March 2025

          St David’s Day saw me getting up very early to catch a bus at 6am, to get a train for 6.30am where I would change at Woking and then get off at Walton-on-Thames. I would then walk 2.5 miles to the start of the Dragon Run, a 7 hour timed event put on by Phoenix Runners.

I kind of knew where to go as I did one of their events in the past with my friend Helen a couple of years back.

You run out and back along the Thames path which comes to around 3.2 miles. I was hoping for a 50k PB. Sub 4 would have been ideal but it wasn’t to be…

          I turned up an hour after the start but it doesn’t matter as you can start when you want. You just put your stuff down and put your chip timing device around your ankle and it starts when you run over the timing mat. Simple. I said hello to the volunteers and they gave me a number and a cup to put in my cup holder at the food/drink station. It was nice to see plenty of Vegan options including my favourite, the peanut butter pretzel. After the event last time, Helen went to Costco and bought me a huge jar of them and I just sat there eating them for a week. I told her never to buy me them again..lol.

 

Off I went. My first lap out. I kept my jacket on to warm up as it was bloody cold and very foggy out there. Obviously there were other runners out there already. None of them looked too happy or very friendly to be honest. I was super excited about this event and just smiled away to myself. I tried chatting to one guy for some company but he had earphones in. I saw a sign for the turnaround point. Was that the actual turnaround point though? I saw another guy run past it and followed him but the guy with the earphones shouted out for me to turn around.

Ok, I ran past it once but it shouldn’t happen again right? This would happen a few times. I would sometimes switch off and follow other runners who weren’t even part of the event. My brain did kick in eventually though.

 

For some reason it was getting hard at 12 miles already. My legs felt heavy but my breathing was nice and relaxed. I was thinking about quitting. I told myself that I may as well run the marathon at least.

I stopped at the food station to eat some pretzels and take on a gel and some cola. I did feel a bit better after this and the fog was clearing but one of my arms was very cold and numb. Which got me thinking about arm sleeves. Are they any good? Would I ever wear them if I bought some from work? Isn’t a long sleeve T-shirt just a better option?

Please enlighten me people.

       The other runners didn’t seem so miserable now or was I imagining it? Many runners passed and said “well done” and smiled and I happily returned their encouragement. Not everyone was happy on the course though. The Greylag, Canada and Egyptian geese ruled part of the course and we often had to run in between them without trying to startle them too much. It was a skill that you got good at but it got harder as the mileage went on and the concentration levels started to wane. Also it was getting busier on the course now with families out for walks and dogs darting about and kids on bikes.

 I don’t think I was smiling as much as the previous miles and was concentrating more now. The tough bit being the foot bridge. I could feel my hamstrings tightening up in the cold weather, although the sun was starting to come through now. I was definitely stopping at the marathon of 8 laps. And boy was I glad to get there! I rang the bell to confirm the end of my run. The volunteers gave me more food and drinks and I cheered others on and spoke to the other finishers.

These are great events and quite tough mentally. My watch said 3.22.56 for the marathon but I stopped at the food station a couple of times, so my official time was 3.25.49. My 2^nd quickest marathon. Not too bad with hardly any training. I’ll have to come back for that 50k target another time. These events are run most weekends.

     The legs were obviously a bit battered after this, so I took it easy and went climbing the next week at Parthian with another co-worker who had never been climbing before. We had a fun time but it made me realise how weak I had become with such little climbing this year.

I also heard that the Climbing Hangar are opening a climbing centre in the summer on Millbrook road near Go Outdoors. The climbing Hangar in Exeter is my favourite climbing gym with the best route setting ever! Did you know that they only use female route setters? They say this makes the routes more technical and less physical when I asked one of the employees about it. Really looking forward to that.

       On the following Saturday I decided to get a bus into town and run to Netley Parkrun with Disgo Dan where I got a time of 19.34, a P2 and a course PB for Netley. P1 Chris Catt had nothing to worry about with a time of 18.52 though.

