brixham harriers – Born To Run

Freedom Of Speech

The internet eh? Full of people. People you might like. People you might not. People you agree with. People you don’t.

Somehow, by applauding the decision to bring a great sporting event to Torbay, where I live, I was accused of being a Torbay Council stooge and anti free speech. That’s the price of engaging I guess.

The event? It’s the opening round of the 2018 season of The British Cycling Youth Circuit Series. Where young people come together to show their athletic prowess and bike handling skills. Read more HERE. I foolishly responded to the “but the bus route will be diverted” type whining on Facebook!!

ANYWAY…..

Still reeling from Nicky’s injury and its unfortunate timing. I’ll be flying solo in the 2 Oceans and am determined to get that medal for both us.

It’s been a tiring week (I know, change the record!) what with Nicky taken down by the lurgy, my job being rather physical at the end of the week and poor Frank having a bit of trouble understanding day and night, or his television, or the mail…….. There’s no dressing it up, living with dementia is bloody exhausting for EVERYBODY.

So with Nicky battling injury and illness, Frank, poor Frank, and strangers accusing ME of being anti free speech, I thought I’d share my top 10 good things of the week….

Nicky, ever determined, inhibited by her cold, unable to run, the weather stopping cycling, popped into the pool and smashed out the required distance for a half ironman. Twice. Bosh!
My brother, Simon, travelling down from North Wales and taking me down in the Parkrun.
My Saturday long run – a total of 18 miles finishing with the said Parkrun – the 15 mile warm up might have finished off any chance I had of keeping up with him. Check it out HERE.
An old training partner, also Simon, the only person who was too hot on a Baltic day, who pitched up in a onesie.
Another Simon – Simon Ridley from Brixham Harriers, our good mate Jan, and all the amazing volunteers helping us around on such a cold day – what a great thing Parkrun is.
Nicky’s physio, Sam, getting to work in Paignton this morning, despite the very real risk that the snow will inhibit him getting home! He’s worked his hot-cross magic again, complimenting Nicky on her high pain threshold as he physically assaults her!
Snow – well it just looks so lovely (even if it’s quite possibly costing me a day’s money tomorrow!)
Charlie – for wearing a bowler hat, naturally.
Oh yes, today’s long run – 20 miles of biting Easterly gales, snow, ice, mud, mud, mud, hills, mud, steps – Check it out HERE
And writing, and reading, and jigsaws and the piano, our down time, our precious recuperation from the barrage of life…

Cumbria Tans, Black Cats, Green Scalps

Some people have REALLY black cats. It wouldn’t matter how black yours is, there’s WILL be blacker……….

2017-06-13 06.28.33 — Charlie, looking beige on the beach in the early morning sun.

Anyway, we haven’t got a cat. We’ve got a Border Terrier. Charlie. And he’s, well, beige to be honest. Not especially beige. Just your average, run of the mill sort of beige. I don’t doubt there are people out there with beiger Charlies. But, he’s quite beige enough for us.

He looks darker when he’s wet. Which he was quite often on our jolly sunny holidays in the glorious lake district last week. We didn’t let the

2017-06-08 12.30.21 — Nicky and Charlie catching some Cumbria rays up in the fells

weather hold us back, with a marathon, lots of other runs and walks and Nicky swimming a mile in the Great North Swim.

Talking of which, despite some serious open water swimming already this year, Nicky was a little bit, er, green after this, having not quite had the lake experience she was hoping for. She still banged out a mile in Lake Windemere. And not for the last time, I

2017-06-09 18.27.44-1 — Nicky, not unhappy to be out of Lake Windemere!

suspect!

Not as green as she looked on Sunday though. Well, green, pink, blue…

Her wonderful daughter, my step daughter, Alisa (regular readers will know how proud we are of her achievements this year) and Nicky did the Colour Rush 5k in Teignmouth. Basically three laps of the prom and beach whilst periodically having coloured powder paint thrown at them.

2017-06-11 14.26.14 — Happy with their medals, and to find the children still intact under Granddad’s supervision!

Alisa’s first medal. And I managed to have a full compliment of grandchildren still under my control by the time they finished. All over this grand parenting malarkey, I am…..

