July 2026

 

            Independence day saw Clare and myself marshalling back at Itchen valley parkrun with the crew. We had a lovely day catching up with everyone too.

It was also a relief for Clare to say goodbye to her rental property after 8 years. We could now fully focus on our own home back in Rownhams.

Clare is very good at D.I.Y …and me, not so much. We seem to be that couple who go to B&Q at the weekends nowadays and look at fixings and various other things that I didn’t know existed. The house is awesome though and Clare has made some fantastic changes already as well as an electrician and a window repair guy already doing some work for us. We also have a fireman who cleans our windows once a month for a small fee. Anyway…

                                                    Bee Bee the cat enjoying the garden <3

             The following day I had a race. Either Joshy or fast Kev had talked me into entering Goodwood 10k. Toni drove us there and the temperature was hot, hot hot! I was already carrying an injury. The glute and hamstring problems had returned in my right leg. I thought I’d give it a go anyway. The aim was for sub 39 in my current condition. There was also a half marathon and a 5k going on to. I think it was just 2 laps of the race circuit, unlike the race in February here which goes out onto the country lanes. Which I did back in 2020 in a time of 40.25. That was a PB then too.

Not long after starting the race, we had to do a 180 around a cone which I thought was weird on a race track. An unnecessary slowing down. We then joined the other runners of various distances. Did I mention how hot it was? It was also quite windy on one side of the course.

After a couple of miles, I was already in trouble. The leg wasn’t firing up properly and I was off the pace already. I would now try and hang on for a sub 40 but even that was proving to be a struggle. I battled on thinking how tough this was, but I got it done. My official time was 39.58. I was 15^th over all and surprisingly 1^st V50. I emailed the organisers and they said, Well done and that they send me a prize out in 3 weeks. I still haven’t heard a thing though of course.

I probably wouldn’t do the race again as it was quite congested really. Sadly Toni and Josh pulled out with the heat. Kev was a good couple of minutes ahead of me though but I don’t think even he had a great race. It was a nice catch up though. Sadly, I would be properly injured now, as if I wasn’t beforehand.

My last two 10ks, I have won my age category but have been injured and felt crap throughout the run. I have also been scraping the sub 40 barrel and just about sneaking under. The plan was to dip under 37 minutes this year for the 10k but it just hasn’t happened with the injuries and not getting back to full fitness. Maybe 2027 will be my year? Or am I just past it now at 51 years young?

                 I decided to take 10 days off running, which is about 2 years for a runner. I took a Friday off work and went Climbing at Golden Gecko in Romsey which I have really missed now that I work full-time. I then caught the train to Winchester. Did a long loop (walking) on the water meadows and Itchen navigation before meeting up with Cos, Josh and Kev at Piecaramba for food. We went to a gig at the Railway Inn afterwards. It was a band called “Ghosts of Seattle” who only played 90’s Grunge. It was bloody brilliant. They played for 2 hours! I was never bored. Songs from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Cos’ favourite, Stone Temple Pilots. They also did a Mudhoney song and I got a bit of interaction with the band for wearing a Mudhoney t-shirt. Kev also knew one of the guitarists that he hadn’t seen for about 20 years. It was a great night and I haven’t stopped listening to Alice in Chains since.

I was very tired the next day and did very little, even avoiding parkrun. My hearing did eventually return though!

                 The week after, saw Clare and myself back on Marshalling duties at Itchen Valley. This would be my 7^th volunteer for the year and it equals my most in a year. I am aiming for 10 (adult) parkrun volunteers for the year. It’s good to give something back to a thing that has supported me for the last 15 years. It was my 37 volunteering credit in 53 roles. I am aiming for the 50 volunteers of course!

                 With my time out from running, I did a few other things. I bought some more weights and have been doing them in the garden in the mornings. Just 20-30 minutes, 3-4 times a week. It feels good and I’m hoping to get rid of my sugar tummy and gain a six pack..lol.