Ed was run director and already playing Xmas tunes..lol. Had a great catch up with Dan and we ran to the Coffee.Woolston place in Woolston. My first choice would have been Mettricks but that has sadly now closed. Coffee.Woolston is fantastic by the way. Lots of yummy vegan options and a book shop too. You must go and visit if you’re out that way. You won’t be disappointed. The pastries are huge!

    I had a good catch up climbing with my friend Clayton at Parthian and then we went for food in Portswood for my mate Damo’s birthday. All three of us are now in our 50’s with me being the youngest. It was a great catch up talking about old times together. Some wonderful and very funny memories were shared as we sat there sipping our teas..lol

I also spent over an hour on the phone to my mate Seana in Australia.

My best mate says he is coming back to the U.K in September. Haven’t seen him for about 10 years. Very much looking forward to that get together <3

       The day before Eastleigh 10k saw me marshalling again at Itchen Valley parkrun with CC. We had different marshal points of course. I get so nervous about these but it was great fun as always and I got a shout out for reaching my 25^th volunteer credit. I may order a lovely purple vest for climbing now.

        Eastleigh 10k came around and I was a bit more anxious than usual. I knew I had been eating poorly, way too much junk food. Crisps and chocolate most nights. It is a hard habit to break sometimes and I have been struggling with my comfort eating since the end of the summer and it really gets me down, so something has got to change!

I hadn’t done much speedwork either and not forgetting that I ran a marathon only 3 weeks previously. Excuses eh!

 

         Anyway, off we went and I felt ok crossing 5k in about 18.48. My first unofficial sub 19 of the year. Not long after though, it went bad. I was slowing and starting to struggle. Runners were starting to pass me. I was well and truly in the hurt locker. I dug in though and perservered through the pain. A time of 38.16 was not so bad after all. My slowest 10k in over a year but one I took a lot from in the way of what needs to change going forward. It was a lovely day all the same and CC was the best support as always and took some great photos.

           The last parkrun of the month saw me going solo at Ganger Farm. I needed to get some speed back in my legs and was very happy to get myself a course pb and a sub 19 with a time of 18.58. I was still 4^th place though as Matt Bennett fought it out with James Baker at the front. Matt setting a new course record and James only 3 seconds behind. James Baker has got P1 at parkrun a whopping 408 times! That’s 408 times more than me..lol. I do have 4x P2’s though :D

Really happy to get my first sub 19 of the year and on a grass course too in the Boston 12’s.

 

Anyway, that’s it’s for March. I’m still reading a lot of books. A great one is: “Running life” by Dame Kelly Holmes.

I quite enjoyed “A year of living simply” by Kate Humble as well.

Other than that it’s been a few Charles Bukowski books and now a book on the history of the London Marathon. It’s been 10 years since I did London. The book is bringing back some great memories. Maybe I’ll do it again one day if I can run a “Good for age” time.

Thanks for reading and my biggest thanks goes to CC for her continued support and love as always. Hopefully she can return to running and climbing soon as well. xx

February 2025

 

        The first day of February saw CC and myself running to the start of parkrun at Wilverley Plain in the New Forest. CC had never done Brockenhurst parkrun before and I wanted to show her how nice the winter course is. The summer course is ok too, but just consists of three laps around the college field. The winter course however, is one lap of trails in the forest.  I did warn CC that there were a couple of big hills in there, but nothing as bad as the one at Alice Holt we did last year.

There were a few road diversions and we turned up at the car park with very little time. That time was taken by trying to find a parking space. We parked in the car park furthest away and jogged across a field to try and make the start in time, but in the distance we could see the runners starting to disappear. We figured that we started about a minute late but not to worry. We did manage to catch up with the tail walker at the bottom of the first downhill.

It was hard work for CC with the run to the start but she battled on and it was still the beautiful course that I had remembered. The weather was also kind to us, albeit a little on the cold side. We got around ok and then decided to go to the Greenwood tree cafe in Lyndhurst, which is one of our favourites. Plenty of vegan options and great food and coffee.

