tell me to run! My overall pace didn't drop too much and I pootled along to the finish. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DUHjYziLWAo/YSJ9lTPrH5I/AAAAAAAADdI/CIAS5GXxMCA9pz3SWuLKEiRCw5XxBz1lwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_5882.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1539" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DUHjYziLWAo/YSJ9lTPrH5I/AAAAAAAADdI/CIAS5GXxMCA9pz3SWuLKEiRCw5XxBz1lwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_5882.HEIC" width="240" /></a></div>It was not the most interesting of routes. The marshals, with the one exception noted above, were wonderful, very friendly and supportive, but there were very few supporters on the course and none of the atmosphere that was a key feature of the London Landmarks Half a few weeks ago. As we approached the finish this did improve - with the last 600m having lots of supporters, but all in all I was just relieved to have finished. <p></p><p>I caught a quick glimpse of the Cutty Sark as I crossed the finish line, collected my medal (I do like it when a medal matches the colour scheme I am wearing!) and followed the trail of runners to the baggage collection in the grounds of the Royal Naval College. This was the best bit of the race! Despite having been born in QE Military Hospital and having run a couple of 10ks in Greenwich Park (very hilly - the views from the top are stunning!) I haven't spent much time in Greenwich. The College is stunning. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OW8jTLbw260/YSJ_Q_o9UrI/AAAAAAAADdQ/y5FhtEkj8HEpd8njad5Gl53a8HyYU8IwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s236/Screenshot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B17.43.57.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="194" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OW8jTLbw260/YSJ_Q_o9UrI/AAAAAAAADdQ/y5FhtEkj8HEpd8njad5Gl53a8HyYU8IwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/Screenshot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B17.43.57.png" width="194" /></a></div>Bag collection was a dream. I'd been a bit worried as all our bags were thrown onto vans on Tower Hill that it would be a bun fight - but the baggage crew had sorted them all beautifully! I suspect that this was a task that went on and on, as people were still making their way to the start line I was at about 8miles in to the race. <p></p><p>Husbando texted me to tell me where he was so we could meet up. There's always one person who has to lower the tone, and if it isn't me it will be him! As we made our way back into London I discovered that a group of my friends had been running the race today - one of them got a PB - wish I had been better organised as we could have met up for a drink afterwards!<br /></p><p>I am going to put my feet up for a few hours now and resume the training plan on Tuesday! I have another half marathon at beginning of next month - so long as we can get to France and back. Hopefully I will remember to take it easy at parkrun the day before - but who knows? </p><p>* I do not have Covid! One of the many joys of being a teacher is having ready access far more LFTs than anyone could ever need.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-32488198059297814362021-08-02T19:13:00.003+01:002021-08-03T16:56:17.781+01:00The return of parkrun and city centre races! <p> I missed the last parkrun before the global pause. I decided to go to a yoga and brunch thing with a friend, it was lovely, I came away feeling relaxed - that may have had something to do with drinking Bucks Fizz with brunch. I was on 389 parkruns at 99 different venues, and had big plans to run my 100th different venue the following week. I'd told lots of friends and I was rather excited about reaching this milestone. Obviously my plans changed. There have been several glimmers of hope for a restart since last October, and earlier easing of rules meant that we could meet up in small groups to run, but it wasn't the same as parkrun. There is something about parkrun that elevates it from just 'a 5k run in a nice place' to a real force for social good. </p><p><br /></p><p>When I learnt that parkrun would return on 24th July I had a dilemma. I wanted get my 100th run out of the way. We were due to go to London (more of that later) so could started to look around for a suitable parkrun that didn't make us stray too far from our route. I didn't want to make a big deal of it though for a couple of reasons: it wouldn't be fair to the event team if the crowd that turned up for my 250th descended on a parkrun, and I didn't want people to feel that they ought to come and support me when they really weren't happy about travelling or mixing with people unnecessarily. So I told the group I ran with regularly on Saturday morning and baked a cake. </p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E8wU370cUeg/YP7Vwx1dgJI/AAAAAAAADbk/Ga-NNkN95kEQPNQntn6wxSCVj_TlK732wCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/51333965505_c79b1b8b21_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E8wU370cUeg/YP7Vwx1dgJI/AAAAAAAADbk/Ga-NNkN95kEQPNQntn6wxSCVj_TlK732wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/51333965505_c79b1b8b21_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We arrived at Blackpark parkrun with plenty of time to spare, parked and made our way to the starting area. What amazed me was how utterly normal and thoroughly wonderful it felt at the same time. I may have forgotten (it's my age!) that we weren't supposed to hug people - but there were friends there I hadn't seen for however long this damned pandemic has been going on! It was also a lovely treat to run a single lap parkrun. The run brief was short and to the point, just enough to welcome us all back, remind us of the basic rules and to get us on our way. The parkrun weather fairies worked their magic and it didn't start to rain until we had finished our teas, coffees and cakes and were on our way and I'd finally, in the company of the people who had helped me hold on to the last remains of sanity during lockdown, done my Cowell Club run and we were on our way up to London. <div><br /><p></p><p>After checking into the hotel, having a quick shower and a bite to eat it was time for a little retail therapy before dinner and a movie and an early(ish) night because I had a race, a real, live actual race in the centre of that there London Town. The race was the ASICS London 10k. I had totally forgotten that I had entered the race (probably way back in 2019) until an envelope with a race number inside it arrived. There was information about the time I would need to arrive, but no date on the envelope - even when I had worked out what the race was it had taken me a while to find the date on the organiser's website! It only dawned on me as I walked to the start, thankfully very close to our hotel, and witnessed the somewhat shambolic organisation, that this was a rebranding of the old British 10k - a race I think I said I would never do again. </p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kPtbMGgsxIw/YQgnZ0JIylI/AAAAAAAADcQ/QyNDGL7kfgg0t3OLKyHWy1Ttx2XD1GtiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s977/1D6046D2-6AD2-4CA2-8DE9-5C6495705A6C_1_201_a.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="977" data-original-width="651" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kPtbMGgsxIw/YQgnZ0JIylI/AAAAAAAADcQ/QyNDGL7kfgg0t3OLKyHWy1Ttx2XD1GtiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/1D6046D2-6AD2-4CA2-8DE9-5C6495705A6C_1_201_a.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div>After not taking it terribly easy at parkrun on the Saturday I was a little concerned about a 10k, but decided to just enjoy it. It felt good to be lining up with a lot of other runners and a slight downhill start made for a speedy start despite the warm and humid conditions. The route was a short, sharp dash around the West End and Parliament Square which ended with us running up Whitehall. As we left Parliament Square there was a sign that said '0.1 to go' which I naturally assumed meant 0.1km to go. A mere 100metres! I picked up the pace - only to turn the corner and see that the finish gantry was all the way up Whitehall! </div><div><br /><p></p><p>I finished in 48mins 28secs - about 2 minutes slower than my PB, but much faster than I thought I would run after such a long break from races. The race photos and videos were free, which is lovely, but the video did reveal that I needed to upgrade my sports bras! A tech t shirt (that actually fits) in a canvas goody bag was a nice upgrade from the cotton t-shirt that could double as a tent in plastic carrier bag that I'd been given at the old version of this race.</p><p><br /></p><p>The following week was busy, one night in Manchester, catching up with our two oldest children, two nights in Leeds while Husbando did a book fair and I mainly sat in cafes and read books to try to avoid the rain! We knew we wanted to do a parkrun, but were unsure where we would end up. In the end we discounted parkruns that would involve getting the car out of the hotel carpark and walked to <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/crossflatts/" target="_blank">Cross Flatts parkrun</a>, it was an interesting walk through Holbeck - who knew that sex workers plied their trade at 8.30am on a Saturday morning? The parkrun was one of the most welcoming ones I have ever been to. Lots of interesting chats with other runners, including one girl who had moved to the area just before the lockdown, her home was so close that she could see the start of parkrun from her window but she had never run parkrun here before (she was in Wales last week) and is moving this week so this is her one chance to run it! The parkrun is not flat! And the long uphill section is particularly sapping - especially on the second lap. The hill isn't terribly steep - but it just goes on and on... Thankfully there was an enthusiastic marshal half way up the hill!</p><p><br /></p><p>Saturday evening saw us back in London. We had the <a href="https://llhm.co.uk/photos" target="_blank">London Landmarks Half Marathon</a> to look forward to. On a whim, having not got a place in the ballot, I applied for places that were released on a first come first served basis a couple of months ago and got them. I seem to remember it was not cheap. I'd put down a predicted pace a little slower than my PB, and so Husbando and I found ourselves in the first 'Lightening' wave. Our hotel was close to the start, so we didn't need to leave a bag on the baggage busses just turning up 'race ready.' I bumped into a headteacher I know from Twitter - nice to put a face to a name, and we had a lovely conversation with twins Debs and Linda who have raised huge amounts of money for Cancer Research running in memory of their brother. I showed Debs the 'rabbit ears' technique for tying her laces (and I am claiming that this was instrumental in her subsequent PB!)</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eswDUtpmvQ/YQgwquU9ERI/AAAAAAAADcY/nlKzSQEyY8w1mTUk2-Zb8kVwTuYBRdXmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2000/FREEphoto.tmpl-1728-LLHA2070-3845.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1333" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9eswDUtpmvQ/YQgwquU9ERI/AAAAAAAADcY/nlKzSQEyY8w1mTUk2-Zb8kVwTuYBRdXmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/FREEphoto.tmpl-1728-LLHA2070-3845.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div>The atmosphere at the start was amazing. Again I had no idea how this race would pan out. We decided that it should be a 'training run with a medal' and then I set off far faster than I would like - just the excitement of being with so many other runners! The route took us on a really bendy route through the West End and the City, we went over Waterloo Bridge - a bridge I have walked over so many times without knowing that it used to be referred to as the 'Ladies' Bridge' because it was built by women in WW2. We overtook Bagpuss on the bridge - and had a chat with other runners about whether it could be the real Bagpuss as running is far too energetic for a saggy, baggy cat - even if Emily does love him! We also overtook a 'guide dog' - I am really hoping that there were several people in guide dog outfits, otherwise I overtook the same person three times. </div><div><br /><p></p><p>Despite going off a bit too fast we managed to maintain the pace fairly well until about 9 or 10 miles. In common with lots of races in built up areas, my Garmin was wildly out of sync with the mile markers, by 9 miles it was about three quarters of a mile out, and I lost the plot a bit. I was trying to work out how far I had left to run, what pace I was actually running (as opposed to what pace my watch said I was running) and I really couldn't do the maths! I'd also not taken any nutrition with me (no mini malt loaf in my pocket that day) and there was only water available - so my energy levels were beginning to drop. I wouldn't normally take anything with me on a training run - but I also wouldn't run as fast. My pace dropped and I told Husbando to go on without me. I changed down a gear, gave myself a bit of a talking too and settled into a slightly slower pace. As we passed the 13 mile marker my Garmin was reading just sort of 14 miles, but I didn't care - I was on target for a sub 1.50 finish - way off my PB but not bad for a training run, and I didn't feel too tired at the end. (Official finish time 1.48.37).</p><p><br /></p><p>The support on the course was amazing! It did feel as though I was on a running tour of all the places I used to work in (Chancery Lane, Holborn, Poultry, Cheapside, to name but a few) and we were very lucky with the weather, it was warm and humid but the rain held off until later in the day. I really do think that this is the best city half marathon I have ever taken part in - all the best bits of the London Marathon (atomsphere, supporters and sights) without the boring bits! I'll definitely try to get a place again next year. </p><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p></p><p><br /></p></div>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-9010716673420540122021-05-07T21:29:00.003+01:002021-05-08T17:48:34.302+01:00Every second counts.