                We’ve had a pigeon in our garden that was sat on a nest. It had been there for a couple of weeks. Sitting on an egg maybe? We have been on Pigeon watch as the naughty Magpies have been trying to attack the pigeon and get at the nest. Sadly, I came home from work one day and no longer saw the pigeon on the nest. Not sure what happened there but she hasn’t been back since. We have had another visitor though. A hummingbird hawk moth has been here a couple of times. I just thought it was a giant wasp when I first saw it. I called Clare and she I.D’d it straight away. I sure does have a clever girlfriend :D

I also took my Nikon camera out of retirement. I hadn’t used it for a few years. I decided to go for a walk and photograph some Damselflies. It took me a while to work out the setting again but I did ok I think capturing a few Banded demoiselle. 

             I was very much looking forward to the 25^th of July. Our mate Stacey had organised a coach to Battersea park parkrun. I went up with Josh and Kev. We were picked up from Rownhams services just after 6am. Initially, I was stood on the wrong side of the motorway services until Josh phoned me and asked where I was. Thank you Josh! Luckily the coach hadn’t arrived yet and it was a good journey up. I sat next to Vegan Runner Christine who I knew through John Pellegrini. We talked all things parkrun and Vegan. 

                                                    Kev and myself after Goodwood 10k

            The time flew by and we were soon there. The Iconic Battersea park. It was pretty big. I had never seen so many runners just running around all morning. It was a bit like a Miami muscle beach. Muscly dudes running around topless and women running around with very tight clothing and bouncy bits. It was a hive of activity. Very busy. We did a warm up and headed to the start. It was a narrow start and the marshalls would not let us join the front of the parkrun. We were to run about 400 metres around to the back. Not allowed to run on the grass either and it was already 9am. Would we miss the start?

                                                        Joshy showing off his skills

 We had to make our way through 1100 other runners and try and get close to the front. We gave up about halfway and just accepted that it wasn’t going to be a fast one for Josh and myself. In fact, Josh was so disappointed that he didn’t even scan his 17 minutes in. It worked out ok for me though. It was two laps of the park and it felt like a pretty quick course. Obviously, my right leg still wasn’t right though. It was a flat out effort for me and I managed to run a sub 20 with a time of 19.48 at least. 9^th in my age cat? What happened to the real Dean Jones..lol.

It was my 408^th parkrun though and my 113^th different location.

We then went to Battersea power station which I was expecting to be some ort of museum but it’s actually a giant shopping centre. We had food, coffee and enjoyed basking in the sun until the coach was ready to collect us. What a great day. Cheers Stacey. I look forward to the next one.

                My gimpy leg is getting better though. No speedwork for a while but some longer slower runs for a while to try and get that base fitness back. I went to see my sports therapist yesterday and she says the real issues with my glute and hamstring stems from my hip. I didn’t even consider this and the physio sure didn’t mention it! It makes more sense now. I will work harder on my rehab next month and work on that six pack.

                                    Thanks for reading people. Until next month. xx

                                                P.S   Check out my new cat running vest :D 

June 2026

 

            As Clare and I went to the Romsey 5 mile Beer race, I knew that I wasn’t in PB shape. I also knew that this year has not been great in terms of running for me. I wasn’t quite getting back to speed and there are a few underlying injury issues to resolve yet. Still, here we are, at the Beer Race.

This was my first ever race back in 2011 and I was so happy to finish in a time of 42.12. Today I was hoping to knock at least 10 minutes off of that!

I did a warm up with my friend Helen from Totton running club. Clare was there to support us. It sure felt like a hot day.

There were lots of other familiar faces around. This race had a nice feel to it. A local event set up by Romsey road runners with beer and cake at the finish. What I hadn’t recalled, was how hilly the course was. We did a lap out of the field and then we climbed and turned right onto the main road, later turning left onto Newport lane. There was also some nice downhill sections too though. My aim today was to try and run around in a time of roughly 31.30.

            It was so good to see my girlfriend Clare cheering me on as I completed a lap and ran onto my second one. It always gives me a boost of energy. I was running ok but it sure was a struggle and was slowing a bit on the last mile. Three runners overtook me at the end and V60 legend Alan Graham wasn’t far behind me, so I needed a good sprint finish, which I just about managed. I finished in a time of 31.49. Sub 32 at least and not far off of target. Happy enough with the time on that course. Third V50 in the end though.

It was time to catch up and chat to other runners in the sunshine and eat some cake. It sure was a lovely day. You can see why this race sells out so quickly. It was off to Lemon and Jinga for lunch for Clare and myself soon after.

