Chester Marathon - Week 4 of 10

Week 4 (Mon 20/08 - Sun 26/08)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: 9.0 Miles incl. Stretford Open 800m 2:20.05 [Comeback PB]
Weds: Rest Day
Thurs: Rest Day

Fri: 35.0 Miles incl.
Pontefract parkrun (freedom) 23:26
York parkrun (freedom) 22:20
Hull parkrun (freedom) 21:40
Sewerby parkrun (freedom) 21:15
Redcar parkrun (freedom) 20:55
Albert parkrun (freedom) 20:53
Tees-Barrage parkrun (freedom) 20:52
Stewart parkrun (freedom) 19:10
Harrogate parkrun (freedom) 22:03
Pontefract parkrun(2) (freedom) 24:02

Sat : 35.0 Miles incl.
Barnsley parkrun (freedom) 29:07
Concord parkrun (freedom) 27:07
Graves parkrun (official parkrun - 6th) 20:40
Hallam parkrun (freedom) 25:32
Huddersfield parkrun (freedom) 23:00
Bradford parkrun (freedom) 22:31
Dewsbury parkrun (freedom) 21:15
Roundhay parkrun (freedom) 23:03
Leeds parkrun (freedom) 24:52
Leeds parkrun(2) (freedom) 24:40

Sun: Rest Day
Total Mileage: 79.0

I dont think this kind of week will be found in any published marathon training schedules but it was certainly a lot of fun and even included 4 rest days. The summary of the week was my fastest ever (for 'fastest ever' read 'only') 800 metres and highest ever 2-day mileage total at 70 miles.

Stretford Open Meeting
This was my first ever attempt at 800 metres and the next stage in Tom Williams's journey towards a sub 5 mile on Sept 8th.

Tom, myself and John Broom wanted to be in the same heat so we all put down 2:25 as the predicted time. Such is the quality of these meetings that 2:25 qualified us to run in heat 9 out of 9. As it turned out they eventually realised the level of our talent and promoted us all to heat 8. Or then again, maybe it was a case of heats 8 and 9 being merged to try to speed up proceedings. I prefer the former explanation :)

I ended up in the outside lane, which is not what I wanted as I couldnt see anybody from there. Off we went and I was immediately overtaken by the runner on my inside which led me to believe that I was going way too slowly. At the break I was surprised to find myself in 2nd place. This probably meant that sooner rather than later I would be treading water and getting shuffled backwards.

At 300m it was feeling reasonably comfortable so I decided to just go for it, after all how painful could the ramaining 500m be? I was in unknown territory no matter what so I may as well give it my best shot. In the lead at the bell I imagined that everyone was just biding their time to kick for home and make me look very slow. All I could do was resolve to stay at the front for as long as I could and see what happened.

With 200m to go I could hear Tom right on my shoulder, it was very unlikely that I was  going to be able to hold him off but I may as well try. Down the home straight and he was right there but somehow I managed to hold on .......by 0.2 secs! The final time was 2:20.05 to Tom's 2:20.25....times that we were both delighted with and should put a 5 minute mile well within reach.

The race can be seen here:

http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/249679-2012-Stretford-BMC-Gold-Standard-Open/video/654047-800m-open-8

And Tom's view of the race:

http://www.marathontalk.com/forum.php?&topic=1377&page=2#comments


Yorkshire 20:20 Challenge
These kind of challenges, ie to complete 20 Yorkshire parkruns in 2 days, are a bit odd in that they make no sense whatsoever but once you have decided to take it on it becomes impossible in your own mind not to complete it.

Just as a reminder, Simon Newton was attempting to run as many consecutive parkruns in sub 20:00 as he could manage. The entire 20 was highly unlikely as that would involve running 62 miles at 2:45 marathon pace over two days.....a massive task.

To add to this, John Broom also set his stall out at having a go at completing the entire set of 10 on the first day in sub 20:00 times.

My own ambitions were not so lofty as I still had vivid memories of completing 10 in a day last December with Guy Willard and Tom Williams and the lesson learnt from that day was that how you are going to hold up towards the end of one of these days critically depends on how much damage you have done earlier in the day.

Day 1
Friday morning at Pontefract at 5:30am and we're ready to go (Georgie Newton, Steve Darby, John Broom, Simon Newton):

After Pontefract, York and Hull it was on to Bridlington for Sewerby parkrun.

Throughout the two days there was to be many times where the start of runs coincided with torrential downpours, Sewerby was one of these. But when we did get started I got to race the train....but lost!

 

 After a nice sunny run around Redcar parkrun it was then on to Albert Park in Middlesbrough. Since my last visit they have gone to quite some effort with their permanent start and finish markings along with km posts.

 

 From Albert Park it was then onto Tees Barrage parkrun, where I got lost but we'll gloss over that!

And then Stewart parkrun (8th of the day) where they had kindly marked out our three starting points.
 

 A trip to Harrogate for the 9th parkrun of the day was then followed by a return to where it all started some 15 hours earlier, Pontefract:

 

At the end of Day 1 we were all still standing. I had managed an overall average of 21:45 for the ten parkruns with a fastest time of 19:10 at Stewart.

This equated to 31 miles at 3:03 marathon pace.

But both Simon and John had remarkably managed to string together complete sequences of ten runs in sub 20:00.

The question now turned to how we were going to be feeling in just a few hours time to attempt to do it all again?


Day 2
Barnsley at 6am. There were no particular expectations of speed for day 2, completing the full twenty would be a big enough task. But that didnt stop Simon wanting to keep his run of sub 20:00 clockings going, so here he was ready to attempt number 11:


Of course he was successful, as he was at the next venue, Concord.

But the big challenge that he had set himself was to come at the next venue. It was now 9am, it was Saturday and.....it was parkrun time. Our one official run was to be at Graves and Simon had declared that he was going for an all out effort to be 1st. This after already having run twelve sub 20:00 parkruns in just over 24 hours!

This was Ollie Hart delivering the pre-race briefing and a very friendly welcome for the three nutters standing to his right. You will notice that the official club t-shirts have to come out for this one:
 

Because it was the official one I wanted to have a decent crack at it. Despite it being a tough course, 6th in 20:40 was very satisfying. This photo is taken just after running through the animal yard where you get funny looks from all sorts of creatures, a couple of llamas seemed to be making the most unusual noises of encouragement. Did Simon win? He did indeed and took the sub 20 streak to 13.

After completing Sheffield Hallam, where Simon went sub 20 yet again (14), it was onto Huddersfield. The weather now was horrible and this is us waiting for some sign that the downpour was going to ease off. There was a river running though the park where there should be tarmac.

 
 We did finally get going and pretty much had the park to ourselves, quite a contrast to the last time we were here for The Longest parkrun in June when our visit coincided with 20,000 people descending on the park to greet the Olympic flame. This was the 15th sub 20:00 for Simon, which meant that he had now completed 46.5 miles at under 6 mins/mile.

Next was Bradford for the 16th which is a nice course to switch off and just get into a rhythm, just what was needed at this stage. Not surprisingly, Simon now slowed slightly and clocked his first time in excess of 20 minutes with 20:40. But a streak of 15 was more than anyone but himself had expected and is quite mind boggling.

