Category: Races

On the 10th day of Juneathon, I did the Crisis Square Mile Run

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Yes, I’m late with this. I’m also late with days 11, 12, 13 and 14, so this is going to be short.

Crisis Square Mile Run 2010 highlights:

  • Meeting Fit Artist for the first time
  • Meeting up with Eating Trees for the second time
  • A little girl running alongside me for a little while
  • My fastest mile in a race, ever (I think)
  • Beer
  • Pizza
  • More beer

Lowlights:

  • Stupid girl barging me on the bridge at the finish
  • Missing Fit Artist at the finish line
  • Having to leave the pub to get the train home

crisis 002

Stats:
Distance: 4.47 miles
Time: 45:29
Pace: 10:11 m/m

Crisis Square Mile Run 2009 race report

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This year’s Crisis Square Mile Run started off a bit differently from other years.  About 60 miles differently.  Instead of walking up the road after work to take my place with the rest of the red t-shirt brigade, I get on a train for an hour and meet Shaun, who’s been on a course in Ye Olde Londone Towne (well, Brentford to be precise), at London Bridge outside the cycle shop and he points and says what do you think of that

Pashley Poppy hybrid bike

and I think it’s the prettiest bike in the whole wide world and it’s got a silver pump and a bell and everything and Shaun eventually tears me away from the window and we walk up to St Paul’s and I say I’m hungry, can we skip the running bit and just do the beer and pizza  bit and Shaun says ok then but I don’t think he means it and I go into Pret to get some water and accidentally buy a packet of Croxton Manor Cheddar & Red Onion Crisps which I scoff in about three seconds and we get to Paternoster Square and I get my red t-shirt and Shaun queues up for his as he didn’t get a registration pack but they’ve got his name down and I go to Corney & Barrow to get changed and Shaun strips in the street

Strip

then we go to St Paul’s station to wait for Bernard who’s not running AGAIN but is going to be the official bag looker afterer again although he’d been emailing me all day to say he wasn’t a donkey, and even sending me a picture of a donkey

Not Bernard 

just to reinforce this fact and Gary turns up and says he can’t run as they’ve lost his registration and I say are you going to run anyway? and he says no, he’s got a dodgy knee and the run’s about to start and Shaun takes his place with the speedy types and the gun goes off and I’m not sure where I’m supposed to start so I wander over to the pens and it says fast runners only and I look at the people there and I think no way are they fast runners, especially the middle aged woman with the fashion rucksack over one shoulder and so I start there and we get over the start line and people have started to walk already and I think YOU COULD AT LEAST RUN OVER THE FLIPPING START LINE and as usual the first half a mile is a bit of a stop/start but not as bad as previous years and we don’t stand under London Bridge for quarter of an hour this time and at 0.8 miles I get a stitch and I think oops, maybe I shouldn’t have eaten those crisps and I think I can’t stop to walk after a mile, I’ll look like one of those annoying walking people but the pain gets worse and I have to stop and walk and it eases and so I start running again but I’m quite tired and it turns into a walk/run kind of thing and then we get to the London Eye and I walk across the grassy bit as I don’t like running on grass and then I see an upside down cow thing and I wonder what that is and it says bar open and I think AN UPSIDE DOWN COW BAR, HOW COOL IS THAT?   and I want to go to the upside down cow bar and we get off the grassy bit and I start to run again, happy that I’ve seen an upside down cow, and we go over Blackfriars Bridge and a girl behind me asks a man where his sister’s from and he says Cheshire and I think shut up, I don’t care where your sister’s from, stop talking and I’m getting really tired and want to finish and go and get a pint and a pizza and I wonder what route this is going to take as I can’t see it finishing any time soon and I’m a bit confused and then there’s a  girl on my shoulder and I want to shake her off and so I speed up to lose her but then she’s there again and I think get off my shoulder and speed up again and I eventually lose her for good this time and then we’re going over Southwark Bridge and I think maybe this is the finish as we’ve done three miles now and usually the route is less than the advertised 3.5 miles and usually under 3 and I don’t want to go any further and I think is this ever going to finish and I thought it ended over the Millennium Bridge but that’s far away and it’s going to be way over 3.5 miles and I eventually get to the Millennium Bridge and my Garmin says we’ve gone 4.17 miles and I think HALF A MILE EXTRA, ARE YOU TAKING THE PISS OR WHAT? and Bernard sees me coming over the bridge and takes my photo