So, and please no giggling at the back….. We. Are. On. It.

I know, you’ve heard it before, but THIS TIME……

There’s a cut off at 20 miles in the Snowdonia Trail Marathon which is our next target. It’s probably not a shock to discover that it’s a little bit hilly, but we could probably do with sharpening our mountain goat physiques to help with that…..

Project Mountain Goat is go!

So, since we got back from our holiday Nicky has been back in the sea (twice) and quickly regained her confidence and we’ve both been enjoying the trails on our early morning jaunts.

2017-06-13 19.14.24 — Brixham Harriers patrolling the ‘hood

We also went back to Brixham Harriers last night and enjoyed a loop including a beautiful section of the coast path before our (now traditional) Tuesday evening chips. A glorious summer’s evening in lovely company.

We’re still struggling with the running in the evening, mostly because of how, simply, our days are arranged, it leaves a sort of blank hour before we set off for the club. This sounds like a ‘first world problem’ I realise, but we, as I’ve alluded to in previous posts, seem to be constantly battling time…… That said, it’s great to run in a friendly and welcoming group and , well, we do enjoy the chips…

: We shared a portion…

My big, BIG target for the year (*I reserve the right to change this, having not quite made my last BIG target!) is the East Farm Frolic. With that in mind, I am trying to add a few miles here and there and get more endurance fit than ever before. I’m really not sure how I’m going to respond to such a long time on my feet, but I have even BIGGER ambitions for the following two years so I really need to find out how my body (and mind) respond to a heavier training load.

2017-06-14 06.11.51 — Crack of dawn. Coastpath. Beautiful wife. Bliss.

Luckily, I absolutely love running, and, wherever I can, I’ll try and do my runs AND Nicky’s runs with her over a weekend and really start getting the miles in.

On that note, I read, in a running social media group, of somebody bemoaning not being allowed to wear headphones during a 10k race because “running is boring enough…”

I feel blessed that I get nothing but joy from every single run…

Onwards………

Dog Running

Inspired by those funny chaps on the Running Commentary podcast, Paul Tonkinson and Rob Deering, I went on a ‘dog run’ last night. Now, regular ~~stalkers~~ sorry, readers will know I am regularly to be seen on a ‘jog the dog’. We musn’t, no we REALLY musn’t, confuse a ‘jog the dog’ with a ‘dog run’. A dog run, you see, is carried out without the help of a dog. See, very different beasts.

By the way, aside from the podcast, Paul & Rob are proper hardworking comedians and I was rather chuffed to discover that Rob is coming to Dartmouth in August. Nicky was keen to pick seats in where her chances of being singled out were slim….. I should think sitting next to me should be sufficient, I do, er, stand out when we’re in close proximity!!

2015-03-08 12.41.39 — One of these two could easily hide behind the other!

2017-05-16 13.09.19 — Charlie and I on a recent ‘jog the dog’, notice the presence of a dog!

Anyway, the ‘dog run’. Simple, really, the route, pace and distance are only determined in the moment…. “er, I’ll go left here, hang on, no right”, “up the hill, ah no, back down it, oh go on then, up I go”, “oooo, what’s that smell…. hang on SQUIRREL OVER THERE” etc etc. So this dog run was 11 or so miles and started out heading for Torquay before diverting to the coast path, over some beaches, a golf course, some hilly bits, some flat bits and a bit of a blast in the last few miles on the roads again. Lovely. Hot, sure, sweaty, hell yeah, but lovely!

Running on a Thursday evening? I hear nobody say! Well, you see, my amazing and, quite frankly awesome (not to mention sexy, inspiring, funny, clever and beautiful) wife, Nicky went out. OUT I tell you. I know, on a school night. In fact, on ANY day…. we don’t do ‘out’ much. To be fair, she was back by 8.30pm so we were still snuggled up reading well before it got dark!

So that’s twice this week I’ve laced up in the evening. Nicky and I went to the Brixham Harriers again on Tuesday and had a lovely sunny evening run up and around Berry Head. Check it out on Strava if you’re interested in such things.

