100th Glasgow Parkrun + Marcothon - the Beginning

Well this has been a fun week for all sorts of reasons.

One being the snow and ice making runs more interesting. Due to the cold, I changed from doing my 0.2 mile walk warm up/warm down to running straight away to get warmed up as quickly as possible. So a wee bit of extra mileage onto my usual loops. Marcothon also started on Wednesday and so far so good!

Monday - 6.7 miles easy

Tuesday - 6.8 miles easy

Wednesday - 7.6 miles easy

Thursday - Was club night and I thought they would be doing a short session given the conditions so ran the 2 miles to the club and back and we did the clubs handicap route which is 4.7 miles.

Friday - 6.8 miles easy. On Friday night it was my clubs awards. What a night, such a good laugh and was great to see everyone getting awards. I even got a mention when Charlie was reviewing Giffnock's year for doing updates for the website which was cool.

Saturday - Firstly I went down to parkrun. I decided not to cycle due to the ice and just park outside and walk in. Today was the 100th parkrun and 2nd Anniversay for Glasgow. What a day, they were using the alternative course which is basically a 3 lap cross country. Alan was doing the announcements at the start which were funny and fitting to celebrate this fine landmark.  In the Burrell afterwards, was the awards for volunteer of the year which deservedly went to Christine and also the points winners got certificates and alcohol too. We were a bit taken a back by the amount of runners who turned up in the Burrell! It was about 4 times as many people as usual with pretty much all the tables in the cafe taken. Richard did a brilliant job of going through the last couple of years, thanking people and with giving out the awards.

West Districts got cancelled so 4.1 miles up to my parents for dinner and a slightly longer route back of 5.2 miles. I'm glad in the end it was cancelled as I was planning on doing a long run in the afternoon but I ended up sleeping on the couch for the afternoon I was so tired from the awards night.

Sunday - I had wanted to do a long run and I got to Williamwood golf club, put on my microspikes which I just got through the post and ran round three holes. I was planning on doing more but felt really dehydrated so just called it a day. To be honest I didn't really notice the spikes when I did the three holes which can only be a good thing. They are also really easy to carry and put on/take off.

So a great week in all, somehow I managed 50 miles which I was not expecting at the start of the week but when you add it up and do an average of 7 miles a day, 7 days a week that is how it adds up!  I missed doing a long run which i really need to start building up now but at the same time I have got a good base so shouldn't be too hard to build up by the end of the month. As long as I am up about 20 by the end of the month that'll put me in good stead for the longer longer runs in January.

This weekend was also very successful for British ultra runners. Jez Bragg came 6th in the North Face Endurance 50 in San Francisco which really is a totally awesome result given the field. Another fantastic result was that Lizzy Hawker came 2nd female behind New Zealands Anna Frost. To be honest I knew she was good but I didn't realise Lizzy was this good. I knew she won UTMB many times and finished on the podium in the world 100k championships this year. But I thought Kami Semik was better (who came 3rd). This result to me shows that Lizzy is one of the best females in the business at the moment.

Another great result was William Sichel who came 2nd in a 48 hour indoor race in France breaking 10 age group records!

Longest Running streak ever - plus looking forward to next weekend

Well Monday was the end of my longest streak of consecutive days running ever and quite possibly my best period of training ever too. I really got into a great rhythm and routine and just makes me want to run everyday all the time. I lasted from the 31^st October to 22^nd November meaning 23 days on the trot. I was planning on doing everyday in November but I have been off with the flu since Tuesday so I am now gearing myself up for trying to run every day in December (Better known as Marcothon).

I did get out for a 7.4 mile run on Monday which was nice. I had a sore throat but thought nothing of it as I have run through it before. But Tuesday the bug went down to my stomach and knocked me for six. So no running, no nothing, Tuesday to Friday. Friday my legs started to get restless again. 

Then Saturday morning I woke up and felt the same as I did Monday. So opened the curtains – Snow! I decided to take the bike to park run to save scraping the car. I was never going to go for it today anyway with my cold but the conditions meant no-one was able to go for it. But still a great turnout of 119 runners with loads of Bella Harriers vests as they were using this particular run as part of their club championships. So I went round at a steady pace and finished in 23.34. A good solid run considering and it was good just to get back out there especially with the snow making everything so pretty. Now time for the fun that snow brings, that every run feels like a cross country event. I got pretty good at running on ice at the start of this year, here’s hoping that continues!

Today I woke up and felt better than yesterday as my throat is nowhere near as sore now and I feel I’m gradually getting back to 100%. I still didn’t want to overdo it today. So just went for a 4.5 miler. More snow overnight meant it was harder work than usual but it’s so nice running in the snow. It was heavy when I was out and sometimes blowing right into my face, I was thinking I should have wore my ski goggles!

I can’t wait for next weekend for 4 reasons. First its Giffnock North awards night where I know loads of people who are getting awards. Secondly it’s Glasgow parkrun’s 2^nd anniversary and 100^th parkrun! What a landmark! They were thinking it would be a big turnout but if it’s anything like today it might be another low key event. Next its West Districts cross country down in Irvine in the afternoon – If I can get there?! Then finally and probably most confusing as to why I’m looking forward to it; It’s the North Face Endurance 50 miler in San Francisco! Now this may seem like another ultra in the states. But with $10000 prize money for first male and female, this has attracted the top ultra runners from around the world. Making it potentially the most competitive ultra ever, even more so than Western States earlier in the year.

I won’t go through all the contenders as there is too many but Jez Bragg and Lizzy Hawker are representing Britain! Both won at UTMB and will be really interesting to see how they do. Maybe this event is not as bigger stage than UTMB but they will certainly up against some bigger names than who ran the UTMB revised course this year and probably the people Jez and Lizzy want to test themselves against most. Here is an article that sums up the main contenders nicely!

Mens preview

Womens Preview