Crisis Square Mile run finish

but Shaun misses me as he’s busy inspecting the contents of his goody bag and we go to the pub and have a couple of pints, the second pint making us a few minutes late to meet Megan and Meg (sorry we were late, great to meet you both) at an inexplicably empty Harry’s Bar for more beer, garlic bread (with and without cheese) and pizza.

Route

Crisis Square Mile Run 2009 route

Stats
Distance: 4.17 miles
Time: 48:59
Pace: 11:45 m/m
Calories: 415

Dagenham Santathon 5k race report

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Dagenham Santathon 5k 2008In preparation for today’s Santa Stampede, Shaun and I decide to recreate our race preparation for the Tottenham 5 although with the hope of avoiding any young Polish men based road rage incidents this time and hurrah, we get a taxi from the sex change pub and get to the restaurant without our cab driver swearing at any young Polish men driving in bus lanes and cutting him up and I drink too much wine and don’t really remember my pizza which apparently doesn’t mean I get another one to make up for the one I don’t remember and we get up in the morning and make our way to Dagenham and meet up with some of our mountain mates and get our Santa suits which aren’t exactly a size zero and I could fit at least three of me into mine and Shaun could probably fit four of him into his but somehow Alan seems to have got a bespoke Santa suit as it fits him perfectly while the rest of us would be arrested if we got anywhere near ho ho ho-ing distance of small children and we hang around waiting for the start and the man starting the race says something about fast runners going to the front and Shaun says he’s going to run with me and take it easy and just treat it like a training run and then the countdown from ten begins and as soon as the countdown’s finished, Shaun zooms off leaving me for dust and I’m trying not to slip on the ice and at one mile a horrible little eight year old boy pokes me and I think two inches lower and I would have punched him and I drag myself round the streets of Dagenham wondering if a bottle and a half of wine was a good idea the evening before a race and at 2.5 miles there’s a photographer and I attempt a smile but I think I failed and as I’m nearing the end Alan overtakes me and Shaun’s waiting on the corner and I get to the finish line in 29:22 which would be a PB but my Garmin says it’s only 3.03 miles and I think waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, why can’t they ever measure a proper 5k route and I know it’s a fun run but it would be more fun if I knew if I’d PB’d or not and I’ve never done a proper 5k, it’s always less, and Shaun says he finished in 21 minutes and there was a 13 year old girl who did 6:30 all the way round and then the others finish soon after me and Tracey turns up, driven by her mum who’s given her a lift all of, um, about quarter of a mile and we go to the pub where I’ve booked a table and we look at the not very impressive menu which says there’s vegetarian options available and Tracey asks what they are and the waitress looks at us like WHAT THE FUCK? VEGETARIANS? QUICK, CALL THE POLICE! and she says er, I’ll check but I think it’s vegetable hotpot, macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese and the waitress goes off and comes back and says we have no hotpot, only macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese and Tracey says I’m allergic to cheese and the waitress looks blankly at her and Tracey says do you have any sandwiches? and the waitress goes off and comes back and says we can do you a beef or turkey sandwich and Tracey says um, I’m vegetarian and the waitress goes off again and says we can do you a tuna sandwich, do you eat fish? and Tracey says no, and so we decide to leave the pub that offers vegetarians beef, turkey and tuna and go to the Wetherspoons up the road and get a nice veggie roast dinner.  Yum.