<p> <span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">In the great scheme of things that have happened over the last 14 crazy months one specific race being cancelled is not a big deal.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">Or shouldn’t be a big deal, not to a normal, well adjusted adult.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">But I am obviously not a normal, well adjusted adult.</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">When the 124</span><sup style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">th</sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">Boston Marathon was postponed and then transformed to a ‘virtual marathon’ I was far more upset than I should have been. Maybe I am not as normal and well adjusted as I like to believe!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">When I started running, back in 2010/2011, the idea of running a marathon was incredible. I did not believe that it was something I was capable of achieving, I'd always been remarkably adept at avoiding physical activity while growing up and hated 'games' at school. Even when I had got my head around the idea of running 26.2 miles all in one go I remember saying to a friend ‘Oh, to run Boston would be a dream – but there is no way I will ever be a good enough runner to do that!’ Their reply was quite simple; ‘Not with that attitude you won’t!’ And that was it, a seed was planted, I had a goal - to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_Qualifying_Standards">qualify</a> to run a marathon in my favourite American city. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">As I ran more marathons my time seemed to be settling at around the four hour mark, but annoyingly it was just the wrong side of the four hours. Midway through 2018 I set myself a goal of running a sub 4hr marathon before my 50<sup>th</sup>birthday. I had no set event in mind, and managed to run my first sub 4 at a low key marathon with <a href="https://www.phoenixrunning.co.uk" target="_blank">Phoenix</a> on the banks of the Thames in February. I hadn't set out to run fast - it was just one of those days where, with the support of friends, everything just worked<a href="https://mrsbridgewater.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-shiny-new-pb-my-precious.html" target="_blank"> out for the best</a>. The pressure was now off as far as I was concerned. We still joked about the possibility of running a Boston Qualifying (BQ) time, but the gap between 3hrs 58mins and 50 seconds and the sub 3hrs 50mins needed (I was in the 45-49 category then) seemed insurmountable. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">Then, in April, we had a trip to Paris to eat steak frites, drink red wine and run a marathon. It was an <a href="https://mrsbridgewater.blogspot.com/2019/04/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html" target="_blank">'interesting trip'</a> that resulted in me smashing through the 3hr50min barrier and getting a BQ time. Another important thing happened - I got older or, and this sounds much nicer, I 'aged up!' Meaning that despite running as a 49 year old, the race I was entering would happen when I was 50 - which put me into a higher age category giving me a 5 minute slower target time. My Paris time of 3.47.12 was 7mins and 48 seconds faster than I needed. Happy days! I registered for Boston, waited a couple of weeks, was told my time was fast enough, booked hotel and aeroplane tickets and looked forward to April 2020 and the 124th Boston Marathon.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">Then Covid happened. Along with every other race, Boston was postponed and then transformed into a virtual event. I ran it on the same course with the same people as I ran my first sub 4 and I hated every minute of it. And there were a lot of minutes of it! But, I got the job done and have the medal to prove it. The only silver lining was that the Boston Athletic Association changed the dates for qualifying marathons so that my Paris marathon would still count for the 2021 marathon. But, and it is a huge but, the field size was cut by a third. I applied anyway, encouraged my very fast friend to apply too so we could have a nice jolly trip, and waited. Normally a buffer of 7mins 48seconds would mean I was sure of a place, the buffer for 2020 had been 1min 39, this year the speculation was rife that at least 10 minutes would be needed. I was trying to prepare my 'happy face' so that when my friend got in and I didn't I could at least not disgrace myself by screaming and crying in public. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">On Tuesday 4th May social media posts kept popping up - runners saying 'I'm in with a buffer of 20mins' - I didn't see a single post with a buffer of less than 10 minutes. I began to despair. But I couldn't stop scrolling through the feeds. And then I saw it. A post on the official BAA instagram site announcing that the buffer was 7mins 47 seconds. I ran from the bedroom to the kitchen, threw the phone and the piece of paper with my Paris time on it at Husbando and squeaked at him incomprehensibly. Was it true? Had I read the numbers properly? My heart was pounding. I checked, he checked, we called one of the boys in to check too. It seemed I might be in - but I wouldn't believe it until the email arrived. The one that had this heading:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i358RTUPCPY/YJWcLxo2wAI/AAAAAAAADYg/4AZ3Wgak85UtCN28dKhIrUkNQAIKOItjgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1125/Screenshot%2B2021-05-07%2Bat%2B20.59.07.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="1125" height="120" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i358RTUPCPY/YJWcLxo2wAI/AAAAAAAADYg/4AZ3Wgak85UtCN28dKhIrUkNQAIKOItjgCLcBGAsYHQ/w432-h120/Screenshot%2B2021-05-07%2Bat%2B20.59.07.png" width="432" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I may well have checked my email every half hour overnight waiting for that! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I can't believe I got into the Boston Marathon with just one second to spare - if I'd slowed down to talk to a friend I'd passed in Paris I wouldn't be going to Boston in October. The heart ache that must be felt by those who were one second the other side of the cut off must be huge. In any other year they would have been safely into the race. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Husbando has booked flights and a hotel room, I've spoken to my head teacher, who seems thrilled at the prospect of getting rid of me for a few days so now I just have the small matter of nursing my dodgy knee back to good health and getting my tired old 'aged up' body back into marathon shape! Oh, and planning just how much merchandise I will buy.</div><p></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-3301794816705852021-02-25T16:58:00.001+00:002021-02-25T16:58:21.924+00:00Grade inflation, or why teachers always get the blame.<p>Sorry for a non running post on a normally running related blog, but this is too long for a Tweet of a Facebook status update, and I haven't exactly been jetting around the world running exciting races. </p><p>Picture the scene, or rather the markbook. If there was a fire at school I reckon every single teacher would risk life, limb and the lovely new set of pens that they treated themselves to last week in order to dash back in and grab their markbook - that is if they had been foolish enough to become separated from it in the first place. Yes, the data is all recorded on the school system - unless it crashed as every teacher tried to meet the deadline for inputting half term test - but the system records raw numbers. It doesn't have any of the squiggles and annotations that serve to put our results into context (e.g. 'J got 75% despite missing out a q because the pages stuck together' or 'C struggled as just moved to school and hadn't covered this topic fully' or 'D's gran was rushed to hospital last night'). Over the course of a student's school career we get to know these young people really well. We went into teaching because we wanted to work with young people. We are interested in them, invested in their future and we work really hard to make sure that they have the best possible chance of doing as well as they possibly can. </p><p>So now we are faced with the situation, for a second year running, that we get to 'decide' (according to the media) what grades our students will get at GCSE and A'level. And we are being told, again according to the media, that this will result in grade inflation. We'll just ignore the fact that the thorny topic of grade inflation has reared its head every August for as long as I have been teaching - i.e. even when there have been externally set exams. </p><p>This is what will probably happen, and I will concentrate on two groups of students here to illustrate my point. </p><p>The first is a group of really hardworking students who have been hitting grade 9 (old A*) throughout the year, with the odd wobble down to a B if they have had a bad day/their cat has died/their romantic life has gone off the rails. Let's say I've got six of them in one of my classes working pretty consistently at that level, they all got 9s or very high 8s in the mock - which was an previously unseen past paper, and every topic test and homework supports the fact that these are bright, hard working children who could each and every one of them go on to get a 9 in their GCSE. But, and it is a BIG BUT, I know from years of experience that one of them will come out of the exam hall in floods of tears and sob 'But, Miss, I had a total 'mare! I messed it up totally because (insert reason here.' I will feel utterly helpless and murmur soothing words. On results day five of my six students with a grade 9 target will be celebrating and one will be sobbing. What should I do with my centre assessed grades (CAGs)? All six of them are capable of the top grade, but I know there is a good chance one will 'mess up' (in their mind) and get an 8 or even a 7, but I have no way of knowing which one. Do I role a dice to choose? Of course not, I award them all the grade that every assessed piece of work they have done throughout the two year course informs me that they are capable of achieving. Hence the grades will appear to be 'inflated.'</p><p>The second group are on what used to be known as the C/D borderline. These are the students we want to get from D up to C (and not just because that looks far better on school league tables). In 'new money' we are looking at a 4 being roughly where the C used to be. Note the word 'roughly' - I know it isn't exactly the same but it is, for the purposes of this blog, close enough. Imagine I have five or six students working at this level. Some of them will be working hard, but still struggling. Others, despite me using every trick in my tool box, just haven't managed to fall in love with Physics (yet), and the rest will be, for the want of a better phrase, a little bit lazy - no amount of Haribo bribes or detentions for incomplete work have motivated them to hand in homework on time. In the mocks, they all got a 3 (a D in old money). Some didn't care, let's say half of them didn't care. They are never going to do Physics again and to be honest can't wait until the day that they can leave my lab safe in the knowledge that they will never have to listen to me bang on about electromagnetic induction and Fleming's Left Hand Rule ever again. The other half of the group react differently. They may realise that they are so close to the magical 4 that they put in a bit of work and manage to get that 4 in the actual GCSE exam, in doing so one of them will realise that actually, with a bit of consistent work and practice, Physics is really quite straightforward and, shh, don't tell anyone, they actually quite enjoy it. They work hard and bump up their eventual grade from a 3 (in the mock) to a 5 or even a 6 in the actual exam. </p><p>The problem is that every member of this second group has the potential to surprise me, pull out the stops, work their socks off during study leave, and leave me grinning from ear to ear on results day as we fist bump the air in celebration. But they are a much more difficult, less homogenous group that the first group of quiet, hardworking students. It could be anyone of them. It is, despite having done this for years, still difficult to predict which student/s will end up covered in glory. Awarding all of this group a high CAG is obviously not the way to go, but awarding them all a 3 doesn't sit well with my experience of what happens in real life. In a normal year, out of this group of six I would expect four to get a 4, one to get a 3 and the final one to get a 5 or better. But how to decide which ones? I suspect, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that most teachers would play it safe and award a 4. Again, it looks like grade inflation, but it is actually just an attempt to be fair. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-9631481134316575572020-06-24T12:11:00.003+01:002021-05-08T12:34:14.890+01:00Virtual races... why bother?I had always been somewhat sceptical about the concept of 'virtual races.' It seemed to me to be a bit of a con, pay over your hard earned cash, go out for a run that you were very likely going to do anyway, send your Strave/Garmin evidence to the organiser and receive a tacky medal in return. I have enough bloody medals as it is without adding more to the pile just for the hell of it<br />
