Three In One

Hello blog lovers.

Free!

I have been slacking, way too much, with my blogging taking a back seat!  So now I am going to cram in as much as I can while my brain is still functioning this evening!

The first was a Thursday morning run.  I wanted to take the group on a route that I haven't taken them before but I know IllustriousLeader has taken us that way.  I don't normally go into jubilee park, unless I am with some faster runners and we are going a bit further than 3 miles.  After doing the mob match there last year I knew I could work out a 3 mile loop of the park. 

I more or less knew the general direction and so we just went for it.  Auriol was with me, Tracy and the other ladies.  Auriol will be leading for the first time and this is the way she will be coming.  But for me, I was going to do a loop in the park and then come back the same way. 

It worked a treat, and with the help of Auriol we didn't actually get lost!  A lovely run with the bestest group!  I can't understand why I didn't get a picture of us all, I shall have to try harder to remember!

Geeky stats.

parkrun Saturday

Back to parkrun now, well, what can I say!  No pb, but then I haven't really be trying hard at all!  I shall have to work blimmin harder!  What I can say though, it was so hot!  Even at that time in the morning!  I couldn't believe it when I started to catch up to Holly, now she is faster than me, and probably at least 40 years younger than me!  So I was either ridiculous faster, which obviously is not that case, as I have already mentioned, no pb.  Or it really was so hot even the young un's were suffering!  I think I kept her on her toes though, as she kept turning around.

Me an Auriol ran together mostly, we'd catch up to each other, run along together, then either she would walk or I would walk.  But the last straight, just before the funnel is when we decided to do our sprint, I took off first with Auriol saying "Go on Old Girl" I started to get into my stride, I thought I had it, I was totally focused on the funnel, I could hear NaggyNeighbour calling out to me, RefMichael was urging me on.  I kept on running and running, trying to get faster and faster, I was in touching distance of the orange funnel when all of a sudden Auriol flew up the inside of of me and pipped me to the post!  Well, she just had to do it, after I did it to her on the Harvel 5!  Touche` Auriol!  A great run.  Love parkrun.

Tuesday Club run

So now, we are up to date.  This is this evenings blog.  Club run, as sub heading suggests.  The heat of the day is still with us and I just knew it was going to be a beautiful run.  NaggyNeighbour drove today, we picked up Tracy on the way and then parked up near J.J.'s house.  We all walked the short distance to the rec.  It was going to be an exciting run this evening, it was Auriols' debut leading run!  I was there just as everyone else, with no leaders bib!  

There was a big cheer when Auriol stepped up to give out her route, which she did perfectly like shes been doing it for years!  Then we all collected around our leader after all other leaders had said their bits.  There were 18 of us in the group!  That's a brilliant number for a group 1.  Both me and J.J. were sweepers, we were not going to leave the group just yet, we were there to support Auriol!  Next time she we will be moving up to group 2!

We waited till all the groups had left the park and then we headed for the top gate.  We were going over the walking bridge and then through Jubilee park!  Our group was large but there wasn't much distance between our leader Auriol and the last runner, it was quite a tight group!  We had a catch up in the carpark by the Newsshopper buildings (which are now flats actually) and then we continued our way to Tent Peg Lane and Jubilee park.  

We had a bit of a catch up there, just so that I could tell everyone about the mob match in about 3 weeks time.  It's going to be brill.  We have added to our membership with the beginners joining us and I really want to encourage all of our group 1 to turn up for this fantastic friendly mobmatch.

We then ran all the through the park, pass Bickely Manor and then down Barnet Wood lane.  We were going back into the woods.  It's gotta be down, we love the woods.  Auriol was being the 'Good Leader', she wasn't taking us up Goss hill, instead we were going to run along side the river and then turn right to run up towards the rail tracks.  It was getting closer to home and so was some of the other groups.  As we were running by the rail tracks Hels group came running up behind us.  They were going over the Bridge, all those steps, she works them hard, right to the end!  

With just about a quarter of a mile to go, group 2 caught us up!  I wondered how many other of our groups had finished their run in Petts Wood, well, it was a great way to finish a run that's for sure.

We had to run through Dog Poo ally and then back to the rec.

A fabulous run, very well lead of course, by the lovely Auriol!  Oh, by the way, the picture at the top of the blog, you may be wondering what I was doing, I was just explaining that I was 'FREE' from my leaders bib! Honest.  Oh if only I could put a boomerang picture on here!!

Geeky stats and some pictures taken by our resident photographer, Hannah

Group 1 without Hannah

Group 1 with Hannah

Just some of the scenery we  run pass

PWR Style Mid Summer Run

Hello blog readers.

