Upping the Mileage

It's all going pretty well at the moment but I'll be a lot happier once I'm up to 20 miles. So as it's been over a month since I've done any distance with the balls so I decided to do 15 miles today.
I had to get out to Norman Park pretty early today as I had to get to Christmas lunch at my son's rugby club. I started while Junior Parkrun was still going and I'd forgotten how muddy that top bit of path gets in the winter. Both the junior and adult Parkruns come across the grass and hit the path at that point and as a consequence that bit of track was very wet and muddy. The soil is quite sandy too so it's a bit sandpapery on the hands dribbling through that section. It also takes a little more effort as the mud takes some of the bounce out of the balls.
I settled into a rhythm and had a few comments from people today. Some from friends associated with Junior Parkrun and a few more from other park users, most notably from a fitness class on the grass at the top end of the park. At about 9 miles or so, as I passed them, they all stopped what they were doing, came over to the edge and clapped and cheered as I went past. A little embarrassing really!
I stopped very briefly every mile today for a quick time check, a jelly baby and a sip of water. I wanted to make sure I averaged under 9 minute miles and I managed to do it, just. Obviously it's getting a little tougher but I completed the 15 miles in 02:14:28 which is an average of 08:58 per mile. This gives me 01:56:15 to complete the last 11.2 miles which gives me around 10m20s to complete each mile which would allow me to slow considerably. Clearly I'd like to run a more even pace but if I can keep up the 9 minute miles so much the better. As I increase the miles I'll get a better feel for the pace I need to start at.
In other news, my running club, Petts Wood Runners, have very generously given me one of their club places for the VMLM for my record attempt. This takes away the huge burden and responsibility to raise thousands of pounds for a charity place and allows me to concentrate on my training. I'm incredibly grateful to the committee for their generosity and belief in me. Although I don't HAVE to raise a fixed sum for charity I do want to help some good causes and I have chosen Orchid Cancer and Demelza Hospice Care for Children. I have chosen Orchid because they are a testicular cancer charity (and other male cancers) and I figure there's some good PR to be had out of the two balls link. And I have chosen Demelza because they do a lot of good work for the children at my wife's special needs school and I raised money for them doing my very first half marathon several years ago.
I'm going to have a little break over Christmas now, I'll still run but the balls (that I've now named Steph and Kyrie after Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving) won't get another outing until the new year. In the meantime, if you'd like to support my charities you can sponsor me at:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=KevHowarth&faId=774354&isTeam=false

Happy Christmas!

Me, Steph & Kyrie

Potholes, Puddles & Stones - Shakespeare Half

Another half marathon in the bag and another PB. Which is a minor miracle considering the conditions at the Autumn Shakespeare Half today. It's held at the Shakespeare County Raceway which is a drag strip and air field in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The start is at the beginning of the drag strip and it was really wet with a lot of standing water. Now, I've never walked on a drag strip before but the surface is covered in rubber from all those spinning wheels so all those trainers on a wet rubber floor made for a very squeaky start.

The forecast had been for heavy rain, right up until the day before and I drove though some pretty heavy stuff on the way there this morning but thankfully it held off for the race itself. However, there were, of course, lots of puddles to contend with and the further I got into the race it became clearer that it was going to be madness to try and dribble through certain parts of the course. Just have a look at some of these pictures I took after I'd finished:

Not even the very worst London marathon road is going to look half as bad as this so I didn't worry too much about occasionally picking the balls up, although I did dribble through that grassy bit of track.

Before I started the race I got chatting to a guy called Tomas Bolton who ran the 2015 London Marathon dressed as a police phone box. He was making a world record attempt that year and as such is still in touch with Jerry Knox whose record I'm after. I've always wondered if Jerry had got wind of my plans to take his record from him. I get a good few page views from the USA each time I post. Well I guess he'll probably know now.
Hello Jerry! I'm coming for you!!! And thanks for the inspiration.

Anyway, back to the race. A bloody dreadful surface. Grass patches, cracks, holes, puddles, gravel, stones, standing water everywhere. It was superb obstacle avoidance practice but mentally draining planning a route through it all for both feet and balls. And having all that standing water makes it much harder work, as even if I avoid the puddles (which I didn't always) the surface water still takes some of the bounce out of the balls so I have to push them harder into the ground.