             13^th of June saw me head to Southampton parkrun. My friend Lin from my Vegan Running Club had her sights on beating the VW60 course record today. I think the record stood at 21.05? See wanted to run sub 21 today. I thought I would pace her, so took the bib for the 21 minute pacer and got a volunteer credit too, as I was still aiming to get 10 (adult)  volunteering credits this year. Also Lin wanted me to run behind her for the first kilometre as her last attempt ended up with her being tripped at the start line and her breaking her elbow which still hasn’t fully recovered. She sure is a brave lady! Although, I knew she still had some fear coming into this.

It went pretty well and even on the uphill section, Lin’s breathing was relaxed and she was able to talk. On the last kilometre, I had to let her go as she was ahead on the 21 minutes that I was pacing. Her V65 husband Martin took over the pacing duties from here (another speedy Vegan Running club Vet!).

I had a few runners telling me that I was going too fast. I wanted to tell them to F*%k off, as I had run this parkrun over 120 times and knew the course so well. Anyways, I did have to slow a little bit and saw Lin flying in well under 21 minutes as I looked at my watch. I ran in around 20.55 on my watch but I got an official time of 20.46? Ok, maybe a little too quick. A couple of runners thanked me though and said I’d paced them very well, so job done. Lin smashed the VW60 record and ran 20.23 which gave her an age grading of 96.57%. Well done Lin. Incredible! Obviously, we had to celebrate by going to Cafe Thrive for breakfast. 

             Work has been stupidly busy and I’ve been doing a fair bit of overtime. Clare has been busy sorting out her old rental property and dealing with all our bills, sorting all the adult stuff and fixing our new place up. I do feel a bit useless sometimes with all her skills and abilities. Sorry Clare. We are saving some money to get some repairs on the new house. Windows, roof, electrics etc.. It’s never ending! So nice to have our own house now. We have both been quite stressed and busy though, not much time for ourselves… apart from the football world cup of course :)

I am hoping that we get to visit a few people in the autumn and do some parkrun tourism together.

             A week later, I decided that I needed a quicker parkrun time. Wouldn’t it be good to run sub 19 again? I thought about Wickham but chose Lee-on-the-solent over it due to it being a wider course and less crowded. I got up very early, Clare dropped me off at the railway station and I got the train to Fareham. Carlo the cookie monster was on the train with his son. They were heading to Fareham parkrun where he was time keeping. I had to run to Lee-on-the-solent. I wasn’t quite sure of the route and got a bit lost despite doing some research prior to me getting off the train. I ended up doing extra mileage and then came the concern that I wouldn’t even make the parkrun in time. I was enjoying the change of scenery in a brand new pair of Pro 4’s though. So, told myself that it didn’t matter if I missed the parkrun but at the same time there was a touch of panic inside me.

            I got to the start line at 8.58. Threw my jacket down and took some deep breaths as I listened to the briefing. A little bit of rest at least. A pretty quick course with not much to see but I was so happy to go sub 19 for the first time in 3 months running an 18.56. I ran a pretty speedy 5 miler to get there too. I had a nice coffee in a local cafe and jogged a shorter way back, making it only 4 miles. I was very dizzy though and my vision was distorted as I hadn’t yet eaten that day and probably didn’t take on enough water. It sure was a warm one. I was okay in the end though as I got the train back and ran another 5k to my Dad’s house from Soton station.

                 27^th of June, I got invited back to Southwick parkrun by John Pelligrini. It was VR (Vegan Runner) Christine’s 100^th parkrun location and her 250^th parkrun! I had run this course 6 times before as it was quite popular for us to run this before the Bratton Hilly race that started at 11am on the Saturday afterwards. Such a great race if you haven’t done it. I would really recommend it. The course is as hilly as described and a strange distance of 11.4k! A views are stunning though. Sadly they have moved the event to April now though instead of May and it got taken over from the Avon Valley runners by Redfish events who didn’t give my mate Fast Kev his V40 prize. Anyways..

            Back to Southwich. It was so nice to be back. Today was to be their 700^th event and weirdly, the last time I came here it was their 300^th event! It sure had been a while. The course is still the same and the marshalls are some of the best/friendliest and encouraging that I have ever met. I really can’t thank or praise them enough. A nice downhill finish meant that I was able to put in a good sprint again to come in as first V50. It was a very hot day again and was happy enough with a time of 19.32 finishing in P3.

