h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Took it easy at parkrun, so nothing wonderful about my time. Though I did manage a good sprint at the finish, overtaking a few runners who'd caught me on the final km.

Handicap chase was a lot of fun - again, I managed to catch another runner on my finish - a long time friendly rival of mine!

TQ10k went really well - I felt very comfortable and confident about my running and pacing throughout, I'd planned my hydration and nutrition well over the previous 24 hours. I hit 6km bang on 35 mins, so I knew I'd be on target, and I blew a kiss to the clock at the finish line which showed 59.14. Chip time was 58.49, a good minute off last year's time.

Parkrun 50!

I came 39th out of 190 in a time of 22:55 on a dry course, and still am 7th in the Points Table. It was a good run as my best friend in Primary School who I've not seen for ages but has started doing parkruns near Aldershot came down and visited, and for the first time my family cheered me on too.

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Nice one

Our Parkrun group put a call out for helpers to set up this week as one of the regulars was away, they got a few responses and it was needed! One of the south Manchester Parkruns (I think there's four or five near here) wasn't running because of a larger run event that was on in the same park, so we had a fair few Parkrun tourists come along, plus it was the Manchester Marathon on Sunday, so we had some people from that who were using the Parkrun as a bit of a warm up. All of which meant a record attendance this week of 621 runners! They only have 700 finish tokens, and are considering when they're going to have to order some more!

I took it reasonably easy this week, as I had to go out straight afterwards to deliver beer, and paced around with the wife. Came in at 24:57, (175th place, it's a quick field) and felt absolutely fine at the end of it. It seems that sub-25 minute 5km's are no longer a target, but the norm!

Congrats everyone - Beatrice on the 10k, BB on Parkrun 50, and Pastey's "new normal" sub 25.

Bit of Parkrun tourism for me, as I was off to a wedding. I haven't been sleeping too well and wasn't really feeling it that morning, so I wasn't expecting a great time, even though it was a nice flat course compared to my home parkrun. But although I started far too far back and got hemmed in a bit, I was still only 6 seconds off my PB and ran my 3rd fastest ever time. Really pleased with that - perhaps I could have got a PB if I'd started further up and pushed a bit harder, but probably that allowed me to push harder in the latter stages.

If you want an idea of how large the Heaton Park Parkrun is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vfr750j/16574954434/in/pool-heaton-parkrun/

Let me guess – are you the one wearing shorts and a running top?

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Not telling

Was a very relaxed Park Run this weekend, t'other half was ill and not running, and my mate had sore shins so was resting before the Manchester 10km in a couple of weeks. So I thought I'd take it easy and just pace around gently.
Ended up running with my mate's brother who's not long restarted running after many years off, and paced around "encouraging" him. Came in in 33:48, 495th out 609.

Heaton Park Run has grown, quite a lot. This was the second week in a row it had over 600 runners!

Because I was on my own I went along early to help set up, and got chatting with the organisers. One thing I didn't realise is that although Park Runs are free for the organisers to set up, with the starting kit being provided through the sponsorships, if they need to replace any kit as it wears out, the course organisers have to pay for it themselves.

I didn't know that either.

I did my 51st Parkrun, only 49 to go before the next t-shirt.
I was determined not to give in to the temptation to run as I was doing the Half Marathon the following day. So although I was aware that several people wouldn't be doing Parkrun and so if I did a decent run I could probably come in 20 something rather than 30 something, and get loads of points for the points table, I resisted the temptation. In the end my time was 28:14 and I came 91st out of 168. So an as planned Personal Worst.

On Sunday it was the Southampton Half Marathon
After the panic on getting to Southampton (all trains were cancelled due to engineering works, leaving only rail replacement buses to the city even though they'd closed the roads - SouthWest Trains (other incompetent train companies are available).) I somehow managed to arrive in time, but missed out on the warm-up session.
Still, I ran the Half Marathon in 1:51.32, which as I was hoping for an under 2 hours for my first ever Half I was very pleased with.

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That's a great time BB!

Great stuff, BB! Hope you were able to enjoy it, in spite of all the traffic chaos. Great time, too!

ParkRun 52
Do you know the feeling of inadequacy you get when you turn up feeling proud in your new Half Marathon t-shirt, only to then see a good few people wearing brand-new London Marathon shirts?

Still, since I've started running I've acquired 4 running t-shirts and 2 vests. My wardrobe is getting quite top-heavy, so if anyone knows of any runs coming up in the near future where they give out finisher's shorts or socks instead of t-shirts, let me know. Or even better, shoes.

