End of the year

I have to give a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this fund-raising endeavour. It's been a challenging year, but great to complete it.

I raced for almost 10 hours 40 minutes across the 12 events, climbing over 1,800m / 6,000ft during the 109km / 67.4miles of road, trail and fell (thanks to Saddleworth Rangers for the wine to commemorate my first ever fell race - I feel I earned it, Alderman's Ascent was tough). Within this I was hoping for a 5km sub-25 and a 10km sub-50... I set a new 5km PB, with 24m 33s during a virtual race, and set a new 10km PB, with 51m 7s during the Great Manchester Run (not quite to target, but close - I'll have it in 2017!). Finally, every single race I completed was a course PB! That's quite the year given I only started running with a club a couple of years ago. I hope you've enjoyed watching it unfold :)

Importantly, we have together raised £3,243 - a sum way beyond the £2,400 target, which is amazing.

Thank you to all the individual contributors, both in the UK and overseas. Thank you to my work colleagues for their support and to my employers, Sopra Steria, for providing fund-matching. Thank you to Seen Opticians who generously donated and from where I got my distinctive running specs. Thank you to my fellow runners in the Greenfield Greyhounds and in the other clubs near where I live (Saddleworth Runners, Oldham & Royton Harriers, Royton Road Runners and Hyde Village Striders to name a few), both for organising races and for being great running buddies and competitors.

Finally, a massive thank you to my family for all their support - for those that have come to races and have donated and send words of encouragement; for my mum and dad, who have attended almost all my races this year despite a busy work schedule; and for my lovely daughter and wife, who have put up with me being out training and racing and have also attended almost all my races and given me the support, time and encouragement I needed to get through it all. I love you all so much.

And so the challenge has ended. The races have been run. The money raised, 100% of which goes to the children I'm supporting in Zambia and in Haiti. It's been so important to ensure that these vulnerable children have food and drink, clothing and shelter and to encourage the workers that their efforts are noticed and valued. To ensure that the boys and girls in Zambia have the sustenance they need to learn well. To ensure the boys and girls in Haiti still have an orphanage to call home.

You can continue to donate to these worthy causes up until the end of January 2017 - if you were waiting for me to complete the challenge, now is the time to give!

Tired

Apologies again for the late post. Still very tired from work and other activities. Still not running very much right now.

I have decided to take a break from racing for a while. As you'll know from the race calendar, there are loads of races available. I had wanted to sign up for a couple in August, but I'm just too worn out to justify it.

I have completed 10 out of my 12 challenge races, so only 2 left. I've got the Zombies, Run! Autumn Race in October already booked and will look for a Santa Dash to finish the year in style. Beyond that I'm just going to get back to running for health, fitness and social interaction, enjoying it for what it is.

No specific race training, no putting myself under pressure to increase mileage. Just getting out there when I can, running with my Greyhounds and enjoying the experience. I need to get back into a rhythm of running again and slowly get back my pace. I fully intend to keep improving myself, just not focussing on that right now.

Also, I will reduce the amount of blogging I do for the remainder of the year. You've all read me waffle on long enough, I'm sure. I'll keep you posted about anything significant, but it will be nice to remove this little bit of weekly pressure to scribe for a while. I hope you understand and thanks for following me so far.

The FRA

Given Alderman's Ascent is almost upon me I thought I'd give you a quick run down on the FRA, that is the Fell Runners' Association (England). Saddleworth Rangers have secured a race permit and associated UK Athletics insurance from the FRA. As such, participants have to comply with the 'FRA safety requirements and rules for competition'.

FRA races are categorised according to difficulty (A being the hardest, B the middle and C the easiest) and distance (L being long, M being medium and S being short) - Alderman's has a category of AS, so averages at least 50m climb per kilometre, has less than 20% of the race on road and is between 1.5 and 10 kilometres long.

