Below average

My time for Saturday's parkrun turned out to be 27.40 So, slightly slower than last week, but I was reasonably pleased until I discovered the mean run time for the Hampstead Heath 5k is 27.01 - making me 39 seconds below average! That's annoying. In other news, I've been watching Mo Farah's 5000metres at the European Championships. He did it in 14.10 dead. I like to think one day my final 400metres will be just like his.

(Stats for Sat: 3.1 miles; 27.40; 8.55 minute/mile)


Good work Mo!

Nearly didn't go

Last Thursday I burnt my mouth on a hot aubergine. I now have ulcers all over my tongue and it nearly put me off doing parkrun this morning. The bleak grey sky didn't help, but the thought of a nice post-run swim and hot chocolate proved just motivating enough. I can't say it was my fastest run, but it was enjoyable. And the water on the heath has just begun to warm up enough that I could stay in for about 15 minutes. I particularly enjoyed being dive bombed by a heron. Afterwards, instead of hot chocolate, I headed to the local farmer's market and bought the world's most expensive goat's cheese and some beetroot. There are times when I wish I lived closer to Lidl.

(Stats: 3.1 miles; time - to be confirmed)

The art of running

Yesterday was parkrun day and I arrived to find we were sharing our start and finish area with the Affordable Art Fair. From my vantage point (peering through the fence) I could see a Gormley-esque sculpture of a man and a big oval metal thing. Both of which would have looked very nice in my back garden - had they not been larger than my back garden. Plus I suspect affordable in Hampstead might turn out to be a good example of 'relatively speaking'.

Back to the run and it was nice to listen to the pre-race briefing without the residual guilt of not volunteering (having done a stint last week). I was also quite excited to see how quick I could cover the course as I'm now slightly fitter then when I last took part (which I'm shocked to discover was December 2012). My time then was 29.06 (far from the glory days of 26.26 - my parkrun PB - last April).

I did the first lap in 13.41. It hurt quite a lot. However, I still decided to go all out on the second lap. It was quite tricky to fight my natural urge to slow down, but I got a helping hand for the last 100 yards when the man behind me sprinted past. Some strange long-dead competitive instinct forced me to try to keep up and, while he won, I think this knocked at least ten seconds off my total time. So thank you faster man.

(Stats: 5k (3.1 miles); 27.25; 8.50 minute/mile.)

(Pic: If you press your nose up against it, this is the view through the fence at the Affordable Art Fair. I thought the fence itself had a certain Monet quality.)

Honk if you want to go faster

Today I accidentally annoyed an ostrich. There's a small open zoo in Golders Hill Park; I'd gone there for a post-work run and stopped at the deer enclosure to look at fawns. That's when an ostrich wandered over. He stared at me. I stared at him. He stared more. I think it was a show-down. He'd seen me running and clearly wanted to throw down the gauntlet. I wondered if I could beat him in a race. Then he honked again and I ran off. I think we both know who won there.

(Stats: 5k; 30 minutes; 10 minute/mile - that includes a good minute staring at an ostrich and some fawns.)

There's a new marshal in town

Some people run really fast. I marshalled at today's Hampstead Heath parkrun and some people were actually sprinting all the way round. I was at the halfway point, tasked with telling the runners their split times. When the first guy arrived, I thought my stopwatch had broken. He was so quick. I think he must've been doing a 5-minute mile. And these are amateurs. As a rule, I don't get to see the faster runners up close. It was inspiring. As were the runners who followed: children, people pushing prams, lots of dogs. I usually cry when I watch races, but I didn't today as it might have impaired my ability to clock watch and shout. I do hope I did a good job.

(Pic: After the race I went for a swim in the mixed pond. It was 17 degrees Celsius and it took a good hour for the feeling to return to my feet. I think I've gone soft.)

Busy doing very little indeed

Yesterday I fell asleep under a tree. Like Huckleberry Finn. Only when I woke up, I didn't paint a white picket fence or terrorize Becky Thatcher: I went for a run. Just a quick one, around the heath. Then I went for a swim in the pond. I say swim; I went in just far enough to shock my sore knee, then I got out. And fell asleep under the tree, again.

(Stats: About 5k, but I got lost so could be a little more, could be a little less; 29 minutes; 9.21 minute/mile.)

(Pic: What I was doing when I was neither running, nor sleeping.)

Cryotherapy

Not sure whether it was the sprint finish, the gentle undulations or falling into the bath after the race on Sunday, but I have a very sore knee. Thankfully, I found a bottle of Biofreeze and have been applying it liberally ever since. It's quite addictive. You're only supposed to use it three or four times a day, but working on the premise that cold air and arnica can't possibly be bad, I'm doing it pretty much continually. I'm also planning an early swim on the heath tomorrow. I'm hoping that the shock of the nippy water kicks the ache into touch. Need to get back to training quickly before the post-holiday motivation fades with my tan.

109 days and counting

In a post-PB fit of enthusiasm, I have signed up for another half-marathon. In Richmond. On September 22nd. I figure, if I can do 10k in 54.33, then I can do a half in under 2 hours. Surely.

http://www.richmondrunningfestival.com/

Stop press: PB

Results just in. Gun time: 55.14. Chip time (or net time, as they call it) 54.33. A HUGE six seconds off my previous 10k pb. That was set two years ago at Sudbury Court, an auspicious day. Now I need to get training so I can beat it again in a month's time. Hoorah!

(Stats: 10k (6.2 miles); 54.33; 8.47 minute/mile. Hooray. I'm so happy.)

(Pic: Runners in Regent's Park.)

"I think you're second."

Really. I think that's highly unlikely. Especially as I can see hundreds of runners in front of me and still have a lap and a half to go. Ah.. turned out the marshal was talking to the superhuman zooming up my inside at 100mph. Hey ho, I was still having a good run. Given today's Regent's Park 10k was my first race (and I use that term loosely) since the Brighton marathon a year ago, I felt it went very well. The first two laps were lovely, the final lap was a bit more painful. That said, with the encouragement of a man with a loudspeaker, I was pleased to end with a sprint finish. I noticed my gun time was around 55 and a half minutes. However, I'm secretly hoping my chip time will be quicker as it took a while to cross the start line - possibly not the ten minutes I'm hoping for, but 30 seconds, at least. Highly recommend the course. Fairly flat, a few gentle undulations. And you get to run past London Zoo at breakfast time, which means, for once, I wasn't the only one making funny noises.

(Pic: London Zoo monkey island: I thought it was a monkey perched atop this rock but now, having zoomed in, I'm not so sure.)