If Carlesberg could do running clubs!.........Need I say more! Flippin love this this club!  Every year that goes by I just love this club more and more.  I still find it amazing that I belong to this club, that I actually kept my running going.  I know I have quite a few new readers with me, and unless you go right back to the very beginning of my blogs, (and my goodness have I written a shed load of blogs over the years) then you may not realise why I started running in the first place.  It was bought back to me on Sunday actually when my good friend Tracy gave me the tee shirt that all 20 of us, back in 2008 wore for the very first run that I did! (with out cheating/cutting short a lap, that is)  It was the Race for Life in the City of London.  There were 20 of my family and friends that were running in memory of my mum who died in the November 2007 from that bloody cancer shit!  I was a large, lumpy lady, wrong side of 40, never ever done anything as energetic before.  I actually wondered if it was dangerous to even start anything like that.  It was, in fact, around about this time, ten years ago that I started my running 'career'!  How cool is that.  And now look at me, a large lumpy lady, wrong side of 50 but bloody fitter than I was 10 years ago!  Plus, I am a leader of a running group, plus I have made some of my bestest friends being here in PWR.

So todays run was all about PWR and just the fact that we are all the most friendliest group ever!  It is one of my favourite events in our calendar, it brings all the groups together in one place.  It still don't bring all the members together, some can't be here on a Tuesday!  I expect the woods during a PWR Midsummer run would have every single path full of PWR'S  Do you think I have mentioned PWR's enough in this paragraph!?

It was slightly different from last year, we were all to meet in the rec, form our groups and then run!  The official Club Photo will be shot at the drinks station which is Paulines' house!  We still had all the leaders giving out their route, mine went something like "We are heading for the pub......meet over there"  Of course I meant drinks stations, which was supply water, beer, lager, prosecco!  So you can see why I kept things brief.  In fact most of the other leaders kept it just as brief, with WendyLC saying "We're following group 1"  And really our route was one of the most easiest routes to follow.  A straight out and back, it's easy than trying to figure out which way to go home after the visit to the drinks station!

All the groups were pretty large today mainly because the groups were combining together.  apart from group 1 and 12.  But group 1 still had 20 runners!  A fantastic amount of runners.  After our count up and quick briefing of where we were going we started our run. We managed to get ourselves out of the gate before group 2 and so reached Dog Poo Ally before them.  But they were hot on our tails as we came through the ally all merged as one!  I waited until group 2 members all came through and gathered around their leader, WendyLC while my group 1's all stayed with me.  We were now going to be following behind them as we all head down the left path, our destination is Botany Bay Lane.

We were not far behind group 2 as we ran along to the rail way bridges.  I had a catchup by the bridge and I watched group 2 run along the path towards the down hill stretch to the stream.  After we all got together again we ran along the path by the rail lines and then the lovely downhill section to the little river.  Group 2 had already disappeared from us now, they were going along the left hand path, going up Goss Hill with her group.  I was taking my group straight up, up, up to the very top of Botany Bay and the turning left to run towards Summer Hill.  By this time some of the faster groups had got to this point and we made way for them, group 2 caught up with us again and passed us by.  You could tell we were pretty close now to Paulines house!  It was just a little further up the road, and boom baby!  There it was!  A great layout of our buffs and kit bags for member to buy.....and then the free drinks table!  Bloody brilliant!  Nobody was in a rush to leave.  In fact, it was planned this way!  Run to Paulines, enjoys some drinks for 20 to 25 minutes and then run back to the rec!  Oh and of course the club photo taken at this spot!  It's a great opportunity for everyone in every group to mingle and chat and laugh and share with all!  Everyone is in good spirits, everyone is chatting, laughing, drinking!  I can't tell you how great it is!  Well, I can of course, it's bloody great!  But it has to come to an end.  After our photo was taken, there was time for one more drink and then the run back home.

So, you remember I said we had 20 runners leaving the rec in group 2, well on the way back we had 22!  It was the same as last year!  I can't understand how that happens!  Well, when there is a beer in your belly, the last thing you really want to do is to pelt it on the way back!  I certainly didn't want to!  In my group there were at least 6 leaders!  So I did what all great leaders did, I delegated RefMichael to lead the way back, supported by Nigel showing us the short cut.  This is us running towards Botany bay Lane,

I became sweeper, you know, lead from the back, strategy.  We got all the way down to the National Trust house and then RefMichael delegated Carole and Auriol to lead the rest of the way back to the rec!  They waited for us at the back just by Dog Poo Ally, and they gave us a cheer!  Of course, with me in good spirits I decided to take the opportunity to make a totes emosh speech, only kidding about though but I had forgotten, in group 1 now we have a very own roving photographer!  If these is joking about it will be captured!  Look at this!  I could get an award for fabulous method acting!

Totes emosh

A truly fabulous way to spend a Tuesday evening club night!  Not only that, but we actually covered about 4 miles!  Fantastic for a group 1 run!

Geeky stats!

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Eltham 5 Miler

Hello blog readers.

Yesterday, along with tons of my running friends and buddies, turned up at Eltham.  We had signed up to do the New Eltham Joggers 5 mile race!  It is a race, but for us in group 1 and 2 its a run, just because we can, plus we get a nice shiny medal for our efforts!  For most of us in group 1 that was the first time we had done the NEJ Eltham 5, we were all really looking forward to it.