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And then Covid-19 happened. I saw race after race that I was due to complete this year cancelled/postponed (did I mention that I qualified for Boston and London this year?) I know that there are much bigger disasters than a middle aged woman not being able to run around a city with a few thousand other people and then blog about it afterwards but I, like many others, had worked hard, planned hard and saved up the air fare for these races and they left a huge hole in my calendar. Almost worse though was the lack of a fixed date in the future to aim for, I'm all for running for the sake of running - but it is lovely to be able to have an event that looms large that everything is building towards.<br />
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And I missed people! I missed the sound of thousands of pairs of trainers pounding the streets, I missed listening to snatches of conversations (and making up the rest in my head) and the bizarre conversations with strangers - some of whom I would never see again and others who, via the magic of social media, would become friends who I would see again on line and at races over the years to come. <br />
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As the implications of Covid-19 became apparent the number of virtual race opportunities hitting my in box grew. I ignored them. For quite a long time. Then a couple of races I was running with <a href="https://www.phoenixrunning.co.uk/" target="_blank">Phoenix Running</a> offered me the opportunity to 'go virtual' and I thought, what the hell! The medals are awesome, the race organiser is an utter legend (google Rik Vercoe) who really goes the extra mile for his runners and there is an excellent online community that has sprung up around his races. Oh - and the inclusion of a Freddo or packet of Haribos with every medal has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with my desire to run his virtual events. It still felt a bit odd to be claiming a medal for what was essentially a training run... but the chocolate Freddos are delicious!<br />
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Then a friend sent me a link about '<a href="https://runsignup.com/Race/TheGreatVirtualRaceAcrossTennessee1000K/Page/tracking" target="_blank">The Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee</a>' - a four month long, 635 mile challenge to run, virtually, across Tennessee. And yes, I know that it is not the same as being in Tennessee (it is flatter out there than it is where I live for one thing), but I have learnt a lot about Tennessee from people posting details in the Facebook page, runners from all around the world have shared pictures and stories about the places they live. The basic run across Tennessee involves averaging 5 miles a day for 4 months, something that, when I started seemed manageable. As the days went by and I logged my miles I realised that I could, if I applied myself run back across Tennessee too. I finished my 635miles at the weekend and have started making my way back to the virtual start to look for my car in the car park, high fiving all the other runners on the way back (and there are a lot of them, over 19,000 runners entered this event, far more than Laz Lake of Barclay Marathons fame ever anticipated when he first proposed this event).<br />
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At the same time as I was finishing my trek across Tennessee I was taking part in Phoenix Running's 'P24 Longest Day' virtual event. The format was deceptively simple. Go for a run of at least one mile on Saturday at 8am, repeat every hour on the hour for 24 hours. This was a virtual event that felt a lot more 'real' than most. We had a pre race briefing (in the comfort of my kitchen) via Facebook live, virtual marshals who posted messages throughout the 24 hours to keep us motivated, and runners posted updates and photos as they finished their miles. It almost made waking up to run at 2am in the rain bearable! <br />
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I sneakily used the miles from P24 to complete the <a href="https://hampshiretrailmarathon.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hampshire Hoppit</a> marathon - normally a small, low key, trail marathon with plenty of hills! I signed up for this one purely because I wanted to support a local business - one that would have paid out significant expenses prior to the cancellation being announced. I think that is a pretty good reason to run a virtual too.<br />
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That said, I'm not hugely looking forward to running Boston as a virtual marathon...MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-35171787894915569312020-06-10T21:12:00.000+01:002020-06-10T21:20:16.496+01:00What's in a name?Maybe I have just been locked in my house for too long, but I really think that today's events would have angered me whenever they had happened.<br />
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It is really very simple. Way back in April I heard that <a href="https://www.prodirectrunning.com/" target="_blank">ProDirect Running</a> were allowing people to personalise their range of <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/" target="_blank">parkrun</a> apricot t-shirts. What a brilliant idea, I thought, a way to show my support for parkrun during the lockdown closure of all parkruns and to support them financially. I ordered a t-shirt for my 16 year old (personalisation 'I still hate running') and one for me, the personalisation is shown in the photo below 'running dick'. i.e. one of my favourite hobbies and my surname. The shirts arrived, we loved them. We got to thinking about how we could justify buying more. They aren't cheap - but they are good quality, so you are getting what you pay for. <br />
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Chatting online with a running buddy one evening we were bemoaning the fact that every single race we have entered is cancelled, including the wonderful <a href="https://www.endure24.co.uk/" target="_blank">Endure24</a> which, having taken part in as solo runners in the past, we were entering as a pair for the first time and now won't get the chance to run until June 2021. Our team name, because we couldn't think of anything better, was just our surnames. Team Bigg Dick. We were talking about getting team kit organised when I had what I thought was a good idea, we could support parkrun and get good quality kit at the same time. <br />
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I did the order. I waited a few days, far longer than I waited for my first order, but that's fine, they are busy, delivery services are working overtime at the moment. What I didn't expect was this email:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; margin: 0px;"><i>I am contacting you today in regards to your parkrun order. </i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; margin: 0px;"><i>Unfortunately, we are unable to personalize your request due to the offensive language that has been used. Can you please provide an alternative and we will be happy to update this for you. </i></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;">Best Regards,</span></i></div>
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "segoe ui" , "segoe ui web (west european)" , "segoe ui" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"></span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"><i>Phoenix </i></span></div>
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I emailed back. I was cross. For years we have had to fight automated systems because of our surname. My daughter was blocked from her own school's computer system for using her surname when trying to set up a folder to save her work, my oldest son was bullied at school because of his name and suffered long term consequences - but the people telling him his name was offensive were children, not adults. I pointed out that they had already printed my name on a t-shirt, but just got a reply saying they 'were not able to personalise the item with the current choice of word.' I realised that I hadn't actually been told which word they objected to... maybe I had jumped to conclusions... maybe it was the other shirt I had ordered for Husbando ('I'd rather be in Vegas') that was the sticking point. So I asked for clarification. Apparently they are not able to print 'team bigg dick' on a shirt. Clearly they are 'able' to - they just choose not to. ProDirectRunning still have not explained what the actual problem is. I have reminded them that they are simply our surnames, one of which appears on the order and which they had no problem in printing on an address label. <br />
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I am livid. If my name was anything else it wouldn't be an issue. And I really don't understand why my name wasn't offensive in May but has suddenly become so in June. It is ridiculous not to allow me to have my own name printed on an item. Probably just as well I am such a mediocre runner - imagine if I was a successful runner and ran with my name on my bib rather than a number - would I be banned from races. I am surprised the BBC allow Cressida Dick to have her name come up on the screen... and the sci-fi author Philip K Dick ('Do androids dream of electric sheep?/Bladerunner') must worry about having his name scrubbed off his book covers. Heck, I'm pretty sure I have name badges with my 'offensive' name on them that I've worn when dealing with the public... whatever were my employers thinking?<br />
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All we wanted was our names on a shirt and to support parkrun... instead I just feel really upset and angry. It isn't very nice to be told that your name is offensive. I'm a Dick and proud of it.<br />
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<br />MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-5391558634821315742020-03-18T21:16:00.000+00:002020-03-18T21:16:59.925+00:00What's next? <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nY7Uq5xsp_A/XnKFlBIeHyI/AAAAAAAADNw/3vPHCV8h6_UhXM3KCAQO1O2RdS-56-LTACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Fd15ZLdxT92B%2525tUn7%2525%252BfTg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1203" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nY7Uq5xsp_A/XnKFlBIeHyI/AAAAAAAADNw/3vPHCV8h6_UhXM3KCAQO1O2RdS-56-LTACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Fd15ZLdxT92B%2525tUn7%2525%252BfTg.jpg" width="240" /></a>When running events started cancelling, it seemed that anyone who dared to mention that they were upset or disappointed was subject to criticism on Facebook and Twitter (and probably real life, but I don't get out much so don't get to experience that). I can see both sides... you've trained for something, planned for something and then it is taken away. On the other side, Covid-19 is a big deal. I've lost count of the number of races I have had cancelled - but the only one that really matters is Boston. Hopefully I'll get to run the rescheduled race in September.<br />
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But the cancellation of races, and today the cancellation of parkrun hits hard because it is symptomatic of the fact that so much of what we take for granted is no longer available for us. This is happening at a time when many of us are losing our normal routine of work. <br />
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Friday will be my last normal day at work. I don't know when we will be back at school and, if I am honest, it is a terrifying prospect. Logistically it is going to be a nightmare delivering lessons remotely, trying to engage, enthuse and educate children via a laptop in my kitchen, while trying to chivvy my own children into getting on with their school work and not devouring the contents of the fridge within minutes of me getting back from the supermarket. My first hurdle is getting to grips with Microsoft Team and then scanning all the material so that I can share it...<br />
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But the bigger problem is relationships. I love the teaching part of my job - being in front of a class, doing whatever it takes to get a room full of students to understand the Krebs cycle... I love my colleagues too. I work with a group of highly motivated professionals who are all committed to the same thing that I am committed to - educating the next generation. Yes, we may moan about the behaviour of a certain class, whinge about the ever increasing demands from management and have collective a collective grump fest about having to write eleventy billion reports before the end of the week, but on the whole we love it... there is no way we'd do it for the money we are on if we didn't. I made the mistake of telling a non teacher friend how much I earned the other day... after teaching for 10 years.... I think they are still laughing....<br />
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I don't know what the next few weeks will bring. I know that I am going to miss my students, the drive to work, the routine, the banter in the staff room and the friendships. While we are all working remotely I think it is imperative that we keep in contact, I'm not sure what that contact will look like. I am concerned that working from home will allow work to take over my life in the way it did when I first qualified as a teacher. I must strive to remember that the kitchen is still the place where I sit with friends and family to share a few drinks and laughs, it is only temporarily my workplace. Social isolation cannot last forever. <br />
