September 2025

     

    The end of August saw me running the Totton 10k. I was still being cautious with a hamstring/glute injury, so it was a slower one for me. I got it done and the pain wasn’t too bad. The first HRRL (Hampshire road race league) was out of the way but the following week (Sept 7^th) would see me “racing” again at the Overton 5 miler, another HRRL race. All the while I am training for Abingdon marathon in October. I took it cautiously again, so no fast times to report. I had also been getting over a bug/virus thing. Talk about getting your excuses in!

It had been 10 years since I did the Overton 5. It’s a different course and I was sad to discover that it never went through the centre of the village and past the shops.

      It was a downhill start which was very narrow and the road was full of potholes and quite uneven. I couldn’t get anywhere near midpack on the startline, unless I wanted to tread through the stinging nettles. This had already pissed me off but I reminded myself that I wasn’t going for a time today. Just enjoy it. And I did. It was great to see Clare cheering me on as the rain started to pour down. It was very refreshing and I was enjoying it.

Nice to catch up with some club runners at the end. I didn’t see the drinking glasses until my mate Dan from Hardley posted a photo of his up online. I did pick up a coaster though! :D

 

        Three days later, on the Wednesday, saw me doing my longest run of 20 miles. I did many loops around the common in Southampton. Not something I would usually do, but I strangely enjoyed it. It also gave me a chance to test out my Mountain fuel Chia seed gels, which seem to do the trick.

 

        It was to be a busy month, what with me liking to celebrate my birthday for as long as possible. CC and I had made some plans and I had booked some hotels in advance. She would be driving us around everywhere, so we thought it would be nice to break the journey down into smaller chunks.

On the 11^th of September, the day after my 20 miler, we headed off to Cwmbran and stayed at a spa hotel somewhere. It was ok, but a bit run down looking. The main reason for us being there was so that we could try out the food at a Vegan pub in Upper Cwmbran called “The Queen Inn”.

I had already booked a table.

          We walked in and it looked like a proper boozer with a lot of locals sat around at the bar. Were we in the right place? We got taken through to another room where it was nice and quiet. We ordered some food and waited…

OMG, the food was out of this world. It seems so strange to have a Vegan pub with such high quality food, in the middle of nowhere! I would highly recommend the trip there.

         I woke up on the 12^th and it was my birthday. CC bombarded me with wrapped presents, which I obviously unwrapped as quickly as possible. I was well and truly being spoilt. I am so lucky to have such an amazing girlfriend. Thanks CC <3

It was a rainy day (of course) and we decided to go to Newport for a walk. I loved Newport and CC had never been, so we visited the transporter bridge. Looks like they are turning it into a proper tourist place with a shop etc.. but not yet finished.

        Another walk followed as we saw that “Waterfall Country” was on our route to our next destination in Pen Y Cae. We couldn’t work the routes or the distances out on the map at Waterfall country, so we just decided to wing it. It got a little bit dangerous and scary but we came out of it alive to tell the tale of our bravery and courage.

       We were staying in a kind of shepherd's hut thing, just below the Brecons. We both had an image of what the place would look like in our heads, but it was so different. It wasn’t as isolated as we thought. It was in a small village next to a pub with a mini zoo and there was a road not too far away. It was still a very lovely place though and probably my favourite of the whole trip.

      Why did we stay there, you ask? I wanted to do a parkrun of course! In Ystalfera there is a parkrun named “Cycle route 43”. I looked into it and thought, that sounds nice. So, here we were.

Everyone was so friendly and it reminded me of why I miss Wales so much. Every time I leave Wales, I want to go back.

      I thought I’d go for it today and see what I could do. The marathon training has definitely taken some speed out of my legs though (More excuses!). I did a brief warm up on this chilly morning. It was nice and dry though. There were waterfalls on this route too. I noticed a slight downward path, which meant we had a gentle climb on the way back to the finish.

There was a lovely race briefing where we were made to feel very welcome. They even announced my birthday and location.

         The ED read out a poem as a tribute to four miners who had died in the area. Everyone was silent and he was very softly spoken. It was very moving and I felt a tear come to my eye. This one was for the miners.

The mist had cleared which the ED described as “The dragon’s breath”.

And that’s how I’ll always think of it now.

          Off we went and to my surprise I was leading. I looked around once but couldn’t see anyone chasing me. I’m in P1! Can I hold it though? It’s always a bit scary when you are leading and you have never done the course before but luckily, this was an out and back with a turnaround at a cone and a marshal. This gave me an idea how far ahead I was, or so I thought it would. I smiled for the cameras and thanked the marshals. In my head I knew the course was climbing slightly. Will someone be gaining on me? “You’re way ahead” a marshal shouted. I didn’t believe her of course..lol. I could see the finish line for my first P1 at parkrun after coming 2nd, Seven times and 3rd, Eight times. Don’t look back, just sprint!

