December 2025

         

        December didn’t start too well for me. I was supposed to be running the Victory 5 mile race and aiming for my first sub 30 minutes for 5 miles. I had been doing quite a bit of speedwork (for me). It was constantly raining and I was recovering from a cold/bug thing, so I decided against it. December was to be a quiet month for me. I had also frozen my membership to the climbing gym as I hadn’t been going as much. Although CC and myself to manage to get to Gecko once or twice. 

 I did however, marshal at Itchen Valley parkrun with Clare. Not once but twice. Bringing my volunteer credits up to 30. I always do close down too so get extra volunteers, which is a total of 39 now. Volunteer credits are not to be confused with volunteers as you can volunteer more than once at one event but you only get one credit ;)

 I did a different marshal point. Point 3, which I had never done before, so was a bit nervous about it, but it was fine and I love it now. I did the 6^th of Dec and Xmas day. Xmas day was really fun with all the Merry Xmases and funny costumes. No coffee shop open for coffee but Clare did make me a flask of coffee which a runner knocked over by accident as they ran past me..lol.

I equalled my volunteer credits of 7 for the year, which I did last year too. I feel that I get a lot more from marshalling than any other role. It’s so good to be directly involved with all the runners and walkers and encourage them around. Next year, I plan to aim for 10 volunteer credits, which shouldn’t be too hard as there are 54 parkruns in the UK alone in a year!

 

I had been inspired by my mate Kev D to start “Intermitent fasting”. He had done 5 days in a row with no food! I decided to do some research first and buy a book on it. Then, it was time. I wouldn’t eat after 8pm and then I would skip breakfast and have a later lunch at work. Usually this would equate to around 18 hours fasted. It was so hard just to do this for a couple of days, but it got easier. I was so used to eating all the time. It really changed my mindset about how and why we eat. I was feeling more energised and more mentally astute. I would do Monday through to Saturday morning of 18 hour fasts. Anything went on the Saturday and Sunday though. I did this for 3 weeks and had gone from 82kgs to 78kgs. I was feeling great too!

My body fat was still at 14%. Did you know.. that to lose any muscle you would have to get down to 4% body fat? There’s a common myth that people think you lose muscle when you fast.

Anyway, it was a good thing to do and I plan to go back to it in the new year when I am targeting a race time.

          I made a rare appearance at Southampton parkrun. It doesn’t feel like I run there very often but have now run it 120 times! I was targeting to run my first sub 18 minutes. I was confident that I could do it too. It was very hard and it felt like a struggle more than normal. My nose was blocked and my breathing not great. Anyway, enough of the excuses. I was waiting around for my time to come through but it never came. I looked for the results and noticed that I came up as “Unknown” in the results. I emailed them and they sorted it very quickly and I got the time of 18.04. My third fastest time. So close again!

       In November I ran 18.03, in the summer I ran an 18.06 and in the spring I ran an annoying 18.00. Anyway, I think I’ll have that sub 18 in 2026. I was planning to head back after xmas and get it done but sadly had bruised my hamstring doing some speedwork only 3 days after my 18.04 attempt. I obviously needed more recovery time. Silly me.

Instead, I got a lift to Moors Valley parkrun with John Pellegrini.

He wanted to be paced for 22 minutes. I was happy to jog around and enjoy the course, even my hamstring was happy with it. It was great to see Lin and Martin Lascelles too. Martin was only 2 seconds away from the V70 course record too. He ran 20.23! Lin ran 22.08, her age grading was 87.65%. These two also belong to the best Vegan running club in the UK :D

It was a beautiful sunny morning, only slightly marred by the shit coffee at Moors Valley that I queued ages for. I also acquired a P-Index of 9. This means: 9 different parkun locations, run 9 times, on 9 different occasions. If that makes sense? Note that P-Index includes your volunteers, so you don't have to run necessarily. 

        Hopefully CC and myself have a new house of our own to move into in the new year. It’s been mentally draining and stressful trying to sort out all that legal stuff. To be fair, I haven’t got a clue about a lot of it. All hail Queen CC. She has been amazing with all this stuff. I have felt more than useless for most of it. Sorry CC, love you. Xx

 

Now it’s time to set some goals for 2026.