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But first, we have two more days... two days in which we need to calm the younger children down and remind them that it is not a holiday, hold the hands of the yr11 and yr13 students as we wait to find out what will happen with regard to GCSEs and A'levels and spend hours scanning worksheets...MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-21325443785268280442019-12-08T19:52:00.000+00:002019-12-08T19:52:09.117+00:00Oink oink!I've started a couple of blog posts about races recently but not finished them. No idea why, but life is somewhat hectic so maybe I was doing something grown up like the laundry, marking books or cooking meals! Let's see how this one goes...<br />
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Those of you who know me in real life will know that I rather like to be on time. And by 'on time' I mean 'there in plenty of time.' And by 'there in plenty of time' I really mean 'there so long before the appointed hour that all my friends officially hate me and and, if I am honest, I am a little bit bored too!' This is the reason that I didn't rush back to sign up for the Hogs Back Road Race - I was still suffering from the trauma of almost not making it to the start line due to the nightmare parking scenario! <br />
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However, after 3 days away with my fledgling CCF contingent I needed something to look forward to and my partner in crime had put the idea into my head. The race was cheap(ish) and local(ish) and as I'd fallen into the exhausted sleep that anyone who has been a lead teacher on a school residential trip will recognise before 8.30pm I was up early enough to get there in plenty of time. They must have sorted out the parking in the 4 years since I'd last run <a href="https://mrsbridgewater.blogspot.com/2015/12/this-little-piggy.html" target="_blank">this event</a>.<br />
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They hadn't. The last quarter of a mile took AGES! For a big venue (Loseley Park) that must have lots of carparks, getting all the race entrants to park on the muddy crass either side of the drive made for very slow going. I get that the venue might want to keep its carparks free for the regular patrons, but with a 9am start most of us would be leaving before the Sunday morning rush started. I gingerly parked my car on the grass, offered a quick prayer to the parking gods that my car wouldn't get stuck in the mud (we'd seen a few people pushing cars that had got stuck already) and made our way to collect our numbers. I was keen to get to the front of the port-a-loo queue. I say keen, but really I was suffering after 3 days of army catering - otherwise known as 'how many fried meals can I throw down my throat in 3 days!' They queues for the loos weren't too bad, mainly because most people were still queuing to park! <br />
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The wind was bitter at the start, I kept my fleece on. There was no pre race brief, no count down, we were milling around near the start and then suddenly we were off! The first bit was downhill, on the estate roads and then we were on country lanes and it became a bit more undulating. I used one short, sharp, steep section halfway up a long steady climb as an excuse to walk a few paces and remove my fleece. The first half is the tougher half of the race, as you can see by the graph below, and I will admit that I may have walked for a few brief sections on that two mile hill climb. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GocokhWHuzU/Xe1K6NTSyKI/AAAAAAAACmQ/SJmTevtAwKcfXxAfnuFhZ8scvw1_wJLzACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screenshot%2B2019-12-08%2Bat%2B19.10.10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="910" height="304" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GocokhWHuzU/Xe1K6NTSyKI/AAAAAAAACmQ/SJmTevtAwKcfXxAfnuFhZ8scvw1_wJLzACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Screenshot%2B2019-12-08%2Bat%2B19.10.10.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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For a road race, I ended up with an awful lot of mud on the back of my legs! There are two off road sections and the recent rain had ensured that there were plenty of lovely muddy puddles to splash through. But at least it was predominantly downhill for the second half. At 9km my shoe lace decided to come undone. That has never happened before and I know I double tied it as normal. Trying to tie a shoelace with gloves on is tricky, but I double knotted it, cursed about the fact that two women I had worked hard to past had snuck past me again and set out to run the last 2.4km. I managed to catch both those women up again, so all was no lost. I finished about 7 minutes faster than the last time I ran this event, which given the lack of sleep and shockingly bad nutrition I am happy with.</div>
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I spent most of the race trying to do the mental maths involved in converting 11.4k (or whatever portion I had left to run) into miles. And failing. </div>
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At 11k I spotted a school friend (as in a friend I was at school with rather than a friend from my current school) who was there to support her husband and some friends. Just 0.4k to go... I over took a few people on the way and threw myself over the finish line, collecting my medal and getting my chip removed. The Sun was shining and it was quite pleasant waiting at the finish, until the clouds rolled over! It took ages to get out of the 'car park' - post race faffing and getting out of the car park took longer than the actual race! </div>
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This is a great race, but it is let down by the poor organisation of the parking. </div>
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MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-44428337505585888222019-10-27T16:53:00.001+00:002019-10-27T16:53:39.804+00:00What a weekThe first half of the autumn term is always the longest half term. A nasty shock after the carefree weeks of summer, but the end was in sight, we were on countdown for the half term holiday. Even picking up a cover lesson in my free on Tuesday didn't dampen my spirits. Whilst sorting out the cover work I sat down on the chair at the teacher's desk, only to find myself on the floor instead. The chair was dodgy and I was now on the floor in front of a whole class of students and a teacher who had come in to check that I had everything I needed! The students were amazing, two of them dashed off to get a first aider and the rest were 'vanished' by a colleague. I was in pain. I slipped a disk several years ago and knew that this pain wasn't as bad as that had been, but it still hurt. I wanted to go and lie down somewhere, but an ambulance had been called and I was told to stay where I was (standing with my back against the wall). The ambulance crew were lovely, checked me out thoroughly, agreed with my self diagnosis that it was just muscle spasm and told me to go home and rest. I, of course, asked if they thought I'd be able to run at the weekend and was told that so long as I rested properly and felt as if I could then it would be ok. I know from experience that keeping moving is better for my back so I was (very) cautiously optimistic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLjL6Vkkt4I/XbXJPNr25uI/AAAAAAAACkc/4Yz5ZkLVdJkaNWmPDlxCXpdeHjA2MBKxgCEwYBhgL/s1600/abce9919-b897-4d90-a279-2171c017b5b7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLjL6Vkkt4I/XbXJPNr25uI/AAAAAAAACkc/4Yz5ZkLVdJkaNWmPDlxCXpdeHjA2MBKxgCEwYBhgL/s320/abce9919-b897-4d90-a279-2171c017b5b7.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the start - weather for ducks</td></tr>
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Three days at home led to a certain degree of cabin fever and a 'sod it, I'm going to do it anyway!' mentality, so on Friday afternoon I set off to catch a train to North Wales. I'd been bullied into entering the Snowdonia Marathon to the extent that I didn't even do the entry myself. Everyone I know who has run this one raves about it, I was sceptical. I booked my travel in advance, I couldn't travel up with anyone as they were all driving up early on Friday and I was supposed to be in school. The first after school train would get me to the nearest station at 10.15pm and because I booking in advance it was only a few pounds more for first class - free drinks, snacks and an evening meal would be very welcome. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F0fduBgi1r4/XbXJPKf520I/AAAAAAAACkg/TkneG6yY2i0Gsr7Tqzkv6EfeNRYhVJnUwCEwYBhgL/s1600/7a17bc6d-a894-4917-a5c8-d65509eb0f61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F0fduBgi1r4/XbXJPKf520I/AAAAAAAACkg/TkneG6yY2i0Gsr7Tqzkv6EfeNRYhVJnUwCEwYBhgL/s320/7a17bc6d-a894-4917-a5c8-d65509eb0f61.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up into the hills we go!</td></tr>
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I got to Euston just before the shut the doors and stopped letting anyone else in. There were no trains going in or out of the station due to trespassers on the line. We were advised that our tickets would be valid on Saturday - but that was no use to me. The information available seemed to rely on an in-depth knowledge of the rail routes around the UK. I was somewhat out of my comfort zone. I hate being late, I'm not a huge fan of relying on other people or of that horrible feeling that you are messing the people you are relying on for a lift at the end of the journey around. There was a lot of frantic Googling, texting and phoning to work out the best course of action. When the station reopened I thought that it would be plain sailing, but the first few trains all seemed to be going to Wolverhampton - I am sure it is a perfectly pleasant place but I did not want to go there. I got on the first train to Crewe, found myself a seat in First Class and then gave up my seat to a frail looking old lady who didn't have a seat. First Class service was suspended, so no complimentary drinks and snacks, and all the carriages were rammed to the gunnels. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A-uLbx1lgcc/XbXJPz2NphI/AAAAAAAAClE/6ltkbpnnOaAQ7cZ0B3i0mQ5UxXXJ7dHDgCEwYBhgL/s1600/f9b157a3-2f68-4f98-a716-7a4f083d0617.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A-uLbx1lgcc/XbXJPz2NphI/AAAAAAAAClE/6ltkbpnnOaAQ7cZ0B3i0mQ5UxXXJ7dHDgCEwYBhgL/s320/f9b157a3-2f68-4f98-a716-7a4f083d0617.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scenery! Lots of it!</td></tr>
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I was confident that it would be simple from now on. The guard announced that we would get to Crewe at 22.17 giving me 6 minutes to make a connection to Chester which would connect to the Holyhead service. At 22.10 the guard announced that we would arrive at Crewe 'in twenty minutes!' I very nearly had a full on melt down! The train crew told me that whatever happened I would get to my destination - even if they had to put me in a taxi, as it was the connection was delayed at Crewe. I threw myself on to the overcrowded train just as the doors were shutting and welcomed the announcement that the train I was on would become the Holyhead train, so I didn't need to navigate my way around another station. I also got a seat at Chester! I don't think anyone has ever been quite so relieved to get to Bangor in their lives - and at least, at half past midnight, the roads to Llanberis were empty. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7wHiujVFMGc/XbXJPoxfG5I/AAAAAAAACk8/I9R7zW9Yfm8pLyPTtPK4rg6l0cwjIPTTwCEwYBhgL/s1600/f922b581-cbf4-48bb-ae12-0017939add77.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7wHiujVFMGc/XbXJPoxfG5I/AAAAAAAACk8/I9R7zW9Yfm8pLyPTtPK4rg6l0cwjIPTTwCEwYBhgL/s320/f922b581-cbf4-48bb-ae12-0017939add77.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me, actually running</td></tr>
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Thankfully a friend had checked into the hotel on my behalf and collected my race number. All I needed to do was go to sleep, this proved to be easier said than done, but at least my back felt better it was just my hip that was hurting, I think I must have bashed it as I fell as it was somewhat bruised. I set the alarm for 7.15am, met up with a load of friends for breakfast at 8am and asked basic questions like 'Where is the start?' Answer: 'Just follow us.' Q: 'What about the bag drop?' A: 'The reason we stay here is that it is closer to the start than the bag drop.' You can see that I'd really done my homework!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AegQAYs21Cs/XbXJPp77CXI/AAAAAAAAClA/B7Yl2JCqOJklr9ch9cU5DdYu43peNxipQCEwYBhgL/s1600/bd24ff1c-568a-4ee3-b6e0-43070f3068dc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AegQAYs21Cs/XbXJPp77CXI/AAAAAAAAClA/B7Yl2JCqOJklr9ch9cU5DdYu43peNxipQCEwYBhgL/s320/bd24ff1c-568a-4ee3-b6e0-43070f3068dc.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proof we weren't hallucinating!</td></tr>
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The weather looked bloody awful. I decided to start off with a waterproof jacket. We made our way to the start, bumping into people we knew, including a couple of fellow <a href="https://www.fetcheveryone.com/" target="_blank">Fetcheveryone</a> members I haven't seen since the start of the York Marathon seven years ago! The first couple of miles went well, although it was undeniably painful. A pain that intensified when we hit the first hill. I am not sure that I was believed when I said that I didn't think I would be able to finish this (at 4 miles), but for the first time ever I was seriously considering just stopping. The consensus was that we should just walk up the hill and see how it felt at the top. Well, it still bloody hurt, but going down was easier and the scenery was just fabulous. The support from the locals was terrific and we were now on a 7(ish) mile flat(ish) section that was a mixture of road and farm track. When we were running we weren't too shabby in respect to speed, but it would get to a point where I just couldn't take the impact any more so we used every single hill as a walk break... and at times I was praying for the next hill! There are only really three hills, but they are all quite...er...substantial, with the last one at 22 miles lasting for over two miles. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ic3BT-8TmQ/XbXJO5eRu-I/AAAAAAAACk4/a-roXFgwX6sHwmg4MmAvtAt0P6MJ7HSbwCEwYBhgL/s1600/68655691-fbd1-4066-a51b-140498560db5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1104" data-original-width="1472" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6ic3BT-8TmQ/XbXJO5eRu-I/AAAAAAAACk4/a-roXFgwX6sHwmg4MmAvtAt0P6MJ7HSbwCEwYBhgL/s320/68655691-fbd1-4066-a51b-140498560db5.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Possibly the best cup of tea ever!</td></tr>
