2020 goals

So next year will hopefully be a good a parkrun year as 2019 was.  Right now I have an idea of what I want to achieve but there are a number of factors which could change things.

In terms of tourism I would like to try and get 20 new Scottish parkruns done in 2020.  I am on 38 at the moment and if i did 20 that would take me up to 58 and there are currently 56 in Scotland at the moment with 2 starting in January and no doubt more throughout the year. So I don't expect to complete all the Scottish parkruns next year but I'll hopefully be in a good position to do it in 2021.  Most of the parkruns I have left to do, although not Glasgow, they are across the central belt.  There are still some scattered about such as Fort William, Oban, Aviemore, Inverurie and Montrose.  Then 2 island ones of Stornoway and Bressay (Shetland).  So a good bit of Scotland still to cover.  I have also have planned visits to Bushy parkrun and Victoria Dock parkrun which are both in London.  Bushy being the home of parkrun as it was the very first parkrun.

I am going to go for the sub 30 minute average parkrun time challenge again. The more I do Pollok or Queen's the harder it will be but its a fun thing to try.  It would be great to get my Pollok and Queen's time below 30 as it would mean I have a lot more chance of doing this challenge.

I also plan on volunteering more.  I'll keep going at Rouken Glen juniors on a Sunday and aim to volunteer once a month at either Pollok or Queen's where which one will depend on which one I spend more time at.

A milestone I should be hitting in 2020 is my 250th run.  Currently on 219 so just 31 runs to go.

Outwith parkrun I have entered the Great Scottish run - half marathon in Glasgow.  I have done this 4 times - 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010.  I'll need to see how training is going about June/July to see if I'm up for it but I hope so.   I think realistically sub 2.30 would be a target at the moment.  Under 2.15 would be amazing. Then Sub 2 would be the ultimate.  Out of the 11 halfs I have done, I have never actually run a half over 2 hours before but I am prepared for it.

Happy new year when it comes and all the best for 2020.

2019 - A year in review

Surprisingly enough my running year this year has focused on parkrun. Although I have run slightly less parkruns this year than last year, I think my obsession level is still pretty high.

Tourism

Before this year, the maximum amount of new parkruns I had visited in one year was 6.  This year I started to think I wanted to try and do all the Scottish ones.  And with 11 for 11 challenge I wanted to do more parkruns that I hadnt done before.  In fact I ended doing 22 new parkruns this year, 20 Scottish and 2 English ones.  The thing is as well I did a lot of the furthest away ones in Scotland too - Thurso, Alness, Inverness, Elgin, Kirkwall and 5 of the Aberdeen ones. Then Crichton in Dumfries and Girvan down south. Then a few in Edinburgh and Fife too.  Its been awesome. From the planning to the train journeys to the parkruns themselves. Its been a lot of fun. The only thing that hasnt been as fun is I've learned I'm not that good at sleeping in hotels. But everything else has made up for it. And Thurso and Kirkwall were the only 2 nighters so for most of them, one nights lost sleep I can catch up on.  At the time of writing I am now up to 38 Scottish parkruns out of 56.  So still a fair way to go. But pleased with what I have achieved this year.

250 project/milestones

In about February 2018 I was on about 129 runs.  And I set myself the 2020 target of reaching 250 runs.  So basically a 3 year project.  I reached 175 last year, so the target this year was 210.  Currently I'm on 219. So well on track and hopefully will reach 250 next year.  This in turn meant I passed another landmark this year of 200 runs and I also did my 100th Pollok parkrun.

Sub 30 Average project

This year I set myself a target of having an average time at parkrun of under 30 minutes throughout the course of the year.  This was going really well for the first half of the year. But as summer past my times went up and down.  I did have a period of going to my home run Pollok more which is one of the tougher ones to get a good time in.  I did have a few good months in Autumn. But then October to December I didnt get out as much during the week as I should of and also volunteered more.  The thing is as well if I have a few bad runs I can end up runnning 37-40 minutes. And I can't trade that off with running a 20 minute run to make up for it. It takes several runs. But it is a fun challenge so I'll probably give it another go next year.

I wasn't actually a million miles away from my sub 30 minute average time. It was actually 30 minutes and 33 seconds. Compare this to 2017 (31.04) and 2018 (31.52). And it does show that I have improved this year. So that's a positive.