After the parkrun, we went in Trowbridge for the Vegan market, where I ate some yummy quiche and a pastry. We also met up with some other Vegan runners. I really should visit more of these markets and support them. Some really great independent companies out there trying to get by with their wonderful products. 

             That was pretty much my June. It was nice to do some parkrun tourism and hopefully I’ll do some more soon. Thanks for reading. Can’t believe its taken me 2 weeks to write this before work at 5.30am. Have a great weekend. Xx

 

P.S I have just finished proof reading before my parkun marshalling duties today. I for got to mention how well Bee Bee the cat is settling in now. Maybe the photo below will help….

May 2026

 

        My body had been falling apart for months, it was time to see a Physio. I had been putting it off for way too long. I didn’t really want to spend the money on it. Many times a certain physio had been recommended to me by the name of James Kirkpatrick. “The Recovery room”, where he is based was very local to me too. I went there a bit sceptical of any improvement. I had been a runner for 15 years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about my body.

He was quick to reveal my body’s weaknesses and I was shocked, but also impressed. I was happy to have some new goals to achieve with the strength training he suggested and it gave me hope to heal and get back to fitness. I had been limping around disjointedly on my runs for some time now. Every part of me was in pain while running. That was about to change though..

 I did my physio rehab everyday and decided to marshal at Itchen Valley parkrun again on the 9^th of May with Clare. It was another lovely morning catching up with the volunteering crew and the locals. Afterwards we took Clare’s mum to Hillier’s arboretum. My first time there. It was definitely worth the visit. The coffee is terrible, so I’d go with the pot of tea. The Vegan sausage baguette is pretty good though.

         The following day was CC’s birthday. We went for a lovely walk from Rownhams to the Chilworth arms and back. I had booked a table for Sunday lunch and was sursprised how good the Vegan roast dinner was and a lovely dessert to follow. The staff were exceptional too and were very friendly and helpful. It was another great day and some quality time with Clare again.

         Two weeks after my initial visit, I was back at the physio to see James again. He was surprised to see how much progress that I had made in such a short time. I was feeling a lot happier and running pain free now. I couldn’t really pinpoint the actual injuries or niggles but it was mostly glute/hamstring stuff caused by poor cadence and overstriding. This time he got me on the treadmill (or Dreadmill) to see how I ran. I was pretty scared to be honest as I had only previously been on a treadmill once, back in 2018 when I lived in Plymouth. I ran a 5k then and had motion sickness for nearly two days! I was not looking forward to this.

Off I went running. It felt fast and I was only running 9 minute mile pace apparently. My cadence seemed to be fine on the treadmill. It felt so unnatural to me and I was scared of falling off the thing. I stopped after 3 minutes, I had had enough. No motion sickness this time around though, which meant I wouldn’t be suffering with nausea all day. Not a nice thing to get, which is why I had to give up gymnastics and trampolining.

         Exciting news!!! Friday the 15^th of May. Clare picked up the keys to our new house. We are now home owners, we have our own house together. I couldn’t quite believe how excited I was about this. Life has been so hectic since with all the moving of stuff and we’re still not there. More unpacking and moving to do but it’s pretty special. Clare has been awesome sorting out the delivery of white goods, sorting utilities and internet etc.. I am so lucky to have her. Xx

 Despite the new house move. I did a new parkrun with fellow Vegan runner, Matt Salisbury. He kindly picked me up and we went to Reading for the Green Park parkrun. It was only the 6^th event. I didn’t find the marshals very friendly they were quite militant and shouty. There were also no toilets. The course was quite nice but busy. There was a very tight turn that a marshal didn’t mention. I did pretty well for my current fitness. 19.10, P10 and 1^st V50. It was hard work though. Getting towards sub 19 again hopefully.

We then went for food at Reading’s only Vegan cafe. Vegivores. I had never heard of it but the food was so good. Some of the best I’d ever tasted. Up there with the Greenhouse in Fleet!

Then we went climbing at the Climbing hangar in Reading. We only lasted an hour as we were both quite tired by this point but it was such a good day and we had a great catch up.