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At the top of the last hill we found the best aid station in the World ever! A Mad Hatter's Tea Party was in full swing with jam tarts, biscuits, cakes, sandwiches and CUPS OF TEA IN PROPER CUPS! Yes I am shouting! It was the best thing ever and as we had kissed goodbye to any idea of running a decent time we stopped for tea before hurling ourselves down the hill to the finish. <br />
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There had been a lot of rain, and despite the fact that it did stop during the race and the sun even came out briefly, at times it felt as though we were running through a river. This made running down a steep hill somewhat challenging, but the end was in sight. I tried to remind myself that I am good at running down hill and that I only had just over a mile of pain left. As we turned on to the high street and the finish line, while not quite in sight, was just around the corner, we picked up our pace - still in our running jackets as we had never quite warmed up - and got lots of comments about a 'strong finish!' Let me tell you, it hurt like hell, but I wasn't going to slow down in front of a crowd. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NSyMU5vByZc/XbXJG5ChmRI/AAAAAAAACkw/FgxV8AyK7WcQTp_l8tlEy8bBlmq0e6-XwCEwYBhgL/s1600/76730640_10220032543945666_3990810876172042240_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NSyMU5vByZc/XbXJG5ChmRI/AAAAAAAACkw/FgxV8AyK7WcQTp_l8tlEy8bBlmq0e6-XwCEwYBhgL/s320/76730640_10220032543945666_3990810876172042240_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Striding out for the finish line!</td></tr>
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We crossed the line in 4hrs 41mins and 53 seconds. A lot slower than I had planned but, given I was ready to give up at four miles in, I suppose it is an achievement of sorts. My friends had booked their hotel rooms for next year when they had checked in on Friday afternoon. I had thought they were mad, but at 6 miles into the race I knew I wanted to come back. I booked hotel rooms for next year as soon as I got back to the hotel. I say 'rooms' because I am planning to bully some friends to come too. <br />
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This is a stupendously fabulous marathon, brilliantly organised and wonderfully supported by the locals. The atmosphere amongst the runners was awesome. At one point I complained that my left leg was fine and I was just fed up of the right side of my body. It was suggested that I hop on the left leg.... we were on the final up hill.... but I gave it a go. And a couple of kind people caught up with us to ask if I was OK! The views are epic, even in cloudy wet weather! I think there were 12 of us out for supper that evening, all in good spirits reliving our epic day, celebrating three first marathons in our little group and catching up with a friend I haven't seen for far too long before toddling off to our beds. A beer or two and a gin and tonic or three may well have been consumed. And the good thing about taking it easy yesterday? Well, apart from the painful hip/back thing the rest of me feels fine! <br />
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<br />MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-85867366814904874962019-10-21T19:01:00.001+01:002021-05-08T21:09:54.333+01:00Amsterdam<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finished!</td></tr>
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<span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">I don’t remember when we signed up for Amsterdam, or even really why we signed up for Amsterdam – but we must have thought, at one of our many hugely unproductive ‘planning meetings’ that it was a good idea!</span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">Initially all five of us had signed up for the half marathon, as some of us were already committed to a marathon just a week later, but one of our number had decided to bite the bullet and bag the bigger bit of bling on offer for the full marathon.</span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;">We booked flights and hotels, worked out the logistics of how we would get to the airport etc. and then pretty much forgot about the whole enterprise until about a week beforehand!</span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span face=""calibri" , sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JB, carb loading</td></tr>
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I waved Husbando off at 4.30am on Friday morning as he and three friends made their way to the airport and happily went back to sleep for an hour, only to wake up with the worst headache ever! I survived two whole lessons at school before admitting defeat, as I felt so sick, and coming home. I was panicking about the fact I had an evening flight from Gatwick. I could barely keep my eyes open as the light drilled into my head, how on Earth could I negotiate a train journey? I went home, took a load of drugs and went to bed for a couple of hours. Thankfully I woke up feeling a lot better, not 100% - in fact I still have a headache now (Monday lunchtime), so set off to the airport.<o:p></o:p></div>
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An uneventful journey and a very easy train journey into central Amsterdam saw me arriving just before last orders in the hotel bar. A surprise ‘extra’ friend was waiting there too – he was over for the marathon and came to meet us in the evening before returning to his hotel. <br />
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In our enthusiasm, whenever we’d booked this weekend, we had signed up for a 6k ‘city run’ on the Saturday morning. On reviewing the information about the run we decided that a lie in would be better for us! The city run was selling itself as a ‘fun’ activity, where we would run at a gentle pace in groups of 10-15 between various Amsterdam landmarks. I’m not a fan of enforced fun plus, as we sat sipping complimentary champagne with our breakfast, it looked really cold and windy outside! Much better to spend a lazy (ish) Saturday buying stuff at the expo, eating nice food and drinking cold beer! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sunday morning saw Monsieur Faffinage toddle off to the start of the full marathon (9.30am start) while four of us sat eating breakfast (no champagne today – we thought that would be silly). The half marathon start time was 1.20pm – which put us all in a bit of a quandary about what to eat and when and had necessitated Husbando getting the hotel to agree to a very late checkout. At the start we posed for photos, did a bit of a warm up, grumbled (I did anyway – I still had a headache and now felt a bit sick again) thanked whatever deity we cared to thank for the dry weather. My target was to run sub 1.50 – I haven’t run that time since 2015. A little bit of me hoped I might be able to get close to my PB (1:44). JB ‘joked’ about running it in 1:43 – which is silly because I would need to run 7:50min/mile pace. That is about my average parkrun pace! <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can we get any closer to the start</td></tr>
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It was crowded at the start, but we were in the first starting pen, so got over the line fairly quickly. I started ‘too fast.’ I kept telling myself to ‘slow down.’ I ran the first couple of miles with Husbando, JB meeting up with us just before the 5k marker at just under 24 minutes. At around this time we started to overtake the occasional marathon runner. Not an issue at this point, more of an issue was the sheer number of runners who had just enough speed to overtake and then immediately cut in front of us. I may have sworn rather loudly at some of them…<o:p></o:p></div>
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We ran together (in our matching vests!) for a few miles, before Husbando pulled slightly ahead. I said that I would like them to be waiting for me with a beer at the end. JB wasn’t falling for it. And I knew he wasn’t going to fall for it anytime soon. If I dropped the pace (in an effort to get away from having to work so hard) he eased off too and then gradually picked up the pace so that we were back where we needed to be. He is very good at this pacing lark, realising that trying to distract me with conversation would probably end up with me biting his head off! He fetched my water at each water station (Eliud K couldn’t have asked for better) although this was rather ruined by my inability to drink from open cups while running – it was more of an exercise in repeatedly waterboarding myself!<o:p></o:p></div>
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The route was almost pancake flat, with a couple of gentle inclines going over bridges. It wasn’t the most scenic race I’ve run, but running over the Amstel, past the Rijks museum and through the Vondelpark was really lovely, and there was plenty of music along the route. As we got further along the route we encountered more and more marathoners and avoiding them became a bit of an issue – especially on the narrower parts of the route. It had been announced that there were 250 British runners taking part – I think we saw all of them, including overtaking someone I knew who was doing the marathon. <o:p></o:p></div>
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JB wasn’t letting up on the pace. I was trying to do running maths in my head so knew I was on for my target of sub 1.50, but couldn’t get the maths straight in my head to work out if I was on for a PB. I said at one point, ‘If I do 10 minute miles now I’ll get sub 1.50’ but I wasn’t allowed to ease off. The fact that I couldn’t feel my right arm and my vision was a bit screwy (I may not have mentioned that to JB) wasn’t an excuse. He set me a target of overtaking a woman in red shorts and a black top, and to be fair I was slowly gaining on her until I tried to scupper the whole deal by hitting a tram track at just the wrong angle, the angle that meant my right foot slid right away from underneath me as I pushed off resulting in me nearly hitting the floor! This was at about 18k, but it shook my confidence and hurt a bit.<br />
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About a kilometre from the end we could hear the crowds in the Olympic Stadium. Apparently. Or so I am told! I was too busy cursing and swearing to hear anything! There was a 500m to go sign, I couldn’t believe it and it did seem a long way from there to the track – then there were signs every 25m from 175m down to the finish. I pondered slowing down and soaking up the atmosphere – for a nanosecond – all I wanted to do was get over the line so I could stop running. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hanging out at the airport</td></tr>
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As I ‘sprinted’ down the finishing straight the clock was ticking up – I saw 1.44 on the clock and knew I safely had a new PB, but still pushed on – crossing the line in a gun time of 1.44.15 – a second inside my PB, but I hadn’t taken into account the time it took me to get across the start line and our chip time was 1.42.34! I was overjoyed and exhausted. I told JB I was never talking to him again, said a brief hello to Husbando (who had also clocked a PB of 1.41.49) and then sat down before I fell down by the barrier. I told the first aider who dashed over to check on me (did I really look that bad?) that I just needed 5 minutes… he told me that I had 5 seconds – so, swearing under my breath, I got up and moved on! And started talking to JB again. I’m fickle like that! I couldn’t believe he’d got me a PB, let alone by well over a minute. I couldn’t believe his generosity in giving up his run to pace an irascible old fart with a tendency to talk herself out of putting maximum effort into anything around a half marathon. I just hope that he doesn’t expect me to run that fast up a mountain next week!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finishing in the 1928 Olympic Stadium was fabulous. Unbeknownst to us a friend was watching from the stands and managed to snap some photos of us collecting plastic sheets and looking as though ‘we were shopping for bedlinen at the market!’ After collecting our bags we had some chips while we waited for the final member of the gang to finish before dashing back to the hotel for the quickest set of post race showers ever and thence to the airport – transport in Amsterdam is wonderfully easy! Duty free was purchased, drinks and food were consumed in the airport lounge and we were all safely home and tucked up in bed in plenty of time to get a good night’s sleep before work on Monday.<br />
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It was, in my opinion, a brilliant weekend, one of the best running related trips ever. I am so lucky to have such a great bunch of friends and a Husbando who are all as mad as I am! Where are we going next? I sense another ‘planning meeting’ may be necessary…..<o:p></o:p></div>
