On the first Saturday of July, CC and I decided to have a lie-in and skip parkrun. It was a rainy day and we got soaked walking to Totton via the Lower Testway boardwalks which we discovered were in need of some repair. We had coffee and decided to walk back as well. 7.5 miles each, not bad at all.
The next day was the Lordshill 10k. I was given a late place by my club. If I’d known sooner I had a place I would have trained for it better and not run a marathon the previous week! Anyways, I was very grateful for the place. Sadly, it was the last race in the HRRL series and I would only complete 6 out of the 7 races needed to qualify for my name on a mug. If they still do that? Maybe next season I will focus on the HRRL more and complete at least 7. I have already signed up for Totton 10k in August, Overton 5 in September and Gosport half in November. I do have Abingdon marathon in October though if I can be bothered with it. More on that topic next month…
It was so lovely to see everyone at my local race and my name was getting called out a lot on the course. I felt like a local celebrity! Thank you everyone, it really means a lot to me. I didn’t quite get my target time and was disappointed not to run under 38 minutes. 38.24 was my time. After looking at the results though, it turns out that quite a few runners didn’t do so great either. Humidity maybe? Anyways, I was 2nd V50 which was a shock in the Hampshire League. I didn’t realise they did prizes for top 3 in age categories. Sadly I didn’t hang around to see what I had won and have heard no more about it since. Probably another bottle of wine..lol
A week later I ran a 10k to Itchen Valley Country Park to run and volunteer. I was so nervous about volunteering. I mean, I always am but this time I would be doing something new to me. Barcode scanning! The plan was to run a quick 5k and get my high vis on and start scanning barcodes from my phone. I was worried that my phone battery wouldn’t last as well.
Anyway, I ran a course pb of 20.28 and was P2. A guy named Phil who got P1 was also barcode scanning so that was good. I was still sweating a hell of a lot and it was a very sunny day. All my efforts went into NOT sweating over my phone. The last thing I wanted to do was mess up the scanning and the results. It went well and I got to chat to lots of lovely people and they were very appreciative. It was a lovely thing to do and I’m glad I did it. It would also complete my 10th different volunteering role at parkrun. I must say that CC has been a wonderful influence on me for the volunteering :)
On the Sunday, CC drove us to Lyndhurst where we bumped into my mate Jimbo who was off on the Woods Cyclery bike ride. We hopped on an open-top tour bus like a couple of holiday-makers. The plan was to get off at Brockenhurst and walk back to Lyndhurst and on the way we would look for Fritillaries. Which are large butterflies, if you didn’t know. We got off the bus at the train station and walked to the Hollands wood campsite and followed the bike route to the gravel paths. It didn’t take me long to get us lost. I always get lost on these bike routes despite going through them a dozen times on previous runs. I was trying to get us to Frohawk Inclosure where the Fritillaries could often be seen in July. We managed to see some before we even got to the inclosure. Pearl bordered are the most common ones seen here. Sometimes, Silver washed fritillaries are present too.
We got to the inclosure and saw another one and then we saw more. Such lovely butterflies to see. I was so happy that I had shown them to CC and shared the experience. I hope she enjoyed them as much as me too..lol. We eventually found our way to Lyndhurst and the Greenwood Tree cafe for food and drinks. We had covered 9 miles. Our legs sure were aching and it was a very hot day too. I sure slept well that night.
On Wednesday the 16th of July, it was time to run the Lakeside 5k series. These have been going on as long as I can remember, but I had never run one. I was talked into it by Kev Willsher. Toni and Josh were also supposed to be doing it but Joshy was a no show for some reason.
The course didn’t seem as fast as I was hoping with a few twists and turns and a gravel track going around the lake which we ran on twice. The atmosphere was good though and I only have a 5k PB on Runbritain of 19.59, so it should be an easy PB to break if it appears on Runbritain at some point.
I ran a time of 18.34. I told Kev that I thought I was in about 18.30 shape, so couldn’t be too disappointed with the time due to lack of speedwork. It was also quite humid again. A lot of humidity this month!