 

I already mentioned 10 volunteering credits at parkrun.

A sub 18 parkrun at Southampton.

I would like to get under 38 minutes for the 10k again.

Do I take a free place at Manchester marathon after saying I would never run a marathon again at Abingdon?

Some more parkrun tourism inc. Fordingbridge, Brickfields, Thoulstone, Parc sant dewi, Sandhurst memorial, Bevendean.. and any that friends want to drive me to ;)

82 minutes for a half marathon maybe?

More adventures with CC. More climbing. Back to swimming? Continuing with my strength and flexibility.

Yoga classes? Skateboarding. Making a skateboard documentary.

Going back to Germany. Running a race in Germany. Learning to Breakdance. Raise money for an animal charity on a multi-day run over the summer. Go back to working 5 days a week to pay the mortgage. Turning garage space into a home gym before Clarey fills it up with junk.

 The above book is a great read and very inspiring. Makes me want to run faster times too! 

 

Some of these goals seem a bit vague I know, but they’ve been in my head for ages, some even years. Could 2026 be the year that I finally start writing my book?

Thanks for reading. Hope you all have some great goals for 2026. Hopefully our paths will cross again :D xx

        P.S:  It's easy to think, am I doing enough when you work with at least 3 ex-Olympians , one with an MBE, an ex professional footballer and a woman who runs 2.37 marathon times. I am 51 though, I guess ;) 

It's all about being the best version of me and staying fit and feeling youthful. x 

November 2025

         

        The first day of November just so happened to be “World Vegan Day”. It was a Saturday and after a bit of decision making, I decided to go to Bartley parkrun, near Totton. Clare would drop me off and I would run back to Totton to meet up with her for coffee and cake afterwards.

The warm up run didn’t feel particularly good. There were lots of friendly old faces I knew from Vegan Runners there. It was nice to catch up with a few of them at the start. I was wearing my lovely new, bright orange Vegan Running Club vest which I think, stood out nicely.

It was a muddy course, with some unavoidable puddles. Off we went. The guy leading went off like a rocket as they say. I dodged a few puddles to begin with and overtook a buggy runner. I was about a mile in when I realised I was in about 3^rd of 4^th place. I’ll go for a position I thought. Keep pushing! It felt very tough and not very fast today. It’s a 4 lap course too, so can be a bit tough mentally too.  

After 2 laps I was chasing down this kid who looked about 12. He seemed to slow a bit and I managed to overtake him. Wait there a minute, is that the leader up ahead? He looked quite far ahead to be fair but I caught him on the 3^rd lap and he was struggling. I kept pushing as I overtook him. Wouldn’t P1 on World Vegan Day be amazing in my new bright Orange vest? Get on with it Dean, I said to myself. Stop dreaming and run. I kept pushing while other runners and walkers shouted encouragement to me and I did the same as much as I could and thanked the marshals.

Anyway, I went and got my 2^nd P1 at parkrun. My 1^st one only coming in September after 13 years of parkrunning! My time wasn’t fast at all at 20.10. P2 was in at 20.40 in the end and the little kid was actually an under 11 running on his own, looks like he really blew up with a time of 22.28! He was a nice kid though.

It was a great start to the month as I ran back to Totton smiling away to myself to meet my wonderful girlfriend. My legs caked in mud.

I hadn’t been climbing as much but managed to go a couple of times with Clare at Golden Gecko. Always great fun and I love watching her push beyond her limits. The marathon the previous marathon had taken it out of me a bit but nowhere near as much as I thought it would. I was impressed with my recovery this time around.

 

This month I bought some new dumbbells and have been working on ankle flexion and hip mobility which I think it has been vital to the longevity of my running. Also I seem to have relieved a lot of piriformis pain with a lot of stretching, especially doing the painful pigeon pose., which isn’t so painful anymore.

Sadly, it has been a month of weight gain too, which I will be addressing in December. This is pretty common with me post marathon I think though.

