Weekend Sun; a Joint Birthday Party; the Hillcrest 10km

I sit here feeling tired, and exhausted on what feels a long weekend, doing everything in the world, but in reality haven't got much done.  That all depends upon the side of the fence you sit upon though.  In truth, we're trying to use any minute that is spare to finish off little and large jobs around the house that have been sat and put off for a long time now.  For me, I think I managed to get a shelf put up in a new bathroom cabinet I installed last week (the whole experience of Ikea and plumbing wasn't worth writing about).  Not a lot then.

The weekend did start as a really good prospect given the sun was shining, we could wear shirts outside, and fear possibly getting a sun tan.  Us Brits are stereotyped as being great orators in the field of meteorology, and given the fact that it's rained since I last remember, we've all been on true form.  I, for one, who claims boldly that it, "never rains in London!" was forced to take those words back on occasion.  But, not until after a debate that 'spitting' does not constitute as rain in my books, nor a light five minute drizzle mean it acceptable for the whole of Oxford Street to get their umbrella's out, and poke me in the eyes.

As ever, I digressed, and as my entries are written in one sitting, that nor this, shall be edited out.

Four best friends, sharing lots of lovely cake

So, the weather was nice then?  Yes.  Yes it was.  Saturday woke us up early in the form of a little Olive, and I did my best to get those precious few minutes of sleep, but gave in.  We had to get parcels from the post office, do the weeks shopping, and get ready for a joint third birthday party of two of Olive's friends; Erin and Isabella.  Now Julia can drive, I took no convincing to let her buy the food while I stay at home entertaining a two year old.  We then got our packages (new shoes for Olive), and headed to a great party in the sun.  There was good food for the children, excellent cake, a big garden and a trampoline to keep the little ones active, as us adults basked away leaving them to their own thing.

Once partied out, we came home, put Olive to bed, I bought a nice curry for Julia and I, and then we ended up on the couch sleeping.

Some of the lovely cakes on show

This morning I decided it a good idea to get out and do a 10km run to see where my fitness was at.  I have just started my second bout of marathon training this week, getting prepared for Amsterdam in October.  There wasn't any real preparation for this 10km, for the reasons that I didn't really know it existed until the night before (just prior to passing out on the couch), and I didn't load up on the right diet ready for having energy in the morning.  

The Hillcrest 10km was the one that was selected, in the setting of a lovely Surrey village called Warlingham.   While I wasn't expecting it to have too many runners, I was a little surprised to see that I had kind of gate crashed a Sunday local race meeting.  My first fear was to not get left behind, my second fear was I had no idea what the course looked like, nor how far various markers were from one another.  As it happened, I ran a decent first 5km, catching runners up, and using the next as a benchmark for keeping my pace going.  Then the big surprise came, in the form of a 2km hill.  It didn't look much, but believe me, on this off road terrain, it was nothing shy of nasty.  It took all my willpower to not stop going up it, nor for the next km or so after it.  Either way, I kept going, and got through the line in 46:52 officially, which I was really happy with, and a Top 20 finish in the entire race.

This all aided me in feeling a little smug.  I wasn't after a personal best today, but the position I came, and the reaction of the other runners towards the course, that it is not ever a course for setting a personal best was nice.  Looking at my split times, it is clear where I hit the hill, and it took nearly 40 seconds off that first km and the subsequent pace thereafter dropped to approx 1:15 - 1:30mins for the rest of the course.  My personal best is 45:07, so I know I'm in good shape, and if I prepared properly for the week, I wouldn't have felt dead at the end of it.

The rest of the day was spent giving Olive my medal, then doing very little indeed.  

I think I earned it.

Back in the Running Shoes; Olive gets Raving

I decided it has been far too long to go without a run leading up to the Brighton Marathon in only three weeks time.  I had been ill in the past, but this time, to say I was ill was fooling myself.  I wasn't feeling 100%, but that was no excuse.  So learning the BBC iPlayer hadn't downloaded the latest Grand Prix highlights, I scarpered out for what turned out to be about a 22km run.  My GPS wasn't too effective throughout, so I certainly don't trust the distance it gave me of 19km, given the time taken.

It was a slow run at 2:07:05, but the net result was I felt good for doing it, and really need to put in those miles leading up to the event.  To add to it, I did put in a lot of work knocking those stumps out in the garden the day before, and I was aching in places I never knew it was possible to feel sore.

I took some pictures along the way.  Trying to stick to some of the more interesting features as I ran along the Green Chain Walk to Lesnes Abbey, then into Southmere Park, beside Erith Marshes, onto the River Thames, and ran along to the Thames Barrier, into Maryon Wilson Park in Charlton, before crossing Woolwich Common, and up Shooters Hill home.

Lesnes Abbey ruins, originally founded in 1178

To give an impression of what running in London can be like, on one side of Lesnes Abbey is some lovely woodland, on the other, you run directly into this, a concrete mecca. 

A bit further along is South Mere, which is the setting for a scene in A Clockwork Orange.  I only discovered this after, so will get a photo if I head this way again:

I then got spooked when I ran into a few of these equine characters roaming around the estate and Southmere Park

I finally reached the river, there was little wind, and a lovely clear day

I continued further into Woolwich, and found this Schooner moored up where the Thames Clipper usually stops, I tried to use the sun specs as a filter again, because the glare was too bad for a normal photo

Also, something I haven't shown before are some statues I quite like bumping into by sculpture Peter Burke at the Royal Arsenal.

I took no more pictures after this, as my legs were feeling heavy, and I knew I wanted to go straight up Shooters Hill. 

When I finally got home, I came across Julia and Olive in the garden, and I thought the way Olive was dressed, she looked a couple of glow sticks short of heading to an illegal rave back in the '90s.

Well, it certainly brightens up the day.

Thoughts leading up to the Brighton Half Marathon

I'm sure anyone who trains for anything would think, perhaps I could have done some more.  I've pretty much blagged my way through every stage of life using the means of charm, optimism, and gentle persuasion.  Therefore, I am happy to be a contender for the above thinking.

Yet with running, it's your own body.  There is only a distance in front of you, you have to reach it in a self-satisfying time, and you have to cross the line with your life intact, reserving the dignity to not look too spent in front of the many cheering you on. Not to mention the watchful Paula Radcliffe on every other billboard saying, "NEARLY ISN'T ENOUGH".  Was that why she gave up in Athens?

I don't feel I have put in the effort of late, to that my training schedule dictates.  Why?  Snow, ice, cold weather, stress at work, general laziness, to name a few.  To be fair the general laziness could be omitted, I have been lazy, but I have done the run when the other factors were not in place to a satisfying time.

What I'm writing here is my personal forecast for what I want out of Sunday's Brighton Half Marathon.  Something that I can set in stone as it were, and give me prose for thought after the event.  

Here it is:  

• My personal best half marathon time is 1:46:26 in the Run to the Beat half marathon in London.  
• I want to get around that time, give or take a minute to be happy.  
• I want to get into the low 1:40's to be really happy. 

All this will give me the encouragement, and feel for the terrain of the Brighton Marathon in April.

The below is nothing exciting, just what the 5 weeks following the half marathon will be like.  I try to cycle 2-3times during the week to make up for runs that should take place then.  After this, it will start winding down for the full marathon on April 15th.  I just look at this, and think how can I mix 16km, and watch my football team play on the same day?  It's not often Grimsby Town are in south at the moment.

Still, no matter how good the result, perhaps I could have done some more...

...and don't even get me started on the diet.  Maybe that can be a topic for tomorrows musings.