There were six of us in group 1-2 that were travelling almost together, 2 cars, very well organised, to pick us all up.  Michael was with Carole and J.J. while Tracy came for me and Wendimoo!  We arranged to meet at registration at 09:30.  Mind you, why we decided that early I don't know, well I sort of do.....the email from the RD said that registration opens at 08:30, we didn't want to get there too early considering the race didn't start till 11:00 am.

Us lot

After we got our numbers, pinned them on to our PWR tops, we had plenty of time to sit, relax, even had a coffee!  Throughout the next hour more and more PWR's turned up.  Not as many as there have been on this race before, it has been one of our Grand Prix fixtures, but there were still a nice number of us.  I managed to get some of them captured for my usual team photo!

It was soon time to line up for this race.  It seemed there were only about 300-400 people, I am not sure of the exact number of entrants. We were all very excited as we lined up, and then we heard the noise, or did I imagine it.  But whatever, the runners in front of me all moved forward, together, like an army!  I looked at my Garmin, made sure it was still ready to push the 'Go' button as I moved along with the 'army' as well, probably not as in sync with them, with my style of shuffle running!  As soon as I hit the mat I pushed the start button on my Garmin.

Carole, Wendimoo and RefMichael all just moved up quickly, along with Lou, who was one of this years beginners!  It marvellous to see that she is challenging her self!   Me, J.J. and Tracy were here to just get around as best as we could.  Tracy had her heart on not being the last one.  My aim, well, I didn't quite have one, I just wanted to run and talk.  Sometimes you just need to run and talk, even on a race day!

As I have never done this race before, neither had the J.J. or Tracy, we had no idea of the route, what it was like, did it have hills.  It was going to be a complete surprise, quite nice really, then there are no expectations!  We started on the field, I knew it was going to be a two lap course, meaning we are going to be running pass the finish line, and also we were going to have to negotiate those that suddenly pull up in front of us as they have just finished their 5 miles!  That's ok, we know what to say, we can just pretend we are at parkrun and call out "Mind out, fast runners coming by!"

We ran to a bridge, It was crossing a very busy road, thank goodness they built this bridge.  I wouldn't have like to be running across the road!  I am sure the drivers would be looking at you most angrily as they were held up until the last runner passed by!  We ran along side the busy road, we couldn't see it, it was behind the trees, then we were in the wooded part of the route! It was just lovely running through the trees. This is us in the woods.

 The signage was a bit misleading though, as it was a two lap course, seeing signs saying three miles when we hadn't even done 1!  Just as well I had my Garmin on!

The route took us back out on to the road, but not for long, just a short little section and then another marshal showed us back into to the woods.  This is where the only hill is, its just a tiny little incline, so we can't complain!  We carried on through the woods until we came out to a clearing.  We ran along then with a sharp left turn we were running around another little field.  The marshaling, I must add were just brilliant.  They kept the cheering going all the way round.  We got to the bridge again to run back over it, to head for the beginning/finish line and for the second loop, I could hear one of the most cheeriest cheerleader/marshal at the run. We could hear her for the first time when were were running to the bridge for the first time, then we heard her again when we ran back over.  It was just a about another 200 meters (I am not very good at judging distances) till we got to the beginning, and then we had to do it all again!

We were still all running quite closely together, Tracy was keeping up well with us, we wanted to run with Tracy as she was just a tad worried about it for some reason!  Heaven knows why, because she had already done a 5 miler only a couple of months ago, and that day it was a bit chilly!  So on our second lap and the 'Whoop whoop' marshal was still cheering every single runner along!  How she had lost her voice I don't know!  Back over the bridge, running along by the busy road, marshals directing us all the way along!  It was great fun.

But then we started to think about things as we got closer to the finish line.  Just a head of us was a lady in a white tee shirt.  She had actually passed us on the first loop, she was pulling away from us.  I kept her in my sights.  She was going to be my race to the finish line!  But now matter how faster I got I just couldn't reel her in.  We were getting closer again to the bridge, with the 'Whoop whoop' cheerleader marshal.  I just had to stop and say that it was an absolute pleasure to hear her just as loud, just as cheery as the very first time we passed her by.  I found out her name was Maxine!  Here, this is Maxine!  A model marshal!

Maxine, Cheerleader extraordinaire!

So now it was just the little bit along the park now, I could see white tee shirt lady, we seemed to start gaining on her, both me and J.J.  I could tell J.J. wanted to catch this runner up and pass her by.  We both put a bit of speed on, it looked like an impossible task as she was nearing the last corner of the run.  I will have to take her now or really belt it down the final straight!  We kept on and on and we finally caught up with her just as we all hit that last corner, J.J. had said something to her, but I was just on a mission by then, I set my sights on the finish mats, I didn't really want the white shirt lady to get back in front of me.  So I just ran and ran.

People were cheering, I could RefMichael calling out and Wendimoo calling, I did it.  I stopped my Garmin at 1:09:14  but........but.........the distance was 4.89m!  I only noticed that on the way home! Mind you, Carole's Fitbit said she had done 5.1 miles!

But I got my medal, I got some water, and then.......I got some beer!! And I got some cake!  What is not to like about this race?!  I shall deffo be signing up again for next year!

