Great North Run 2013

Bob - that looks great, it may just catch on. 

Mandie - Don't worry, it happens, dogs have minds of their own and at any time you have limited control. The main thing is to thing of all the good you are doing and you didn't let the dog get away on purpose. ((Hug))

Shielsy - don't eat too many cakes, in fact, pass some over here, I'll help. For charity of course. 

Mr SJ - How's the knee today?

4.61 miles for me last night. Getting further now at a decent pace, so all good. 

Mandie- pleased to hear Bobbi is on the mend. Our Westie would hate the idea of hydrotherapy.  Even a bath has him quivering like a jelly!

Bob- love the design. I guess the babe didn't pop out on a parkrun??

mr sj - had same issues last year and yep the stretching and the tennis ball did trick - have been 6 months clear of it now

Evening everyone

Blaydon cross country for me this afternoon.  It was a bit of a muddy one in parts, thanks to the downpour we had last night, and I did think I was going to come a-cropper at several of the sharp turns (one of my club's coaches kept shouting at me to 'Go wide!  Go wide!' but I never heard them) but I managed to stay upright, just.

The course itself is reasonably flat, but then there's a chicane section of short steep hills that have to be negotiated twice (2 loops) which were just horrible for sapping the strength from your legs.

Thankfully the women's course was only 3.2 miles so the horror didn't last too long.  I've no clue how I did, but I managed to average 8min/mile pace, which I was quite pleased with.

As I was getting changed back at our club tent Graham came over to finally say hello, which was really nice of him - good to meet you in person, Graham.

Then it was a bit of a trek home (OH doing overtime at work) with me having to get a bus, a metro, and another bus before I was home.  I was freezing, as I just had my club vest on and 2 very lightweight running jackets.

Have been absolutely freezing ever since - I feel like I just can't get warmed up.  But the cup of tea and carrot cake I had when I finally got in made the afternoon's efforts well worth it.

mr sj - well done at parkrun today.  Hope the hamstring settles down soon.

Shielsy, nice to meet you too. Sounds a nightmare of a trek home for you. No clubmates with cars going your way? I had a nice cup of tea when I got home too and my wife had bought some chocolate eclairs. Just the job, followed by a long soak in the bath listening to Newcastle getting beaten at home again . Hope you manage to warm up soon.

Hope you manage to warm up soon Shielsy! Sounds like you did very well though!

Hi Graham. How are you?

Glad the sports massage went well mr sj!

Hi OS and BP

Hope the forum pups are OK!

Thanks for the kind wishes. I am working on things now

Hi Vixx

Well done on the XC Shielsy- a hot bath sounds in order.

Hi OS - how are you?

Best of luck to Bob Parr at Brighton tomorrow  

Good morning everybody!

Hi Shielsy, thank-you very much.  I'm up early to have breakfast, walk the dog and then drive the 30 odd miles to Brighton.  I'm only aiming to get round in just under the hour (this is my PB course set two years ago of 49:15) as this is only my third run since I injured my knee at the end of September.  Well done on your cross country.  I sounded tough again.  Sorry to hear that you had to chop and change transport to get home.  I'm leaving early today to be able to park on the sea front and just walk to and from the car!

I was actually down to be joint Volunteer Coordinator at parkrun again yesterday, which was why I only appeared on the volunteer rosta for setup (the volunteer coordinator should know that they are doing that job and so does not get the email?). The other coordinator did the admin and then passed the job over to me to do at the start / finish area.  It is actually quite good as you start to put names to the faces you see of the regulars that turn up.  There were quite a few volunteers as many of them are doing Brighton today.  Next week I've been put down to be Run Director as the five people who set up our parkrun are trying to get new people to do more of the roles and let them take a step back to be able to enjoy and run it occasionally.  Now I'm slightly nervous about that, but I'm sure it will be ok.  Any tips from fellow forumites?  How to shout into a megaphone correctly perhaps?

We gave the parkrun baby's dad the baby grows as mum and Herbie were only discharged from hospital on friday.  She had to have him by c-section as he started to get suck and apparenly the first thing the mid-wife said as he was pulled out was "hasn't he got big feet!".  Mum tweeted that she and Herbie love his new baby grows, which is nice!

Mandie - good to hear that Bobbi is making good progress.  Sorry that you had an upsetting incident at the kennels, but unfortunately some dogs are like that.  Our little pooch decided to make a bolt for it after we had him home from Battersea Dogs and Cats home for a couple of hours.  I had been playing chase with him in the back garden and then a friend came round to see him and he bolted out the front door.  Then as I chased after him he must have thought that it was all part of the game as he would let me catch up then continue to run on.  I had no recall of him as we did not know his name from his previous life and he did not know me to come back to me.  I chased him for about three-quarters of a mile (good job I was used to running!) through the middle of town whilst getting odd looks from people I was passing until I could shout ahead to someone to say "Can you stop the dog?".  The chap put his hand out and the dog stopped for a pet!  So I was then able to carry him home.

Hi Vixx, how are you today?

Glad the knee is holding out Mr SJ.  I see stringy is having fun on facebook!  Almost a laugh a day!

Right, enough idle chat and white noise.  I must go and get ready.  All the best to anyone else who is running or racing today.  I'll try to let you know how I got on later.

Wow - that was longer than I anticipated!

'Herbie' ?  For real?

Good luck Bob

I hope everyone else had the perfect running weather that we did today.  I did a lovely 13 mile run into Oxford and back along the river.  Lots of novice eights being shouted out by their coaches and some angry geese and swans hissing at them too.  Made me smile anyway.  Its the furthest i've run since the Argentan half 6 weeks ago and I was only 5 minutes slower today- perhaps a bit fast for a training run but the conditions were sooo good.

mr sj- a few years ago when we had a load of snow, I put on my spikes and ran on the compacted snow on the roads.  As I whizzed past a couple teetering along in walking boots, I  heard them say "He'll come a cropper in a minute"- I don't think so .

Costco have got spikes that can be put on regular shoes and trainers at the moment - think it was £9.99 for two pairs.