 

A week later, Clare’s stuff was getting moved from her rental house to our new house. The next few days would be manic! I took the Friday off work as we unpacked stuff and moved furniture with a bit of D.I.Y and shopping thrown in. Bee Bee the cat wasn’t happy at all and was hiding for most of the time. It was very sad for us to see her like this. She wasn’t eating either. It was a bit worrying.

But here I am typing at 5.30am because Bee Bee is back to her normal self and running around the house with “the Zoomies”.  I must admit that I had never heard of the Zoomies before until Clare mentioned it. Formally called (FRAP’s) Frenetic Random Activity Periods. It really is quite odd behaviour but perfectly healthy.

         On Saturday the 23^rd of May, I had a good catch up with Kev, Toni and Josh. All good running friends from my former running club. We went to Poole parkrun. It got warm pretty quick, which I think affected my performance. I was hoping to run a sub 19 but not hard. Just creep under 19 minutes by running 2.5 miles at around 6.05 pace per mile.

 Boy, was I in for a shock! I felt ok until halfway and then the pace dropped off and it became a slog. This was painful now. Kev who I was supposedly pacing as he was also coming back from injuries, had left me and surged on. I finished with 19.00 on my watch. It seemed like a long wait for my official time of 19.00 while we sat in the garden of the cafe enjoying the sunshine. Josh ran a 16.41! Only a second off of his pb. Amazing. Another wonderful parkrun experience.

         At all these parkruns, I’ve started pushing  a bit harder. Good training for the Romsey Beer race at the start of June. I know I am nowhere near PB shape but some fitness is returning at least and going in the right direction. I have been so tired lately though with the moving, unpacking and doing lots of overtime at work. I have a mortgage to pay now!

Recovery seems to be slow lately buy I’ll get there. The heat should help me lose some weight at least.

         My last parkrun of May, saw me catching the train to Winchester. Again, focused on more training for the Beer race next weekend. 

The aim was to run 6.20 pace per mile. 19.45 was the aim and would also be a course PB for me. It currently stood at 19.51. I still remember how hard it was for me to break sub 20 on this course, despite it being flat.

         Anyway, I did it. 19.21 was my time, p17 and 1^st V50 again. There were 470 runners here now. Parkruns sure are getting big nowadays. There were 105 runners here when I did Winchester back in 2013. Amazing really. Andy Costello was there with his lovely lab “Ripley”. Afterwards we went to the coffee shop “The waiting room”. It’s a lovely little coffee shop that also sells punk/alternative vinyl and cassettes. I was tempted to buy 2 or 3 records but thought better of it as we are still moving stuff.

            The 27^th of May marked our 3^rd anniversary together. CC and I,  got together 3 years ago at Itchen Valley parkrun. It has been a wonderful journey with her and I look forward to living with her and experiencing many more adventures once the chaos of moving is over and getting settled! Love you CC <3 Here’s to many more years and adventures together.

 Thanks for reading. One more physio session next week but I can definitely feel improvements in my strength already and running pain free. It is so worth the money! Have a lovely summer :) 

April 2026

         On the 3^rd of April I got up stupidly early and decided that I would run at my 110^th different parkrun location and I wanted a quick time. I caught a bus and then a train to arrive at Shoreham-by-sea for 8.21am. Plenty of time to walk to the start of the parkrun and do a quick warm up. It was a lovely surprise to bump into fellow Vegan running club members Cheryl and Telmo. They knew I was coming because I had mentioned it on one of our facebook pages. Cheryl and I couldn’t tell you which one though as we have quite a few different pages..lol.

It had just started to rain but the wind didn’t seem as bad as anticipated.

I wanted a low 18 minute time today. The course was a flat, out and back on a gravel path.

The run didn’t quite go to plan and I was struggling halfway and wheezing, my breathing was terrible. This was not my style at all. I was thinking it maybe related to covid or a virus I had a month or so back. My lungs were on fire. I didn’t even run under 19 minutes, so way off my target time. P7 with a time of 19.04. I’ll have to come back another time when my fitness returns. I am keen to do Worthing again for a quick time as well. It would also be nice to meet up with Cheryl and Tel at Seaford parkrun too at some point as they were telling me how lovely it is. We had a nice chat and coffees in the pub before I caught my train home. It was still a wonderful morning despite a disappointing time and another location ticked off.

