Had it not been for my fantastic day at Ironman Wales in September 2014 I very much doubt that I would be doing an Ironman race this year. I’m happy that I’m only going to be doing one Ironman in 2015 – Hawaii. I love the events but the racing is tough – real tough and I’m not a huge fan of going into a pain cave for so long! I think I’ll be able to manage it in Kona…
Each year along with many other people we like to look back at the previous years training and racing. I’ve done it on this site since 2007 so this is my eighth annual summary. Well, there’s good and bad to it so lets get cracking… The year started with a plan to run the London Marathon in April and get a ‘Good For Age’ time that would guarantee entry for the next couple of years. I had a bit of a…
In June 2006 I went along to Bushy Park in south-west London and ran 5k. It was at a little free to run event called the Bushy Park Time Trial. A month or so later I’d got the running bug for sure so set up this blog to record what I’d been up to. Since then the Bushy Park Time Trial has changed massively. It became parkrun – and parkrun is taking over parks and open spaces around the world…
A few weeks ago I was asked by the event director at the wonderful Bognor Regis parkrun if I’d be running my 300th parkrun at their event. I’d not thought about it (my 300th parkrun) to be honest. 50, 100 and 250th runs are currently the main parkrun ‘milestones’ – although I never had a ’50 club’ t-shirt as they didn’t exist until after I’d run my 100th. 300 parkruns was just a number to me. Anyway, I said yes and…
So, this is it… race week! Hmn, well, it’s race week but I’m not race ready. This post will probably just read like a list of excuses and writing about my lack of training. Sorry! Since the last post we’ve picked up the keys to our new house (it’s lovely) and we’re now living by the sea. Close enough that I can walk out of the front door in my wetsuit and be in the sea swimming in just over…
Since discovering Bushy Park Time Trial parkrun in 2006 we’ve got involved with the core team who put the event on each week. We’ve drunk coffee in Nero’s in Teddington, been on holiday (a week in Club la Santa on Lanzarote in 2007 and again in 2011), taken photos, marshalled, scanned tokens, entered names into laptops (remember those days), encouraged people in the funnel, made loads of friends and learnt that one of the best things about parkrun is everything…
In 2009 it was suggested that a social run around the Bushy parkrun 5k course a few weeks out from the London Marathon would be a great little motivator for those long runs and also to get to share a long run with people who are running different distances – so not just for the 20+ miler club! Not The London Marathon was born! You can read about the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 events elsewhere on this blog. The ‘rules’ are as follows… Start around…
This was the fourth year running of this event and after being away the previous couple of days at a wedding thought I’d be able to get only a couple of runs in this year. This is what the event is about… “Started in 2010, the idea is simple – On the first Sunday after the longest day of the year, to visit as many parkruns as possible. But while the potential total distance is quite large (35km or 21.7…