Dewsbury next and I started getting a spring in my step as we came into the closing stages of the challenge. A 21:15 around a challenging Dewsbury course for the 17th run made me smile.

Roundhay was the 18th venue and we were joined here by John Robson, a man who likes multiple parkrun challenges so decided to join us for a run around his home course. John had also been at Graves in the morning for the official run, finishing 3rd behind Simon.


That just left the 19th and 20th runs which were both going to be at Leeds Hyde Park. We decided before arriving at Leeds that we were going to have a quick turnaround between the last two runs, basically consisting of a 5 minute walk back to the start.

It was getting tougher mentally now but despite that I dont think any of us entertained the idea of not completing. I could still feel every stride that I did around here in the pitch black last December and I was expecting to have to call on similar mental stubborness again this time.

But, to be honest, it wasnt too bad. Considering that total mileage now was way beyond what I had ever accumulated in two days before I was quite surprised at how strong my legs were still feeling...not necessarily pacey but strong nonetheless. The last two runs were completed at just under 8 minute miling and a huge sense of accomplishment followed as that final finishing line was crossed.

This was the very last corner of the 100 km challenge. Nice to see that there is still a bit of knee lift going on :)

As with the 10 parkruns completed last December you dont need a big cheering crowd or huge support to a) drive you on and b) to get an immense sense of satisfaction from completing whatever it is that you've set out to do. I think John and Simon will readily concur with that.


Day 2 totalled 31.0 miles at 3:23 marathon pace

Whether this makes for good marathon training or not is a matter of opinion but it is certainly different and  more enjoyable than you could imagine before doing it.

Many thanks to Dawn Broom for providing fantastic support, and taking all the photos, over the two days. Just getting up by 4am each morning is tough enough.


Next Week.......

Next week is actually going to resemble something close to what might be considered a normal training week.

There wont be any races as such but if the legs recover from this weekend swifly enough then I may have an attempt at an all time parkrun pb of better than 17:25 next Saturday at Hull. But that is just a maybe at this point.

Chester Marathon - Week 3 of 10

Week 3 (Mon 13/08 - Sun 19/08)

Mon: 10.0 Miles Easy @ 8:25/mile
Tues: 7.0 Miles incl. Millenium Bridge 5K, York 17:19 (5:35/mile) [Comeback PB]
Weds: 7.0 Miles incl. Hyde Park Summer Mile 5:11 (5:11/mile) [Comeback PB]
Thurs: 18.0 Miles progressive @ 7:27/mile
Fri: 10K Easy @ 8:40/mile
Sat am: 6.0 Miles incl. Dewsbury parkrun 18:04 (1st) (5:48/mile)
Sun: 11.0 Miles incl. Birchwood 10K, 36:58 (5:56/mile)

Total Mileage: 65.2


A good strong week  this week that included  four races. It might seem a bit odd to be doing four races in a week during marathon training but I dont worry too much about the contents of any particular week, I'm more interested in looking holistically at blocks of, say, 4 weeks and seeing that each such block contains roughly the right constituent sessions in roughly the right proportions. Everything else is mere detail....

Millenium Bridge 5K, York
A bit of a saga surrounding this race. I have listed it above as 17:19 which represents a comeback PB and the fastest of 200+ 5Ks run since 2008. However, when I crossed the line I had it timed as 16:59 and that was the time that I was recorded as by the officials.

It was a stunning time but not quite out of the realms of believability. But, to cut a long story short, it appears that due to marshalling errors several groups of runners were misdirected and ended up running 100-110 metres short, worth about 20 secs. It wont be recorded as 17:19 because clearly the full 5K wasnt run but I'll keep that as a personal benchmark to get past as soon as possible.

Hyde Park Summer Mile, Leeds
This is a super event put on by Hyde Park Harriers consisting of 7 waves of about 20 runners. The entire event fits snugly into a one hour time slot so within that time you get to run your own race and support 6 others.

The aim for this was to run close to 5:10 if possible. This was based on 5:19 for the same event last year and 5:25 when we had a benchmark session back in May to see where Tom Williams was in his progress towards his sub 5 mile (he ran 5:31 in that test).

We were in wave 6 of 7 so ran the course in reverse a couple of times while watching earlier waves. It is not the easiest of miles with a long uphill middle stint that finds a lot of people out, so pacing is key. In the early stages I settled in about 10th with Tom just sitting in behind (and I suspect, John Robson also employing the same tactics).

You just have to be very patient in the early stages but as the incline started that was time to start working through the field, 10th at the bottom became 2nd at the top, and then there was just the flat last 500 metres or so to kick for home. This is where I expected Tom to start coming strong and putting his shorter distance training to good use, as we'd discussed before the race, but it didnt mean that I wasnt going to make it as hard as I could for him ;)

To see Tom's take on the race, see week 16: http://www.marathontalk.com/forum.php?&topic=1377&page=2#comments

The final scores were 5:10 and 5:11 so I think that was job done in terms of increasing confidence levels for a sub 5 on a flat track on Sept 8th. There was also a stonking 5:16 PB for John Robson after employing some excellent pacing tactics :)

This was the start of wave 6 (I'm in blue on the left):

And just over 5 minutes later, happy smiles from (left to right) Bartosz Lewandowski, John Robson, Tom Williams, Chris Corcoran, Steve Darby

18 Mile Progressive run
After the efforts of the previous two evenings I wasnt expecting too much from Thursday's 18 miler in terms of pace and wouldnt have been at all concerned if it had been sluggish because running decent distance on tired legs is a key part of marathon training. However, it went very well, the first 9 miles ticked by at 7:50/mile (compared to 7:55/mile a week earlier) but then the progressive last 9 miles were covered at an average 7:04/mile (compared to 7:33/mile a week earlier). The last few miles were solidly under sub 3 pace without feeling that I was making the legs do something they werent happy with. A good session.


Dewsbury parkrun
Dewsbury parkrun was the place for one of the big significant parkrun milestones this week as Chris Cowell returned to his town of birth to clock up his 100th different parkrun venue, the first ever parkrunner to achieve this (Chris is in the middle in black holding the finish sign):

The run itself went very well. I have completed Dewsbury twice before, 18:38 at the pre-launch test run and 18:24 at the inaugural event. So it was nice to get round a tough course like this in 18:04, which confirmed the 17:20 fitness suggested earlier in the week.

Birchwood 10K
This was entered as a last minute thing but I was looking forward to it as maybe a chance for a 3rd comeback PB in the week after how lively the legs felt at Dewsbury. The time to beat was 36:19 and it looked entirely possible as the race unfolded but a bit more twistiness and a bit more hilliness in the 2nd half meant that an increase in effort resulted in roughly even pacing. Most people seemed to be about a minute down on what they might expect on a perfect course in perfect conditions so nothing at all wrong with a 36:58 for the 4th race of the week.


Next Week........
With roughly 140 miles completed in the last two weeks it might appear that the mileage is a little on the low side for the task at hand. However, next week is likely to be the highest mileage week EVER, possibly as high as 120 miles if everything goes to plan. So holistically, as I mentioned earlier, over a 4 week period the total mileage is likely to be healthy enough..

So what will the week involve?