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MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-53733561892347915832019-10-05T20:46:00.001+01:002019-10-05T20:46:10.922+01:00Muddy good fun at Havant parkrunIt has been a busy old week - my little sister has been all over the news as she decided to walk from Devon to Downing Street in protest at the way Thomas Cook has treated its former employees. She covered the 200 miles in just 7 days, an utterly amazing feat! She was supported by many people along the way who offered a bed for the night, a meal or a drink along the way. She stayed with us on Thursday evening and we went up to London on Friday evening to meet up with her after she had delivered her letter to 10 Downing Street. I've spent more time than usual on social media - helping to sort out beds for the night and making sure as many people as possible knew what she was up to! You can read a little bit about her walk <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-s-like-a-bereavement-on-a-thomas-cook-worker-s-200-mile-road-to-justice-h8b3rwwpg" target="_blank">here</a> in one of the many articles about her. Work has also been a bit manic, who doesn't love a week with a parents' evening in it? <div>
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Consequently I didn't really want to go too far for my weekly parkrun fix! This weekend is the 15th birthday of parkrun, so one option would have been Bushy Park, a possible trip to Gravesend had also been mooted, but I didn't want to get up too early and I didn't want to spend all of my Saturday travelling to and from parkrun. Havant however was reasonably close and I had never run there before. JB picked me up at a very civilised 8am and we arrived in plenty of time to park and make our way to the start. The parkrun is in Staunton Country Park - I've run there before during an <a href="http://www.onthewhistle.co.uk/" target="_blank">On The Whistle</a> event but I couldn't remember much about it, although I think there may have been firemen.... I didn't do a lot of research - we only decided on Havant on Wednesday evening and the last two days of the week are hugely busy at work, but I seemed to recall that it was trail and I thought, from comments I'd read on Facebook, that it was hilly. </div>
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The first timers' briefing mentioned a hill and mud. It is the first muddy run I have done this autumn as there was a short muddy section near the start that we ran through a couple of times. The course is 1 short lap followed by 2 longer laps, it wasn't flat but the uphill sections were not at all arduous. Had I been running at full speed I might have struggled with the short, sharp downhill on gravel. As it was, JB was taking it easy because a) he has the Basingstoke Half tomorrow and b) he walked 30 miles with my sister on Thursday and has the blisters to prove it, I was happy to take it easy as I have to run 20 or 22 miles tomorrow. I do like a chatty parkrun! This parkrun is so pretty! I would gladly come back and run it again. The marshals were cheerful and friendly and I saw several familiar faces which is always lovely.</div>
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After we'd finished we grabbed a drink at the cafe. It is £1 or a tea of coffee for parkrunners or 50p if you have a reusable cup with you - what a bargain! Parking charges were steep though - £3.20 for the 2 hours we were there. Thank you to all the volunteers for a wonderful morning.<br /><div>
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MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-30466419707952690072019-09-28T21:26:00.000+01:002019-09-28T21:39:58.952+01:00Insanity runs in the family! Today I should be focussing on a blog about<a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/hazelwood/" target="_blank"> Hazelwood parkrun</a> and I will mention that later, but the last week has been somewhat tumultuous in our family! <br />
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At 2am on Monday morning my little sister (she may be in her 40s but she will forever be my little sister) got a WhatsApp message telling her not to come in to work. She was a cabin manager for Thomas Cook, she had worked for them for 20 years since leaving university. She gained a law degree from a Russel Group university but, on graduating, didn't really know what she wanted to do with her life, so opted to be a 'trolley dolly' for a couple of years. She loved the life style and quickly progressed to roles with increasing responsibility, taking a short maternity break and returning to her globe trotting lifestyle with the support of her husband. <br />
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To date, nearly a week after the collapse of the company, she has not received any communication from either Thomas Cook or the receivers. She is one of the 'lucky ones' in that her husband is not a Thomas Cook employee. So many of her friends and colleagues married fellow employees (I guess it helps when your partner understands the particular stresses and strains of your job) and now neither of them have a job. The company collapsed a week before payday. Three weeks of work and no sign of a pay check yet! <br />
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So what did my sister do? Well, she mopped around the house for 24hrs and then she got cross. Especially when she read about the bonuses the board had taken out of the company over the past few years. She has spent the last 20 years being reminded that she is ultimately accountable for her actions when at work... but it seems that this doesn't apply to the bosses at Thomas Cook! <br />
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This made her a bit cross (actually - she was pretty livid!) and made her want to do something. She decided to make a banner, put on her uniform and walk to Westminster to demand some answers. Which doesn't sound that mad an idea until you realise she lives in Devon and that walk is about 200 miles! I don't know about you, but I am all for mad exploits - but I like a bit of planning.... Rachel didn't have time for planning - she wants to try to meet up with other Thomas Cook employees for a protest so had no choice other than to go to her jobseeker's interview and then set straight off to walk to London from Newton Abbot!<br />
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<span id="goog_1568163129"></span><span id="goog_1568163130"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>She left at 12.30 yesterday arriving in Exeter at <a href="https://devonhotel.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwibzsBRAMEiwA1pHZrrsn0MiS4zpNDvBbYoPg-PD03oF3Hx0k4gQ7XI8anq6_btl0fgNFJhoC0JMQAvD_BwE" target="_blank">The Devon Hotel</a> (where they looked after her and charged her a discounted rate) and has now finished her second day of walking (somewhere this side of Honiton) and has assured Husbando that she has somewhere safe to stay tonight. Most people who set off to walk any distance longer than to the local pub and back spend a bit of time working out routes, where they will stay and what to do when things go wrong! Rachel knows the route - having commuted from Devon to Gatwick for the last 7 or 8 years - but walking is very different to driving! <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><br />
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I have shared her story pretty widely, and it has been mentioned on the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49849739" target="_blank">BBC business news website</a>, but what would be lovely would be if people could look out for her as she walks and maybe walk with her for a few miles. There can't be that many people walking along in Thomas Cook cabin crew uniform - and I'm sure she'd welcome a bit of company and maybe a hot drink. Or if you are feeling generous you can contribute to her fundraising page <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/walking-for-answers" target="_blank">here. </a><br />
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I haven't told her yet but I am so proud of her that I am going to try to get her to come to our school to talk to our students about the whole experience... once she has had a chance to recover from her epic journey!<br />
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Here is her route for Sunday:<br />
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All this was milling around my head as we ran at Hazelwood parkrun today. Chosen purely because it was on the way into London and JB had already done Homewood parkrun. Hazelwood is the home of the London Irish rugby team, so the facilities were fab - toilets near the start, big screen TV showing the Ireland v. Japan rugby match, but I hadn't done my homework (it has been a pretty full on week) and had not done any research, so pitched up in road shoes for a course that was almost entirely on grass. As it would be around rugby pitches! <br />
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The run director gave a great run brief before we walked to the start. The course is one short lap followed by two long laps. It is almost pancake flat and could be a very fast course, were it not for the incompatibility of road shoes and grass and the huge headwind on the second lap - I went from 7.15min/mile pace to just over 8min/mile pace along that outward stretch! JB, major surgery last week not withstanding, ran on ahead. I assumed Husbando was also ahead, so was surprised when he caught me up at about 4k! We ran the last k 'together' with him pulling ahead just before the end... but I wasn't having that and overtook him just before we entered the finish funnel! I was a mere 9 seconds slower than my all time parkrun PB! <br />
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Coffee (and bacon rolls for some) in the club house afterwards completed the morning nicely. The marshals and volunteers made us feel very welcome - so big thank you to them all! MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-76408891704886393442019-09-24T21:32:00.001+01:002019-09-24T21:32:29.623+01:00Running in the House of Mouse.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some time ago, and without my knowledge, Husbando wrote to my headteacher to ask for a day off for me. I have long thought that teachers should be allowed to have a couple of days that they could take off, with prior agreement and ensuring that adequate cover work is left, each year so that they can attend important events that take place in term time. Like weddings. On, in my case, races. But that isn't the way it works, and I was thrilled when I found out a few days before the trip that Husbando had booked a long weekend at Disneyland Paris for the Run Disney weekend. Even more excitingly we were going to travel over with a group of friends as part of the very prolonged celebration of my fast approaching significant birthday. <br />
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We had a few anxious days before the trip, as one of our friends ended up having surgery on Thursday to deal with some pesky kidney stones, but thankfully the surgeon gave him the all clear to run so long as he took it easy. He was travelling with his (grown up) children so they were on hand to carry suitcases for him. The journey over was uneventful and didn't even involve getting up too early, which was nice. <br />
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On arriving we went straight to the Expo to collect our bib numbers (A pen for most of us, E for elite for the super speedy family), a whole stack of race t-shirts, look at and purchase yet more running related stuff and sort out photopasses and all that sort of stuff. We then checked into the hotel, Newport Bay, grabbed some food and then just relaxed before the first race.<br />
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<u>The 5k</u><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKMeDHNWnEo/XYpvSuS0H2I/AAAAAAAACik/N7e1EpONGK8NrhM86wTHNE2E_XzAk9UeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_1729.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MKMeDHNWnEo/XYpvSuS0H2I/AAAAAAAACik/N7e1EpONGK8NrhM86wTHNE2E_XzAk9UeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_1729.JPG" width="240" /></a>The 5k race starts at 8pm on the Friday evening. We all decided to start in the same pen (A) and managed to work our way to near the front. Our pen closed at 7.40pm and by this time pens B,C and D were filling up very quickly. A few minutes before 8pm the wheelchair race started. Now these weren't David Weir style wheelchair racers, a lot of the wheelchairs were pretty standard 'street' wheelchairs being pushed by companions, so they weren't likely to be setting off at a fast pace. At 8pm the elite runners went off, followed by the 'invited runners' and then we were off. <br />
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We ran down a short hill to a very sharp right hand turn and into the back of walkers and wheelchairs! Husbando and I planned to take this 5k easy, but wanted to 'peg it' to the first character so that we could avoid the queues and still get some photos. We didn't recognise the first character, so didn't stop! We carried on to the second, but the queue was huge, so we didn't stop... in fact we didn't stop for any of the characters... they were few and far between and nothing that we thought worth stopping for! We finished in about 22 and a half minutes, collected our medals and made our way to the bar to wait for everyone else. The bar was near the start and runners were still streaming past. The last runners must have gone through the start close to 9pm! And some of them had been waiting since about 7pm.<br />
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We toddled off to bed to try to get as much sleep as possible.<br />
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<u>The 10k </u><br />
