'Mature' runners.

Morning all,

No running today as it's a scheduled rest day.  Quite glad as I'm feeling below par.

IW, you'll feel heaps better cutting out Fleische und Fische!  I've been veggie for over 20 years now although I still cook meat for Mike 

TE, I hope your isn't cancelled but the weather forecast for Sunday is equally as bad. Fingers crossed for you.

JJ, doesn't Mrs JJ eat vegetables too?  I eat more veggies than fruit (as it's full of sugar).  I love Marmite but not keen on Ryvita 

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Red, the forecast for Sunday has now improved, and they believe that the foul weather will now go over Northern France, and the South will have a good day. This is not certain, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. Today and tomorrow are rest days, so I am hoping to be on top form for Sunday. There are 414 entrants, but how many turn up on the day will probably be less.

45 marathons Bionic !!! Blimey thats some going, no wonder you needed a hip replacement. I guess two a year over 20 years.........any in the world you have not done?
Having a rest day as knackered done 25 miles this week, will have a run out over the Peaks with little bro Sunday am.

All the best to Terence and other racers.........enjoy..........you should be okay for SUnday.

Not done Chicago or the Big Apple, nor any of the other far-away ones - too expensive and a flight too far. I don't do long-distance flights, it takes me a week to recover from vertigo. My favourite still has to be Berlin.

I'm hoping to take part in a 10k called the Huntington Chase tomorrow, - it is a run or walk or cycle or ride (a horse) event, so I've persuaded my brother (who is visiting) to come too. He doesn't run, but walks fast. Having looked at the map and backed away in horror from the contour lines, I am pretty sure I shall be walking parts of it.

Morning all,

Well so much for today being fine!  The sky is black and I've just been soaked to the skin on my 5.5 miles complete with big skipping and striding and hopping to amuse the villagers.  Nobody local bats an eyelid when I skip past as they are used to my antics but sometimes there are holidaymakers about and they look rather surprised 

Columba, that sounds like a fun 10k.  I've often fancied the xc races where you have a team of 2 - one running and one on horseback.  Now that's my idea of heaven 

IW, have you done Vienna?  I've got that on my radar to tie in with a visit to see the Klimt collection.

TE, hope your race does go ahead and that the weather is kind to you.

MCS and Red, thanks! It now seems that Sunday will be bright and sunny, but very cold. The early morning temperature is forecast to be 2deg. which is very chilly, although one year, it was minus 3deg! There will, however, be problems parking, as the field is very wet in places.

Columba, I hope your 10k goes well.

Today is bright and sunny, although there may be heavy showers this afternoon.

Bright and sunny?  The sky is black here and it's alternating between heavy rain and sun!  I've given up on any attempts at gardening and moved indoors for some crochet.

Bright and sunny here too but a bit chilly. Charly was a star at the Run and Walk today, he set off from the start with the obvious intention of overtaking everyone! We didn't but still finished near to the front, speed walking the 5km in just over 35 mns, which leads me to think it wasn't truly 5km, I would have thought we'd finish closer to 40 mins. John and Nemo finished the run about in the middle of the pack. Charly made lots of new friends and met lots of other dogs, behaved very well, didn't bark once and was friendly to everyone he met. No problem about us being overtaken by John and Nemo, the runners did a different loop from the walkers so we didn't see each other until the finishing straight which was split into two lanes, one for each group. Nice day.

Tonight we're invited to a friend's retirement party so that should be fun.

Huntington Chase completed, - lovely weather for it, and it was really enjoyable. However, I managed to take a wrong turning, - running along a grass path on a hillside I saw two cyclists and a horse turn off along a narrower grass path. Assuming they knew where they were going, I went the same way, though it wasn't marked and there was no marshall in view. It went up, down, up, down, a long way ... and then petered out! And no sign of the rider and cyclists. However, down a very steep hill I could see a village so by slipping and sliding and clambering and wading through bracken I got there, and in the village was a marshall, so she put me on the right track. I later discovered that many of the rider-and-cyclist competitors were locals who had just decided to do their own thing. I shall know better than to follow them next year! Brother enjoyed it too, walked most of it and ran some and got back before me!