On Tuesday there will be a first ever attempt at 800 metres on the track at Stretford.

And then on Friday & Saturday comes the big Yorkshire 20:20 Challenge. This will be an attempt to repeat the brilliant experience of last December when all 10 Yorkshire parkruns were completed in one day. That is on Friday.......and then on Saturday we're going to do it all again :)

There are currently 18 Yorkshire parkruns so 2 will be run twice. With bits of warm up etc this will involve running something like 70 miles over the two days.

I will be looking to do maybe the last 3 on each day at sub 20 to replicate the trying to inject a bit of speed on tired legs at the end of a marathon but, amazingly, Simon Newton (the man who ran all 7 legs of The Longest parkrun in sub 20:00) is going to be attempting to run all 20 parkruns at sub 20:00. This seems almost impossible to me but I wouldnt rule it out having seen his previous exploits.

If anyone wants to join us for one or more legs, John Broom has put together the following schedules :

Friday 24th August:

05:30-06:00 Pontefract
06:45-07:30 York
07:50-08:30 Hull
09:50-10:30 Sewerby
13:00-13:40 Redcar
14:10-14:50 Middlesbrough Albert Park
15:10-15:50 Tees Barrage
16:20-17:00 Stewart Park
18:30-19:10 Harrogate
20:10-20:40 York (2)

Saturday 25th August:

06:15-06:45 Barnsley
07:15-08:00 Concord
08:30-09:30 Graves
10:00-10:45 Hallam
11:45-12:30 Huddersfield
13:00-13:45 Dewsbury
14:30-15:15 Leeds
16:00-16:45 Bradford
17:30-18:15 Roundhay
18:45-19:30 Leeds (2)

Chester Marathon - Week 2 of 10

Week 2 (Mon 06/08 - Sun 12/08)

Mon: 10.0 Miles Easy @ 7:59/mile
Tues: 7.0 Miles incl. Stretford Open 1500m 4:47.30 (5:08/mile)
Weds: 18.0 Miles, gently progressive @ 7:44/mile
Thurs: 10K Easy @ 7:58/mile
Fri: 10K Easy @ 8:15/mile
Sat am: 7.0 Miles incl. York parkrun 17:39 (5:38/mile)
Sat pm: 20.0 Miles @ 7:54/mile
Sun: Rest Day

Total Mileage: 74.4 

As expected, last week's food poisoning or bug was short lived resulting in a decent full week of training this week.

There was a bit of shuffling needed because I wanted to get a good 70-80 mile done but, at the same time, have a reasonably good crack at both a 1500m and a 5K during the week. On top of that, Sunday was likely to be a write off due to travelling to and from London for the Olympic Marathon.

But it all worked out fine by using the novel approach of fitting both Saturday and Sunday's sessions into one day.

1500m at Stretford
I didnt really know what to expect over 1500m as I hadnt run one for 25 years! The only benchmark was a  club championship mile a few weeks ago completed in 5:13, which pointed towards something like a 4:54 1500.

So very pleased with splits of 59, 79, 76, 73 for a time of 4:47.30.

Should you have 4 minutes and 47 seconds of your life that you really dont need for anything else then the full race can be watched here:

http://www.athleticos.org/video/652723-1500m-open-6

I'm in orange and Tom Williams is in red and white just in behind for the first 1200m before haring off to a 0.43 secs victory by the end.


York parkrun
This was an opportunity to have a strong parkrun outing in the company of regular parkrun sparring partners including Luke Bryant, Dan Holdsworth, John Robson, Darren Naughton et al

It is always good to visit York as the ever smiling Helen Durrant goes out of her way to give visiting parkrunners a special welcome.

17:39 was the fastest parkrun since VLM, so pleased enough with that but will be expecting some faster times in the next few weeks.



Rest Day
Although nothing to do with training, The Olympic Marathon was a superb experience not least because of how close you could get to the action. This was a pic I took of Kiprotich just as he was coming into the last 400 metres:

Next Week....
More of the same but with a lengthy tempo run, probably 10 miles in the mix somewhere.

There will be a couple of midweek races, York Millenium Bridge 5K on Tuesday and the Hyde Park Mile in Leeds on Wednesday. Nothing like a bit of variety.

Chester Marathon - Week 1 of 10

Since the training for the Chester Marathon is going to take up a fair old chunk of the second half of the year I thought it might be worth blogging the 10 week run up to the event.

I have given myself the improbable task of ducking under 2:45 at some point in the next four marathons. These will be Chester 2012, London 2013, Amsterdam 2013 and Boston 2014.

So how improbable is 2:45?

If I had to put a figure on the chance of success it would probably be in the region of 10-15%.  A 2:45 would mean a London Marathon Championship entry and only 26 V45s qualified to apply for one of those in 2011. So chances are pretty slim but that will make it all the sweeter if it happens. And, as I always say, at least I'll get fit trying :)

Since starting again in 2008 this is how the marathon efforts have gone:

Apr 2009: Blackpool Marathon 3:24:17
Oct 2009: Fleetwood Marathon DNF
Apr 2010: Blackpool Marathon 3:08:13
Oct 2010: Amsterdam Marathon 3:04:27
Apr 2011: London Marathon 3:18:30
Apr 2012: London Marathon 2:57:04
Oct 2012: Chester Marathon
Apr 2013: London Marathon
Oct 2013: Amsterdam Marathon
Apr 2014: Boston Marathon

So they're going in the right direction if you ignore the 2011 London time, which was effectively a DNF, and that offers at least some hope that there are more time improvements to come.

On to the training:

Week 1 (Mon 30/7 - Sun 05/08)

Mon: 10.0 Miles Easy 1:19:23 (7:56/mile)
Tues: 10.0 Miles Easy 1:18:07 (7:49/mile)
Weds: 7.0 Miles incl Spencer Arms Dash (5th of 6 in series) 22:26 (5th/2nd vet)
Thurs: Rest
Fri: Rest
Sat: Rest
Sun: 10.0 Miles Easy 1:23:22 (8:20/mile)

Unfortunately, the first week included a pretty rare event in that I was struck down with a bug, probably food related. Because I rarely fall foul of these things when they do get through the immune system you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be nasty little sods and so it proved this week.

It was a shame really because I had a weekend lined up consisting of a 10K race at Battersea on Saturday morning, where I was hoping to have a good bash at getting a sub 36 minute 10K under the belt, followed by some Olympic viewing, including the Women's Triathlon and Women's Marathon.

By Sunday morning I was feeling better so felt up to having a bit of a run. As expected, the legs felt strong after their 3 days of rest but there was still something a bit off with the oxygen transportation system. Another day or two and things should be back to normal. I hope!

Ah well, probably better to get a week like that out of the way fairly early on and leave the path clear for a good solid block of training in the coming weeks.

What does Week 2 hold in prospect?

Week 2 will be fairly unusual in that it will include a 1500m race, something which I have only ever done once and that was a 4:30 effort at Crystal Palace in about 1987, a mere 25 years ago.

This will be at Stretford in Manchester on Tuesday evening. I dont quite know why but I'm quite looking forward to it even though I know myself and Tom Williams (in his mission to run a sub 5 minute mile by September - http://www.marathontalk.com/forum.php?&category=5&topic=1377) will be well down the field even if we get close to our target of 4:45 - 4:50.