A 4.30am alarm is never welcome. Especially when your first thought on waking is 'Oh my God! I've got to do this again tomorrow!' We pulled on our running kit and went down to get some breakfast and a cup of something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea (as Douglas Adams so perfectly put it). We were in the pen by 6am, shivering somewhat in the chilly early morning air. It was the same set up at the start as at the 5k (and would be at the half) with the same, inevitable, bunching of runners near the start. Husbando wasn't feeling great, we knew that we had to run again the next day, so we took it easy. We stopped for character photos and photos with firemen, but again the characters didn't really appeal if I am honest. I think it was all princesses and lots of them were quite difficult to see from the route, so you'd see them after you had run past. <br />
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After the run we went back for second breakfast (surely the best meal of the day), a shower and a day spent in the parks and then an evening dodging the gilet jaunes in Paris to get to a restaurant where the second bottle of wine was possibly an error and the complimentary limoncellos were definitely a mistake! I poured myself into bed at about 11pm, cursing the thought of yet another early start. <br />
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<u>The half</u><br />
Same drill as the day before! But warmer this morning. The first part of the route was around the service areas and then it weaved in, out and around around the park. This was great as it allowed for loo stops (most welcome) and we stopped for character photos too. I felt great (despite the hangover) and would have liked to run a wee bit faster, but Husbando was still feeling somewhat below par so we kept the pace down. I am unusual in that I like the bits outside the park! There is a nice section in a park that goes around a lake, there are some lovely gentle downhills and bastarding long slogs up the corresponding uphills. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viFF2cjjsIo/XYppULPyEmI/AAAAAAAACiQ/SHmiclfm9aEv9ek5DNCC7U0h0KM3PY1LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_6517.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-viFF2cjjsIo/XYppULPyEmI/AAAAAAAACiQ/SHmiclfm9aEv9ek5DNCC7U0h0KM3PY1LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_6517.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More firemen during the half marathon</td></tr>
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At about 15k Husbando stopped for a pee, I ran on slowly, he must have had the longest pee ever because I had almost given up on ever seeing him again when he appeared at my shoulder! I had found it quite painful to slow down and now struggled to speed up again, but luckily there was a downhill section ahead which helped. Husbando seemed to have had a miracle recovery and we were now upping the pace. It felt great. Until 19k, when we came into the Disney Village, past a MacDonalds and the smell of food hit me. The smell of fast food is grim at the best of time, when running with a hangover it is the last thing I want to smell. My stomach churned. I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. I told Husbando to run on as I slowed down in an attempt to calm my tummy. A second wave of nausea hit me as I passed somewhere cooking hotdogs. Who wants hotdogs before 9am on a Sunday morning? <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VadmVn93mvQ/XYppS0n0BkI/AAAAAAAACiM/eQ4TfzShxfsLxNAAjGtxmEmXPjU5vb0pACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_1799.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VadmVn93mvQ/XYppS0n0BkI/AAAAAAAACiM/eQ4TfzShxfsLxNAAjGtxmEmXPjU5vb0pACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_1799.JPG" width="320" /></a>Once passed the food smells I felt better. And I was nearly at the end. Less than 2000m to go. Could I catch Husbando? I sped up until I could just about see him ahead, then worked on closing the gap. I kept pushing, working hard for the first time in the race, but couldn't quite do it. I finished 26 seconds behind him. It isn't a PB race, but this is the first time I have run it in less than 2 hours, even though it was 8minutes slower than my half marathon PB from 5 years ago!<br />
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After meeting up with friends we made out way back to the Expo to collect the 'challenge medals.' In addition to the three races you can collect medals for running 31k and 36k (which we did), and if you are lucky enough to have run a Disney half or marathon in America in the same year you can claim the 'Castle to Chateau Challenge' medal. We then had a mad dash back to the hotel for second breakfast, showers and an 11am checkout. We mooched around the park for a few hours, ate some lunch etc. until it was time to catch our train home. <br />
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We had a great weekend. I did feel that I didn't see quite enough of any of my friends, but we have all survived to run another day, so there will be many more opportunities for mad running exploits in the future...and the not too distant future at that. <br />
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<br />MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-65041651966530182932019-09-08T20:06:00.001+01:002019-09-08T20:06:18.755+01:00Another PB! <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lq_B5WVfoKQ/XXVGjPWwa-I/AAAAAAAAChc/QvHgGy595t0SMy-_u0W1qmUAWj7zexbjACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lq_B5WVfoKQ/XXVGjPWwa-I/AAAAAAAAChc/QvHgGy595t0SMy-_u0W1qmUAWj7zexbjACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1604.JPG" width="320" /></a>If you have known me for any length of time you will be aware that I do not like to be late. In fact I consider 5 minutes early to be a bit too close for comfort, so when I booked a 10k race at Brooklands I made sure I knew exactly how I would get there. We were staying up in London on Saturday evening, but I knew I could get the 7.11am train from Waterloo to Weybridge and the Transport for London website told me that the underground would easily get me to the station on time. Happy days! I'd booked at 10k race, my first chip timed 10k since 2015, because my training plan said I only needed to run 10k and fortunately RunThrough Events were holding a <a href="https://www.runninggrandprix.com/" target="_blank">Running Grand Prix</a> at Mercedes Benz World. <br />
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Panic began to set in when I turned up at the tube station to find it still locked... as was the next nearest station. I found a cab - not too many around at 6.20am on a Sunday morning and paid a small fortune to be sped to Waterloo. At least I wasn't going to miss the train. <br />
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It was a beautifully clear morning, but very chilly. I was beginning to regret my choice of shorts and a vest top. A brisk walk from the station along paths clearly signposted by the event team, took the edge off the chill and as long as I stayed in the sunshine it was bearable! Race number collected, it was just a matter of waiting for my race to start. Most unusually I didn't see a single person I recognised amongst the waiting runners. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xcXXPdhHYqU/XXVGjNZL9jI/AAAAAAAAChY/WWR-SVNAEpwgxFQwMnWZwicaacQIPAisgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xcXXPdhHYqU/XXVGjNZL9jI/AAAAAAAAChY/WWR-SVNAEpwgxFQwMnWZwicaacQIPAisgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1610.JPG" width="240" /></a>The half marathon race started half an hour before the 10k. Watching the runners make their way around the track made it clear that this was quite a convoluted route! They would be running 4 (and a bit) laps, with the 10k and 5k aces completing two and one lap respectively. There were lots of 180 degree turns and many tight turns, it was quite hard to maintain a constant pace. This was exacerbated when the 5k runners joined in too. I spent a lot of time weaving around other runners. At one point a marshal called 'keep right, faster runner coming through' so I moved over, only to realise that <i style="font-weight: bold;">I</i> was the faster runner he was referring to! I hit 3 miles in 22minutes 36 but had no idea if I could keep up the pace for another lap. I kept looking for the water station - noticing it only after I had run past it (it was on the outside edge of a curve we were running around) so had to double back a little to grab a bottle. I was somewhat dehydrated, possibly due to attending a 50th birthday party the previous evening, but I probably didn't really need the water!<br />
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At about 7.5k into the race I heard a lady running up behind me. She was breathing heavily, as she came along side me we chatted for a little while - but I was speeding up, I'd been coasting along quite easily and I thought that I might just be able to get a PB if I picked up the pace. Until last night I'd thought my PB was 49minutes, but on investigation I discovered a flukey 47:59 back in 2015. I had no idea if I could do it, my mental calculations were not helped by the fact that I stupidly got it into my head that 10k is 6.1k, could I do this? I was overtaking people who had overtaken me earlier in the race and felt very comfortable. I thought I might be amongst the top twenty females to finish, and my watch said 47:11 - so definitely a PB! <br />
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Needing to get back into London so that I could have a shower and then check out of our hotel room meant that I couldn't investigate the Brooklands Museum or Mercedes Benz World, but it looks well worth a visit. I just collected my medal, my t-shirt, a flap jack (yummy), a couple of energy bar things and a banana and headed back to the train. I could hardly believe the official results! 8th female, 1st in my age category and 47th overall out of a field of 311! It does make me wonder if I could run a 46:XX 10k. <br />
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In fact a couple of conversations recently make me wonder how fast I could run if I a)trained properly and b) pushed myself a bit harder on the day! JB says he doesn't enjoy racing as it is just hard work, Husbando's face every time I saw him at a recent half marathon, was a picture of misery. When I run I want to have fun, chat to people, thank the marshals and so on. I think I am a little bit scared of pushing too hard because, well, it might hurt and it might not make all that much difference! Maybe I should join a local running club so that I can run with people of a similar ability regularly...<br />
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MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-64417255741453556722019-08-31T18:33:00.001+01:002019-08-31T18:33:37.364+01:00California dreaming<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AqJ-JxSOyuY/XWqGEq2lXMI/AAAAAAAAChE/15hZMcAcQkUSzMS6lwCV-1Mbjzz0uZ02wCLcBGAs/s1600/48653419232_ec797c4255_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1600" height="192" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AqJ-JxSOyuY/XWqGEq2lXMI/AAAAAAAAChE/15hZMcAcQkUSzMS6lwCV-1Mbjzz0uZ02wCLcBGAs/s320/48653419232_ec797c4255_o.jpg" width="320" /></a>I have been meaning to visit <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/californiacountry/" target="_blank">California Country parkrun</a> for a wee while, but hadn't made it for various reasons. Today I found myself travelling to parkrun alone as Husbando is having a day off prior to a race tomorrow, the 15 year old could not be woken up (school is going to be so much fun next week) and my normal parkrun accomplice was otherwise engaged. I've become a real wuss about meeting new people - a really good character trait in a teacher - so told myself all I needed to do was turn up, run and then come home... but if I could talk to people that would be a bonus!</div>
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I arrived in plenty of time. hoping to find out why a park in Finchampstead is called '<a href="https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/countryside-parks-and-conservation/country-parks/california-country-park/" target="_blank">California Country Park'</a>. The website for the park hadn't helped with that one and I am still none the wiser. It is a lovely park though, with lots of parking (charges apply) and a conveniently located cafe (with loos that are open before the parkrun). Getting to the start was somewhat confusing - so I followed a group of people running apricot and purple t shirts and hoped for the best! The first time briefing was excellent - although I will admit to getting a bit confused about the route and figuring that I would just follow the person in front. I spotted a fellow <a href="https://withmenow.libsyn.com/" target="_blank">With Me Now</a> podcast listener and greeted her with a 'Dolly or Bev?' (If you listen to the podcast you'll know what I'm talking about, if you don't then you should!)</div>