         The day after, Clare and myself decided to do a nice walk from Lyndhurst to Brockenhurst. I had recently learnt a nicer route there and it was under 5 miles. It was a lovely day and so nice to spend some quality time with CC. We had a coffee in the garden of Esme’s tea rooms and caught the bus back to Lyndhurst for our favourite place.. the Greenwood tree cafe for some delicious vegan food.

        It was back to Itchen Valley on the 11^th of April as I wanted to get some more Volunteering duties in. My aim is at least 10 for the year and so far I had only done one. Even though I did marshalling, post event close down and token sorting, it only counts as one credit sadly. So I had 32 volunteering credits now but had voliunteered 44 times in total. Despite it being very cold, I always love marshalling and cheering the runners around. It’s a great way to start a Saturday morning.

         The following week, I had decided that I was going to eat healthier. Every now and then I would buy a little pack of vegetables to cook at work. I was wasting money on those little bags really. I decided to buy an organic brocolli, a bag of carrots, some mange tout and baby sweetcorn. I would chop these up and cook them at work. This would produce at least 3 days of meals in a row. Then I would swap ingredients. So the following week, I got Green beans instead of Mange tout and a Red cabbage instead of Broccoli etc.. A much cheaper and healtier way of eating and I feel so much better for it. I would add in Green lentils, Black beans or Tuno for the protein. I would still sneak in the crisps and chocolate sometimes in the evenings though (Oh dear!).

         I had to come to terms that I am indeed carrying an injury at the moment, so have cut back on the mileage and I am running slower than normal. I get a lot of Glute, Hamstring and IT band pain all in my left leg. I have finally made a physio appointment. It had been put off as I didn’t really want to part with the money. It looks like the injuries are going nowhere in a hurry though. This has however, given me a chance to revisit some of my old trail routes around the area. I have spent so much time running on fast country lanes and around the track. It certainly has made a nice change.

             On the 18^th of April, John Pelligrini says “Do you fancy doing Horsham parkrun with me?”. I said “Yes please John”.

We were to pick up John’s friend (Christine) from Southampton parkway but her train was cancelled from Poole. Plans had changed as we didn’t have the time to get all the way to Horsham now. We had decided on Sandhurst Memorial as it was a long term Nendy of mine and Christine hadn’t done it either. Anyway, after following John’s Satnav, we ended up at Bracknell. John must have chosen the wrong parkrun on the app but it didn’t matter as neither Christine or I had done Bracknell either. John had recognised his mistake as he parked up though. I thought he was joking and wasn’t convinced until we walked across the field and saw the blue parkrun sign. It was to be my 111^th different location. I was still running slower because of the gimpy leg. It was a lovely but quite technical trail route through the woods and around a footy pitch. There were a few short, sharp hills too. It was a lovely sunny day and I managed to get a photo with the incredibly enthusiastic event director. The volunteers were so good and some high fives on the way round too.

        We went to the Greenhouse cafe in Fleet, another favourite of ours for the Vegan food. So good there, you must visit!

            The week after saw me do my 400^th parkrun. I chose Itchen valley where I now know a lot of people due to volunteering. I jogged a nice slow one again, running the first half with my old Lordshill buddy Jeff Scarle. It was a lovely run and I knew most of the volunteers including my beautiful CC. I also did Token sorting and post event closedown to get volunteering credit number 33 and my 46^th volunteer. Afterwards we did CPR and Defibrillator training with Meon Valley heartstart. The training was free and many of the regular volunteers took part. Such a great thing to do and to have the knowledge of potentially saving a life.

         Not much else to report as I didn’t do any races in April and I have none for May either. Romsey beer race in June but I doubt I’ll be in great shape for that one. My target will now be a fast time at Worchester half marathon on my birthday weekend in September. I had a soft qualifying time to run for Wales in the half marathon and got a rejection letter but hopefully I can run around 82 minutes for the half with some solid mileage and training later in the summer but we’ll see!

        Over all, it has been a stressful month really. Injuries, trying to buy a house etc.. A big thanks to Clare and all the amazing time and work she has done. Hopefully we have a house in a couple of weeks! Thanks for reading, much love. xx