Here's my Geeky stats and some more photos!

much needed beer

Just us lot Chillin before the race

Wendimoo, stretching out!

Carole, winning spot prize for fancy pants!

Cheers! Always good to stretch afterwards

And flex, and each, and flex and drink

There was some serious stuff happening
Gavin won the M40-49 age category!

some of the photos are from Lou and some from Carole and some from me

Running, Butt-Kicking, Stealing? And That's After a Morning Run

Hello blog readers

Thursday Morning

This morning wasn't a bright as I hoped it was going to be, in fact I am sure I could feel a slight precipitation in the air.  I picked up Tracy en route to the rec, parked up and then walked to the park.  There were quite a few runners today, three groups worth.  In my group we had 6 runners, me, Tracey, Carole, Auriol, Wendimoo and Paula!  It took a bit of time for me to get warmed up, just as well I took it easy.  It felt like I was running with lead legs till we got to the top of the woods at least!  

I took them on the left path, by the rail lines and then up Botany Bay Lane. 

All the way Botany Bay Lane, we were heading for Scadbury Park.  I wanted to see how the lovely little cottage, the game keepers lodge was doing.  It's such a lovely little place!  So that was our route this morning, and we really did start of slowly.  I so needed it.  We did get a bit of a pace on afterwards, but running up the blimmin hills seem to knacker me!

We were running all the way up to the main road so that we could cross over to go into Scadbury Park.  I was dying to see if it was all finished.  Guess what?  It was finished.  It was beautiful too, here, I took a picture.  

But then one of the ladies noticed something else, something that wasn't quite beautiful, something that was really kind of......weird!  This, 

What is it! Why is it hanging there, is it to scare of all us runners!  I may have to do some digging around on the Internet to find out why.

So, we were nearly back to the rec, we finished off our run through the woods, crossed back over the main roads and we were back in our woods, Petts Wood, where we ran down to Dog Poo Ally and then  back to the rec.  Lovely run, lovely ladies, love my club!  We had a coffee afterwards, down at the local Cow and Bean just before I went back to get ready to go see our Kirsty!

Thursday Evening

What was going on at the rec this evening.  There was some tyrant boss training a gang of thieves!  Can you believe it, the rec turned into a Fagins lair!  Gangs of thieves steeling from each other, then they were running for the law before becoming the law's informants, and then before you knew it, they were all totally organised as they ran around with their loot, passing from one to another to try and keep the law off their tails. It's true, all of it, honest m'lud!

Well, ok, so I could make a fab story about todays outing on the rec this evening for our core training, but I won't.  I will tell you exactly what happened though!  I was the leader this evening, only because J.J. spoke last week about this fab speedy game that we did last year, so DiscoRich suggested that I lead this week so that we could play it.  As it happened, J.J. wasn't even here this evening, she had made plans!  Tracy wasn't with us either, or Wendimoo!  But Carole and Michael were there, and Charley and Debs, and Charley's mum, and, and, and. loads of others too!  In fact there were 20 people at this weeks core session! 

I started them off running around the green to get a warm up and then there were the drills off course, skipping, caraokas, butt-kicks etc.  So that takes care of two of the words in todays title!  The third word, 'Stealing', well that is to do with our fist speed game!  We had three teams of 6 people, who were more or less the same distance from a big pile of cones in the middle of the triangle of 'gangs' (teams). The aim of the game was to to 'become magpies' and run to the big nest of goodies, and collect 1 item and bring it back to their own nest.  Sounds good right?  Well, ones things were underway, the gangs then sent out their best runners to go and steal from the other gangs to put back into the big nest of goodies.  At the end of a times session, the gang......team with the most cones won!  But among the the cones was the golden bar, that particular item was worth 5 cones! I think there was a bit of strategy going on, also there was a bit of trying to hide cones going on too!  But I think everyone had fun for the first game! 

After a quick drink we then had the core training.  There were lunges, push-ups, star jumps, ab curls and the dreaded burpees!  (you can blame Simon for that particular discipline! he mentioned it)  I am sure I should have added a couple more exercises in there, but I was totally strict on them, making sure that we all looked like a working machine, all in time, all bending and lunging at the same time, counting, each lunge, star jump, and ab twisty thing.  I should have tried to count the burpees, but that particular exercise is so hard, we all do it a different speeds! 

After the core training (I should have done some more, I know I should have!) we had another game, this time British Bull Dog!  A fab game,  you have one runner in the middle of a marked out pitch and the rest of the runners are on one side of the pitch.  They then have to run to the other side without getting tagged!  If they do, they then join forces with the first runner catching people on the next wave as they run back!  We managed two games of that one, and after a quick drink we had our last speed running of our favourite relays.  Running in teams of 3 with a baton for about 10 minutes.  We finished with some well needed stretches! I did do a bit of running in this, one of the runners got a twinge in her foot, so I stepped in to take her place!

Well, I enjoyed this evenings sessions, bossing everyone around!  Well, leading really, leading this session, in a strong manner!

Park Run - First after the Beginners Graduation!