     A couple of days later and I was back to work. I received some good news about my four day week. It looks like it might be happening from the beginning of April. I am really looking forward to this. More running time, more climbing time, more friends time, more everything…

     A while back we had a new starter in the warehouse at work. I had to work with him and show him how to do a few things. I was uncharacteristically nervous as he was a bit of a minor celebrity a few years back. We already have ex-Olympians at work but in fields like hockey that never really interested me. This was different. This guy was a footballer and he played for Southampton, the mighty Forest Green Rovers and many other teams including Trinidad and Tobago!

It took about a month before he really settled in and then I’d ask him questions about his football career and he’d always tell me great stories about playing at Forest Green and how dodgy it was playing in Costa Rica etc... He is a really nice guy and we’re always messing around and having a laugh. Nice to have him on our team.

     Anyway, a week later I would return to Bartley parkrun for another four laps. I ran there and met CC who cheered me and others on. I really struggled with a time of 20.39 and CC said it showed. I felt heavy and unfit. I couldn’t control my breathing or relax into a pace. It felt like I had too much tummy fat to store my intake of oxygen, if that makes sense? I really must sort that healthy eating thing out in March.

      The next day I did a fourteen miler from CC’s and it felt pretty good. My mileage was starting to creep up. Just a well as I had entered a seven hour timed event for March.

 I had booked off Valentine’s day on the Friday, along with the following Monday. CC did the same and off we went to Cardiff via the train. As soon as we got off said train, it started to rain. Croeso I Cyrmu!

   I told CC the itinerary and she and her mum had a good laugh when I said I had squeezed a half marathon in there. “He’s not taking you on a romantic weekend away, he’s doing a race”. My cover had been blown!

 I booked a table for two at Luna’s Vegan corner in Roath. I’m so glad I did. The food was incredible. We had sharing platters with lots of different flavours and tastes while I drank turmeric coffees. After a long debate about “Croquettes”, we ate, and ate, and ate.

Nearly two hours had flown by. I would highly recommend this place and look forward to trying one of their roast dinners one day.

       

The next day we woke early. It was dark and raining. It was time to head off to Gnoll parkrun. I was the report writer, so I’ll add the article in here to save me telling you about it again here:

We woke up in a Cardiff hotel at 6.15am to the sound and sight of pouring rain. It looked rather gloomy out of the window. What are we doing? I thought, as we got up and got ready for the rainy walk to the railway station.

I had somehow talked my girlfriend Clare into doing Gnoll parkrun with me. I had told her that it was in my top 5 of all time parkruns out of the 103 different locations that I had visited. I was telling the truth too despite not having done it since April 2019. Would it be as good as I had remembered? It was a nice, sunny, calm day then as well!

We got the train to Neath, which got us there at 8.19. We made the 1.4 mile journey to Gnoll country park via Google maps. We made it there with 5 minutes to spare. We spoke to a few friendly marshals and put our rucksacks by the temporary cafe.

Due to the work going on with the building and development of the new cafe/centre, the course would be different than the one I did in 2019.

The rain had died down and the conditions were actually quite good for running in the end.

Sadly we missed the first timers briefing but listened to the run director explaining the course and the rules of parkrun. "Around the ruins twice and up the hill once" was kind of chanted into a mantra.

3-2-1 and we were off. I stupidly made the mistake of wearing road shoes today. We ran down a muddy path towards a lake. We ran alongside the lake where the ducks seemed to be enjoying themselves. We then took a right, up a slight climb to the ruins. There were lovely views with an archway and lots of greenery.

A few muddy turns and we were soon back out to the main path by the lake and heading back to the start. We went around a cone to start our second loop of the ruins. Not only were the marshals very supportive and cheery, the runners running in the opposite direction were also smiling and shouting "Well dones".

I really enjoyed the fact that there were only 73 runners today too. It wasn't long before the lead runner and many others came flying past us. Some of them gave us encouragement too. I knew then, that I had made the right decision to return to this parkrun and drag my girlfriend along for the experience.