Times generally

26-27 minutes - 2 times
27-28 minutes - 4 times
28-29 minutes - 8 times
29-30 minutes - 6 times
30 + minutes - 22 times

Compare that to last year where I ran runs of 30 minutes or more - 35 times - So a markable improvement.

Volunteering

For the 3rd year running now I have been volunteering at Rouken Glen juniors quite a bit on a Sunday.  Its been a real privilage and a great hangout for me on a Sunday morning while at the same time feeling like I am giving something back to parkrun after all its given me.  I have mainly been doing tail walking too so a bit of excercise has been a bonus.  In terms of 5k volunteering I did have plans to volunteer more but they never really surfaced till later in the year. I was meant to volunteer at Pollok in April but I had to cancel due to sickness. I did volunteer at Drumchapel in May but it took till October to volunteer again as I was too caught up in running.  Then I realised I should be taking my turn more so in the final months in the year so I made sure I was volunteering at least once a month.

Heatmapping

I did have a plan to do heatmapping which is bascially trying to run round all the streets in an area.  I think I did about 7 runs and it worked wonders in getting my long runs. However, the further away I got from home the more complex it got in terms of working out distances and routes and my brain got frazzled.  So I moved on to normal longer runs for a bit before cutting down milage after the Milport 10 miler.

Overall I have really enjoyed this year and I hope for more of the same next year. I'll go into my goals in the next post. 

December parkruns

7/12 - On the Friday night I had my work night out through in Edinburgh. So I used the opportunity to stay the night through there and do an Edinburgh parkrun the next day.  I stayed in the Premier Inn in Edinburgh park so the nearest one to that was the Oriam parkrun which was only 6 events old that day.  I had a rough night hardly getting any sleep and I cant even say it was because of the drink as I don't drink.  I usually dont sleep very well in hotels but this was particularly bad.  Anyway I got up and managed to get the bus to Heriot Watt university campus with plenty of time before the start. I did a short warm up and considering my tired state I thought it was going to be a bad run today.

Oriam is an out and back course with quite wide trails to start with before it gets narrower and narrower. Generally on the way out it feels more uphill than downhill. And when it gets narrower, it also gets muddier. Once you reach that  point the faster runners are coming the other way and there isn't much room to avoid the muddier sections. So its a case of right through it.  And its thick mud too as oppose to wet mud so footing was a bit tricky. But the first mile and last mile are fine and you can make up time especially on the way back.  I had a pretty good run considering finishing in 31.33.  I would come back to this one hopefully in a more awake state!

14/12 - Today I was volunteering at Queens parkrun in some of the worst conditions I have ever seen at parkrun. The rain was torrential and the puddle at the start was just one long puddle.  If you went on the grass that was just as wet.  But everyones spirits were high and it was great getting to know more people at my local event.

21/12 - No parkrun today. I had a bad week sleeping due to stressing about things I shouldn't have and things snow balled a bit.  So I just chose to have a lie in to allow me to get my head levelled out again.

25/12 - Bonus parkrun today due to it being Christmas.  So I headed for Pollok. I thought I would park in the car park at the Burrell today.  I usually get there about 8.55-9am and today was no different. But what was different is that usually the car park is practically empty when I turn up with a few runners and volunteers kicking about.  Today it felt like the car park was already a lot busier.  So I drove right through the car park and parked outside the car park on Shawmoss road.  This is something I always used to do but due to Pollok being so quiet recently I thought the car park would be ok.  But because a lot of other parkruns weren't on I think a lot of people decided on Pollok and it turns out i made the right move.

I wandered down to the start and to my surprise there wasn't many people there and this must of been about 9.25.  Then all of a sudden everyone and I do mean everyone came up the road at the same time as if there was some meeting in the car park and now they were moving up to the start.  I had to stand right to the side and then make my way to the back of the pack as I thought it would be a slow one for me today.  I met Doug and had a good chat.  We walked to the start with the masses. And it was obvious it was way busier than usual. When it started you could run but as soon as I hit the first corner it was back to walking as the path narrowed. But after that it was running all the way. I was just pleased from that point I was running all the way round.  I ended up finishing in 33.57 which I could probably take a few minutes off but that's just want happens in big events.  To be honest I thought with the numbers today I was going to have to queue up to cross the finish line which happened earlier in the year. But it was fine. There was a queue for the scanners but it moved very quickly due to the quick thinking core team putting more scanners on. I think there was about 8 scanners today when usually there is 3-4 now.