I'm expecting something around a 70-80 mile week in total.

2012 - The First 6 Months......

The start of each new year from now on will throw up the question of whether time improvements from getting more training into the legs will be overshadowed by the inevitable decline of another year in age, now 46.

That could sound quite depressing  but considering I went through the process of giving up all idea of being able to run decent times again a long while ago the scenario will be nothing new. And since 100% of the reason for running is to be fit, healthy and competitive there will always be a reason to run :)

So what will 2012 bring? Well, I think the summary of the first six months is:

Sod The Ageing Process - That can wait until next year, or the year after...... :)

There has already been plenty of variety, the occassional standout performance and the odd cock up or two. But above all, it is already destined NOT to be the year when the decline takes over!


The bare statistics:

JANUARY
Jan 1st Glasgow parkrun 18:46 (8th)
Jan 7th Bespoke parkrun (Harrogate) 18:49 (3rd)
Jan 7th Yorkshire XC Champs 45:12 (127th)
Jan 14th York parkrun 18:03 (12th)
Jan 21st Harrogate parkrun 18:29 (2nd)
Jan 22nd Brass Monkey Half Marathon 1:24:28 (95th)
Jan 28th Barrow parkrun 18:27 (2nd)


FEBRUARY
Feb 4th York parkrun 18:23 (5th)
Feb 8th Dorothy Hyman 10,000m 38:53
Feb 11th Roundhay parkrun 19:38 (1st)
Feb 18th Colwick parkrun 19:03 (7th)
Feb 19th Wombwell 5 30:26 (24th)
Feb 25th Gunpowder parkrun 18:15 (3rd)
Feb 25th National XC (Parliament Fields) 48:00 (710th)


MARCH
Mar 3rd Worsley Woods parkrun 38:18 (80th) [Slight 2 mile detour!]
Mar 4th Dewsbury 10K 36:21 (52nd) [New comeback PB - 1-0 vs The Ageing Process]
Mar 10th Walsall parkrun 17:59 (4th)
Mar 11th Spen 20 2:15:03 (15th) [New comeback PB - 2-0 vs The Ageing Process]
Mar 17th Sedgefield parkrun 18:28 (4th)
Mar 18th South Yorkshire HM 1:21:55 (20th) [New comeback PB - 3-0 vs The Ageing Process]
Mar 24th Hull parkrun 17:25 (6th) [New comeback PB - 4-0 vs The Ageing Process] [Hull V45 course record]
Mar 25th Thirsk 1:01:04 (37th)
Mar 31st Hull parkrun 19:21 (7th)


APRIL
Apr 4th SpencerArms Dash (1/6) 22:16 (5th/1st vet)
Apr 7th Gateshead parkrun 18:01 (1st)
Apr 11th Silkstone Sth Yorks Road League - DNF
Apr 14th Graves parkrun 19:44 (8th)
Apr 21st Colwick parkrun 24:01 (37th)
Apr 22nd Virgin London Marathon 2:57:04 [New comeback PB - 5-0 vs The Ageing Process]
Apr 28th Harrogate parkrun 20:37 (19th)


MAY
May 2nd Spencer Arms Dash (2/6) 23:35 (7th/3rd vet)
May 5th Redcar parkrun 18:41 (3rd)
May 12th Preston parkrun 19:08 (8th)
May 16th Askern 10K 38:08 (57th)
May 19th White Peak HM 1:26:34 (20th)
May 26th Gunnersbury parkrun 19:31 (25th)
May 27th Melmerby 10K 38:43


JUNE
Jun 2nd Burnley parkrun 18:50 (9th)
Jun 3rd Barnsley Boundary Relay (Leg 4) 40:20 (2nd)
Jun 4th Wythenshawe parkrun 18:20 (4th)
Jun 5th Huddersfield parkrun 18:09 (10th)
Jun 6th Spencer Arms Dash (3/6) 22:46 (5th/1st vet)
Jun 9th Braunstone parkrun 18:15 (9th)
Jun 10th Woodhall Spa 10K 36:37 (15th)
Jun 16th Poole parkrun 18:01 (6th)
Jun 20th Warrington 10K 36:39 (16th)
Jun 21st Dewsbury parkrun (test) 18:38 (1st)
Jun 23rd Dewsbury parkrun 18:24 (3rd)
Jun 26th DamFlask relays 21:12
Jun 30th Barnsley parkrun 18:27 (1st)

So am I pleased with 2012 so far? You bet I am! I'm absolutely loving it.

The first 26 weeks of the year has consisted of 50 races of various kinds across every distance from 5K to marathon.



The first half of the year has delivered the fastest times for 18 years at the following distances: 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, 20 Miles and Marathon. The only significant distance that has escaped so far is my favourite distance, 10 miles, and so a major aim for the second half of the year is to try to better the current comeback PB of 59:52. There will be a good few chances so heres hoping.........


The 3 Highlights of The First Half of 2012?

1. London Marathon (2:57:04)

It was very satisfying to finally get back under 3 hours at the 5th attempt with 2:57:04.

More importantly, although not my fastest marathon, it felt like the best executed of all 20+ marathons completed to date with very little tailing off of pace towards the end. 5K splits were:

20:29, 20:32, 21:03, 21:00, 20:42, 20:30, 21:02, 21:56

Considering how I normally fall apart in the closing stages, this was a very pleasing sequence of numbers.

So what was the difference between this marathon and previous ones that didnt go as well?

It basically came down to two things:
a) Simulating the last 10K of the marathon on a repeated basis in build up races through pre-race fasting.
b) Not carbo loading before the race or fuelling mid race.

It will be interesting to see if I can repeat the same experience for Chester in October or whether I am drawing the wrong conclusions.


25 Miles and happy in the knowledge that the sub 3 is in the bag:

I enjoyed that one :)

 The evening before:

2. Dewsbury 10K (36:21)

Although I do a lot of races there are only a select few, maybe 5 or 6 times a year, that justify a full on 'going to the well effort' and the second half of the Dewsbury 10K was one of those occassions. This picture was captured at probably the hardest part of the return 5K, which was covered in 17:40. I can still feel the pain now but a comeback PB of 36:21 was the reward:

3. Hull parkrun (17:25)
 
The most satisfying thing about this run on 24th March was that after completing well in excess of 150 5Ks since starting running again in 2008 I had declared publicly that I was going for a comeback PB on this day. This required beating the previous comeback PB at Leeds of 17:33.

Since the V45 course record at Hull stood at 17:40 and my previous best there was 17:43, it was going to take everything to go right to get near to achieving the aim.

Just to pile some more pressure on, Paul Tremere (Hull Race director) announced my intentions to the 300 assembled runners on the start line. No hiding place now, it was a balls on the line affair.

After some excellent first half pacing by John Broom, the first mile was covered in 5:38. I was then very aware that if I could maintain a similar pace for the second mile without overcooking things then the record could be on. The second mile was bang on the money at 5:36 and it was then just a case of unleashing every ounce of training and every bit of muscle power I could find into that last mile, which turned out to be 5:38 to bring it home in an enormously satisfying..........17:25!