After the second loop of the ruins, we went around the other side of the lake and over a wooden bridge where we were cheered on by another marshal. A few of the marshals had mentioned "the hill". My girlfriend was not looking forward to this but I was, as I knew we got to run back down it and into the finish.

This parkrun has it all! A beautiful lake, ancient woodland, old ruins, a stream, bridges and a hill. This visit has cemented Gnoll as definitely in my top 5 of favourite parkrun locations.

I look forward to the cafe/centre being completed later in the year. Clare and myself had a good chat with many of the volunteers and were happy as vegans that the temporary cafe even had oat milk for our coffees. Thank you for a wonderful event. Dean Jones.

(CC and the world's biggest lovespoon)

We then caught the train to Swansea to see one of CC’s sons who is at uni there. Then we had to catch a bus to Llanelli and stayed in a place called “Furnace” which was weird because it was bloody freezing. I had booked a four star hotel called “Stradley park hotel”. It was quite cheap, so I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. Anyways, it turned out to be a wonderful place. The vegan options were limited but the staff and chef went out of their way to accommodate us. We had a lovely soup each, which I usually won’t bother with and a very tasty vegan curry. Curry before a race you say? Hmmm…

      That night I had a very sore throat and it hurt to swallow. I was sneezing a bit too and was all snotty. That’s right, I had picked up a cold before race day. Great! I wasn’t expecting much from the Llanelli half. CC and I had covered a lot of miles on foot over the last couple of days. I was carrying a bit of fat and hadn’t really done any speedwork this year. My focus had been on mileage. I told myself that I would try and aim for a sub Ninety without putting any pressure on myself. 6.50 pace per mile?

I was hoping to see my cousin Selina here as we had both done this race Ten years ago. Doesn’t time fly! She had to pull out because of shin splints though sadly.

            (Me outside Gareth Bale's pub, right next to Geraint Thomas' gold postbox)

 

We didn’t start at Parc Y Scarlets anymore by the looks of it. Straight onto the freezing cold coast. The start was delayed by around ten minutes. I was thinking about pulling out right there and then. I didn’t have any feeling in my hands, they were both numb with the cold weather. It turns out that someone had broken into the van and stolen all the bottles of water for the first water station at mile three. In the meantime they were trying to get some of the bottles from other stations to take to mile three.

 

We got going in the end and obviously, I went out too quickly. There was some headwind and my hands were still numb, so I was just trying to get warm really. I got chatting to a few people on the course including a guy with some noisy Hokas on his feet. He said he’d never worn them before and was just trying them out. I heard a runner behind us enquire “How can they be casually chatting at this pace?”. Just then I felt my watch vibrate. 6.25 for the mile. She was right but I felt relaxed and in control. Maybe I would pay for it later?

 

                                                                   (Can you see me?)

I had this girl sitting on my shoulder for a couple of miles. She was evidently using me as a wind shield! “Cheeky bitch” I thought. I got chatting to her and she was actually really nice. She hadn’t done a half for three years and was aiming for a sub ninety too. It would be a pb for her though. When we turned around the wind abated but a new situation arose. We were now running through a muddy nature reserve and my Pro 3’s were sliding all over the place. Although the headwind was no more, Beth said we would get it again for the last 4k to the finish. Beth was the girl I had been talking to. I didn’t need to ask her her name as she seemed quite popular with the crowds as people called her name out. We had just passed 10k in a little over 40 minutes. Not far off my pb pace for the half. I was still enjoying myself though. We had one dude running with us who knew Beth and his breathing was laboured. I told him to take a few slow, deep breaths through his nose and try and get more oxygen in. I told him that I didn’t mean to come across as condescending but he said “Not at all, thank you”. “Sometimes you just forget don’t you?”. Do you? I thought..lol.

   I had a bit of trouble keeping up with Beth now and I was no longer chatting. It was mile nine and I was still flying though but with a lot more effort and focus now. It was time to “dig in” and get it done. I saw CC cheering me on which is always a massive boost.