Hello blog lovers,

Sorry just a quickie as I forgot to write it up last Saturday, but I did park run, for the first time since we started the beginners group way back in April.  But since the beginners grad I have been on holidays and eaten quite a bit, drank quite a bit, had the odd cigarette or two!  (I know, but getting my head straight again now)  So Tracy picked me up as my car needed petrol and we drove to Normans park.

We met all our usual buddies there, and Amy was actually doing her Graduation parkrun too!  She had missed it on the original one and she must have been here there and everywhere, so this was her graduation.  Naggy Neighbour was there too, she had bought her mum and Chocs along as it was a special run for the NHS, (she works for them by the way) it's the 70th birthday if I remembered rightly, and we had some of the wonder NHS staff running with us, one lady even had on the old style nurses uniform on. 

I think that was about it for that run, I didn't get a pb or anything, blimmin slow really, 40:14 I think it was.  But still, I got up and did it, better than most of the country sitting on their couches, or still lying in bed!

Geeky stats..

Club Run - Last of The Flowers!

Hello blog lovers.

It was quite exciting doing the call out for the route today at cub run.  I had the great pleasure of introducing our two newest LiRF, Auriol and Carole!  A big well done and welcome to the ever growing group of leaders, it's just as well as our club gets bigger every year!

Last Thursday I took our Thursday Morning group out.......well actually it was just me and Carole that went out that morning, but the route that I took was through the Rhododendron walk, so beautiful that day, the flowers was out in full bloom.  I really wanted to take our Tuesday nighters along there.  There is just a short time when the flowers are there and then they're gone!  I was hoping I wasn't too late.

Once everyone was ready and gathered in their groups I had a count up, we had 16 in our group, a couple of newbies too!  Quite a nice sized group and all smiley faces!  We do all love a run in the woods, so peaceful and just perfect.   Well when I say peaceful, it is really, apart from our constant chattering and also calling out all the hazards as we pass them by, "Roots, low branch, stones, poo!" We call them all out and it gets passed down the line to the sweepers, who by the way were our newest leaders Auriol and Carole.  That way, they can see how the group works together, the front runners and the back runners.  I know they have already done sweeping for the group anyway, but now they are taking notes, and thinking about keeping the group in a nice tight bundle for when they lead.

We went in through Dog Poo Ally and then took the left path, it's down hill this bit, only a slight down hill, it is a great path to run though.  Plenty of roots to run over, a board walk to cross and a little stream to run by.  Then there is the rail line, if you run solo through here you can 'chase' the trains, if you hear a train then you got to run fast get to the bridge before it gets to the bridge!  Great fun.  I saw a dog doing it a couple of years ago! It made me smile.

We were running really well together, Tracy and K were running in the middle of the group!  We had some running just ahead of them and J.J. was running next to me while our two new leaders made sure no one was lost!  We ran all the way down to the little stream, "We turning left Old Girl" one of the ladies called out behind me "No, not today" I said, "we are going up, and up, and up".  We were doing most of Botany Bay Lane today, maybe next time, if we still have the light with us next time I lead then we shall go all the way up!  But this time we ran along the top of the woods along the bridle path, it's wider!  But just as we started along there we saw a couple of horses with the passengers on top and we had to duck under the wire to get to the people path!  We stayed on that path, well might as well, so then we ran along the top boardwalk bit, passed the pond at the top.  It was a bit 'minging' but there is still so much life in that pond! 

We soon had the last of the hills.....undulations to do which took us right to the top of the woods, by the middle path!  I tried to kid the newbies by pretending to read the map to make sure I was heading in the right direction.  I think I may have done that a few times before as all the others have head it to many times!

So the next bit, the best bit,  it's all down hill, to the path with the gorgeous, pink, flowers, (just by the wood mans home)  Oh one day I will spot him again!  I really hope that I spot him again!  I really hope it's the same wood man that I spot again!  The path that we were going to run down for just a few short weeks a year is adorned with the pink flowers, but when we got there, all that was left was just the remnants of what used to be there!  There were pink 'confettii' petals on the floor as if the bride and groom had walked down here already.  Oh well, there is always next year!  It wasn't all green and 'has-been flowers' along there,  some flowers were still firmly on their branches and giving a good show!  So it wasn't a total waste of time, mind you, this path is just perfect, whether there were flowers or not!

We were soon back on to the middle path, and then just the short run to Dog Poo Ally.  After everyone caught up with us I had a quick briefing, told everyone they could run at their own pace back to the rec, ready to do some cool down stretching, which Auriol and Carole led together, just as a practise for when they take their turn in leading group 1.

A fab run, loved it!  I love leading, and I love to just run along with my buddies!  So Geeky stats,  I had to make sure I ran all the way into the rec and just pass the pavilion to make the 3 miles dead!

Doing The Double On Thursday! Run and Talk!

Hello readers.

It's been a while since I've done a double session on a Thursday, but today I did!  I really enjoyed both sessions too.

I turned up at the rec this morning around 9:30 am, I knew that Carol was going to be there but I wasn't sure how many others would be.  As it happened, in my group this morning it was just the two of us.  DiscoRich had a large group of athletes to take out, he had two groups combined!  Anyway, it was just me and Carole and when we were ready we followed the faster runners out of the gate!  We were heading for the woods of course!