Splits

Splits

Stats:
 Distance: 3.03 miles
Time: 29:22 minutes
Pace: 9:42
Calories: 276
Road rage incidents: 0
Pizzas: 1
Pizzas I remember: 0
Santa suits: 1
Horrible 8 year olds poking me: 1
Pubs offering vegetarians beef, turkey and tuna: 1

Newman Hilly 5 race report

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On Tuesday I got up half an hour before my alarm to get ready for my first day back in the rat race after being an unemployed pikey for a month although obviously I didn’t prepare for it by not drinking and having an early night, oh no. I prepared for it by drinking and staying up late. But because I am hardcore, so hardcore in fact that I can complete a Salomon XT Wings Challenge without wimping out and eating fast food instead, I pack my running stuff as I also have a race tonight of the non-rat variety and I go to work in our posh new offices and they let me in even though the offices are very posh and I am very Essex and everyone was expecting me and are very welcoming and I make it through the day and I get the tube to a mate’s house as he’s giving me a lift to the race as he lives up the road from it and he drops me off and says he’ll be back in a bit and I get to the start line and we’re going backwards and forwards and I don’t know which way the start is and I don’t want to be at the front so I keep moving backwards but then the back becomes the front so I move to the back again and then eventually everyone seems to be facing in the same direction and then it starts and off we go into the forest and I didn’t know it was going to be in a forest and I could have worn my trail shoes, maybe even the Salomon XT Wings ones that I got to do my 100 Miles Challenge in (which I successfully completed by the way) and it’s very hot but it’s quite shaded in the forest and then we come to a hilly bit and I don’t like hilly bits but I manage to run up the hilly bit and then as I get to the top of the hilly bit I can see another hilly bit and I think oh no, not another hilly bit but when I get there it’s actually quite flat and there’s a really nice downhill bit and I like that bit and there’s another hill and I walk up the hill as it’s really hot and I’m thinking either it’s quite dark in here or I should have worn my glasses or maybe I’m dehydrated and going to black out soon as all I can see is fuzzy black bits in front of my eyes and I’m still going up and down the hills although walking up the up bits and then I’m on my own with no one in front of me but this is because I’m way way at the back and not because I’m way way in the lead obviously and I come to a bit where there’s no marshal and I don’t know which way to go so I stop and look blank and a man comes along and he stops too and looks blank so we look at each other in a blank way but then another man comes along and points us in the right direction and we carry on and eventually I stop going up and down the hills and I finish and it’s not a PB but never mind, maybe on Sunday when I’ve got another race, that’s if Shaun doesn’t make the hypnotist in the pub on Saturday make me spend the rest of my life pretending I’m a chicken or something and my mate is late to see me over the finish line as usual but he eventually arrives and we go to the pub and because it’s Veganthon I order a jacket potato and beans which I have to veganise by asking for no butter and no salad dressing and today is Thursday which means I have been vegan for three days. Hurrah. Just don’t ask me how my tee-totalathon is going.

Route

Splits

Stats
Distance: 5.08 miles
Time: 52:20
Pace: 10:18
Calories: 432
Uphills: lots
Downhills: 1
Friends turning up on time: 0
Veganised jacket potatoes with beans: 1
Veganthons completed: 3/31