I did it! What a birthday present. My first P1 in a time of 19.01. I was a bit annoyed about the .01..lol. P2 was over 90 seconds behind me with a time of 20.38. I should have believed the lovely marshal. Sorry.

It was a great achievement for CC too as she hadn’t been running for a while. Her last parkrun was over a month ago with me at Meon Valley. She did just over 40 minutes and was pleased to come first in her age category for the first time ever :)

         We got into Swansea to meet up with one of CC’s sons who is at Swansea Uni. We had another lovely lunch at No.18 which is a Vegan cafe. When I lived on the Gower in 2020, it was called “Canteen 18”. Not sure if there are new owners or not but the food was still very tasty and good value for money as CC was paying :D

I managed to visit the cafe the day before we went into the first lockdown of 2020. Then I spent 6 months not seeing anyone in a small village called “Crofty”, where the ponies and sheep outnumbered the people. As beautiful as it was, it was quite a lonely time for me. Anyway…

          I thought it would be nice to revisit Pennard castle as I remember there being wonderful views and what better time could you ask to do it than with the woman you love. The rain held off and some sunshine came out too. There were many showers over the visit but they didn’t last. The views were still fantastic and not too touristy either. I booked a hotel on the Gower in Bishopston and when we got there, there was a wedding in full swing. The noise wasn’t too bad and our room was called “A room with a Bath”. I opened the door to our room and sure enough, there was a bath right in the middle of our room! Bit random.

        The next morning I got a bit lost but kinda knew the area from living here. I ran on a B road into Mumbles which I knew was going to be busy and fast with traffic later in the morning, so I was trying to work out a looped route in my head. It was still early and I escorted a hedgehog off the road and to the verge. He was very cute indeed.

     I wanted to revisit an old cycle route I used to do. It goes from Black Pill to Gowerton via Clyne valley, Killay and Dunvant.

I ran up Three Crosses to the top. This is one of the biggest climbs I know of. I jogged up it a couple of times before but could never cycle up it. It had 400ft of climbing in just one mile! I strangely enjoyed it though. Annoyingly the only way back now was on a busy road past Swansea Airport. It wasn’t fun and I got to Kittle and back to the hotel before we headed from Wales to Wells.

      We stayed in a place called “Worth” which was a tiny place in Somerset. I chose the nicest room but it was an attic room. So we would be bumping our heads on the ceiling a bit. Our first time to Wells and the place was very nice but we were now evidently both very tired and just wanted to chill out in our room.

    My birthday had been dragging on a bit, so we decided to head home via Golden Gecko for a climbing session and a catch up with the owner Jeff, who we both love :)

 

     On the 15^th I ran from Westend to Cadnam where CC picked me up and drove me to Fordingbridge. Sandy Balls to be precise! My old mate Sean had come back from Perth in Australia to visit everyone. It had been 13 years since we had seen each other and I was one of two best men at his wedding. It was like he had never left. We went for a nice breakfast and a walk. It was so good to see him.

         The 19^th saw me doing a 22 mile run from my house. Into Lyndhurst (the boring way, A35) and a loop back round through Emery down and Minstead (the hilly way). I was happy that I managed to run an average pace at 7.30 min per mile pace. This would possibly be my target pace for my marathon? Those last Three miles felt very hard though! At least there would be water stations at my marathon.

       No parkrun as I wanted to get the long run in on the Saturday and free up the Sunday to see Sean again and our other friend Greg. We went over to his house in Waltham Chase where he has his own skatepark and ramps where he teaches people to skate. Sean, Greg and I, have all been skateboarding for over 35 years now. We had a good catch up and skate together and I only fell off once.

         I am still climbing most weeks and had a great catch up with my mate Clayton on the 24^th. We had a really good session and pushed each other. I think I need to climb with more people to improve really.

       The last Saturday of September saw me rock up at Southampton parkrun. I was toying with the idea of Ganger Farm (couldn’t be bothered to run the 7 miles there) and Bartley park (that horrible tight turn at the bottom of the hill). I wasn’t going to go for a time. I had my Boston 13’s on, which aren’t the cheating shoes I would wear for a quicker time. I saw  Josh Chivers, Paddy, Andy Costello with his dog Ripley too. I knew I wasn’t in great shape for a fast 5k, but would aim for a sub 19. Still pretty good I know. I ran pretty well but it wasn’t easy of course. I got a time of 18.48 which wasn’t bad but reminded me to get the marathon over with and get some proper speedwork training sorted out after my recovery.

     Two weeks until my marathon!