Carole really enjoyed the Rhododendron corridor last time we ran down there, so I decided to run that way again, only this way in the opposite direction!  For me, things look just slightly different when you run routes 'backwards'  I remember IllustriousLeader, a good few years ago, saying that she ran routes in the opposite direction and generally nobody noticed!  I know I didn't that's for sure!  So it was going to be a bit of a mystery tour, if I couldn't work out which path to take!

The best thing about running when there is only two of you is that you do talk!  We chatted and chatted, as we ran together, I had to keep on stopping though, to make sure we were heading in the right direction!  I stopped and then turned around to make sure, it certainly seemed we were on the right track.  When I saw those big pink blooms then I knew I hadn't gone the wrong way!  It looks even better, is there even more flowers?  It certainly looked like there were.  Of course my camera came out, just to take this selfie of the two us.

I was hoping that maybe this will be the day we see the illusive Woodman!  It has been several years now since that time with MichelleC, that we saw him that time in the woods.  Had our minds been playing tricks on us, was he really there, and if he was, was he really as 'adonis looking' as he is now in our minds?  Maybe it was just luck that we saw him there that day, or maybe it was some other completely random guy doing some work in the woods!  Well, me and Carole didn't get to see him this time round either!  Oh well.

We ran along the top of the woods and we saw a couple of the other runners running by themselves.  They decided that they wanted to run through the woods too!  I had no idea where DiscoRich was taking this group then!  We didn't stop chatting, talk about #runandtalk, it is great therapy!  We we soon running down Goss Hill!  The miles seem to just disappear.  We did some walking too!  Well, it had to, I am sure you wouldn't believe it was me writing this if there was no walking involved!  One day maybe!

I really had a great run through the woods, it was just perfect, and it's given me a bit more confidence that to think about doing that route with group 1 on Tuesday!  Its only just over 3 miles and we managed to get through it within the hour!  We shall just have to go out and try it!

Back through Dog Poo Ally and then run to the rec.  A good stretch out, still chatting, but most of all still smiling!  A Perfect run! And I really did need it too, I was trying to stay calm and collected!  I had a dentist appointment today, and I am really not that good with Dentists! 

Geeky stats

Thursday Evening Core Training

So here's the double! You didn't think it was just run and talk did you?  Seven thirty, on the rec with about 14 others!  You know, we are not the only ones that use the rec!  There is another little running group that meets there!  Can you believe it!?  Why they have not come and joined us in PWR is a mystery to me, after all we are the bestest group around! But we don't mind sharing the green, there is also a few guys practising the cricketing skills, the dog walkers of course, and the tennis courts were pretty busy too!

DiscoRich was taking the session today, he seemed very strict, no nonsense, completely opposite from his wife, IllustriousLeader, who lead last week!  It's great having different leaders each week, you get a different work out each time!  

The session started of course with the two lap jog around the green then the warm up drills to get us ready for the first running session.  And that was pyramids.  DiscoRich had laid our 5 lots of three cones, and then put us in five groups.  I am sure you all know the pyramid running but now, the order was , run to 1, back, then 2, back, then 3, back then 2, back then 1.  We all did that twice!  DiscoRich hadn't put us in 'equal' teams, so there were not faster runners mixed in with the slower runners "It's not a race" he said "Just do as much as you can" he said.  Well, of course, every year, it is always a race, even if us in the slower groups just tell ourselves that we are racing, and racing against then others without telling them! Well, us in the slower team didn't win!  Even with our "...only run to the first cone" strategy!

Core training was next, some lunges, planks, pushups, squats.  It's all good, I can really feel it in my legs!  Surely I must be doing it right!  It must be working soon, the weight and the toning must start making some improvement now, surely!?

Speed session after that, well, as speedy as us in Group 1 can go, to do the relay running.  With a warm down lap of the Green, or in our case, a small circle around the cricket pitch, ready to do the stretches!  A great session, can't wait for next week, I wonder who is leading!?

Club Run

Hello blog readers.

Yesterday was club run, I was leading.  I was still feeling fat and bloated so the hills were calling!  It's still nice and light to be able to go through the woods, and we all love going through the woods!  We can't do that many evening runs through the woods so while it's light out, we will venture into the woods!  The rain for during last week and the little bit of rain we had just a few days ago had managed to reach the floor of the woods, but that didn't put me off, I was hoping that there was just a couple of little paths around where the big muddy puddles would be, that way I could keep my group running!

Joining us for the first time in group 1 was our newly appointed liaison officer, Spencer!  He was joining us to to introduce himself to our band of merry runners!  We are a friendly bunch, us here in PWR, and when there is a new committee member, or swap around they like to come and introduce them selves.  We in group 1 are particularly friendly, or am I just being biased!  It is a great group!  there were a couple of members away, on holiday, but we still had 12 runners!  Not bad sized group!