Columba, i'm pleased you enjoyed your day.

I've not been able to run for a day a two because of work, but  i got out today after watching my son playing football and got 5 miles in, it threw it down as soon as i started which made it quite a refreshing run.

Visit to grandaughter tomorrow then back to some level of normality unless an emergency occurs.

Columba
It's all good training. You took a very practical approach to the problem.
JJ

Well done Columba, you took a wrong turn but worked your way out, excellent.

Red - Vienna mara is nice but can be cold and windy.

We were asked to take Charly with us last night as our host had not seen him yet - what a star he is, he behaved perfectly in the restaurant even though there were two golden retrievers not far from our table. I can't believe how well behaved he is for being only 5 months old. Great temperament,

Here in Germany dogs are tolerated everywhere, in most restaurants the staff will ask if the dog needs water. The place we were last night is very dog-friendly, it's a riding school with the restaurant overlooking the indoor ring so if anyone is riding at night under the floodlights you can sit at dinner and watch the horses.

Afternoon all,

Glorious sunny and cool day here.  Perfect for a little pootle this morning although I did stick to the lanes rather than going xc after all that rain the last few days.  Tapering for Beachy now 

TE, how was it?  Hope it went well.

Columba, glad you enjoyed yourself.  Off-road events are not to be taken too seriously unless you are a speedy whippet type 

IW, I love Charly!  Love the idea of eating dinner whilst watching the horses.

Columba, well done. You have good navigational skills.

BIW, you have been very lucky with Charly, although it is probably due to you being a skilled dog handler and trainer.

This morning was the Solent Half Marathon, and started with me having to defrost the car. I had to put the windscreen and rear screen heaters on to melt the ice, as it was so hard. The Club had done a superb job in preparing the fields for parking, and the Marshalls were excellent in guiding drivers to the less waterlogged areas. The race started right on time at 10.00, and the sun was bright, but it was still very cold. The temperature rose during the race, and the conditions were ideal.

This was my eighth running of the race, but the first since 2004. The hills were as I remembered, and steepest from mile 10 onwards. I started off at an easy pace, as per the NF Half, and again increased it as the race progressed. My fastest miles were 12 and 13, which were a continuous uphill slog. I kept a good pace, as I was motivated by overtaking runner after runner, that had gone off too quickly, and were slowing down. I was also helped along, by the encourgement of the Hardley Marshalls which gave me a great boost. My Garmin time was 1.49.37, so I achieved my target of getting sub 1.50, nearly 3 minutes faster than the NF Half.  My splits were :- 8.19 8.35 8.34 8.26 8.19 8.23 8.17 8.08 8.26 8.14 8.31 8.04 8.05 1.08. Average pace 8.20 and WAVA 70.74.

Red, our posts crossed. The race went very well.

BIW, your Charly sounds a real gem!

Laughed at TE saying I have good navigational skills! Although I love trying to find my way around new places, especially footpaths and such-like, I am extraordinarily good at getting lost! I was just lucky yesterday that I came down near to where there was a marshall.

TE, well done that man!  Brilliant work and great that you won the roadkill game in the last 2 miles 

Well done, TE!

Thanks for the compliment re Charly, but he's very easy to train - I haven't done nearly so well with Nemo, he's a much more difficult proposition.

1200m swim this morning, used my fins to work on strengthening my legs.

Been with grandaughter for a few hours today.

My club has won the Kent championship for the fifth year in succession.
The competition is over 10 races at distances from 10k to a marathon

TE
Excellent race result. Job well done.

IW
MrsJJ and I were at a restaurant near Torquay earlier this year where they had a set menu for dogs at £5 a head.
JJ