The runners' rules include:
1. Know what you are in for (be confident of being able to complete the race)
2. Comply with the race rules
3. Use appropriate kit for the course and conditions
4. Wear your race number on your chest
5. Inform the race organiser if you retire (don't complete the race for any reason)
6. Behave respectfully
7. Be subject to disciplinary action (be excluded from the race) if you don't observe these rules
8. Be aware of the basics of hypothermia (symptoms, treatment and how to avoid it)

So I've got my kit ready: waterproof whole body cover, hat, gloves, map of the route, compass, whistle, emergency food. I've read up and been up the mountain at least once (and made it back in one piece). It will be a challenge, but there will be bread and soup at the end, so that'll keep me going! Bring it on!

July Triple

Manchester in the distance, viewed from the top of Saddleworth Moor

Doing two 10k's in one week took more energy than I was expecting. It doesn't seem that far to me, especially as I usually run more than that in training every week. But my calves were aching by the end of the 'double' last week, so I've been gently easing back in to training. I've run more frequently than usual this week, but less distance and less intensity.

That seems to be working and the weather being nice is always a bonus. I did Stamford Parkrun on Saturday and for the first time ever (in my recollection, at least) it was dry - no mud at all! That helped me shave over 30 seconds off my Stamford PB, which is now down to 26m 29s.

Today I had the rare pleasure of being able to run on a Sunday morning. Two Greyhounds and I ran a very tough trail route, eventually climbing up almost 400m to get to the top of the moors. What beautiful views, with not a cloud in the sky over most of the 360 degree panorama, except for some lingering mist in the valley bottom over by Delph. I was worn out by the time I was only half way up, which goes to show how much of the Huddersfield 10k hill training has left me (i.e. most of it).

I need to get that back though, as I've now booked on my next few races. I'm dubbing this the July Triple - three races in one month, each 10 days apart, each involving hills, one race of each terrain type (road, trail, fell)!

We have a late entry to the racing calendar, the Alderman's Ascent, hosted by Saddleworth Rangers A.R.L.F.C. It's a brand new race that takes runners up 400m of climbing to the top of Alderman's Hill, across a bit and back down. A total of 8.5km, but the first half of the race is going to take very much longer than the second half! This is also my very first fell race, so I'm looking forward to getting one of those under my belt.

Ten days after that is the comparatively easy Mossley 10k road race. It's very similar to the course I use for the Zombies, Run! Virtual Race and includes a mere 150m or so of climbing. It starts and finishes at Mossley football club, which means the final kilometre is up hill...

Ten days after that is the Millbrook Monster. Sounds scary. Probably is scary. Almost 300m of climbing in this 10k trail race, then along the hill edges and back down and round. It's popular with the local clubs and there will be a few Greyhounds running all these races, so I'm looking to the camaraderie as a way to offset the hurt!

Ending on a sad note, Little Stoke Parkrun has now permanently closed. Despite valiant attempts to negotiate, the council didn't back down and are enforcing a payment for Parkrun use of the park. Parkrun is free and so this particular run becomes the first to close for this reason. Let's hope it's the last.

Birthdays and slow runs

Happy birthday Sidney and Mark

I've been celebrating in Birmingham with my brother-in-law as he celebrated his 50th and my niece her 18th. I was also 41 on Sunday, so it was a good weekend spent with family and having fun. Some great presents and lovely food too :)

Feeling tired after that though and having just had a few weeks with little running I'm seeing that catch up with me. I was ill for a week with a cold that I'm mostly recovered from now, but it's taken 3 weeks to properly clear up. I was also very busy for a week finalising artwork for my exhibition at Sacred Trinity, which launched last week and looks great. Very happy with the results of that, but it was more effort than expected.

So, after a few weeks of PBs on the back of good training, I'm now feeling sluggish from a couple of weeks of poor training... Race simulation (10k) on Saturday morning was under 54 minutes, but I had to walk for a minute a couple of times and generally didn't feel it. I forced myself out last night and was totally knackered - managed 4.8k in 28 minutes so not atrocious, but I plodded all the way round.