Another 'going to the well' effort and another result which justified it. :)


What does the second half of 2012 have in store?

Yorkshire 20:20 Challenge
A small group of us will be covering 20 Yorkshire parkruns on 24th/25th August (As there are only 17 Yorkshire parkruns, 3 will be run twice). The idea will be to see how many of the 20 can be run in sub 20:00. The full 20 is nigh on impossible but this is going to be a novel way of getting a really good weekend of marathon training under our belts ready for the Autumn marathons.

The Great North Run
The sub 80 is still sitting there as a target to be challenged. Whether it will be managed at GNR or not I dont know but I'll give it a good bash.

The Chester Marathon 
My main aim here is to replicate how I felt during VLM in April and if that is successful, hopefully some more time improvements can be found.

My main aim on the marathon front now is to achieve a Championship place as a V45. That requires a sub 2:45:00 clocking and I'm giving myself  4 marathon attempts to achieve it...Chester 2012, VLM 2013, Amsterdam 2013, Boston 2014.

Comeback PB attempts at 1 mile and 10 miles
There are going to be a few attempts at a mile and 10 miles so hopefully the 5:19 and 59:52 comeback PBs so far can be put under some pressure.


There may be a parkrun or two thrown into the mix as well..................

The Longest parkrun - Yorkshire 2012

The Longest parkrun - Yorkshire (Sunday 24th June 20102)


What is it about?

The Longest parkrun is about bringing geographically clustered parkruns all together on the first Sunday after the longest day in one big celebration of all things parkrun.  It is parkrun tourism gone into overdrive, sampling two months' worth of parkruns in one single day.

The idea is to spend 45 minutes at each of 7 venues and completing a 5K Freedom parkrun at each. But people are free to choose to do some of the venues rather than all of them and to do less than 5K if they choose to do so.

How was it born?

The Longest parkrun -Yorkshire goes back to a post run coffee after one of the Leeds parkruns when I uttered the words 'I've been thinking......'. This was immediately followed by Tom Williams saying 'You know what....so have I!' and Sam Dooley with 'Lets do it' or words to that effect.


We then quickly got ridiculously over enthusiastic and declared that we were going do all the Yorkshire parkruns, numbering 10 at that time, on a date as near to the shortest day of the year as we could arrange.

We put an open invite out and loads of people said they wanted to do it as well.

Within days it then dawned upon us that this was a disaster waiting to happen - taking a big group of people around 10 courses, consisting of 300 miles of driving, with many of the courses needing to be run in the dark and every likelihood of bad weather conditions wasnt something that could be described as sensible.

So we cancelled.

But then as the day grew nearer, and because the seed had now been planted, three of us (Myself, Tom Williams and Guy Willard) just decided to go and give it a go anyway. Tom had also been inspired by another shortest day run and really wanted to do a big challenge involving a lot of running in the dark with head torches (nutter - and to think that they put this man in charge of all the parkruns in the UK :p).

On the day itself most of the parkruns were cancelled due to ice and snow, temperatures were sub zero for most of the day and we finished 3 and a half hours later than we expected - but we did finish and we loved it.

35 miles of running, 300 miles of driving, 10 parkrun courses and a bucket load of exhiliration.

But we were 100% right in cancelling this as an event for more people, it would have been foolhardy in the extreme.

However, the logistical challenges were now more known and there had to be a way of pulling this together in a way that more people could enjoy - the feeling at the end is just brilliant and probably on a par with the overwhelming sense of achievement felt after most marathons.

So, despite having to contend with considerably larger distances than for the original Longest parkrun centred on Bushy, the mission was now born to get an event up and running in time for the 2012 date.

The Route

I was keen to start at Leeds because, being the first ever Longest parkrun outside of London, it was fitting that it should start on the very same spot that saw the first ever parkrun outside of London 5 years earlier. So, after much changing due to various events competing with our use of facilities, the route eventually became:

1. Leeds
2. Roundhay
3. Harrogate
4. York
5. Dewsbury
6. Huddersfield
7. Leeds


The Participants

Our Furthest Traveller

Louise Ayling travelled up to Yorkshire from her home parkrun of Wimbledon to take part. Louise had the very unusual distinction of already having participated in a previous Longest parkrun, the original SW London loop centred on Bushy.

Why did Louise travel so far? Was it worth it? Did she enjoy herself?

I'll let her tell you in her own words:

http://abradypus.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/the-longest-parkrun-2/

Leeds  - Leg 1

Roundhay - Leg 2

Harrogate - Leg 3

York - Leg 4

Dewsbury - Leg 5

Huddersfield - Leg 6

Leeds - Leg 7
Canine Paticipation

The Airedale Dodgers sent a crack team of Chris Healey, Tracey Healey, Margaret Fletcher and William, a very cute dog who was described by another runner as 'adorably obedient'. All that I know is that when he hit the floor after crossing the finishing line at York to complete his 4th parkrun of the day, it wasnt in exhaustion but more because he felt that such efforts meant that he deserved to have his chest tickled.......so of course I obliged.

World parkrun Record? 

In the list of completions below  you will see an entry for 'Team Family Newell', this was a team effort by dad Jason, mum Sarah (who actually ran a PB at Roundhay) and 6 year old Jamie.





The 'Survivors' Roll Call

Family Completions:

Team Family Newell - 26:10 (Jason), 32:06 (Sarah), 22:54 (Jason),
24:49 (Jason), 39:04 (Jamie - age 6 in wellies), 33:13 (Sarah), 23:16 (Jason), 27:27 (Jason), 32:50 (Sarah)


Full set of 7 x Full parkruns
Ben Forwood (Leeds) - 30:09, 29:09, 29:56, 39:04, 31:20, 28:59, 29:40
Martin Downey (Huddersfield) - 28:40, 29:11, 29:43, 30:14, 31:07, 34:57, 35:00
Louise Ayling (Wimbledon) - 31:49, 31:34, 31:00, 33:18, 33:40, 33:10, 34:25

Steven King (Redcar) - 31:41,34:06, 39:29, 42:18, 39:58, 39:02, 50:33

Joanne Scantlebury (Leeds) - 30:29, 32:07, 34:00, 33:00, 30:27, 32:27, 34:30

Richard Smart (Pontefract) - 27:50, 31:00, 32:00, 34:00, 35:00, 30:00, XX:XX

Nicki Dawson (Hudderfield) - 29:34, 29:00, 29:53, 33:39, 29:34, 32:17, 33:34

Antony Naulty (Woodbank) - 25:42, 25:22, 24:26, 24:58, 22:25, 24:21, 23:39

John Robson (Roundhay) - 21:00, 20:41, 20:12, 20:50, 19:54, 18:30, 19:55

Helen Barrows (Pontefract) - 27:42, 30:08, 29:19, 33:30, 32:52, 31:53, 36:53

Matthew Kelly (Huddersfield) - 25:41, 24:17, 25:21, 23:45, 21:31, 25:13, 24:22

David Crossley (Barnsley) - 25:49, 27:17, 26:07, 26:22, 25:13, 23:01, 22:52

Michaela Sill (Leeds) - 25:49, 27:17, 26:07, 26:22, 25:13, 23:01, 22:52

Simon Edwards (Huddersfield) - 28:20, 28:42, 30:16, 31:50, 33:06, 33:32, 36:32

Dan Ovington (Pontefract) - 25:31, 25:54, 26:15, 31:13, 33:10, 33:20,41:23

James Vickers (Leeds?) - 23:57, 23:37, 23:08, 25:19, 24:11, 22:16, 23:25

Guy Willard (Leeds) - 27:35, 26:35, 27:35, 23:37, 25:06, 22:39, 23:23

Mike Dunn (Roundhay) - 7 completed, times unknown (approx 25 mins avge)

