Phone Box Thursday: A493, Cwrt

We’re in the next village over from last week’s phone box.

Red phone box
Red phone box, A493, Cwrt, 18th September 2023.

(Coordinates 52°58’34.2″N, 3°93’67.3″W.)

This phone box pulls double duty. Not only is it now a defibrillator box for the community, it also acts as a veg stall! The fresh veg is available to take and there’s an honesty box where you insert your payment. A lovely modern reuse and one I’ve not seen before.

Race Recap: Valentine Half Marathon 2024

Roughly this time last year, I had an absolute nightmare race at the Winter Warmer Half Marathon on the Town Moor. It was the last in a series of absolute nightmare races that led me back to the local hospital to request a different treatment for my 2022-diagnosed ankylosing spondylitis, and so I had demons to slay on the Moor. However, I didn’t want to run the Winter Warmer itself this year – it’s a Saturday race and I’m working towards a numerical parkrun nicety that means I can’t miss parkrun until March – so I instead opted for the Run Nation Valentine event, which takes place on the Sunday closest to Valentine’s Day.

I’ve done lapped events held by many different race companies on the Moor (as well as both the old and new courses of Town Moor parkrun, obviously) and it never fails to amuse me how many different routes can be invented to run exactly 5k on the Moor! Half marathons are always four laps plus a weird extra bit. Today’s route was similar to the old pre-COVID parkrun course, but not identical.

Having greeted the friends doing the event (plus the Benchies who came to wish us good luck at the start towards the end of their Sunday run), then shivered on the start line for a while during the ten-minute delay, we were off. I started at roughly nine-minute mile pace, which felt comfortable-ish; I decided to hold it for as long as possible, but expected I would slow by the second half if not before. I knew sub-2 was a possibility (my existing PB was 2:14:52, set at the GNR last September, but I’ve improved a lot in the intervening five months), but would have been happy with a PB of any stripe given that today wasn’t an A race.

Most of my mile splits ended up about 8:50ish. I felt strong, but for some reason couldn’t face fuel or water and so didn’t eat or drink for the whole race (this is something that I think is specific to long distances at race pace, and so I really need to solve it before the marathon itself). I only really started to slow in the last three or four miles, and not by much, going down to about 9:20 minute miles. 11 miles in, I finally allowed myself to do the maths. Sub-2 was on… if I stayed strong, and if (big if!) my watch wasn’t measuring the course too short.

I rallied in mile 12 for a 9 minute mile split, giving me 11 and a half minutes to finish the final 1 point something miles. I still had no idea how big the ‘something’ was going to be by my watch, so I didn’t know how close it was going to be! I pushed hard again for mile 13, but the split came in at 9:20 again, and though I could see the finish line, it still looked a very long way away… so I had to give it everything I had left for the last few hundred yards, still not sure if I was going to be able to hit that magic number. Geth was waiting near the finish and ran in with me, but I hardly knew where I was at that point.

I finished in 1:59:31. I am a sub-2 half marathoner. There were so many years when I thought this would NEVER happen, and it hasn’t really sunk in yet.

I am so happy today.

parkrundays: Leazes #142 and Jesmond Dene #145

Catchup of last weekend and this weekend! No photos as I keep forgetting.

I said last time that I really didn’t expect to continue with the course PBs last weekend at Leazes. I’d already run my second fastest ever parkrun there a fortnight previously, and I was really starting to feel the Thursday long runs from marathon training in my legs, so I was sure the streak was over. But I was wrong – and somehow I managed another big all-time PB! 24:32 – 39 seconds off my 25:11 at Town Moor in early January. The course PB streak survives… 11 and counting now. We’ll see what happens next weekend.

Yesterday, though, I took a break from the running and volunteered at Jesmond Dene instead. Timekeeping for the first time in ages, which was nice – and thankfully the rain held off, unlike during the rest of this weekend!

Back to Town Moor next week.

parkrunday: Rising Sun #313

The course PBs continue 🙂 My previous best at Rising Sun was 32:35 last July so I was fairly hopeful due to the way things have been going recently.

