Tales from the Start line - Valentine's 10k

"Race start time: 9am. Please arrove by 8am to park and pick up your race pack"

So said the official advice from the Valentine's 10k race email......so why was I up at 6am, out of the house at 6.45am and at race HQ in Chessington by 7.10 (causing a few puzzled faces among race organisers who were just setting HQ up...)?

Well, basically it's Danny "parkrunshow podcast" Norman's fault. He's been banging on about this race for months.....mainly cos his running club (aka "the best running club in Surbiton" - his own title) organise the race. (I suspect he also inserted subliminal messages into the podcasts). So I signed up. (to be fair, he did come and run Bedfont for my 100th parkrun!)

Problem was, the race is 10k. And was scheduled smack in the middle of my marathon training program, which called for 130 minutes running....10km just wasn't going to cut it - unless I walked

I therefore conceived a brilliant plan - get up earlier, get over early, run 75 minutes beforehand, then the race...and job's a good 'un (as nobody says).

It didn't seem as brilliant on Sunday morning when I was dragging my arse out of bed, especially after a busy Saturday including a night out for a few beers in Teddington, and some beer fuelled cycling to and from various train stations.

All thoughts of completing my PB hat-trick were promptly jettisoned as I plodded (and it felt like plodding) round the course on my own (getting a good pre-race recce to be fair) before timing my return to HQ / start area for about 20 mins pre race start...time enough to use the loo, catch Danny and his better half Libby, get my number on without cooling down too much.

Anyway - the race. I have to say it a was very nicely organised and managed event. When I ran the course on my own I was a little concerned about the lack of paths in some parts, what protection we would have from the traffic......but my fears were groundless. The first 1.5km or so heads down the A243 towards J9 but this section was closed off just till all the field (450 or so) got through and turned off.
The turnoff here was the focus of much pre-race panic due to roadworks which had threatened to wreck the race.....with some careful diplomacy a footpath through the junction was opened and worked very well in the end. There's then another 2.5km or down an empty country road (with some inclines) before heading left onto Roundabout road (my name for it) for 3km or so. I think we went through 5 of them on this section....someone had a thing for roundabouts!

The last stretch is more on urban footpaths but every junction, roundabout and pinch point was superbly marshalled and there was plenty of public support as well. I put a bit of a kick on over the last km (can't help myself) but generally stayed to my slow run pace and came in in a bog standard 56:38 - though achieved my 130 minute goal and a total of 14 miles

Unusually for 10k races it wasn't chip timed but used a barcode on the number (parkrun influence anyone?) They had an excellent free technical T-shirt as well which is good quality...much preferable to a medal in my opinion!

After some post race chat and a random meeting with the Butcher family from my own parkrun I was home by 10.45......just in time for a big fry and justifying the early start.

Overall I'd deffo recommend this race......and trust me, Danny's not paying me for the plug (I did ask ;)

Dawn of the Dead....blog

Yes I'm back, back again, Rory's back, tell a friend....etc etc (blatantly ripped off from Eminem, obviously)

I've decided to resurrect the blog from wherever zombie blogs go to die, and hopefully this time round it won't die in late April! So it's probably worth summarising what I've been up to since my last post nearly 10 months ago. Briefly I've

• spent several months recovering from the massively damaged Glute that was the aftermath of the marathon
• ran my first trail half marathon in September in Farnham, (hilly, tough, 2:26 or so)
• ran another half marathon a few weeks later at Wimbledon Common (not as hilly, not as tough, 2:06 or so...not bad with bugger all training)
• became a parkrun Ambassador which made me immensely proud (more of which in a later post)
• did some parkrun tourism adding new events to my total (more of which in another post) and did my first NYD parkrun double
• entered Manchester marathon in April - my spring target event
• ran my 100th parkrun at Bedfont Lakes in January
• set a new parkrun PB last weekend (22:35)
• followed that up with a new half marathon PB the next day at Wokingham, one of my favourite races (1:48:37)

That's 9 months of running updates in a paragraph!

This time round I'll aim to post a little more often and not focus exclusively on my training.....I never have a shortage of things to talk about. I 'll finish with a pic of me celebrating my 100th parkrun, complete with prosecco, cheese and a couple of groupies parkrun friends :-)