Happy New Year 2022

In this post will give a round-up of what I have been up to since the Manchester Marathon!

A week after the marathon I managed to train with the club on Thursday and my legs had recovered well. In contrast to 10 years before when I did the London Marathon, I couldn't walk properly for at least 10 days.

This is a testament to better training and cross-training on the bike, albeit 10 minutes slower than in 2011, I am 10 years older and still getting back into form.

Peel parkrun

I took part in Peel parkrun, the idea to take it easy as I was still booked to do the Knutsford 10K the day after, something my training plan said: "only if my legs have recovered".

Peel is relatively new and is basically two laps of the park, in the first 100 meters there is a 270-degree turn with a post you have to navigate. So my plan was to rush to the front and get round the post and settle back into a comfortable pace.

As I completed the first lap I was still going at race pace and felt okay, so carried and on finishing in 19 minutes and 33 seconds for 15th place.

So not planned but I enjoyed the run and proved my legs were going okay!

Knutsford 10K

The day after I set off early to get to the Knutsford 10K, thankfully I missed most of the traffic trying to get into the Radbrook Hall (Barclays technology site) Car Park.

The race itself was delayed, probably because runners were still backed up outside, so the warm-up was repeated a couple of times. Thankfully the rain that had been spluttering all morning finished and we were ushered to the start line.

Ahead of me, I saw the 40-minute pacer and thought "hang on to him for as long as you can", I set off and soon passed him, my "go like a bullet" start which I wish I could get rid of soon meant the 40-minute guy passed me!

So for the next 8 kilometres, I did my best to keep him in view, in the last K I seemed to get stronger and managed to claw back the gap and overtake him. He was very encouraging as I went passed and I thought, crikey might actually get under 40 minutes... 39:24 which I was very pleased with, a week after the marathon and the day after a parkrun, going sub 40 minutes was unimaginable.

It also means I went under the 39:32 threshold for the RRR Premiership group in next years races, that's like getting Oldham Athletic getting promoted from the Football League 2 to the Premier League... now there's a pipedream.

As you can see below my 1st K was quick, the pace steady and the last K the quickest... not bad!

Admittedly my legs now were feeling the strain and so dialled off training for a couple of weeks to give my body some recovery.

Derwentwater 10 miler

The last RRR championship race of the year is always the Derwentwater 10 mile which starts in Keswick. With Covid still affecting races, this years race was still not approved till late in the day so may have been why the numbers were short, they had been reduced by the council to mitigate the "large crowd" risk, but not all numbers sold.

But thankfully it still went ahead and at 8am we boarded the coach, Keswick bound in high spirits, calling off at Tebay services for breakfast, I resisted the full English breakfast, no point regretting that, halfway around!

It was a trite cold at the start, but not raining which for the week before had put the race at risk as roads we use were flooded. We huddled together for a team photograph and filtered into the pack and moved to the start.

The race started and again went out of the traps far too fast but that is part of the course, for most of the race I was with club mate Andy Rogers from both Royton Road Runners and Rochdale Tri.

For the first half, I was a little ahead of him but struggled on the hills, training for the flats of the Manchester Marathon had meant less hill training... or maybe the bacon sandwich at breakfast meant I was hanging on to the back of his shoes for the second half. 

The last couple of kilometres are flat and should have been able to get closer but my legs were shot and managed a sprint for the last 300 metres to end up.

I finished 27th in 01:09:16

Overall I was happy with my performance and duly trotted to the pub to start part two of the day, eat, drink and be merry.

I was very tired (drunk) by the time the coach pulled into Royton, as soon as I get home, I flaked out!

Newborough parkrun

Whenever I go on holiday, I like to visit the local parkrun. On Saturday 13th November I was staying in Pwllheli, the Hafan Pwllheli last went ahead in June 2020 and the Bangor parkrun had been cancelled. So had a 70 mile round trip to Newborough Forest parkrun, which was well worth the travel is it was a stunning course. I enjoyed the Sandman Duathlon a couple of months ago so it was nice to be back at the same beach.

The course is a one-lap affair using the service and firebreak roads through the forest, the first K is mostly flat, the next 2 have a couple of short steep climbs and a general incline, this leaves a great last 2K of flat and downhill.

I finished 19:28 and 5th overall, I will be using this parkrun whenever I am staying in the area, it is too good to miss.

Dunham Massey Duathlon

For my last event of the year, I did the Dunham Massey Duathlon, it is a great set of events and Andy McNally looks to put a lot more on next year. It gives you a great place to practice race conditions, much like a parkrun can test your 5k pace, feels like a race but still a fun thing to do.