I was a bit worried about my hands as now it's getting cold outside and despite frequently applying hand cream they're really drying out and last night my right thumb split. I taped it up with waterproof plasters but by the time I'd finished the first 3 mile lap the ball had scuffed them off. Fortunately I didn't do any further significant damage to it and it didn't bleed (hang on while I get more hand cream).

I only looked at my watch once at around the 10 mile mark. I'd just been running at a pace I thought I could cope with. So when I realised that I was close to finishing in my 01:55:00 target time I was pleasantly surprised. In the end I finished in 01:56:39 which was 25 seconds quicker than I did the Bristol Half in and a new balls PB. Just after I'd finished a fellow runner thanked be for motivating him to finish ahead of me. He wasn't going to be beaten by a crazy man dribbling two basketballs.

I don't have any more races with balls lined up until Silverstone now. I think I'll just concentrate on upping the miles around Norman Park. If the weather is agreeable I'll take the balls out and if it isn't I'll just to a regular long run around the streets on a Sunday. There's still plenty of training time but it's only just over five months until race day!

Post race, overlooking the finish

Still Got It

So I've been back training for two weeks after a four week enforced layoff and it's feeling pretty good. This last week in particular has felt great. A good night in group 10 at Petts Wood Runners (PWR) on Tuesday where we did about 6.5 miles and I had plenty to give at the end and another great track session from Mike Reeves on Thursday.
I finally managed to get a response out of the people from the Autumn Shakespeare Half and I do have a place next Saturday. In their defence they said they had responded several times before but I don't know what happened to their emails. I couldn't find anything in any of my in-boxes including the spam filter. The race is just over 4 laps of the Shakespeare County Raceway so it should be a good surface and the field will be considerably smaller than Copenhagen and Bristol. With this in mind I'm going to set myself a target of going sub 01:55:00.
I haven't been out running with the balls since Bristol but I figured it's more important to get my stamina back at this point. I know a half marathon is no trouble with the balls so today I went out to simply run the half marathon distance in a moderate time. I set off in glorious autumn sunshine thinking I'd run at just over 8 minute miles and make sure that didn't fall below 9 minute miles. Just past 3 miles I bumped into self-titled Old Scrote Tim Springett from PWR who was running my way. Rather annoyingly Tim is both older and faster than me so we ended up running closer to 7:30 minutes per mile for a couple of miles (I'm happy for Tim to be older than me but less happy with how much faster than me he is). Tim left me at about 5 miles and I slowed just a little.
It was a really nice day to be out running this morning and I even felt pretty good running up Farnborough Hill at about 10 miles. I finished the 13.1 miles in 01:48:56 which is an average of 8:19 minutes per mile.A good comfortable run to set me up for next weekend.
I did re-inflate my basketballs this week and managed to get out early one evening in the last of the daylight but from now on it's going to be dark by the time I finish work. So I had a chat with the headteacher at my son's school to see if she'd let me use the gym in the evenings. She seemed pretty positive about it as long as they don't have any bookings so I'm waiting to hear back from the office as to which days I can get in there. It keeps me sharp messing about with two ball tricks and drills so it's a good thing to do when I'm giving my legs a rest.
I will need to get the balls out again this week to get the pressures right as they're both a little flat and I'm off up to a friend's house in Burford on Friday night, ahead of the race on Saturday. I'll post again next Sunday to report back on the race and whether or not I managed to break 1:55:00.

Finished in Whitehall Rec. Sun still shining.

I'm still here!

Just a quick update as it's been nearly four weeks since my last post. I haven't done any running since the Bristol Half. I haven't even re-inflated my basketballs since I got back. I was always going to take a couple of weeks out but after the visible bruising from my fall healed I was still left with considerable discomfort on my left side, especially when trying to sleep. I've now had it looked at by both my Physio and my Osteopath and they've pretty much said the same thing, which is encouraging:
Falling onto the tarmac and crushing my Garmin into my ribs has bruised my costal cartilage. Apparently I'm lucky. If I'd dislocated a rib at the affected point there's no putting it back, you just have to live with it. However, it could still take 10 weeks for it to heal properly. But when I'm ready I can run again. I don't have to wait for another 6 weeks and although it will hurt, I'm told that it will not delay the healing process. Armed with this information I intend having a little trot out on Monday. In the meantime I have to regularly ice it.