Saturday was the last run in the Eastleigh Parkrun calendar, and though I was still not quite 100% after last week's Half Marathon, I was very pleased to finish in a time of 23:05, coming 52nd out of 204 – the first run over the 200 boundary.

So at the end of the running year I had 2980 points in Eastleigh, coming 7th out of 935 runners in the male points table. I also did the most runs in Eastleigh out of everyone.

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That's some great stuff there BB!

One of the things that's being said/asked since I started organising a 10km run for beery folk, is to not have medals as mementos because a lot of the runners already have lots of medals, and they tend to get stuck in the back of a drawer somewhere. So we're looking at beer glasses, or you can have medals made to also work as bottle openers.

The Heaton Park Run year ends in June sometime, and I'm nowhere near the top of the table. With close to or over 600 runners each week now, and a lot of them very good, you have to get around in about 23:45 to even get more than the 1 point for turning up! So I just turn up

Next week is the Manchester 10km, so I'm cutting back on running this week. My Park Run on Saturday was pretty good, no lasting aches from my dodgy knee the week before, and I came in not much longer than 24mins, so I'm reasonably confident of getting under the hour for the 10km this year.

The medals v. t-shirts v. reduce the entrance fee debate is unlikely to be resolves any time soon! Though I did get some free socks after a half marathon....

I've now got the beginnings of a training plan for my first marathon in September. I'm going to gradually increase my weekly long slow run to 20 miles, and then run that each week, occasionally going less far but quicker. Nearer the time I'll increase it to 22, then taper. Alongside that, club training, the occasional summer league or other club race, probably some parkruns, and a few other races including a half marathon in June.

This Saturday I got up to 25km, or about 15.5 miles, at just over 5mins per KM. I finished feeling pretty good - glad to be done, but more in the legs if I need it.

Parkrun 53 – 1st of the new Eastleigh Parkrun year.

I came 45th out of 221 parkrunners at a time of 22:50. I double checked and this time last year there were only 98, so the numbers have really shot up. Apparently the numbers of runners at all the local parkruns have been boosted since the first Southampton Half Marathon.

Still, 'cos I volunteered I'm currently 3rd in the points table, on 100 points along with 14 others.

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As you might have seen from the telly and press, it was the Manchester 10km this weekend and I finally managed to break the hour mark for it after getting so close last year with 1:00:24.

It was good weather for running, overcast with some sunny spells, and a gentle cooling wind. I was in a faster wave this year too and had less traffic. Still did a fair bit of weaving though, and tracked 10.5km.

With all that though, my time was 54:08, which I'm very happy about. Over six minutes off my PB for a timed 10km, and only a few seconds off my overall 10km PB. Doing the Park Runs every week really helps you get used to running in a crowd, and being able to keep your own pace and not get swept along.
Plus I think doing 20km running over the course of pretty much every week for the last year has helped a lot too

Nice one Pastey - congratulations! Great time!

Parkrun tourism for me... Kilkenny in Ireland. Not a great time - had a huge meal the night before, had to rush breakfast, and the course was unfamiliar. I'd expected it to be flat or nearly flat, but in fact there's a gentle descent in the first half of the lap and then a climb in the last section which was quite draining. Still, my second ever top ten finish (7th) and my first 1st in age category.... three people finishing ahead of me were in an older age category, but let's not worry about that!

I've made the decision to do a marathon. This may not be a wise decision, but it's one I've made.

So, here's the plan...

The aim is to do the 2017 Manchester Marathon because it's in my home town so I can practice the actual route, it's apparently flat which us good because I'm still not great with hills, and it's not as busy as some like London while still being big enough to have the crowd support I'll likely need.

To help me get there, I'm going to start training for half marathons with the target of being easily able to complete the Great Eastern Run in my old home town of Peterborough in October 2016.

I've only run a half distance once and got a time of around 2:15 if I remember, so knowing what that's lime I think is a start.

I think I'll need to work out some new routes to run, gradually building up the distance.

So, what other advice can you folks give me?

You've got time on your side, which is good - but as I've only ever done one half marathon now I can't really give you any advice, but am interested to see how you get on.

Oh - one word of advice I can give is don't order any ovens.

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Not sure I've got much non-obvious advice to offer, as I'm still on the path from half marathon to marathon myself. Think the only things I'd say is to get a good training plan and stick to it. From what you've been posting here I'd say you're starting from a very solid base.

I'd wonder about scheduling a few more half marathon races to run as part of the preparation for the full marathon. I've done four now and will have five by the time I run my first full marathon, and I now feel comfortable on race day at half marathon distance. Even though I regularly run further than that in training, there's just something different about race day.