On the Saturday I caught the bus to Romsey for a meet up with my mate Darren for a coffee before parkrun at Ganger Farm. Mike Harper and John Pelligrini were also present. I was hoping for a sub 19 but got a disappointing 19.15 and a P4. Can I blame the humidity again? Darren and I did a nice walk around Stockbridge followed by breakfast.
The next day, CC drove us to Salisbury where we sat in the carpark waiting for the rain to die down a bit. Another wet rainy walk for the pair of us and we always seem to dress ineptly. We followed the River Avon and found a nice walk onto the Avon Valley Nature Reserve. We were soaked, so headed back to town for food at the Boston Tea Party, which I had liked previously but found a bit rubbish this time around. Are there better Vegan places to eat in Salisbury? We did 5.5 miles that day. We seem to be enjoying our walks lately :)
That evening I decided to go to our new climbing gym. The Climbing Hangar. It is based on Third avenue, just off Millbrook road. I went to what I thought was going to be an induction, but they just said “Go ahead, get climbing!”. I fell in love with the place straight away. I used to climb the one in Exeter and I loved it. It was my favourite climbing gym, so I was very excitied to have this new one on my doorstep. The setting, holds and routes are so good and it is only £35 a month. The cheapest around. I am actually here right now while I am typing up the rough draft of my blog.
On Wednesday the 23rd, I went back to the climbing hangar and then to the track for a rare speedwork session.
The plan was to run 1k fast (sub 6) 1k slower (sub7) for 10k. So, 10 reps around the track or roughly 25 laps. It felt good and was surprised to run the 10k in 39.06! It was my dream to run a 10k under 40 minutes and it took me nearly a decade to do so. And to think I just did that in a training session blew my mind. I was so amazed at myself for that.
Three days later I would turn up at Southampton parkrun for David Baker’s 200th parkrun. If you don’t know David or haven’t heard of him, where have you been? Davis has been dealing with MND for 2 years now and is an incredibly inspiring Vegan runner. I’ll add a link to his blog at the end for you to read.
I did see him at the start but he was busy with all his fans surrounding him, so I thought I’d let him get on with it and he sees me quite a bit anyway. Lovely to see speedy VR Matt DeCros too. The ED told a lovely story about David’s journey and I actually found myself crying with real tears on the startline of the parkrun for some reason. It made me quite emotional. This ones for you David, I thought…
Off we went on the newest course. I hadn’t done it before so it was lovely of Nathann and Helen to fill me in with all the details including the first tight turn which really helped. I started right at the front and went off quick for fear of being tripped. I cautiously keep my stride short to begin with and look over my shoulder a lot. I got to the first corner and about 20 runners overtook me! I had obviously started too close to the front. I enjoyed the new course though and the uphill didn’t seem that bad for some reason. I got passed by LRR James Clarke on the downhill pushing a double buggy. His daughter was blowing bubbles and they were going everywhere. It made me laugh and I told James at the end that he’d ruined my chances of a PB (Not true).
On the last K, it felt like I was struggling, despite it being my quickest mile, it felt like the tank was empty. I dug deep while CC cheered me on and took photos. I managed to catch up with James and could see my old buddy Andy Costello in front with his lovely dog Ripley. I didn’t quite catch them but was only a second behind for P21 and a time of 18.06. My second quickest parkrun. Just another 7 seconds needed for a PB and sub 18. I think I might get around to it one day but time is not on my side I guess! 81% age grading though. One happy runner :)
The day after CC drove us again. This time to West Walk near Wickham where we completed a couple of loops running. It was a lovely place and not too busy. We had both run here before but couldn’t remember how we had got there!
That’s about it for July. I have been upping my mileage a bit in the form of both running and walking lately. The start of August sees me doing a half marathon. It’s been a while so we’ll see how that goes.
Thanks for reading.
David’s very inspiring blog:
https://mndcangetinthesea.blogspot.com/
Daniel Parker-Hales from Hardley Runners took my awesome pics from Lakeside.
Alice Baker took the finish line pic at Lordshill 10k.
The other Lordshill photo was from Nick Kasper.
Toni took the selfie at Lakeside too. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone!
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