No mobile signal, Internet or roads to run on

My worst fears have been realised! Arriving at the caravan on Friday I stared in horror at my iPhone no signal. A quick survey found a similar response from the rest of the family, only Stephen had a week O2 signal and GPRS which is like being in the 90's!
The only place I can get a signal is at the top of the hill at the entrance to the park.
In the evening I ventured out with a sense of trepidation the site is on a steep hill that leads down to the sea, great for scenery but I don't fancy hill reps all week. I explored the entire park and decided to head out onto the road, having not seen a pavement on the A75 I hoped there would be some sort of respite for pedestrians. Alas there was not and I decided today was not a good day to die, so headed back.

On the way back to the van it is a steep descent and this gave my troubled knee a torrid time, it actually felt like it was moving around in a wild motion.
I took the easy choice of walking back the last 100m as a cool down and protect the knee!

It struck me that had I still been training for the Robin hood marathon it would have been nigh on impossible to get my long run in today... So it looks like it will be a treadmill week at the onsite "fitness suite" which thankfully is not like the mobile signal... from the 90's

- have a great running week

Mark K
From sunny Scotland :p

Location:Scotland

Back to running at Oldham parkrun

In a snap decision I decided to have a stab at running again! In the last couple of weeks I have had good news from the hospital that my heart is in no danger and last week run over a mile for the first time in months with out my knee giving me grief.
I was due to do backup timer and when parkrun regular Lynn Newman arrived dressed in jeans (a dead give away that no running on the cards) I had an instant replacement for my volunteer duty. So I trotted off to warm up, dressed in kind of running gear... tracksuit bottoms and my Adidas Tempo zero's which I stopped using for running as they murder my calves and knees!!!

It is plain to see harriers and club runners as they are the only ones warming up and I often muse that one day I will do a mass warm up with the parkrunners!

I figured that I would go to the back of the pack and take it easy, but hey once I got into my stride I was soon in the top ten and just relaxed and tried to enjoy the run. But guess what after my Garmin bleeped the first mile I saw a 6:50 and figured just a bit too quick, soon after a nagging pain in my left knee. Not apin as intense as before but enough to consider an exit right and walk back to run HQ.

But I fought on and after another mile it eased off and recorded an 8:00 min/mile, by now my chest was screaming due to a total lack of fitness and the hills of Alexandra Park just continue on and on and on.
The last lap of Oldham parkrun takes you through the woodland walk which is again a hill in disguise.
The Garmin bleeped on the final straight signifying the last .11 and it was a 7:33 so happily crossed the line in 22:48 a modest time after months of nothingness!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/107893320
http://www.parkrun.org.uk/oldham/results/latestresults

I enjoy talking to runners when they finish a parkrun, it adds a better edge when you have been through the same experience.
I have now have Oldham parkrun using the latest technology including webFMS (Online event processing), VMS the cut down version of the old FMS but has some great new features. Not forgetting the Junsd 9006 USB stopwatch which Roger Hardiman has written conversion software so they can be used as a backup timer at parkrun.

I will soon be releasing the latest version of "Hitch hikers guide to parkrun" for run directors! Now I have done a video version and just need to include VMS and perhaps a video of using the junsd .

So now I will begin to train and get fit, the knee problem promising to be a horrid memory. My next running trip will be the Robin Hood Marathon, not to run it as my entry will show a DNS :( but instead Joining Tom and Mart from http://www.marathontalk.com at Mile 20 on the motivation station :)

So I hope you all have a good week and keep on running!

Mark K