Hampstead Midsummer 10k race report

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I still haven’t learnt how to prepare for a race and I sit up late drinking and watching BB on Saturday night and don’t go to bed ’til 3am and I wake up at 6:30 and remember I’ve got a race and my alarm will be going off at 7 and I’m wondering if I can be bothered to go to the race and I’m thinking Golders Green is far north and why do people go there to get married and I think oh no, that’s Gretna Green which is even further north and I’m still trying to decide whether or not to go to the race and my alarm goes off and it reminds me of the olden days when I had a job and I lie there for 40 minutes listening to my alarm and thinking I should go to the race, I’ve paid for it, in fact I paid twice so I should definitely go and apparently you get a mug and I’ve never got a mug in a race before so I get up and get ready and leave the house at 8:30 and I get to Golders Green at 9:30 and there’s a couple on the tube and the man’s wearing shorts and I wonder if he’s going to the race and I can follow them to the start but I can’t decide if he’s a runner or not, he might just be wearing shorts today as it’s sunny and I get off the tube and as I’m standing on the corner peering confusedly at my map the man who was on the tube comes over and asks if I’m doing the race and I say yes, do you know where it is? and he says the newspaper vendor said it was this way and so I walk up to the race with the couple and I say to the girl you’re good, willing to stand around for an hour waiting for him and she says she decided to be supportive and it’s the first race she’s gone with him to but doesn’t think she’d wait at any races longer than a 10k and especially not if it’s raining and the man hasn’t got a number so he queues for his number and I put my bag away and we go to the start line and I say bye, good luck and the race starts and we have to go up the longest hill in the world ever and I think oh no, I’ve got to do that three times and I wonder how the speedy types will lap me as the pavements are narrow and after the first lap there’s a man spraying people with a hose and I think I don’t want to get my hair wet but I can’t avoid Hose Man and I think I don’t want to be sprayed by Hose Man another two times and after a couple of miles I’m getting lapped by lots of fit blokes and I think actually maybe laps aren’t so bad as then I get to see lots of fit blokes and as well as the longest hill in the world ever is a nice downhill bit but I’d better get used to hills anyway because I’m going to be seeing three very big hills when I do the Three Peaks Challenge in August and then I’m doing a lot of walking and my bladder is telling me maybe it was a mistake to drink three-quarters of a litre of orange juice just before the race and the marshals are very friendly and they’re clapping and I start to run again as it’s embarrassing to walk past a marshal and someone behind me says thanks marshal and I wonder how many marshals are called Marshal and I know a clerk called Clark and I walk/run the rest of the race and get to the finish and get my medal but there’s no signs of any mugs, only watermelon and I can’t see anyone with a mug and I think bloody hell, I got up early after only 4 hours’ sleep and I don’t even get a mug and I get back to the changing rooms and I still haven’t seen anyone with a mug and on the table are bottles of champagne for the speedy types and I unsurprisingly don’t see one with my name on it but I look at my Garmin and it tells me today I got a PB. Hurrah.

Racing bling

Today’s route

Splits

Stats
 Distance: 6.22 miles
Time: 1:06:33
Pace: 10:43 m/m
Calories: 625
Longest hills in the world ever: 3
Men with hoses: 1
Fit blokes lapping me: lots
Medals: 1
Mugs: 0
PBs: 1
Juneathons completed: 18/22
Music
Jeff Buckley
Ting Tings
The B52s
The Beatles
The White Stripes
Mark Ronson
Bobby Conn
Cribs
Straw
THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE
 Miles completed so far
89.23 out of 100 / 2 days left

Crisis Square Mile Run 2008 race report

5 comments

Well it’s that time of year again when I get a free red t-shirt and run through the City of London with 1,999 other similarly attired runners. Yes, it’s the Crisis Square Mile Run which was my first ever race two years ago and therefore is my most favouritest race ever ever ever.

I decide to do another experiment and run without my iPod and “soak in the atmosphere”. My experiment lasts for approximately 100 yards when two girls next to me start screeching and I switch my iPod on to drown them out with my new favourite band, Black Kids.

We get under London Bridge and the race has come to a standstill as 2,000 people attempt to go up the stairs single file and we’re held up for ages and I look at my Garmin and it says we’ve gone .85 miles in 17 minutes which isn’t very fast really and I think we’re going to be a bit longer than the 35 minutes I said I’d be and Bernard the official bag looker afterer and beer getter inner will be getting bored and cold and there’s a man in zebra print and then there’s a dickhead dressed up as a doctor carrying a huge plastic hypodermic needle which he is perilously close to spiking people with, the twat, and we go past a lot of pubs and I have a brainwave and think next year, we could walk round and get a quick half in each pub along the route and then even lightweights like Bernard can join in instead of looking after the bags and getting the beer in although looking after the bags and getting the beer in is obviously a very important job and we get to the Millennium Bridge and have to do another lap and I do another lap and get back to the bridge and go up it and people are still just finishing their first lap and I think ha, I’ve lapped people, there’s a first time for everything and I get to the finish line and get my banana and water and go and wait for Kate to finish and I see her coming over the bridge and I start cheering and clapping and then Bernard says, er, that’s not Kate and I think oh shit I should have worn my glasses and I’ve just cheered and clapped a complete stranger and then a man on a spacehopper comes over the bridge and ha ha, Kate’s going to be beaten by a man on a spacehopper but Kate overtakes him and I make sure it is Kate this time and it is so I cheer and clap and then we go and rehydrate with beer and then go back to Paternoster Square to claim our goody bags