Rising Sun parkrun
It was a muddy one so I wore my trail shoes – which meant it was a trail shoes PB too! Photo from Rising Sun parkrun Facebook page.

I started at the front with the fast laddies, which felt scary at the time but meant I avoided the usual bottleneck (it’s a wide start that quickly narrows). As has been the case for most parkruns recently, it turned into a bit of a progression run – I need to be brave enough to start faster. Or possibly do more of a warmup.

I finished in 26:02 – six and a half minutes off the course PB, which is not bad!

That’s 10 course PBs in a row! But the streak is absolutely not guaranteed to continue, as I’m back at Leazes this weekend. I was only there a week and a half ago and already did a fairly blistering time (for me), so we’ll have to see. I will give it a good go though.

parkrundays: Town Moor #606, Jesmond Dene #141 and Leazes #140

Catching up with the last few parkrundays!

6th January saw me back at Town Moor, this time in shorts and fast shoes with my serious face on (the theme for this month’s parkruns). This was a successful strategy and helped me take over a minute off December’s all-time PB! New all-time PB 25:11.

Back to Jesmond Dene for the first time in a couple of months on 13th January. Pleased to take more than a minute off my course PB here as well – 27:26.

parkrun
Photo from Jesmond Dene parkrun Facebook page. (I look awful here haha but you can tell how hard I was pushing on the final sprint!)

Finally, this last Saturday, I completed the set of Newcastle city parkruns with Leazes. Another week, another minute-plus off a course PB – 25:17! I was hoping in the latter stages it would be another all-time PB, but I couldn’t quite beat my Town Moor time from a couple of weeks previously. Soon I hope.

Post-parkrun
Warm layers on afterwards for the walk back to the car!

Assuming it’s on, I’m planning to do another local one this weekend. I’ve not visited in a while, and my course PB there is in the low 30s – so hopefully I’ll be able to take a decent chunk off that one too, even if I take it slightly easier this week (it’s a cutdown week on my marathon training plan so probably best to cool it a little!).

Race Recap: Leeds Abbey Dash 2023

I am extremely late with this race recap. The autumn got away from me a bit. Never mind – at least I’m getting it posted now before my 2024 race season begins.

Geth and I both wanted one final crack at the 10k distance in 2023 after the Great North Run was out of the way. I hadn’t yet broken sub-hour and I was sure I could, while Geth hadn’t yet properly tackled a 10k race in 2023 due to his spring injury. We settled on Leeds Abbey Dash because it was said to be fast and because we both always enjoy a trip to Leeds – one of our favourite cities.

Leeds Abbey Dash
Start line selfie!

Following a nice Saturday evening in Leeds and a good night’s sleep at our favourite city centre hotel, we made our way to the start line. It was fairly cold now that we were well into October, especially as I have now made the decision to brave races in shorts and vest all year round.

As such, I felt a bit frozen solid when I started! But I soon warmed up and de-stiffened, and quickly caught the one-hour pacers, which was a good sign. The course is largely an out and back, which meant that once I was a couple of miles in and the leaders were coming back the other way, I had lots of people to focus on as I ran, and I was able to look out for Geth.

I felt really strong at the turnaround and after that it was just a case of hanging onto the pace, especially as I was mostly overtaking people rather than the other way round. I had to talk to myself quite hard during the last couple of miles, but I did manage to stay focused, and in the end I crossed the line in 54:23. Not just the sub-hour I’d been chasing for eight years, but also a sub-55!

I wasn’t really able to find the words at the time (part of the reason I’ve taken so long to get round to this blog), and even three months later my self-perception still hasn’t caught up with the paces I’ve been doing, especially as I’m still improving. I still find it a bit hard to believe that I was able to take such a big chunk off my 10k PB (previously 1:01:21) as I had had a few good cracks at it in the late spring and early summer. Three and a half months made such a difference!

I’m not really thinking about 10ks at the moment as I’m in the depths of marathon training. But I do have a few booked in 2024 so it’d be lovely to continue along this trajectory 🙂