Thanks for reading if you got this far. Hope it wasn’t too boring. xx

August 2025

            

         August saw Clare and myself heading to Meon Valley for a new-ish Hampshire parkrun and my NENDY. The Meon Valley trail parkrun is an out and back course near Wickham on a disused railway line. CC knows the area very well as it was her old local "stomping ground" as she calls it. It was a nice parkrun where we jogged together at the back of the field. Clare, still working on her fitness, did surprisingly well I think and got a sub 40. We then went for pasties/sausage rolls and coffee at the local pasty shop in Wickham, which was quite busy with other runners. Great Vegan pasties and coffee by the way and very friendly and accommodating staff. Must go back.

 The day after on Sunday 3rd, I had the Sturminster Newton Half Marathon, or the Stur Half as its simply known. This would be my fifth time doing the race. I don’t think I have run any other race Five times. It must be a good race! 

Clare drove and we picked up Joshy on the way. I had a bit of a shit race to be honest. I was hoping to beat my time from the previous year of 86.07. I went out pretty quick but struggled as early as Seven miles into the race. It was hard from then on. I was digging deep and suffering a lot. My pace was slowing too. I finished in 86.51.

Not a bad time at all but I just felt awful throughout. Fitness levels not quite where they were a year ago maybe? It was a lovely event as always though and Joshy did really well and got a SB of 76.39. Beating me by over Ten minutes! As CC said “What were you doing out there?” lol. Thanks for the wonderful support as always CC. Seeing your face out there always helps me to stay strong and push on. Xx

We also saw my mate "Level 10 Kev" from the Vegan Running Club who also ran in the half marathon, which was a lovely surprise. He also runs for Yeovil Road Runners. I had won 1st V50 at his local race at Easter. We didn't stick around to collect my prize though and he kinda felt guilty. It was lovely of him to pop into my works a few weeks later and present me with an engraved medal. Cheers Kev, you're a star :) 

Not long after this, I went a bit mad at work and bought lots of shoes. A pair of Terrex trail shoes, some Boston 13’s, some more Pro 4’s and Two pairs of Evo SL’s. Obviously I had to get CC some new shoes too :D 

I may need to get another job, so that I can actually earn some money one day!

I am still in love with the new climbing gym, The Climbing Hangar. I have been going most Wednesdays and some Fridays at 6.30am! I am getting stronger and even managed a handstand PB of around Twelve seconds, which doesn’t seem like a lot but when you are in the handstand, it feels like ages.

On Wednesday the 13^th, I decided to jog to the track after climbing to attempt a sub 18 minute 5k. I worked out that I needed to run each mile at 5.50 pace. My maths were slightly out though. I had the track to myself and decided to run without music so that I could keep my breathing as relaxed as possible. 5.49 for the first mile and 5.49 for the 2^nd mile. It was going pretty well. 

My last mile went by in 5.42. Good pacing indeed and I thought I would go under 18 minutes with ease but not when I glanced at my watch. I basically sprinted that 0.12 of a mile at 5.12 pace. I got 17.58 on my watch and Strava and my Coros watch both gave me a new 5k PB of 17.50. I had done it, just. Average pace was 5.45, so I must remember to run at 5.45 pace and not 5.50 pace if ever attempted again.

Where CC and myself live a good 10k apart, and I don’t drive, and the traffic is terrible at rush hour, and we don’t see each other as much as we would like… we decided to introduce “Date Night” on a Wednesday evening where possible. Sometimes I will run and meet her somewhere, or we’d both get the bus to meet somewhere or she’ll drive us. A great idea as we both love eating and seeing each other :D

16.08.2025 saw me and CC both volunteering at Itchen Valley again. The people are so nice and I love catching up with the crew in the cafe afterwards while enjoying a Coronation Chickpea toastie with lots of Coffee.

I only ran one parkrun this month and am sat here now writing this on a Saturday morning while CC is getting another volunteering credit. Well done CC. 

I have a hamstring injury at the moment which not ideal ahead of the start of the new Hampshire League season. I am also supposed to be marathon training for Abingdon. In fact, I had a really nice 18 mile run to Stockbridge the other week which felt really good. Hopefully I can get back on track and run the marathon but tomorrow will be a cautious jog around Totton 10k, so I won’t be competitive in the league unfortunately.

I have a few plans for September. It’s my birthday, so I’ll be off to Wales with CC.

I have a bodyweight training plan which I have set up for myself to get stronger, so I’m looking forward to seeing the progress in that.

My eating habits have been terrible. I plan to work on that too and cut out the crisps and chocolate. I’ll be allowed birthday cake of course ;) but the focus will be on more cooked meals and vegetables.

It’ll be good to lose a couple of kgs and get my body fat percentage down, which currently stands at 15%

            Anyways, thanks for reading. Getting older, wiser and stronger hopefully. Stay rad people. xx

July 2025

        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 2^nd 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 10^th 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 16^th 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 200^th 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/

Thanks to everyone who took the photos. I took the Pearl bordered photo on my proper camera about 7 years ago. Clare is my main photographer <3. 

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!