Still these are the variable factors that impact runners. Can't be getting PBs every week. I'm happy I got out (took a lot of willpower) and really need to make sure I keep going out and don't slacken off now. Stride Through The Woods 5k trail race is tomorrow night. I've no idea what the course is like and while I will put effort into it, I'm not pushing for any PBs so will just enjoy the experience and supporting a fellow running club :)

One month to go until Manchester 10k, my race pack arrived on Saturday! I'm in the White wave (wave 2 of 5), which starts at 11.55am. I will have to be careful about food and drink during the morning and when the race is ended will definitely be ready for lunch! I'll also have to be careful about warming up - the warm up at the start line is 11.23, which seems quite early... not sure I want to keep warmed up for half an hour! But getting to the start line too late will be difficult to get into position. All part of the race strategy to try and work out...

Also, half an hour after a gorgeous run up the hills around Dovestones on Thursday night there was a fire! It took 10 fire engines most for he night to control and extinguish and has burned around 3 square miles of hillside. I've not heard about what started it and hope most of the animals in the area got away unscathed - there are a lot of sheep and lambs around at the moment. An unpleasant reminder to be careful in the countryside - small issues very quickly escalate.

So there we go - time to rectify the training balance before the Great Run & enjoy being hosted by the Hyde Striders this week for race number 5. And some great inspiring runs from the Greyhounds this week in the Blackpool Marathon and Half Marathon, the London Marathon, the new unofficial Dovestones Marathon & also a Triathlon!

Appropriate response

In the last week or so there have been a couple of instances of things not going quite right for UK runners. While both have been very disappointing in different ways, it has been interesting and encouraging to see the measured level of response from those affected. Not that those impacted are any less outraged, but proving that there are ways to move forward with grace and humility.

The first is very close to home, where one of the Greyhounds that was due to run the London Marathon next weekend for a national charity found out that the charity had forgotten to complete the registration. As a result, the Greyhound can't take part, despite months of hard training and months of fund-raising for the charity. Virgin Money run a very tight ship when it comes to the marathon, which includes no swapping numbers with other runners and no late entries.

Despite a swift social media campaign, it was clear that the situation could not be changed. So, rather than kick up a fuss, get all grumpy, rail against the charity or rail against VMLM, the runner saw a different way through. They will instead run the marathon at the same time, just up here in Saddleworth. Ten laps of Dovestones reservoir is roughly the same distance, so our Greyhound will prevail, complete the distance and make sure that the fund-raising challenge is still completed. Fellow runners will now be able to join in the endeavour, supporting both from the sidelines and by running alongside for a lap or two! What a great way through a problem.

The second instance relates to Parkrun, which as some of you will know is a free weekly 5k timed run held in parks up and down the country (and some abroad as well). Park run brings huge benefits to the health and social wellbeing of the nation - last weekend there were 86,779 parkrunners (6,663 of whom were first timers) and 8,453 volunteers taking part in 487 UK events.

This week, Stoke Gifford Parish Council (in South Gloucestershire) decided to charge Parkrun for their use of Little Stoke Park, citing that it was "unfair" to expect non-running residents to pay for path upkeep. As a result, for the 300 adults and children who take part in the Little Stoke Parkrun, their event was cancelled this weekend. This council decision comes despite the Little Stoke parkrunners volunteering to undertake any perceived maintenance and litter picking duties required to compensate for their activity. Since this news story broke, another 14,000+ have signed up! 

Parkrun have been trying to work with the council towards a resolution and have encouraged disgruntled runners to avoid the route of antagonistic protest and instead to "act with respect and dignity". However, they have encouraged everyone to share their love of parkrun and of Little Stoke parkrun on social media by way of support to those affected. There have been concerns about the decision to charge voiced by several prominent UK athletes. There has been the inevitable online derision targeted at the council e.g. suggesting they next introduce a subscription service for use of the children's playground (after all, it would be unfair for residents without children to pay for playground upkeep). There is also a petition, for the council to revoke the decision, that to date has attracted over 55,000 signatures.