     At around ten miles, I passed this guy who looked a bit older than me. “Please don’t tell me you’re a V35” I said jokingly as I ran past him. “V70 actually” he said. “I wish I had your long legs” he added. I couldn’t let him beat me and pushed on to the next turnaround point around 10.5 miles. Now the wind was brutal and wouldn’t let up for the final 4k. Beth was right. My legs felt like they were stuck in mud. Was I actually still running? I just about managed to catch up with Beth and pass her. My last two miles were the slowest but I was surprised to get 1hr 25mins and 24secs and 2^nd V50.

After the race, Beth and I connected on strava and it turns out that she is a GB Triathlete. I felt for CC standing around in that bitterly cold wind and cheering on the runners. Who says Romance is dead?

Thank you CC, I am forever grateful for all your love and support. Xx

     The weird thing is that I had no sciatic nerve pain during the race. It did return on the coach journey back to Swansea though and on the train journey to Bradford-on-Avon, where I had booked us a shepherd’s hut called “The Wardrobe”. Interesting! It was a nice way to break up the journey home back to Southampton and the following day we took a leisurely stroll on the canal paths. What an eventful weekend. I would need to go back to work for the rest.

       The last Saturday of Feb, I had a good catch up on a 20 mile loop with my friend Helen. We ran at a pretty good pace too and chatted the miles away. She needs the mileage for Manchester marathon and I for the seven hour timed event in March if I can be bothered to get up at 5am and endure the buses and trains that get me there.

Not much else to say except that I hope to improve my eating habits, sleeping and fitness. More daylight next month and its getting warmer.  I sure have done a lot of eating and reading of books this month. And of course I got the best and most thoughtful Valentine's day present from CC. Two photo albums of our time together. So many wonderful memories <3 xx 

Thanks for reading. Deano. xx

Here was our food from Luna's Vegan corner:

January 2025

     

        Hi there, I’m forcing myself to write something once a month whether something happens or not, and to be honest, not a lot happened in January for me.

I ran a leisurely marathon which I wrote about in my previous blogpost. I ate healthily for about a week… The Piriformis syndrome has been a hindrance and annoying the hell out of me. I also had a shock when I stepped on the scales at 84.6 kgs! It’s fair to say that I really don’t like these winter months. We have now arrived in February though and this does fill me with a little bit of excitement and hope.  

         I kind of started January out by smashing my toes into the bathtub and turning them black. It was an accident obviously. Sciatic pain on most of my runs too and carrying an extra 4-5 kgs. Something has to change right?

      I did manage a few climbing sessions this month including a solo effort at Boulder Shack. I went climbing at Golden Gecko with my lovely girlfriend Clare who never loses any strength or form despite not going for ages!

 I also made a long overdue visit to Red Spider in Fareham where I had to update my 3 year waiver. Then I decided to run home from Fareham. A route along the A27 that I hadn’t done for years. I actually enjoyed the rolling hills and they weren’t as bad as I had remembered. I am definitely a lot fitter than when I ran my previous efforts. I was exhausted at 16 miles for some reason and decided to quit at Cafe Thrive. The 90 minutes of climbing probably had something to do with it and the 5 mile walk to Red Spider too. I was so tired the following day at work as you can imagine.

      I am currently reading two books at the moment. “Granite Kingdom” by Tim Hannigan and “The ultimate ultra running book” by Claire Maxted.

Granite Kingdom is a book about Cornwall. It really had made me want to go back and revisit a lot of places and people I know from living there in 2009 and 2018. I will have to book a week off at some point and organise it. Hopefully Clare will come too :)

The Ultra book is full of great information on nutrition, training plans etc.. Not that I haven’t run ultras before, but it’s good to read something to inspire you and get your head in the right mindset for it. I just have to do some training and enter a race now.

        I only managed one parkrun in January and that was Bartley park. I ran there and it was a lovely surprise to see both Jax and Helen, two old friends. I ran and chatted to Helen and we did some extra miles afterwards. I managed 15 miles in the end.

 

     The next day, Clare and I went to Romsey and we bumped into our friend Darren. We walked a loop of Squabb wood which I hadn’t really done since the Testway ultra a few years back. It was still boggy but there were no cows to scare me out of the fields.

