Happy new year! 2026 is here and there’s no better way to kick it off than with a parkrun. It was a local one at Itchen Valley. Clare was volunteering as always and I ran around with John Peligrini and Mike Harper. Just an easy effort for me but a nice catch up with everyone all the same.
Two days later, we had another parkrun on the 3rd. Mike Harper picked me up and we went back to Moors Valley. We were a bit concerned that it would be cancelled as it was so icy. We did a warm up around the lake to see how slippery it was and it was indeed very slippery. The parkrun still went ahead though and I just managed to sneak under 19 minutes with 18.59 and a P10. I was actually hoping to get nearer to 18.30. I was putting in some effort for my up and coming Romsey 5 mile race in a couple of weeks time. A lovely morning though and I decided not to queue for the terrible coffee this time around :)
I have been frequenting the running track lately. Trying to get some speed back into my legs. Making the most of my Wednesdays off before I go back to a 5 day working week. The track was icy the other week and I had to do 200’s instead of my 800’s. I actually really enjoyed them and shocked myself how fast I could actually run them. I will do more in the future. It was lovely to see Helen and Paddy at the track too.
I had a long weekend off, CC and myself went to Carmarthen in Wales with my Dad for my Uncle’s birthday. I have quite a big Welsh family and poor CC was to meet quite a few of them. I gave CC a tour of my old childhood haunts. The Plume of Feathers (the smallest pub in Wales), the market, the castle and the river walk through Johnstown.
We were hoping to do the new Parc Dewi Sant (Saint David's Park) parkrun but when we got there, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. It had been cancelled at the last minute and we didn’t have time to go elsewhere. I was absolutely gutted as I was so looking forward to doing this one. 200 miles each way is a long way to go for a parkrun. Will I come back again in the summer? Probably not. CC did a wonderful job of consoling me in the cafe. We did a lovely but very cold walk instead.
We also went climbing at a church in Carmarthen called Overhang and to our delight, they now had a few auto-belays fitted in the last few months. I wasn’t used to the height, so it was a bit scary for me the first few climbs. CC as always just flew up there!
When I got back to Southampton, I decided to look at a few races to enter for the year. One of them being the ballot for the Great North Run as I had never done it and it always falls around my birthday. Sadly, I didn’t get in. I did enter the Winchester 10k for Feb and Yeovil 10k for the end of March. I am thinking about Plymouth 10k in the first week of May as I loved that one when I lived there and probably the Two Tunnels 10k near Bath for our the Vegan Running Club annual get together in June. The aim is to get faster on the shorter stuff this year and avoid the marathons :D
The 17th of Jan saw me jog around Ganger Farm parkrun with a brief catch with Darren and John. The next day would see me running the Romsey 5 miler at the Broadlands estate. How would I do? What sort of shape was I in? I knew I still needed to lose a few kgs from all the junk food.
No sub 30 but very close again with 30.08. A 5 mile PB of 6 seconds, so I can’t complain. It was a good course but there was one very muddy turn around a cone on the dogleg. 3rd V50 in, so a bit of work to do still to get those age category wins. Pretty happy with my time though.
My hamstrings and glutes were a little sore after the race and I felt a bit rundown, so had an easy week with no track session. Got to listen to my body at my age ;) I made it to Highcliffe beach parkrun the following week to meet up with fellow club mates from VRC. Kev picked up Clare and myself on a very cold and windy morning. Clare walked around while I claimed my 8th P2 and a time of 19.44. The conditions were certainly challenging! Sadly I was 19 seconds away from the V50 course record. We had a lovely breakfast at Highcliffe Castle afterwards too. It was quite expensive but enjoyable.
No parkrun this week (31st) as I have a 7 hour event in Winchester held by Phoenix running Hampshire. I am hoping to get in shape for Solent half in March. The goal is to run a sub 90 half marathon and meet CC for breakfast afterwards. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for reading. Looks like I have a few 10k’s to run this year if I can stay off the injury bench. Stay rad people <3
I almost forgot to mention that I finally managed to do my first handstand over 10 seconds. I've not really been practising and only tried one. It just happened!
See video below:
We discovered a new coffee place in Romsey called Cult coffee. Great coffee, quirky place and nice vegan cake too.
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