 

November the 15^th saw CC and myself volunteering again at Itchen Valley parkrun. We like to marshal and shout stuff at the runners. We think it’s the most you can be involved and give something back. It’s so nice to have the catch up in the cafe afterwards too and talk about the event. It was my 8^th time volunteering at Itchen. I have volunteered 35 times for 28 credits, which isn’t a great ratio for me but at least I’m not picking up the easier junior parkrun credits or pacing ;)

Marshalling at the Saturday parkruns makes me a superior being of course :D

 The next day was the day of Gosport half marathon. I hadn’t run this race for 9 years! It’s a fast, flat course and should be a PB for most but as I had only finished a marathon 4 weeks ago, I knew it wouldn’t be worth pushing for a faster time. I was hopeful of 85 minutes and got 85 minutes. It wasn’t easy though as I had to dig in after 9 miles. At least I only had to suffer for 4 miles I suppose! It was nice to run and chat to Josh Murray of Hamwic Harriers for about 10 miles, until he dropped me for a big PB of his own ;) Well done Josh, hope your marathon goes well.

A big thanks to another Josh (Chivers) for the lift and great to catch up with Paddy Connors too. Really enjoyed the day. Happy enough with 85 minutes but know I should be running around 82 I think.

We’ll see what Solent half brings me.

 

6 days later after running Gosport, I lie in bed wondering what parkrun to do on this rainy, miserable looking morning. Bartley or Ganger? In the end, I decided I’d stay in bed a bit longer and just go to Southampton parkrun for the 119^th time. I really don’t like the congested start and always worry that I’m going to get tripped with my long legs, so I often go out way too quickly with a shorter stride length. The aim was to run around 18.30 or sub 6 pace. This would be great training for Victory 5 miler in December.

I ended up running an 18.03 despite slipping on the mud on the final corner and almost stacking it. This is my 2^nd fastest time and only by 3 seconds! I was a bit surprised really. The sub 18 should be well within reach if I can lose a couple of kgs and do a few more track sessions. Exciting!

 

In other news, CC and myself have been house hunting, which was, at first, quite exciting. The process is still ongoing and proving to be quite stressful and a big challenge but we must stay positive as I know we’ll achieve what we want to in the end :) I won’t go to much into it.

 

The last parkrun of the month was a stormy one with torrential rain and strong winds. It was my first time to Victoria park in Newbury. A “V” for the alphabet and my 107^th different location.

The reason we were there was because of John Pelligrini who was running his 100^th different location and his 300^th parkrun on the same day. Picked a nice day for it John! It was lovely to see the other VR’s too and our VRC chairperson Mike Harper too who gave me a lift home as Darren who drove me there, had to dash off for his singing at Romsey Abbey. I do like to car share where I can ;)

 I didn’t really warm up much and couldn’t wait to start. It was a very complex course of muddy fields and it was a 3 lapper. Despite the trail shoes, it got very slippery on the 2^nd lap with a couple of swans to navigate around, which one of them disliked and made it known by hissing at me.

I was in 10^th place. That’s the great thing about running around a field, you can see where you are in the pack. I decided to see what position I could get to and target one runner at a time. I knew there was no P1 today though as there were clearly 2 speedies way out in front. I managed to overtake this kid near the end who was taking shortcuts along the way, as were many others, by choosing to run on the concrete and not on the grass course. They were cutting out a bit of distance by the fountain or was it a pond? Anyway, I overtook this kid which took me into 5^th place. We were now running on the last bit of concrete and I could hear him gaining on me, so I decided to sprint to the finish. I don’t think I’ve ever sprinted this hard at the end of a parkrun before. Anyway, the little git overtook me despite my hardest efforts. We turn right onto the grass for the finish funnel and he slips and falls, I step over him and regain the P5 position and take the token as he gets up and tries in vain to claim the position back. I asked if he was ok and unapologetically apologised. I felt bad for about 10 seconds and then proceeded to tell a marshal how I had made a 10 year old kid cry in a sprint finish at Cosmeston lakes parkrun to take the p4 token a few years back.

 Thanks for reading. I currently have a crappy cold but hope to do Victory 5 on Sunday. My last race of the year. No doubt I’ll be parkrunning still though. Stay youthful :D

Here’s a couple of pics of good books that I read this month too..