and I go and find Womble to say hello to and Kate and Bernard have picked up a goody bag for me then we go to the pub and near the pub is this nice building

then we go to Harry’s Bar to get pizza as Harry’s Bar does the nicest pizza in the City and when we’ve finished our pizza they bring us chocolates with the bill and they owe us 2p as they haven’t got any change so we say ok, we’ll let you off the 2p but you have to give us more chocolate and they do and then we go to another pub which is really crap and then I go to get the train home and at the station is a sign with a number you can text to grass up fare dodgers and for some reason I find this really funny.

Route

Splits

Stats
 Distance: 3.32 miles
Time: 44:37
Pace: 13:26 m/m
Calories: 282
Time spent under London Bridge: 15+ minutes
Men dressed as zebras: 1
Dickheads waving spiky plastic things around: 1
Pub crawl ideas: 1
Kate lookalikes: 1
Men on spacehoppers: 1
Music
Black Kids
THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE
 Miles completed so far
47.85 out of 100 / 12 days left

City of London Race for Life 2008

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After getting the sack from my new job on Friday for the spurious reason that my twat of a boss found me a bit abrupt, I later find out that his old secretary came back from her travels early and asked for her job back. Wanker. I spend Saturday drinking and sulking and decide that I’m not getting out of bed today, let alone go and run a Race for Life with 10,000 women wearing pink and walking really slowly but by the time I drag myself off to bed at 3am I decide to set my alarm anyway and see how I feel in the morning. In the morning I feel shit but I decide to do my race and, after all, Juneathon starts today and the laws of Juneathon must be upheld.

I get in the right lane this year, the lane for runners, unlike last year when I joined the walkers by mistake and I think we’ve set off but everyone’s still walking and I don’t see a start line and then we get round the corner and I see the start line so we haven’t started yet and then there’s a countdown and it takes three minutes to get across the start line so I decide my Garmin time will be my official time and by the time we’ve gone .2 of a mile, people have already started walking and I decide to push anyone walking out of my way and then I see some shops that look familiar and I realise we’re running down Cheapside and I’ve just gone past my ex-work and I think I should have brought a petrol bomb with me or something and after about 2 miles I overtake a girl who had been walking in front of me and who’d I’d already overtaken and I think how did she get there? and then I realise SHE CHEATED!! She must have crossed over the island and CHEATED and I’m pretty sure if you cheat in a charity run then you definitely go to hell and then some woman barges into me so I elbow her in the ribs and she says sorry and at last the race is over and my Garmin says it was only 2.75 miles but because I spent most of it stuck behind people walking slowly I don’t qualify for free pizza which I have been promised if I can do a sub-30 5k and I go and get my medal and my goody bag which consists of a granola bar, cranberry juice, moisturiser, face wash, deodorant and a horrible brown lipstick but at least I got a goody bag unlike Shaun, who, in his last race only got a paper cup and speaking of Shaun he’s just started a blog so he can join in Juneathon, so go and take the piss out of say hello to him here.

Goody bag

Today’s route

Stats:
Distance: 2.75 mile
Time: 32:32 minutes
Pace: 11:50
Calories: 276
New jobs: 0
Hangovers: 1
Women wearing pink and walking really slowly: 10,000
Juneathons: 1
Music:
The Mission
Sisters of Mercy
Madonna
Faith No More
The Secret Machines
The Levellers
Baby Teeth
Hole
Chumbawamba
THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE
 Miles completed so far
23.46 out of 100 / 24 days left

3 miles in 30 minutes

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As Warriorwoman has impressively spent two days chasing tube lines, after cleaning my embarrassingly dirty kitchen, I enter three races and this sufficiently motivates me into venturing out into the Bank Holiday sunshine rain to keep up with the challenge within a challenge (although I am quietly confident that it won’t be long before Warriorwoman slacks off with pathetic excuses like exams/broken backs/flowers to water, etc.)