I decided to take them on the left hand side of the woods first, it's usually the wettest part of the woods for some reason, and if the rain had got down to the bottom of the woods then we can get the muddy bit all done with first!  As it happened, it wasn't that bad!  Soft and spongy, but no real wet mud! It's going to be perfect!

I lead them to the little river, we had some faster runners and some slower runners but when we got to the river we had plenty of time to go up my favourite hill (NOT) and that's Goss Hill!  It's good to throw in hills and besides it's very difficult trying to not find a hill when we run though the woods anyway!  So, my 'food baby' that seem to be growing in belly was going to get exercised away! 

After we got to the top of Goss Hill I thought it was a perfect time for a picture with our group 1'ers.  At the top of the hill was a young couple and I asked them to take the picture, not only that but also tell them all about our running club!  A great bit of PR!  This is us, just a few minutes after running (walking some of it) Goss hill!

We ran along the little path, I really do hate this path, only because of the barbed wire that runs along separating the sheep from the humans!  It's a thin path, undulating, like a little rollercoaster ride, so you have to keep your eyes on the floor!  We were running along here when one of the other groups came from other end of the path!  Well, at least we ran up Goss hill, they were having the easy way of running down it!  At the other end of this path, just as we were about to run at the top of the woods another group came down from the top of Botany Bay Lane!  Another high fiving moment for us all as they continued to run down, we were taking the top of the woods, along the back of the school.  It was just as we were running along here that I decided to take another path down and towards the rail lines.  We had to get back Dog Poo ally, it was either this path or the middle path!  We hadn't been down that path for a long while!  It does mean that we have to run along the same bit of path we ran along earlier! But still, it feels different when you run it in the opposite direction!

Back to Dog Poo ally and back out of the woods.  The light was still with us, although it was just a little gloomy in the woods, it was still just perfect!

Our Geeky stats for the evenings run!

Thursday Evening Core Training

Hello blog readers

I'm catching up with my blog writing now!  So this is about last Thursday evening. Our club core and speed training had begun a couple of weeks before hand, this was the third week.  Of course I was busy getting over a weekend away with the Old Boy, plus the weeks holiday I had prior to that!  I was feeling like a plumpy mcplumpster, from plant plump!  Seriously, my weight had gone up by half a stone!  I really need to do something about this!  So I decided that I will do as much as I could do, but of course I had in mind that just after this, on the Saturday, I had the Harvel to do, (blog already written up and published!)

As it happened, IllustriousLeader was taking the session, and as she says, with an iron paw in a velvet glove!  It wasn't going to be all skipping an giggles!  No, she had a plan and she made us work!  It seem to be such a long time ago we were doing our core training, of course it was, in fact it was a whole year ago!  I do enjoy these sessions though! 

IllustriousLeader had us running around the green for a warm up, twice! Although I only done one as I was just a tad late!  Then it was our skipping and butt kicking to the cones to really warm our muscles up, because after that the speed session started.  I.L. split us in to two groups, faster runners and the slower runners!  She then took over to the cricket pitch and place five cones about 10 feet on the outside of the pitch, one each corner and then one as a starting point!  The aim was that the slower runners run around the pitch as close to the roped off area as possible while the faster runners run around the cones, thus running further, but giving us a chance of winning!

It makes both teams really try hard to get around the pitch and make it back to your team  as quick as you can so the next person can run around.  It really is a great way to race against the faster runners, and you feel like you are really competing with them too!

We (the slower runners) lost both times we did it mind, but that is not the point we tried and had fun!  After that it was the core training bit.  Now it had been raining quite hard just a day or two before and the ground was slightly damp still.  But we did some squats, star jumps, lunges for our legs, and then I.L. did get us to get down and do some planks and push ups!  We are hard core!

To finish off we had a par luffs, or relay running for the last 8 minutes of course followed by cool down stretches!  Brilliant!  I didn't over do it, or at least I thought I didn't, but the following day and on Harvel day by legs felt like lead!  So it must be good for me, right!

Harvel Hash House Harriers 5 miler!

Hello blog readers.

Well, it's been a good few days since this fantastic, very popular run took place!  And I was very lucky to get a place!  This race sold out in about 8 hours! Eight hours!  That's how popular it has become now. "Why not increase the number of places?" some of us asked their committee. "Because we want to keep the whole thing safe and enjoyable as we can" the said "Which does mean keeping it safe on the village green too"  To be fair, if you could see the amount of people that come to support those that run, which is about as 600 or so ( I think that's how many they have in this race), then they really do have it spot on!

I didn't get a place straight away!  I had to wait to see if anyone cancelled and then they could transfer their place to me!  Being in a fantastic running club puts me in the right place at the right time! Thanks Julie!  So run place secured, coach place secured, all I needed was a picnic....and beer!  After all, it is a Hash House run!  It takes place on a Saturday, perfect, no missing church, it takes place at 2pm, absolutely perfect, a lay in too (unless you still did a park run!)  I didn't do park run, and I really enjoyed my lay in, but not too long as I needed to get my picnic!