The first run went okay and kept the fast guys in touch, heading into transition, I felt confident and yet again took too long changing over, having the gel on my race-belt worked well, being a sprint of 2.5k run, 16k bike and 2.5k run, it is unlikely you will run out of energy, but I feel better putting some energy in halfway round... the inevitable happened and more went on my face and leg than in my mouth... must practice eating on the bike!

I was second out of transition and the guy on the bike was soon getting away from me, after the second turn I lost sight of him and thought "well let's hold onto this place and keep pushing" it felt like there was a headwind all the way round

As I came into transition, yet again made a mess of the dismount and nearly ended up sprawled on the floor. I was confused as no bikes were parked up and I knew I should have been second, thoughts of I must have cut short or something! Turns out the fella in front missed a sign as he had his head down, he joined me on the run section as I was doing my second lap, we had a quick chat and he was fast making up time!

Crossing the line in first was a great feeling, a little odd, as winning something is rare, I think Oldham parkrun some 10 years ago, so rare!

New Years Day 2022 

To wrap up this post I finally reached 50 parkruns, at Heaton Park, where it all began on event one, 20th June 2009!

If you look closely, I am the soaked fella in white to the left of Paul Sinton-Hewitt (wise man with umbrella), the founder of parkrun, who I had the pleasure of working with and meeting whenever I got to Richmond with work! 

I came back the week after and enjoyed the event; back then, low numbers were a niche; these days, it's more like 800! After the run, I spoke with Rick Bennett, the Event Director and manager of Sweatshop in the Arndale. 

I offered to help and expected something like, you could marshall, time keep or hand out finish tokens... nope, he politely asked if I could be run director next week. Never one to shy from a challenge, I accepted and agreed to pop to the shop on Tuesday evening to get the "kit" and be "trained".

Rick will tell you that IT was not his thing; in fact, he was on the phone with Paul being talked through every step in the first two events. However, I have been in IT for donkey's years and as he walked me through the process it was clear a manual was needed.

I set about screenshotting, added the steps and by the weekend had produced the first parkrun FMS manual (I can't remember what FMS stood for... Field Management Software maybe). This was adopted by the team back at parkrun HQ and would have been retired a couple of years ago with the swanky web version of FMS.

That forged a friendship and I was grateful for many Saturday mornings spent with Rick and the team, I helped establish Oldham parkrun with the NHS folks from Oldham Hospital, the route I made still creates discussions!

Originally I opposed the park as it is small and needed to be a 3 lapper, so sorry if anyone hates it but not much I could do!

They were trying to do something for Oldham as it has a shocking level of health issues which are mostly lifestyle and at least they tried something.

In fact, I chatted with Dave Peart before the New year day event and we discussed Oldham (as we always do) switching it to go counter-clockwise (Up the big hill, not down). 

I helped to get the team together and Oldham established, heading back to join the Heaton team after a few weeks once they were underway. 

The NHS made a bit of a mess of things, a stupid form that runners had to complete afterwards (for KPI's), the initial volunteer team had dissipated and the event was collapsing.

I got a call from Paul and he was threatening to shut Oldham,down as it was embarrassing to the cause! After some discussion, I agreed to go back and take over as Event Director and get it sorted.

It was tough to do, as I was happy at Heaton with good friends I met every week, the prospect of being at Oldham, which I never wanted to happen and thought would never be successful, was not inviting!

However, after much hard work and chancing some very very good people, slowly we got a solid core team and things worked out. In retrospect, it was a good thing to do and Oldham parkrun continues to thrive and is a great thing for the town.

Unfortunately, things in my life turned against me and in 2013, I had my first bout of depression, which over the next few years would be a bad friend, I had to give up parkrun and in a teary phone call to Paul, I hung up my running adventures, for what I thought was forever.

I had a torrid time, drinking and gaining weight to reach 98 kilos at its peak, in 2018 I attempted to take my life in one last desperate act, something I regret, thankfully I was saved by the Oldham NHS, ironically their turn to rescue me.

I know it is always said, "If you are feeling low, speak to someone" it sometimes sounds like a cliche and too simple, but please if you are not feeling okay, there is always someone who will and wants to listen and help. 

Suicide vastly takes more men than women, I think it just seems hard for men to talk, https://andysmanclub.co.uk/ is a great inspiration and I recommend you take a visit to the site.

Fast forward to 2022 and I am the happiest I could ever be, a testament to however bad things get, there is a better day ahead, so folks just talk to a friend or the https://www.samaritans.org/ This will be the best thing you have ever done, trust me.

Here I am doing my 50th parkrun back with Rick

 

A big thank you to Paul Taylor and Dan Taylor https://www.dansphotos.co.uk/ for the photos

Even with a hangover, I managed a time of 20:18 which was not too shabby.

I wish you all a great 2022 and am going to try and get to "100 parkruns" much quicker than I got to 50!

All the Best

Mark