If I'm honest the queue from the scanners at Pollok used to be one of my favourite parts.  I have met a fair few people just chatting in the queue and today was no different. I got chatting to 2 people both of which had done over 200 runs at Pollok with one over 300. I know there are people that need to get away after parkrun though so can understand the need to speed the process up especially today.

28/12 - Today I went to Dean Castle country castle park for my last parkrun of the decade, as my mum said she would drive me down. Once there I met Douglas, Craig and Jo who gave me the run down on the course as they had done it before.  It's basically a Y shaped course which you do 2 loops of.  My mum stood in the middle of the Y meaning I passed her a lot and she offered support.  But there was good camaraderie across the field with high fives a plenty both with runners and volunteers due to the 3 out and backs.  To be honest I thought I did better than my time suggested today but I think the short, sharp steep hills are what slowed me down.  But I did thoroughly enjoy it and thankful for my mum taking me down there.  My time in the end was 32.21.

Over the next few days I'll be doing an end of year review for my running.  Something to look forward to :-)

November parkruns

2/11 - The month started off with my first visit to Queen's parkrun.  It only started up in October but I didnt want to go to the initial events to stop overcrowding them and also I had already planned tourism elsewhere.  The park is just over a mile away from me, making it my nearest parkrun now.  Its so close I can't really drive there as walking/running there takes about the same amount of time.  Anyway I got there in plenty of time and that waas with leaving the flat at 8.55.  I got to the muster area and had a good chat with Ann before the start. I then met Kirsty and Pauline just before the briefing.  When it started they went off ahead but during the 3 laps we would be overtaking each other quite a lot and sometimes we would just run together and chat. Also spoke to June on the way round too.  I have never really run in Queens park before this and the course is very hilly. But most of the climbs are gradual.  And the main descent is all in the one go so it does feel like you are ascending more than you are descending but it is a nice course and you get great views from the top.  I came in about 31.30.  I then went into the church after for juice and biscuits. Had a good chat with folk and also got to sort the tokens.

9/11 - This week I did exactly what I did 10 years ago when I started doing Pollok parkrun. Where I ran the first week then volunteered the next.  Today I was marshalling and again there was an abundance of people I knew there today, including Rodger who was running his 250th.  It was another great morning followed by church afterwards to sort the tokens again.

16/11 - Today my brother joined me for parkrun. He wanted a trail course and I wanted to do one I hadnt done before so we settled on Drumpellier.  It was a very cold morning but I had a good run and enjoyed the course. It goes a bit round the loch then 2 loops of the woods and back to the start.  I felt I was running pretty well today. I ran with Ken on the first lap then gradually pulled away on the second lap. I think it helped that it was flat and I felt good when I finished. My time today was just over 29 minutes.

23/11 - No parkrun today as I had been off sick work on Thursday. I was back working from home on Friday but still hadnt quite shaken it off enough by the Saturday to even justify volunteering never mind running.

30/11 - Today was -6 degrees so it was a case of getting to the car at 815. De-icing. Then checking the phone to see what parkruns were on.  I was planning on doing Pollok but it got to 8.40 and they still hadnt declared.  But I thought the fact they hadnt probably meant it was on and even if it wasnt I could nip to Queens as that was on.  I turned up at Pollok and the set up team werent to return to where the volunteers meet till well after 9. Turns out they were doing an epic job since 745 getting the course into a fit state to run - with some extreme gritting.  Hats off to them. The reason I was doing Pollok today was it was one of my Rouken glen buddies Finola's 100th run AND 100th volunteer. Which is amazing to do both on the same day. I imagine not many people will have done that.

In terms of the run I took it easy today. I hadnt run in 2 weeks so it was just a case of getting back in to it again. I did have to walk for a bit of the second lap but generally felt quite comfertable.  I came in just over 34 minutes.

Overall I have let go of my running a bit this month. The weather has turned and motivation has decreased along with getting ill.  As long as I keep the parkruns going I'll be happy for this winter I think.