I’m really quite enjoying the club nights, it’s challenging to fit it into our chosen lifestyle, as the hour after we get in from work, before we set off for the cub is sort of ‘dead’ time, but we’re determined to make this work. They’re a cracking, friendly, welcoming bunch and we enjoy having a bit of a night ‘out’. Sort of! We did sit by the harbour and shared (SHARED!) fish’n’chips in the gorgeous twilight, which was lovely.

Lots of events this weekend, we’re not there, but White Star Running are making a foray into the road running scene with the Dorchester Marathon and we wish them, and all the runners, well with that. Maybe next year for us.

Meanwhile, it’ll be an emotional run for our good friend (and Brixham Harrier) Jan at the half marathon in Manchester this weekend. Again, we wish her and all the runners and spectators and safe, sunny, enjoyable and peaceful weekend there.

We’re off to the South Hams to RACE THE TIDE (the 16 mile version) and are really looking forward to some beautiful trails and the stunning coast path.

After our recent experience of running under pressure, it’ll be lovely to know that, in the words of the organisers, Pure Trail, “It is not an elitist race and we hope to cater for all speeds of runner, however, if you do miss the cutoff you can turn around and run the same route back to start but you will still have run 12.8 miles. Aid stations stocked with a combination of peanuts, biscuits, jellied sweets, fruit, water and coke will be at approximate 6.4, 9.4 and 12.8 miles.”

Aaaaaand relax………

2017-05-25 15.27.54 — I’ve worked in worse locations! Warm on the roof this week.

2017-05-25 06.08.40 — You don’t see many yoofs in the skate park at 5.45am

A few images from the week’s running:

The Clock Moved Sideways

5 points for the first to name the artist who sang The Clock Moved Sideways.

Anyway, time.

Yes, time. I always say that a sudden lottery win could buy many material items, but the one true treasure it would release…. time.

I’ve also always been a believer in the mantra that we make choices with our time, meaning it’s never quite true that we ‘haven’t got time for that’. It is a truth that sometime feels rather stretched though……

2017-05-11 06.43.20 — It’s ok, Charlie, I promise not to use it on the blog……

Today for, for example, I chose to run with Charlie. It is swimming lesson day for Nicky so I am on the rota for Charlie duty – so I would have spent the time walking him if I hadn’t ran with him.

Me and the four pawed one did about 3.5 miles, which would have only have been about 1.5 if we’d walked. Oh, and I love running, so a good choice I reckon.

Then I breakfasted, showered and went to work. I choose to go to work. It fills (including travelling) 10 hours of every week day. I choose to do this because I like having the bills paid, eating and our adventures and weekends.

I get home, I choose to prepare and cook dinner, have a shower and between us, carry out any other domestic duties which we choose to complete.

So yes, we do ‘choose’ all of this use of our time because we have ‘chosen’ to live the life we live.

So, yes again, technically, we could choose avoid some of the above, but life would be very different.

So, as I shouldn’t be saying, I simply haven’t had time to blog this week…………. one of the reasons would be that Nicky and I decided to go running with Brixham Harriers on Tuesday evening. What a great choice that turned out to be, a friendly bunch, a couple of whom we already know (regular blog readers will already be familiar with the Sugar King, Martin).

The evening run took us on trails and paths to join the coast path at Mansands, heading back enjoying the stunning views and a couple of brutal climbs with the sea on our right.

The group is encouraged to run as one but with runners going ahead and doubling back or taking pauses to regroup and drink in the stunning vistas.

Whether we end up making this a regular fixture will come down to…….. time.

2017-05-09 19.33.15 — No, honestly Martin, I won’t use it on the blog

With one eye on my target event of the summer, The East farm Frolic, I am looking to enjoy a bit more trail running and the Harriers’ session certainly delivered that. Feel free to check out any of my runs on Strava.

So, another weekend beckons, with adventure on Sunday coming via The Imreys Trail Marathon, a sneaky night away bolted on to the back of it, so we won’t be chasing good old time on Monday… ahhh…. lovely

Before that though, Nicky will be at her open water swimming session on Saturday and I plan to get dropped off on the way home and enjoy some of the coast path to the east of here.

Keep on keeping on people, next weeks race report & blog will be late because Nicky and I have other plans for our time whilst we’re squirreled away in Cornwall…..

Anyway some piccies from this week’s runs: