Ramping up the Training
In my last post I'd mentioned at the end about my friends Michelle and Hayley bullying me into doing a park run up at Ashton Court.
For anyone who doesn't know what a park run is it is a free, organised, timed run of 5km that takes place on a Saturday morning at thousands of locations around the world. It's very simple, they have a website http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ that you can register on. You put your detail in, you get a sheet of barcodes that you print off and take one along with you to a park run at the designated time and location. Everyone starts at the same time and 5km later you cross the finish line and get your barcode scanned and a bit later that day you get an e-mail with your official time on, the position you finished etc. To say it's brilliant is an understatement.
Anyway back to my bullying friends. Both Michelle and Hayley had been brilliant and we'd all been texting and messaging and they'd both said they were really proud of what I was doing which really meant a lot coming from them with how long we've known each other (getting on for 30 years). I'd first met Michelle in October 1991 when we started a Saturday job at Woolworths on the same day. We both got on really well from that day and as we lived close to each other used to walk to and from work together. I first met Hayley about a year before that when our schools did a musical production together, Merrywood Boys School and Merrywood Girls School did a musical production of 'Dracula Spectacular' and we were both in it. I also went to college with Michelle and Hayley and had two amazing years with them and our other friends studyingnights out at Ritzys BTEC Business & Finance. I digress, the running - I'd noticed from the apps they were using and from posts on Facebook that they were also running and it gave me a bit more encouragement to get on with the running or 'ralking' (see previous post for explanation) as I was calling it.
Eventually I decided I might be ready to have a go at a park run - the bubble run was getting closer and I thought it might be good to do a run with other people to see how I'd do. So far all of my ralks had been solo affairs. So after chatting with Michelle and Hayley we agreed to do the Ashton Court park run on Saturday 29th July 2017. Have to be fair I was a bit nervous - to me my friends were proper runners and I'd only done a couple of ralks along the flat in Weston super Mare. They'd done a few park runs at Ashton Court before so knew the course.
Ashton Court is an country estate in the South of Bristol about 20 miles from where I live. As a kid Ashton Court was only a mile or so from the house I lived in with my parents. For a better idea of where it is - it's where the Bristol Balloon Fiesta is held every year. We agreed to meet around 0830 on the Saturday morning so an early start for me from Weston super Mare.
I was not sure of what/how much to eat before I went. Whenever I get up and got out on the bike or ralking usually I get up around 0530, grab a small cereal bar and get out. That keeps me going until I get back and have my breakfast properly. For the park run I'd be leaving home more than an hour before the run started. If I didn't eat enough I was afraid I'd make a fool of myself and keel over part way round and embarrass my friends. If I ate to much I was sure I'd get indigestion half way around and start belching and vomiting and embarrass my friends and not be able to show my face again. I tried going for the middle ground - a slice of toast with peanut butter on and took a small cereal bar with me to have when I got there.
So I set off in my 'control top' (from previous post a tight fitting training top that controls my belly and moobs), shorts, trainers (with sensible socks) and met Michelle and Hayley in the car park at Ashton Court. We made our way to the start area and a couple of times they mentioned there was a 'bit of a hill' to climb. Didn't worry me at first, I'd been to Ashton Court back in the day (in my teens) and remembered there was a hill but from memory it wasn't much of a hill - from the manor house up to the golf course. It's here I have to say that park runs (particularly at Ashton Court) are brilliantly organised and everyone is so welcoming. They have a briefing for anyone who is doing their first run at Ashton Court and then a briefing for everyone where they announce who is doing a landmark run i.e. 50th run etc and then everyone is off. There is also a tail runner - a volunteer who is always last and makes sure everyone comes home safely (sounds like the Grand National horse race!!) thus making sure no park runner is last. Bloody brilliant. The three of us wished each other luck and we were off.
I set off at my usual pace. So far in my practice 5k runs at home I was pacing myself by doing 40 running paces and then no more than 50 walking paces to recover or pacing between lamp posts. As there were no lamp posts here I started off with my 40/50 pacing. The course at Ashton Court is not a looped course as some other runs are, it's 2.5km out and then 2.5km back and as I was about to find out the first half is all uphill. The first couple of hundred yards are a gentle incline, then you hit the hill. I'd like to make an appeal for the person who thought it was funny to make the hill from the manor house to the golf course 10 times steeper than I remembered it from my teens when it (from memory) was practically flat. Whoever has done it - STOP IT. It's not clever and it's not funny. Put it back how you found it!! Anyway nothing I could do about it this morning so I started off up the cliff face (lets not call it a hill). It seemed to go on and on and on and just when I thought it was flattening out it would curve around to the left and kick up again. After what seemed like an age I finally reached the summit and a 90 degree left turn to see the hill carry on but at least flatten out.
By the time I was two-thirds of the way up the hill the more serious runners were already going past me on the way down. Now that could be a little discouraging, but not with park run. The amount of encouragement I got from other runners as I made my way up the hill and around the course was brilliant and nearly overwhelming. 'C'mon mate, keep going!!', 'You're doing brilliantly', 'That's the hill done - the worst part', 'Go one keep going mate' were some of the comments I got. I tried to reply to each one with a rather breathless 'thanks' or 'cheers'. As I got to the top of the hill I thought to myself that I couldn't be that far away from the half way point, as I raised my head and looked down the path along the top of Ashton Court I couldn't believe how far the line of runners were heading towards the half way point stretched. If I'm honest I thought I was going to be in Tickenham before I turned around!! I kept looking for Michelle and Hayley to see how they were doing. I cam across Hayley first 'Go on Bloke keep going' she said as she high-fived me as she went past. Not much further along I saw Michelle who offered a high five and 'well done bloke. nearly half way now'. I have to apologise to Michelle - as I high fived her I stumbled on the uneven ground and my side of the high five was a bit to 'enthusiastic' and nearly took her arm off. Eventually I reached the turnaround point and with more encouragement from the volunteer marshalls (park runs are only possible because of the brilliant volunteers every week who make them possible) hit he half way point and started to head back.
This part would be better as it was pretty much all down hill. About half way back I was overtaken by the last runner so had the tail runner for company and yet more encouragement. I managed to bore him on the way down with (between breaths) an explanation of why I was doing this and that I'd beenbullied encouraged by two friends to do the run. The company and encouragement of the tail runner and the marshalls still out on the course seemed to make the second half of the run go a lot quicker. That and the fact it was downhill. Eventually the finish funnel came into site and I was amazed to see there were still people hanging around as well as Michelle and Hayley. I decided to run the last hundred metres or so into the finish and down the finish funnel. I'll be honest I over estimated the gas I had left in the tank and before I reached the finish funnel was regretting the bravado of my kick for home in front of a crowd (something I'd foolishly repeat at the bubble run next week!!) but I couldn't lose face and had to keep going. Although I thought I was going to lose face when I stepped off the path onto the grass and into the finish funnel. Didn't take into account the ground might be uneven and stumbled the first few steps. I could hear Michelle and Hayley (and others) cheering me on as I came down the finish area. I got to the end and got my barcode scanned and hit the 'stop' button on my strava app and rather breathlessly made my way over to Michelle and Hayley who greeted me with big hugs and loads of 'Well done Bloke' 'That was brilliant'. As I began to get my breath back I think my first words were 'who put that bloody hill there?!?' We did a post race selfie (below) and headed back to the car park.
If three months before my first park run someone would have told me that I'd get up on a Saturday morning, drive to Bristol and run 5k around Ashton Court they could have expected me to try and slap some sense into them. But here I was and with the support of my friends and everyone at the park run I'd finished 421st out f 422 park runners in a time of 51 minutes 57 seconds and was already talking to Michele and Hayley about when we'd do another park run. Later on that afternoon I checked the page for the Ashton Court park run and there was a phot of me in action (below)
Like I said I was ramping (or climbing a hill) up the training, one week until the bubble run...
For anyone who doesn't know what a park run is it is a free, organised, timed run of 5km that takes place on a Saturday morning at thousands of locations around the world. It's very simple, they have a website http://www.parkrun.org.uk/ that you can register on. You put your detail in, you get a sheet of barcodes that you print off and take one along with you to a park run at the designated time and location. Everyone starts at the same time and 5km later you cross the finish line and get your barcode scanned and a bit later that day you get an e-mail with your official time on, the position you finished etc. To say it's brilliant is an understatement.
Anyway back to my bullying friends. Both Michelle and Hayley had been brilliant and we'd all been texting and messaging and they'd both said they were really proud of what I was doing which really meant a lot coming from them with how long we've known each other (getting on for 30 years). I'd first met Michelle in October 1991 when we started a Saturday job at Woolworths on the same day. We both got on really well from that day and as we lived close to each other used to walk to and from work together. I first met Hayley about a year before that when our schools did a musical production together, Merrywood Boys School and Merrywood Girls School did a musical production of 'Dracula Spectacular' and we were both in it. I also went to college with Michelle and Hayley and had two amazing years with them and our other friends studying
Eventually I decided I might be ready to have a go at a park run - the bubble run was getting closer and I thought it might be good to do a run with other people to see how I'd do. So far all of my ralks had been solo affairs. So after chatting with Michelle and Hayley we agreed to do the Ashton Court park run on Saturday 29th July 2017. Have to be fair I was a bit nervous - to me my friends were proper runners and I'd only done a couple of ralks along the flat in Weston super Mare. They'd done a few park runs at Ashton Court before so knew the course.