Matt Jackson (Leeds) - 19:09, 20:07, 20:19, 22:06, 21:06, 20:16, 21:25

Bartosz Lewandowski (Huddersfield) - 25:39, 26:10, 26:06, 27:24, 26:38, 27:06, 28:36

Melvyn Burton (Pontefract) - 28:12, 30:00, 29:27, 31:37, 31:51, 28:54, 31:56

Mark Nicholson (Huddersfield) - 29:36, 32:08, 34:30, 37:06, 39:46, 33:31, 42:57

Steve Darby (Leeds) - 26:10, 19:46, 26:06, 21:47, 25:12, 23:16, 19:37

Deborah Howarth (Huddersfield) - 29:36, 31:44, 32:50, 33:24, 30:09, 32:19, 33:12

Diane Kolat (Huddersfield) - 29:22, 31:24, 30:42, 32:30, 30:37, 32:24, 33:45

Simon Newton (Pontefract) - 18:27, 18:57, 19:24, 19:34, 18:15, 17:35, 17:51


Completion of 1 or more venues:

Liz Guthrie (?) - 5 x Full 30:30, 32:00, 33:00, 32:50, 30:15
Margaret Fletcher (and William the dog)(Airedale Dodgers) - 4 x Full
Chris Healey (Airedale Dodgers) - 4 x Full
Tracey Healey (Airedale Dodgers) - 4 x Full
Lee Dolman (Huddersfield) - 4 x Full
Ken Fox (Leeds) - 3 x Full (between stints photographing the first and last events)
Dan Holdsworth (Leeds) - 2 x Full (19:44, 23:16)
Kerry Noble (Huddersfield) - 2 x Full
Lorraine Ovington (Pontefract) - 1 x Full, 1 x 1 Lap
Dawn Broom (Hull) - 1 x Full (21:30)
John Broom (Hull) - 1 x Full (18:06)
John Cassells - 1 x Full (30:25)
Joanna Cassells - 1 x Full (30:25)
Tom Williams (Leeds) - 1 x Full (19:24)
Catherine Thompson (Barnsley) - 1 x Full (35:00), 3 x 2 Laps, 1 x 1.5 Laps
Mark Harrison (Barnsley) - 4 x 2 Laps, 1 x 1.5 Laps



The 7 x Sub 20:00 Challenge

There had been a couple of attempts in previous years to run each of the 7 legs of the Longest parkrun in under 20:00 but the task hadnt yet been achieved. It was a challenge that caught the imagination of Simon Newton of Barnsley Harriers and so he threw the gauntlet down and went after the elusive string of 7 sub 20:00 clockings. To help him on his way a group of people offered to provide pacemaking services:

Leeds 1 - No pacemaker
Roundhay - Steve Darby
Harrogate - Tom Williams
York - Steve Darby
Dewsbury - Dan Holdsworth
Huddersfield -  Matthew Pierson
Leeds 2 - John Broom

The challenge started well (Simon Newton to the right) :

and kept on going well for all of 1.5 miles, until this happened:

but he valiantly picked himself off the floor to complete the first run in a remarkable (considering the circumstances) 18:27

Despite  this less than perfect start to the challenge the next five courses were run in times of 18:57, 19:24, 19:34, 18:15 and 17:35. And so it came to the 7th and final run at Leeds and equipped with a shiny new pacemaker in the shape of John Broom (who had actually run 18 miles earlier in the day) Simon set off in pursuit of the final sub 20:00 clocking:

.....and brought it home in an incredibly impressive last leg of 17:51.


Feedback


Does It Feel Good To Complete A Longest parkrun?

I think these pictures of Ben Forwood and Helen Sharp might give a clue:

Special Thanks

Helen Durrant (York parkrun Event Director) - A fantastic effort in getting a new course sorted out in a matter of days.
Linda Bussey (Bradford parkrun Event Director) - For saving our skins on Saturday evening.
Kerry Noble (Huddersfield parkrun Event Director) - For remaining calm and composed when faced with the prospect of running a parkrun right through the middle of 20,000 people.
Nicki Dawson (Dewsbury parkrun Event Director) - For providing the backup plan.
David Crossley/Michaela Sill - For the efficient production of course maps to keep people on the right track.
Dr Ken Fox - For taking all these much appreciated photographs.

 A couple of those deserving of special thanks, Event Directors Nicki Dawson (Dewsbury) and Kerry Noble (Huddersfield), giving it full beans on the last leg at Leeds.


And My Favourite Quote.....

....actually came from someone who didnt even take part. Liz Jones (Leeds) posted on Facebook after the event:
'Spare a thought for those of us who did none of the venues and just think how envious we now feel!'

Thats looks like one person whos already signed up for next year :)



The Next Event

Will be on Sunday June 23rd 2013 - make a note in your diaries!

Le Tour De Yorkshire

Saturday 17th December 2011 was the shortest Saturday of the year. Okay so maybe a pedant could argue that Saturday 24th was a nanosecond shorter but for some reason that date wasnt quite as practical for a nonsensical sporting challenge.

So what was the challenge and how did it come about?

The idea was to run all the 10 Yorkshire parkruns - Roundhay, Pontefract, Hull, Sewerby, Barnsley, Sheffield Hallam, Concord, Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds in one day. But not just on any day, it was on one of the shortest days of the year with few daylight hours and a high probability of unfavourable weather conditions. It looks relatively straight forward until you start thinking it through. The 10 parkruns themselves add up to 31 miles but, together with the bits of running in between and warm up etc, the total running is nearer to 35 miles. On top of that comes the fact that Yorkshire is not exactly the smallest of counties, resulting in a total route length of about 280 miles.

I had been pondering a multiple parkrun event for a while since hearing about The Longest parkrun event involving 7 London parkruns in one day held on, or close to, the longest day of the year. Until recently there just hadnt been enough parkruns close enough together in Yorkshire to entertain something similar but now there was.

So, while enjoying post run coffees after one of the Leeds parkruns I mentioned that I was pondering such an event. The response from Tom Williams started with the words 'Funny you should mention that.......'. We had both been thinking of something similar but Tom's inspiration had come from both the London event and tales of a solo run on the shortest day of the year. And thus the idea was born.

My assumption had been that an event like this would encourage a bit more parkrun tourism and get more people to see some of the great venues that we get to run at. As such it seemed automatic to invite lots of people to join in.....so we did!

Biting Off More Than We Could Chew

The response was overwhelming so Tom, myself and Sam Dooley started getting stuck into the organisational practicalities of what would be involved. It took around two hours of concentrated thinking to come to the realisation that it just wasnt possible. That is, it wasnt possible to run 35 miles, cover 280 miles AND be involved in any sort of organising/coordination of a bigger event, much of it in the dark and possibly in poor weather. The prospect of bringing the parkrun brand into disrepute was just too great.

