A Long Overdue Update!

Hello!!

A full three weeks after my last post I've finally got round to writing another update. Fortunately the absence of blogging has not been due to a lack of training. I spent a nice week and a half in Cologne, part spent at a research conference for work, and a few days extra as holiday at the end. Cologne is a really nice city, and being on the banks of the Rhine it is perfect for some picturesque running. So naturally I took advantage of this, including a long run that ended up being almost exactly marathon distance!

Last week was very busy, so running during the week was minimal, but yesterday I managed to make up for that by getting in a nice long run. The biggest bell ringing event of the year - the National 12 Bell Striking Competition - was taking place at Southwark Cathedral, so I took the opportunity for a bit of Parkrun tourism at Bushy Park and then a jog into London along the River Thames, checking out the first part of the race route (in reverse) and then carrying on in to finish at Southwark.

That was the plan, and overall it was successful! Bushy Park is the original Parkrun, with the first one taking place in 2004 with just 13 runners. In 2005 Mo Farah ran, and won, his one and only Parkrun there and these days they regularly get over 1000 runners on a Saturday morning. I managed to find somewhere to park and get to the start just in time, as we set off about 30 seconds after I arrived, although I was just in time to snap a photo of the extensive start line before I got swallowed up into the masses.

Since I was going to be running for several hours I took it nice and steady, finishing in just under 29 minutes (and in 796th place out of 1196!), and then funnelled through the incredibly organised finishing system before setting off on the remainder of the run. The overall conclusion after another 5 and a half hours was that the Thames is long and twisty and I didn't take enough food or water (this was partly due to a broken Camelback). Consequently I was very happy to hear the bells of Southwark Cathedral after a total of 50km. Legs are a bit achy today, but not too bad!

The end, finally!!

So, that's everything up to date. Sponsorships have continued to come in, despite minimal effort from me so far, and I'm now over £300 and close to the £350 that I need for the minimum donation. Needless to say I'll be taking a more proactive approach as the race itself gets closer and I'm excited to see how much I can manage to raise for this excellent cause.

Thanks for reading!

Stephen

Longest run, but still a long way to go!

It's the end of another week already, and now only just over 3 months to go until I'm faced with 100km of riverside path to negotiate. I've had another good week of training, which fell just short of 90km total distance covered. This does include the bank holiday Monday run that was mentioned in the last update, which was followed on Tuesday by a nice 20km on a beautiful sunny evening.

The main event this week was a new distance PB on Friday. I was back in the Midlands for the weekend staying with my sister (Clare) and her fiance (Joe), including a day's holiday on Friday. I suppose one of the ways you know you're a proper long-distance runner is when you start spending your days off out running rather than relaxing! Since the River Severn is just down the road from Clare and Joe's house, I decided to get a bit of riverside path experience under my belt by taking the Severn Way from Bewdley up to Bridgnorth. The plan was to meet Clare and Joe in Bridgnorth, have some lunch and then see if I could make it all the way back on my own, with Clare on rescue duty if I didn't.

Would only just be over half way on the day!

The conditions were ideal for running, it rained a little bit for the first hour or so, but then turned into a nice cool, overcast day, with the rain only returning towards the end of the run, at which point it was actually quite welcome! The run itself was very pretty, with the Severn Valley Railway following the river pretty closely most of the way, so I saw several steam trains throughout the day. I made it up to Bridgnorth without any major issues, the only bad part of the run being a wade through about half a mile of thigh-high vegetation around the outside of one of the wheat fields, resulting in full length nettle stings from ankle to thigh. Still itching two days later!!

Upper Arley, about 10km in

 Horses sheltering from the rain under a tree

I managed to keep the pace nice and steady on the way out and kept well hydrated, which meant that by the time I met Clare and Joe I was actually quite hungry and ready for some food - this was encouraging because on previous longer runs when I've been pushing harder I have struggled to stomach more than a few bites to eat, which is not great when you need enough energy to carry on for hours longer. Unfortunately I ordered (and ate) far too much food, and regretted this decision for the next couple of hours!

Looking back down river from Low Town in Bridgnorth 

I did not buy any seeds

I managed not to get serious cramps on the run back, but did have to slow to a walk at regular intervals to allow my stomach to manage the situation I had put it in. I also had to negotiate my way back through the nettles and managed to fall head over heels over a big, glaringly obvious, yellow pipe lying across the path, fortunately I survived unscathed! Despite all of that my legs actually felt fine, and once the indigestion passed I managed to resume a more consistent pace. I sped up for a bit of a 'sprint' to try to hit the 50km mark before my watch ticked past 6h30m and then took it easy for the last couple of miles, which included the hill back up to Clare and Joe's house.

A Severn Valley steam train passing by 

Muddy and nettle-stung, but home!

The final reading on my Garmin was 54.7km (almost exactly 34 miles) in a little over 7 hours total elapsed time, which is my longest ever run, surpassing the 32 mile Roseland August Trail that I did last year, in about the same overall time. I survived without major injuries, surprisingly no blisters to speak of and I even managed Dudley Parkrun on Saturday morning in just 22:10, a time that I'd be pretty pleased with any weekend, let alone the day after a 7 hour run! Although I'd still have another 45km to go in September (that's a little over a marathon), I do feel that I've made very good progress so far. The next couple of weeks will be a bit quieter on the training front, as I'm off to Cologne for a work conference, but I'll hopefully be able to fit in a few runs whilst I'm there and come back ready to cover some serious miles during the rest of June and July.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to sponsor me!

Stephen