Ashton Court is an country estate in the South of Bristol about 20 miles from where I live. As a kid Ashton Court was only a mile or so from the house I lived in with my parents. For a better idea of where it is - it's where the Bristol Balloon Fiesta is held every year. We agreed to meet around 0830 on the Saturday morning so an early start for me from Weston super Mare.
I was not sure of what/how much to eat before I went. Whenever I get up and got out on the bike or ralking usually I get up around 0530, grab a small cereal bar and get out. That keeps me going until I get back and have my breakfast properly. For the park run I'd be leaving home more than an hour before the run started. If I didn't eat enough I was afraid I'd make a fool of myself and keel over part way round and embarrass my friends. If I ate to much I was sure I'd get indigestion half way around and start belching and vomiting and embarrass my friends and not be able to show my face again. I tried going for the middle ground - a slice of toast with peanut butter on and took a small cereal bar with me to have when I got there.
So I set off in my 'control top' (from previous post a tight fitting training top that controls my belly and moobs), shorts, trainers (with sensible socks) and met Michelle and Hayley in the car park at Ashton Court. We made our way to the start area and a couple of times they mentioned there was a 'bit of a hill' to climb. Didn't worry me at first, I'd been to Ashton Court back in the day (in my teens) and remembered there was a hill but from memory it wasn't much of a hill - from the manor house up to the golf course. It's here I have to say that park runs (particularly at Ashton Court) are brilliantly organised and everyone is so welcoming. They have a briefing for anyone who is doing their first run at Ashton Court and then a briefing for everyone where they announce who is doing a landmark run i.e. 50th run etc and then everyone is off. There is also a tail runner - a volunteer who is always last and makes sure everyone comes home safely (sounds like the Grand National horse race!!) thus making sure no park runner is last. Bloody brilliant. The three of us wished each other luck and we were off.
I set off at my usual pace. So far in my practice 5k runs at home I was pacing myself by doing 40 running paces and then no more than 50 walking paces to recover or pacing between lamp posts. As there were no lamp posts here I started off with my 40/50 pacing. The course at Ashton Court is not a looped course as some other runs are, it's 2.5km out and then 2.5km back and as I was about to find out the first half is all uphill. The first couple of hundred yards are a gentle incline, then you hit the hill. I'd like to make an appeal for the person who thought it was funny to make the hill from the manor house to the golf course 10 times steeper than I remembered it from my teens when it (from memory) was practically flat. Whoever has done it - STOP IT. It's not clever and it's not funny. Put it back how you found it!! Anyway nothing I could do about it this morning so I started off up the cliff face (lets not call it a hill). It seemed to go on and on and on and just when I thought it was flattening out it would curve around to the left and kick up again. After what seemed like an age I finally reached the summit and a 90 degree left turn to see the hill carry on but at least flatten out.
By the time I was two-thirds of the way up the hill the more serious runners were already going past me on the way down. Now that could be a little discouraging, but not with park run. The amount of encouragement I got from other runners as I made my way up the hill and around the course was brilliant and nearly overwhelming. 'C'mon mate, keep going!!', 'You're doing brilliantly', 'That's the hill done - the worst part', 'Go one keep going mate' were some of the comments I got. I tried to reply to each one with a rather breathless 'thanks' or 'cheers'. As I got to the top of the hill I thought to myself that I couldn't be that far away from the half way point, as I raised my head and looked down the path along the top of Ashton Court I couldn't believe how far the line of runners were heading towards the half way point stretched. If I'm honest I thought I was going to be in Tickenham before I turned around!! I kept looking for Michelle and Hayley to see how they were doing. I cam across Hayley first 'Go on Bloke keep going' she said as she high-fived me as she went past. Not much further along I saw Michelle who offered a high five and 'well done bloke. nearly half way now'. I have to apologise to Michelle - as I high fived her I stumbled on the uneven ground and my side of the high five was a bit to 'enthusiastic' and nearly took her arm off. Eventually I reached the turnaround point and with more encouragement from the volunteer marshalls (park runs are only possible because of the brilliant volunteers every week who make them possible) hit he half way point and started to head back.
This part would be better as it was pretty much all down hill. About half way back I was overtaken by the last runner so had the tail runner for company and yet more encouragement. I managed to bore him on the way down with (between breaths) an explanation of why I was doing this and that I'd been
If three months before my first park run someone would have told me that I'd get up on a Saturday morning, drive to Bristol and run 5k around Ashton Court they could have expected me to try and slap some sense into them. But here I was and with the support of my friends and everyone at the park run I'd finished 421st out f 422 park runners in a time of 51 minutes 57 seconds and was already talking to Michele and Hayley about when we'd do another park run. Later on that afternoon I checked the page for the Ashton Court park run and there was a phot of me in action (below)
Like I said I was ramping (or climbing a hill) up the training, one week until the bubble run...
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