I go round the marshes and get soaking wet and I do my 3 mile route in just over 30 minutes and therefore it’s looking likely that I will do my sub-30 5k at Sunday’s RfL if I don’t get stuck behind too many pink-lycra-clad women walking really slowly whilst eating pies and therefore can claim my free beer and pizza. Hurrah.

Stats
Distance: 3.01 miles
Time: 30:05
Pace: 10:00 m/m
Calories: 303
Races entered: 3
Sunny weathers: 0
Rain: lots
30 minute marshes: 1
Free pizzas on the horizon: 1
Music
The Beatles
The The
The Smiths
Bobby Conn
Mika
The Mission

Miles completed so far
6.49 / 100

Hornsey YMCA 10k race report

7 comments

In preparation for today’s race, last night I sit up late drinking wine and watching Sex and the City and so this morning when my alarm goes off at 7, I sleep through it until 8 and I think shit, can I be bothered to go to the race? and I decide I can’t but then I think when I go to work tomorrow and they ask me how I got on, if I say I overslept and didn’t go, I’m going to look like a sad pathetic loser and I try very hard to cultivate an image that doesn’t involve looking like a sad pathetic loser and so I get out of bed and put on my running gear, grab the bottle of Gatorade that I picked up in Sainsburys to try because it was half price and get to Finsbury Park and wait for the train to Hornsey and I take a swig of the Gatorade and fuck me, that mings and I look at the label and it says it’s orange flavour and I think well that’s the weirdest tasting orange I’ve ever had and the train comes and I get to the park where the race is going to start and I’ve got ten minutes to go and then we’re off and as we’re going down a narrow alleyway someone keeps kicking my feet and I think fuck off and stop kicking my feet and they keep on doing it so I turn round to give them a dirty look and it’s Superman and I think SUPERMAN IS TRYING TO TRIP ME UP, bastard, and when we get to the hill that leads up to Alexandra Palace station I don’t even attempt to run up it and I walk but no one else seems to be walking unlike last year when everyone walked up it and as we’re going through Alexandra Park an excessively hairy man overtakes me and excessively hairy men ming more than Gatorade and I stop to walk to let him go far far far ahead into the distance because if I have to look at that for the next five miles there’s a good chance I will be physically sick and as I’m about to overtake a girl ahead of me she waves me past and I say thanks and I end up overtaking her another two times and each time she waves me past and then it’s getting on my nerves as I don’t need to be waved past, I can see where I’m going and if she waves me past again I’m going to punch her and I don’t seem to be in a very good mood today and I’m thinking that is probably due to too much wine and not enough sleep and then we’re nearly at the end of the race and I’ve taken quite a few walking breaks and going to get a crap time and I was promised free beer and pizza if I did sub-60 but that was never going to happen anyway and as we enter the park to the finish line there’s a deaf runner in front of me and I know he’s deaf as he has a sign on his back saying deaf runner and I wonder if it’s mean if I overtake him and I decide saying something mean about him would be mean as he couldn’t hear me but overtaking him isn’t mean and then I’ve finished the race and there’s a big cattle pen thing and it’s going really really slowly and I’m wondering if I really want to queue for half an hour just for a bottle of water and a banana and I decide I don’t but I can’t see how to get out of the cattle pen thing and so I stay in it and I get given a bottle of water and a coconut water drink but no banana and I go to look for the doughnuts and while I’m in the doughnut queue I read the label on the coconut water and it says “Inside every young coconut is a refreshing electrolyte-replacing beverage that far surpasses every artificial sports drink.  Vita Coco is fat-free and an excellent source of potassium, manganese and magnesium.  In fact, this 100% pure life enhancing beverage has also been proven to increase vitality, ease digestion, cure hangovers and …” WOAH, HANG ON A MINUTE, CURES HANGOVERS?  What the fuck?  And I’m thinking they should give them out at the start of races, especially the ones I’m at as I’m not very good at the no drinking the night before a race thing and the label carries on “… literally save people’s lives”.  Literally save people’s lives?  Yeah right.  How can coconut water save people’s lives?  Lassie saved people’s lives but he used to alert passers-by by barking, as far as I’m aware, coconuts don’t bark.  And I’m not sure a prime-time TV programme about coconut water is going to be a hit either.