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The run director's approach to the run brief was excellent. He called us all together and then waited until everyone was quiet, commented that he would start now we were all listening and paused when some chattering threatened to get out of hand - brilliant! I asked him if he was a teacher - he said that he had grown up in a family of teachers! One thing though - and this seems to happen at lots of parkruns - the run brief is given using a PA system, but the count down and start are so very quiet that those of us not at the very front can only tell the run has begun because the crowd moves forward! </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8RTiORXxwu4/XWqGAje5z5I/AAAAAAAAChA/n755ZYqt9Psn54c9Tkla2_ODnWhLipFiACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1543.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8RTiORXxwu4/XWqGAje5z5I/AAAAAAAAChA/n755ZYqt9Psn54c9Tkla2_ODnWhLipFiACLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1543.JPG" width="320" /></a>The start was quite crowded, the path was narrow, and I hadn't positioned myself very well so the start was quite slow, especially though the wooded section as it was impossible to overtake here at all. It is a pretty and varied course, partly on a lovely smooth path and partly through woods being careful to avoid the tree roots. There was an out and back section and a repeat loop through the wooded section, all supported by marshals who kept us going in the right direction. There was a longish downhill section on the out and back - which meant a longish uphill section too! </div>
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As I went into the woods for the second time, probably about half a mile from the finish, I heard one of the marshals say 'That's the 5th lady,' as I ran past. I wasn't having that! So I put on a bit of speed and overtook a few people (jumping over branches and dodging trees) and managed to claw my way up to 3rd lady by the time we got to the finish. </div>
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After the obligatory barcode scanning, I chatted to a few people at the finish and then decided to brave the cafe. Jackson's cafe was lovely, and I brazenly went to sit at a table which already had runners sitting at it. We chatted about parkrun and black pudding, amongst other things and passed a very pleasant half an hour in the sunshine. </div>
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Thank you to all the volunteers and marshals for making me feel so welcome. I'm not sure if I am now actively chasing down my Cowell Club membership (100 different parkruns) - but I am now on 84 different venues so I might get a bit more proactive in seeking out new ones....</div>
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<br />MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-69413309631045517702019-08-25T21:57:00.002+01:002019-08-25T21:57:13.685+01:00Gin and PBs!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On a whim we booked ourselves into Gin School on Friday afternoon.<a href="https://gorillaspirits.co.uk/" target="_blank"> Gorilla Spirits </a> is a distillery that is just down the road from where we live and not only do they make excellent gin (their Silverback Mountain Strength Gin gained top marks in a gin tasting I hosted a couple of years ago) they donate £1 to support gorilla conservation. We'd been meaning to book a tour or one of their cocktail making masterclasses but decided to go for the Gin School experience as the idea of making our own gin really appealed. <br />
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We arrived at 2 o'clock on a sunny afternoon and were greeted with the first of several G&Ts which we sipped while we waited for the other four pupils to arrive. Before long we were chatting away and ready to get started...<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bH9Lb6bf5Sw/XWLn6NunxKI/AAAAAAAACgU/YL27rv1kHCgzJOTTV4bSWVvAoJ0sexwrQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bH9Lb6bf5Sw/XWLn6NunxKI/AAAAAAAACgU/YL27rv1kHCgzJOTTV4bSWVvAoJ0sexwrQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1466.JPG" width="240" /></a>The process of choosing botanicals was explained, we each had a folder which described the characteristics of each botanical and suggested which other botanicals they would work well with. We made our choices, safe in the knowledge that one of the experts would check our final recipe to make sure that it would work before we started meticulously measuring out our ingredients, recording all these measurements on our recipe sheet. I had intended to make a 'Christmas Gin,' but got waylaid by the botanicals. One was called 'Lady's Mantle' which is a plant that grows prolifically in our village, I liked it and decided to base my gin around it. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XPpPFRANqiA/XWLn8Dbl8MI/AAAAAAAACgY/ewakl8fiQyEkd_fO2cpPD6_Ex43LzrvfQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1469.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XPpPFRANqiA/XWLn8Dbl8MI/AAAAAAAACgY/ewakl8fiQyEkd_fO2cpPD6_Ex43LzrvfQCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1469.JPG" width="240" /></a>Each of us had our own still. They all had individual names and were very cute! While we waited for all the class to be at the same stage we enjoyed another G&T before being taken on a tour of the distillery. This is a much smaller operation than Bombay Sapphire. I think they said they had a staff of 9, everyone mucks in and does all the rolls that are needed, from monitoring the still to labelling the bottles. After our tour we went back to the stills to work out the ABV of our distillate and therefore how much water we would need to add turn it into something that was a) drinkable and b) would satisfy HMRC's rules on alcohol content. We had been asked to 'name' our gins - and these were printed onto labels. The 'extra' gin that wouldn't fit in the bottle was used to make yet another G&T! I have to say that Husbando's gin was very nice, but mine was delicious. (I had to drink most of his drinks because he was driving).<br />
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All in all, this was a brilliant way to spend an afternoon and I can't recommend it highly enough! We came home with out two bottles of gin, a bottle of the Gorilla Spirits Old Tom Gin and a bottle of their Raspberry Gin. We got a 10% discount on our purchases and these two aren't as easily available as the original Mountain Strength gin. <br />
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I came home and went to bed. <br />
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On Saturday morning I woke up with a slightly sore head, but Saturday is parkrun day and we had made plans to meet a friend at <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/uptoncourt/" target="_blank">Upton Court parkrun</a>. From there Husbando and I were heading into London. I felt ghastly, almost as green as my 250 top. Still it was only 5k, I've run parkrun with a hangover before, all I had to do was get around. We lined up at the start and were soon under starter's orders! Husbando hared off into the distance, I assumed JB had done the same. I couldn't be bothered to look at my watch, it was hot, my head hurt and I felt a bit queasy so I just ran. The course is one long then one short loop of Upton Court Park, it is mainly on grass, with a couple of sections on tarmac. At one point during the first lap I got to a point where I couldn't see anyone ahead and it wasn't immediately clear where I should go, I stopped - very briefly - for another runner to catch me up so I knew where to go. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zIJMEXRJkgI/XWLn-0RyU_I/AAAAAAAACgg/x-YDXMZte1skQ3YZGb74kFD0I166nHL9gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zIJMEXRJkgI/XWLn-0RyU_I/AAAAAAAACgg/x-YDXMZte1skQ3YZGb74kFD0I166nHL9gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_1476.JPG" width="240" /></a>On the second lap JB caught up with me and we ran the rest of the course together. It was really hot now and he wasn't going to let me slow down! We passed a marshal who told up we had 600m to go - we thought he was a little optimistic - but as I looked at my watch (for only the second time in the run) I realised that I could be on for a PB! Coming around the last corner two other runners came up behind us. I wasn't prepared to let them overtake me, but wasn't exactly sure where the finish line was so just had to run as fast as I could and hope that I could hold on...urns out I could. And I got an 8 second parkrun PB into the bargain! Husbando also got a parkrun PB, but we both ran slower than JB's fastest marathon pace!<br />
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Such are the benefits of a flat parkrun! There must have been some uphill as there was definitely a downhill slope, but I can't remember it! The volunteers were friendly and helpful and we were very glad to grab some cold drinks from the rugby club house after our run! There were also lovely loos in the club house that were available before the run and there is plenty of free parking nearby. A great parkrun which didn't involve getting up too early! Thank you to all the volunteers!<br />
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<br />MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4228947387976785087.post-64758847902903016462019-08-18T08:08:00.002+01:002019-08-18T08:08:56.647+01:00Milton KeynesThe last time I went to Milton Keynes was for an interview for a place on the Open University's PGCE course. I was so nervous on the way there and so relieved on the way home that I could have been anywhere! Today I was travelling to Milton Keynes as it was a convenient, almost halfway point, between our house and my mother's house and as such a useful meeting point at which to hand over a small person who wants to spend a week with her grandmother and aunts. I was also aware that it gave me options in terms of parkrun locations so that I wasn't just driving for hours and hours on a Saturday morning! I gave my mum the details of several parkruns and she chose <a href="https://www.parkrun.org.uk/miltonkeynes/" target="_blank">Milton Keynes</a>. This was fine by me - it looked really easy to get to from the M1, had a cafe, loos and lots of parking nearby. It was also a non lapped parkrun... I'd say a single lap, but it isn't even a complete loop, the finish point being about a quarter of a mile away from the start. Given the size of lots of city parks and open spaces non lapped parkruns are quite rare - I think I've only run two or three such courses. It also looked fairly flat. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smallest one scanning barcodes</td></tr>
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Small person and I got up stupidly early - 5.30am in the school holidays is not nice and were packed up and on our way by 6.15am which meant we arrived at <a href="https://www.willenlake.org.uk/" target="_blank">Willen's Lake</a> at about ten past eight. Willen's Lake is an amazing venue in the midst of a series of parks and green spaces. At the lake you can take place in all sorts of water sports and other activities - it looked amazing! When we arrived there were very few other people there, but the loos were open (thankfully!) and we soon found the volunteer co-ordinator who had been so helpful the previous evening when I'd asked about the small one helping with barcode scanning (to keep her occupied while I ran). </div>
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Run director Ros gave an informative run briefing, welcoming many guests including a large number of runners from Kingfisher Harriers all sporting bright orange t-shirts with kingfishers on them. As we assembled at the start runners appeared from everywhere! There were over 600 this morning on what is quite a narrow start (a gravel path between two trees). The first few hundred metres are slightly uphill followed by a section along the edge of the canal. The route is entirely on gravel and tarmac paths, it isn't a hilly course but there is a zig-zag section through a wooded area which concentrates the mind somewhat! Being quite open, the wind could be a problem - in fact I was blown sideways as we ran under a bridge that was doing a very good impression of a wind tunnel!</div>
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I haven't run at such a large parkrun for quite a while and I was struck by the fact that there was very little thinning out (at least where I was running). I was always surrounded by runners. The marshals were enthusiastic in their support. Back in the days when there were far fewer parkruns, if I visited a new parkrun I would just 'plod' around, knowing that there was a good chance I'd be back and that it would be nice, if slightly artificial, to get a course PB! Now we are spoilt for choice and I can't really justify doing that anymore but, having sat in the car for hours and knowing that they journey home would probably take even longer, I didn't feel as though I really wanted to push it, so I decided not to look at my watch, not to push it and just run at a pace that felt comfortable and where I could chat with those around me and have enough breath to thank all the marshals. I was pleased with my result - I always run a bit faster at parkrun than I run the rest of the week.</div>
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After having my barcode scanned (by my own daughter) we went to the cafe near the finish, One4six. The cafe is quite large with loads of picnic tables outside, the drinks weren't cheap - £10 for a can of pop, two coffees and a tea - but at least there were reasonably large cups! I am still trying to persuade my mother and sister to take part in their local parkrun but they keep saying that they can't because they are not runners - I hope that sitting watching the walkers finish might just make them think that they can take part - they could even take the dog!</div>
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As I headed back to the car and paid for parking it started to rain - the parkrun weather fairies had given us an hour and a half of sunny weather to enjoy our run and coffees! My result text popped up on the screen as I sat in a traffic jam on the M1 - very efficient - and thanks to me having eventually mastered the voice activated technology in the car I could get my result read out to me! </div>
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Huge thanks to all the volunteers, it was a pleasure to run with you today.</div>
MrsBridgewaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09041888056353908752noreply@blogger.com0