Clare and myself also did a lovely loop of Romsey canal path where we saw 2 or 3 kingfishers which was a nice treat.

 

       At work I had signed up to help out at the Run Show in Birmingham. I was kind of regretting it to be honest. Friday would be a very long day and Saturday would be hectic and I wouldn’t see Clare or get to do a parkrun. Why was I doing this again?

I did get free trainers, tracksuit, t-shirts and shorts, plus the hotel, food and travel were paid for.

 

At 5.30am I had to walk in a storm down to Millbrook roundabout with all my stuff to be picked up. There was an accident on the A34 near Oxford and they closed the road but we made it to the NEC just in time.

No time for breakfast or coffee though!

        We put on our hi-vis vests and flashed our passes. It was hectic already with all the erecting of the stalls. Metal framework everywhere. Trying to navigate pallets with a pump truck was challenging. It had been a while since I had done a lot of heavy shifting. I did removals about 30 years ago moving furniture in and out of schools. Lifting pianos up and downstairs. The bad memories of hard labour were coming back to haunt me..lol.

 

   I spent a lot of time organising the running shoes in order in the stockroom. Before we knew it, it was 6.45pm. It was back to the hotel for a quick sit down before our food. We were booked in at the “Gourmet Burger Bar” for 7.30.

Have you ever been to the NEC in Birmingham? It is huge! It was almost a two mile walk to our hotel which is still in the NEC grounds. They must have about 20 Starbucks outlets in that place too.

 

        The food was overpriced and kind of average but work were paying :) It was a nice surprise to see Paula Radcliffe and Chris Thompson come in and sit down on the table next to us. I tried not to stare too much.

Somehow their burgers arrived straight away while we still waited for ours..lol.  

 

       An early night ensued and it was up early and out. I wanted to run a 10 miler but didn’t get up early enough. 6am was early enough for me. Where would I run? Could just do laps around the lake at the NEC? After some research, I discovered that Ozzy Osbourne was born just up the road in a village called “Marston Green”. Also, lead singer of “The Wonderstuff” Miles Hunt grew up there.

       It was hard work trying to get out of the NEC. Google maps didn’t have a clue where to go, so neither did I. I got out eventually and then ran the wrong way again. I got to Marston Green eventually. No Ozzy statue that I could see sadly. It was still dark though. I headed back and made up a 10k and took advantage or the free breakfast buffet at the hotel.

       I had trouble getting to the location of the Run Show. I got lost with a few other people. Then I saw this massive queue to get in. Luckily my pass allowed me to bypass this and I made it just in time for our work briefing.

It sure was hectic after 9am. I was running backwards and forwards from stockroom to the show with apparel. The crowds were tough to navigate at times. Weaving in and out, trying to get stock to the customers.

       It was a good day though but I didn’t really get to see much of the Show. It looked a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll go next year and do a parkrun first and just help out on the Sunday? I did bump into Paula and Chris again who were doing a talk but I didn’t have time to listen sadly. I also saw Sophie Power on the treadmill who broke the world record for 48 hours on a treadmill. Incredible stuff.

        I decided to leave Saturday and get the train home. I wanted to have a bit of a weekend still and see Clare. The train was delayed due to football fans fighting. Pompey had lost 5-1 and I was on the train with all the fans travelling back. There were other football fans too, so it was all kicking off. Soon as I got on the train, someone threw a punch at someone. We were already crammed in like sar-deans. More delays and at the following stop (Coventry), another fight kicked off. It sure was a long journey back. I was so glad to be greeted by Clare at Southampton parkway.

Would I do it again? Maybe?

        Anyways, that’s about it. I did write my letter about working flexible hours so we’ll see the outcome of that this month hopefully. I bought some new trainers too. I was talked into it at the Run Show by a speedy runner I know called Richie. The Adidas Adistar BYD range. I’ll let you know about those too. The piriformis is getting stronger and the sciatic pain weaker. Hopefully on the mend.

Have a wonderful February and thanks for reading. x