And after I’ve got my doughnut and finished reading the back of the hangover-curing life-saving coconut water I go and find the t-shirt tent but the queue for t-shirts is about two thousand miles long and I can’t be bothered to go to the back of the two thousand mile long queue which is a shame because the t-shirts look quite nice and so I go home instead and I’m home by 12:15 and I eat my doughnut and the doughnut must be laced with sleeping pills because suddenly I can’t keep my eyes open and I go to bed and don’t wake up ‘til 4:30 and I’ve wasted a whole afternoon sleeping.  Bah.

 

Stats
Distance: 6.34 miles
Time: 1:10:13
Pace: 11:04 m/m
Calories: 633
Early nights in preparation for race day: 0
Supermen trying to trip me up: 1
Excessively hairy men: 1
Annoying women waving me past: 1
Life-saving flavoured coconut water drinks: 1
Doughnuts: 1
Two thousand mile t-shirt queues: 1
Music
Duran Duran
Madonna
The Smiths
Depeche Mode
Rolling Stones
The Jam
The Mission
Massive Attack

New running commute

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I still haven’t retired. Honest. And I know it looks like that if I haven’t retired, then I’ve at least gone part-time but that’s not true either. I had a string of injuries but things come in threes and now I’ve had three and so that should be that and now I’m back in the land of the living, running and blogging. Hurrah.

I spend Monday evening printing off maps so I can plot my new running commute that www.walkit.com has plotted for me and I spend my lunch hour today drawing on the map in blue highlighter pen and I’m thinking I’m going to get lost as it’s a completely different way to my old commute and it even misses out Murder Mile and so at 6 o’clock tonight I set off for my new running commute and try and find somewhere to stand and wait for my Garmin to pick up a signal. I’ve also brought out the Nike+ Sportband for another test but the display is completely bolloxed now and is unreadable. Bah. Still, I have my trusty Garmin and it doesn’t take too long to get a signal and I follow my map up to Moorgate and past Old Street and through Hoxton and into Dalston and then across the road on the right I see the road I used to go down on my old commute and I think hmm, shall I go that way as I know where I’m going if I go that way but I decide to put my faith into The Map and it’ll be a change anyway and a change is as good as a rest so I continue going left and the road on the right wasn’t the road I thought it was because I come to the road I thought it was and this time it definitely is that road and I think hmm, shall I go that way as I know where I’m going if I go that way but once again I decide to put my faith into The Map and keep on going up the road and then I’m in Stoke Newington and as I’m crossing a road I walk into a pitbull and I think shit, it’s going to bite my leg off now but it’s a nice doggy and doesn’t bite my leg off and it’s hooded owner doesn’t shoot me either and I say sorry to the dog and carry on and I’ve done 3.5 miles which is more than I’ve done for two weeks and I’ve got a 10k on Sunday which I’m going to struggle round and I decide to walk until I get to 4 miles and I get to Stoke Newington station and I need to turn off and I start running again and then I’ve gone too far and I’ve gone the wrong way but I think that’s not bad only going the wrong way once so far on my new running commute and my navigation skills are obviously improving and I find the way I need to go and I’m in Clapton and I’m thinking this can’t be Clapton, it looks nice round here and it’s very different to the Murder Mile bit and I need to find Spring Hill and I see a road without a road sign and it’s definitely a hill, in fact, it’s the steepest hill I’ve seen ever ever ever, or is at least the steepest hill I’ve seen since the last time I saw a steep hill and it’s all downhill and I think weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, and I run down the hill and then I’m at the marina and I know where I am and I get home and I didn’t suffer too badly on my first run for over two weeks and may even make it to my race on Sunday. Yay.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 6.63 miles
Time: 1:23:40
Pace: 12:37 m/m
Calories: 604
New running commutes: 1
Times went the wrong way: 1
Times looked at map: millions
Walking breaks: quite a few
Music
Cardiacs
Sleeper
Bobby Conn
Jamiroquai
Jesus & Mary Chain
Foo Fighters
Missy Elliot
Levellers

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