So we had to take the sensible option and put any sort of mass event on hold, perhaps until Summer. But we were still intrigued by the question of whether it was even possible to complete the task and it seemed only right that we should have a smaller scale trial to test out the practicalities.

An Early Start

Waking at 4:30am on Saturday 17th I looked out of the window and saw nothing but white! Boy, it looked cold. A quick look at the BBC weather site suggested it was currently about -5c and if we were lucky it might just reach 0c at some point around the middle of the day.

We certainly had a challenge on our hands now.

I drove over to Tom's house and had to be very careful not to slide into any of his neighbours' parked cars, it was that icy. Both Tom and Guy Willard, our ultra running fellow mad man, were looking remarkably awake and enthusiastic for 5:45am. I think I needed some more coffee........

This was going to be a long day, we were expecting it to take between 12-13 hours but with all the planning in the world this day was going to be full of unknowns. How does the body react to warming up and cooling down so many times over such a long period in sub zero temperatures, for instance?

To add a bit of interest to the challenge Tom had come up with the idea of a numerical sequence of completing the 10 courses in 29(:xx), 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20. This looked intriguing because, although the early events should be comfortable enough, those last few at 22, 21, 20 at the 30+ mile stage could become quite  arduous.


Roundhay (6:15 am)

Time to switch the head torches on and start tip toeing on the slippy tarmac of Roundhay Park.

All was going well for all of 400m until we hit the 2nd corner. All three of us almost failed to overcome centripetal forces on the glistening ice and nearly ended up carrying on in a straight line instead of turning to the left. This was going to be tricky. Even 29:xx was not going to be that easy when it was a struggle to stand up!

After the first lap we got into our stride, negotiating the icier parts with due care, and completed in one piece.

One down, nine to go....

9:58, 9:10, 9:10 (10:06) - 29:39


Pontefract (7:25am): A 35 minute drive to Pontefract and it was still dark. This one was going to need more care than Roundhay due to the rutted nature of the underfoot conditions. It is easy enough in the light because you can see where the tarmac strips are but in the dark it involves running while constantly looking down just in front of you.

Some light was starting to appear as we progressed around the racecourse and we were starting to warm up now but with the number of layers being worn it was time for a change of clothing by the time we completed this one. Quite appropriately we looked like steaming race horses on completion of the Grand National as we got changed in the car park.

Two down, eight to go.....

9:09, 9:09, 8:32 (9:09) - 28:10 


Hull (9:00am - Official parkrun):

The next journey from Pontefract to Hull had to be done in a timely manner as this was the official parkrun at 9am. Even though there were no problems with the journey it was still a bit tight as we arrived at the park gates at 8:57. At least you can drive round the park to the start area at Hull so we were okay in terms of getting there before it started.

However, I had really wanted to get here in time for a bit of a warm up because I was going to treat Hull differently and actually race it. The reason? Well, the previous week we had been having a chat with a chap at Barnsley who had just broken the V45 record at Hull by running 17:40. All well and good, except the previous holder with 17:43 was moi........so I wanted it back :p

There was absolutely no chance of running a 17:xx from the outset as Hull was a complete ice rink. But I had set my mind on having a good bash at this one so got stuck in anyway. Running one at a faster pace couldnt do any harm, right?

5:53, 6:12, 6:06 (5:53) - 18:50 

Tom and Guy ticked off a 27:xx to keep the overall sequence going.

Three down, seven to go...........

Now off to Bridlington.

Sewerby (10:40am) :

On the road to Hull, Tom had received calls from race directors asking for advice on whether or not to cancel their events. This included the RD at Sewerby so we were expecting a bit of a slippery challenge at the next venue. But at least we had breakfast at The Clock Tower in the grounds of Sewerby Hall to look forward to after we had completed it .

The scenery here was breathtaking with the white frosted landscape overlooking a completely calm and peaceful sea view.

As we got under way I noticed I was finding it harder to get the legs moving than Tom and Guy. I managed to convince myself that I was imagining it, otherwise I was going to have to accept that it was all downhill from here and I was going to be facing a long painful day. Maybe I just needed to work off the effects from running hard on ice at Hull?

It took maybe 2-300m to get in the swing of it, so not too bad, and then the rest of it was very enjoyable coming in on target and heading straight to The Clock Tower for refuelling on bacon baguettes and buckets of black coffee. :)


8:28, 8:27, 9:03 (8:46) - 26:55 

Four down, six to go....... 



A long 92 mile drive now before the next venue at Barnsley.

It was during this lengthy drive that the conversation at some point got around to how much we eat. It was during this conversation that I jokingly said that I must be able to run 20 miles on a raisin because if I ate much more than that I got fat! By the time of the next parkrun Show Tom had somehow renamed me Steve 'I could run 20 miles on a raisin' Darby. Hmmm, not exactly what I said but I thought I would mention it in case anyone wondered what the title of the blog was all about.

Barnsley (13:35pm): The unfortunate element of the scheduling, or maybe it was to add to the challenge, was that a big chunk of the daylight hours were spent travelling rather than running but as we arrived at Barnsley we still had a couple of hours left before we would be back to dealing with the darkness.

We knew that Barnsley had been cancelled earlier in the day so there was every chance that we were going to have a tricky challenge here. It was certainly iced up, in fact it was the first course that had any significant snow lying around.

The park itself was looking beautiful in the afternoon sun but I was really concerned about how this would pan out.We werent even half way through yet, it had been two and a half hours since the last run and there was now another 100ish miles of driving in the legs.

So with a total of a half marathon's worth of running and 200 miles of driving behind us we gingerly set off for our 5th parkrun of the day. It was a bit ouchey early doors, especially in the lower legs, but again comfortable running reappeared, this time after about half a mile or so.

Anyone who knows the Barnsley course will know that it is one of the toughest courses in the country but because the legs had loosened up before having to tackle the long uphill section it turned into an enjoyable run. In fact, we got a bit carried away and had to pull back on the throttle a bit on the third mile as we were in danger of undershooting our target of 25:xx!

7:59, 8:11, 8:28 (8:35) - 25:19 

Five down, five to go...........

HALFWAY - Yippee, we're still in one piece BUT we have been on the go over 8 hours to run around 17 miles. What will the second half bring?




Sheffield Hallam (14:35pm) : The park here was pretty busy for a cold December afternoon but not really a problem when you're 'just' trying to run a 24:xx 5K.

Because the gap since the previous venue was very short this time it seemed a lot easier to get the legs moving, they were stiff around the calves but nothing serious. 24:xx was the target and it seemed like a straightforward enough challenge or at least it did until Tom had mentioned that we were about 45 secs down on target before we'd even got to the first mile. That didnt seem right but I was quite up for a faster mile because we'd promised ourselves another coffee and some of Mrs Williams's home made carrot cake at the end! As it turned out, we had been pretty much on schedule throughout:

We sat down in the park cafe with very large mugs of coffee.  The coffee was pure nectar at this stage in the day. The only problem was that we didnt really want to take too long as we were already a good bit behind our 'theoretical schedule' and we also knew that the longer we sat down for the harder it would be to stand up again..... Nonetheless, very welcome refreshement.