I met the coach and all my PWR buddies outside the Daylight in Petts Wood and we piled on to the coach.  There was a great buzz on the coach, chatting and laughing, unlike those early morning coach trips we have had, when we've volunteered for some of the races!  It's not a long journey there and we were soon pulling up in the field where the coach will drop us off, it's just a short walk from here to the village green and the party atmosphere that is HHHH 5 miler!

The first thing to do.......is to hit the beer tent! Here, this is us lot getting ready for running 5 miles.

This race is not for getting PB's unless its Pints in Bladders of course.  It's a great fun run, of course there are those that do go for speed, because it really is such a beautiful route, along the roads but then you get to the woods and it's just beautiful!  With a gentle slope up to the woods, and some wonderful down hills in the woods.  There is, of course, that short sharp bump towards the end of the wooded area, just before you come out of the woods!  This year we had extra mud, I am sure there wasn't as much mud as last time, but just a couple of days previous to this there was just a small thunderstorm with a bit of rain!  A months rain in one down pour I had heard!

So after my hydration before the race we headed off to the start.  As with most well organised races they have the starting signs, 30 min finish, 40 min finish, 50 min finish, 60 min finish and then there was this one!  This one I thought I could quite easily do within the stated time!

We eventually found our expected time of finish and all chatted till it was time.  Here, this is us here.
selfie pic in queue

There was no count down but there was a gun!  It was quite loud, even us at the back could hear it as it started the race.  The runners moved forward just a few steps at first then more and more, then faster and faster.  The blue mats were soon under our feet as we heard the continuing 'beeping' of the timer as it recorded our start times from our chips on our shoes.  The afternoon was already at it's hottest, and my legs were feeling like lead, I think I over did it on Thursday evening at the rec!  (I needed to write up that blog!)  So with lead legs, extremely warm weather, beer in my belly already plus, having put on over 6 pounds during two holidays, I knew I was going to suffer big time!

Fortunately I had someone to run with me, Auriol and for the first mile we had Paula too!  We kept each other going as we chatted and ran (and walked) our way around.  This race was the first time for Auriol, I was pretty sure she was going to enjoy it!

And that's where we lost Paula as she ran along at her own pace!  Me and Auriol just plodded our way around and before long we were at mile 2!  Well that happened quite quickly, maybe it's not going to be quite so difficult after all

The hoola girls were also here!  It's such a fun and party style run!  You gotta love a dress up!

The water stop was a most welcome sight, of course this is a Hash House run, this is the water stop!

I took full advantage of the 'free bar'  although, as we were the slower runners, all that was left was beer, the wine and lagers had gone!  Even Auriol decided to immerse herself in the full HHHH experience and indulge in some beer too!

We had lost Paula before the 2nd mile, so I don't know if she had a beer, but me and Auriol carried on running and taking a picture at each mile marker!  The heat was really on, full on and we were so grateful for the shading from the trees in the woods.  We knew that soon we will have to go back out onto the roads with no shade. 

We were greeted once more by the 'water station' and there was still some beer left!  I must try and get faster for next year, just to see exactly what is on offer for the runners!  Still, there is always that lovely cooling beer on the green just waiting for us, with some picnic stuff too!  I had another cup of beer and then we really had to be on our way, we had heard over the radio of the marshals that some of the drivers waiting patiently was not wanting to wait patiently any more!

The next mile was back on the roads, with the sun beating down on us!  A stunningly beautiful day, so warm, perfect for picnic......for running not so good!  Thankfully I was not after any sort of pb!  The last 800 meters and you can hear the buzz from the green, it kind of helps you pick up your pace.  Then we got closer and closer.  Auriol and I just had a little walk, "There's a sign up there that says 'there's not more walking from here'" said of the finishers.  Well that was our cue to start running again, just a few minutes more and we will be heading towards the finish mats.  Auriol was just in front of me, she had been for the last mile, just within touching distance, we could still talk to each other, but she was still in front of me!  You know that feeling where you should just let your mate 'get in there' just let them beat you as it's their first time.  Well I had that feeling,.......until I saw the finishing mats, the mist came over my eyes.......nope, I gotta race it,  everyone was cheering by then anyway, and with that sort of support it just makes you run faster anyway, just look at this picture of me and Auriol, both of us with 'air'!  So I picked up the pace, I sprinted just those few extra feet, and I am sure she also had picked up the pace too as I had trouble just edging in front of her, but I did get to the finish, just a few seconds before her!  Wicked!  But that's the competitive side of me! 

Auriols hubby was there to record her first HHHH race, so got a great shot of us both 'flying' for the finish, it was just about then that I knew I was going to do my sprint finish!

So the finish medals and tee shirts, as this was their 20th year, the Harriers had printed tee shirts for the occasion, although I had forgotten to bring any cash with me, (only a card and phone) but Paula had bought one, and this is it, with the medals that all finishers received!

 The coach back was a bit more merrier on the way home, with just a few of us at the back attempting a singsong or two!  We continued our celebrations at the Daylight and then the Sovs!

Fabulous run, fabulous day, fabulous friends and fabulous company!  I just love PWR!  And I love this brilliant running race!

Will add route and some pictures later!