7:50, 7:26, 7:51 (7:17) - 24:08 

Six down, four to go...........


Concord (16:10pm) :  It was now back to complete pitch blackness and this course has no lighting anywhere near it.

We were of the mindset that we were really going to enjoy this one, being the 7th, because we had a feeling that it was going to start getting much more serious from this point on. After completing this we would have covered 21.7 miles in actual parkruns and, realisticaly, closer to 24 miles in total, so anything could happen from here on in.And, of course, we still had to keep on getting quicker...........

We also decided that for this to be completed properly it had to be a 'double Beechers' affair. Anyone who has done Concord will know the log leaping that that entails on each of the two laps.

Because the start is downhill at Concord, the now inevitable routine of having to loosen up the calves was a lttle bit easier. In reality, we were now getting into the closing stages of a marathon in terms of miles covered so it was pleasing that some reasonable pace was still there even though it took some digging for. A last uphill mile in 7:15 wasnt particularly necessary but it felt quite exhilirating for some reason. Maybe a bit of delirium was now setting in?

7:41, 7:35, 7:15 (7:52) - 23:25

Seven down, three to go..........


Huddersfield (17:55pm):  A dark drive across the moors to Greenhead Park in Huddersfield which had been another cancelled event earlier in the day so could be on the 'close to impossible' side of challenging.

This was the point of  my first navigation hiccup of the day, although in my defence the back streets of Huddersfield do look rather samey in the dark. The fact that I mistook someone's garden entrance for park gates is a perfectly understandable mistake, isnt it? Can you imagine the embarrassement if we had ended up in a police cell after some poor householder rings in a report of three strange men running in circles around their garden with some funny lights on their heads?

We did eventually find the park at 17:55, this was fine except for two things. Firstly, was the park closing time posted on the park gates...6pm!! Secondly, our original theoretical schedule had us finishing the whole thing by 6pm and we had some way to go yet.

We took a gamble on the park closing time, reckoning we could deal with any consequences later...as long as we got the run completed in 22:xx!

The course was treacherous, especially around the tight twistiness around the lake but, hey, we had a challenge to get on with. Before we started this one, Guy had already said that he wasnt going to be able to go any quicker from here on so was happy to do 23s for the last few. He had run a continuous 50K a few days earlier so no great surprise.

The first lap was a little too risky to be honest, we were hitting ice in the pitch black and just having to deal with it as best we could. It would have been simply mad to have run the actual event earlier in the day on this course. But we had to at least stay in touch with 22:xx pace. Of course, we didnt really need to....it was complete nonsense, but by this point in the challenge the time sequence had become much tougher to achieve and, as a result, the motivation to achieve it had intensified beyond any rational explanation. I wonder how many people will understand this?

After the first lap we were then behind time but at least we had some idea of what the course was like for the next 2 laps. We managed to get the time in the end but I had a seriously close call along the way on one of the ice patches.

7:47, 6:57, 7:04 (6:58) - 22:49

Eight down, two to go.............

What was really surprising now was that instead of a sense of impending doom we were now getting into a mindset of 'bring it on'. This after something like 28 miles covered......

So now on to another cancelled event at Bradford...


Bradford (19:10pm) : I was now starting to find it harder to get going due to my calves feeling really, really tight. It could have been due to running Hull hard on ice earlier in the day or the combination of running and driving 280 miles or maybe it was just down to running 28 miles. Whatever it was due to, it wasnt really any great surprise.

We had a 21:xx to run  here but I just couldnt get moving. In fact, I found it hard enough just walking from the car to the start line! And that is no exaggeration....

As westarted, Tom was off at a speed that seemed blistering compared to my agonised hobble, Guy was in the groove for another 23-24 minute effort and I was losing distance hand over fist even before we had got up past the bandstand and around the hall for the first time.

I glanced down at the Garmin and it was showing an average pace of 9:28. We needed to average about 7:06 so this wasnt looking good. Come on calves, loosen up and lets get going. I managed to get going down the hill but Tom was way down the road. I dont think he was getting further away but I wasnt closing either since I could hardly see him.

Up the hill for the second time and finally I felt like I could actually run. Tom was now about 10 metres in front and the pace had just got up into the 6:xx region so, despite being barely able to walk at the beginning, a 21:xx was now looking okay. We ran the third lap together and got a 21:56 clocked up. Phew, that was close.

6:58, 7:04, 7:01 (7:13) - 21:56 

Nine down, one to go...........

Leeds (Hyde Park) (20:35pm):  So this was it. We'd decided for various reasons that, unlike for the other 9 events, we were going to have a proper warm up for this one. Even with 27.9 miles of parkrunning and 32 miles in total behind us we had to try to get the stiffness loosened up before trying to run at any sort of pace and on the basis of what had happened to me at Bradford I was going to need about a mile of warming up at the very least to get to anywhere near what might be described as a running action.

Guy set off on his own while Tom and myself did the warm up. 10 minutes of rather comical hobbling later and we stood on the start line, mentally ready to tear it to pieces but not having a clue what the legs were going to do.

Off we went and Tom shot off down the starting straight. Considering that he had been struggling a bit at Huddersfield this was a very impressive show of endurance. To put this in context, Tom was over the moon to run a 21:xx  single parkrun just 3 months ago and here he was trying to run a 20:xx after everything that had gone before.

My calves were just not loosening up again, despite the warm up. At least I had the knowledge of what had happened at Bradford to give some hope that they might just decide to play later. Alas, they didnt -I just had to run around at the pace they were allowing which was very slow. I was still really enjoying it but the splits will give an idea of the state of the calves:

7:30, 8:49, 9:35 (8:52) - 26:44

The question now was whether Tom had manged to get anywhere near the 20:xx target. I think the fact that I was able to turn off my head torch for the last 400m due to the park being lit up by a broad beaming smile gave the game away....20:42! A time that might not seem any great shakes in the normal run of things had morphed into a huge achievement by the end of the day.

In the very same moment achieving that time on the last run meant everything and meant nothing simultaneously. On the one hand, I was delighted for Tom and really wished that I'd been able to complete the final piece of the jigsaw as well but, on the other hand, the whole experience of the day was so much more than the times could tell.

But for the record, my stats for the day:

10 parkruns completed:

Roundhay 29:39
Pontefract 28:10
Hull 18:50
Sewerby 26:55
Barnsley 25:19
Sheffield Hallam 24:08
Concord 23:25
Huddersfield 22:49
Bradford 21:56
Leeds 26:44


Brilliant, brilliant day. :) :)

What was learnt?

1. It was quite right to keep it to a one car operation, any more would have resulted in the thing going haywire very quickly.

2. It seems tougher in hindsight than during or before the challenge. Knowing what was involved, the main advice to anyone else who was thinking about having a go would be not to take it lightly.

3. It is easier to run 35miles in one continuous effort as opposed to split into 5K segments over 15 hours.

4. Any sort of injection of speed speed should be left until the later stages when you know what the body has left. In that sense, the whole thing mirrored how you would treat a marathon.

5. Every parkrun in Yorkshire on one day is not for wimps! ;)