I've been trying to confirm that I still have a deferred place at the Autumn Shakespeare Half on 12 November. I was unable to run the Summer race and so should have a place in three weeks time for the Autumn one. We'll see. If I can start running again this coming week I should be fit enough for it. Better get those balls pumped up.

That watch hurt when I hit the tarmac

Bristol - New Balls PB

So I did my second half marathon in seven days on Sunday - not nearly as impressive as a couple of friends of mine that trumped me by doing the Mallorca Ironman on Saturday though. That's just crazy. Anyway, it was the Bristol half marathon yesterday and I was determined to go under 2 hours. I was contacted by BBC Radio Bristol via Twitter and asked if I would take part in a phone-in on Friday morning which I was happy to do. You may find it's still available on-line if you're interested. I'm on after Elton John at about 41 minutes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04699s4

After my little stint on the radio I got the train to Bristol. My friend Matt had arranged tickets for the rugby that night and after a few beers I returned to his house in the early hours of Saturday. Not perhaps ideal training ahead of a Sunday race (although honestly I only had three pints and it wasn't that long past midnight when I got in). Others had a few more and were out a little later (Matt, Neil, Cormac & Morgan) although in fairness none of them were running.

Having got bogged down in traffic in Copenhagen I wanted to make sure I got a better start at Bristol. However, I still didn't really push as far forward as I should've in the start pen but it didn't matter too much as the start was in four waves so runners were more spread out. The starts are always congested but once past the suspension bridge it got a lot easier. I could see a lot more road and needed to as it had rained before the start and the roads were wet with puddles I needed to avoid. I had decided that I needed to go for every gap on the out and back section down the Portway as I was expecting it to get more congested as we came back into town on the narrower streets, many of which (as it turns out) aren't in the greatest condition.

I got lots of comments. The usual mix of astonishment and incredulity. It rained heavily but briefly on my way back down the Portway creating more standing water on the course. I was able to avoid the obvious puddles but many of the road surfaces had a thin layer of water on them which absorbs some of the power out of the bounce making it harder work. At about 7.5 miles, not long after I'd crossed a bridge and shortly before I had to cross another one I had a little wobble and suddenly my left foot slipped on the wet road and I hit the tarmac. Hard. Someone handed the balls back to me (thank you, whoever you are) but I had to take a few seconds to compose myself. It was only seconds though and I carried on. Aside from that, I picked the balls up for three things;
1. Where the road was flooded all the way across and everyone was crowding to take the shallowest line.
2. Through the section of old cobbles (I dribbled on the new cobbles).
3. Around Queen Square which has a gravel track.
It's actually more difficult running holding the balls as it disables my arms.

I didn't look at my watch once. I just ran at a pace that felt good. I occasionally asked the runners near me for a pace check but that was all. As I got close to the finish it got a little trickier as I was caught between very tired runners that had spent everything and those that were spending their reserves and sprinting for the finish. The crowd support was great though. I crossed the finish line in 01:57:04 which is five seconds quicker than I did Silverstone in. I can do it faster though and I'm sure I can go under 01:55:00 quite easily in good conditions.

It was only after I finished that things began to ache. I wasn't too bad in the pub for a couple of pints but I then went back to my friend's house and after lunch I had a short nap. When I woke it really hurt just to stand upright as I had landed on my rib cage when I fell and my lower ribs were really bruised. I've also got bruised and scuffed knees and an elbow to match. Coughing and sneezing really hurts still.

So all in all it was another weekend of valuable experience. Thank you to the organisers for letting me take part and thank you to Ben Andrews who put a nice video clip of me on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKynh7ljvLM/?hl=en
I'm not signed up for any more races until Silverstone in March but I will find others to do before then, even if I just run them without balls. But for now, I'm going to have a couple of weeks off.

Have you checked YOUR balls?

Copenhagen Race Day

What an amazing experience. I learnt so much from this race and I've got so much I want to record about it, forgive me if this drags on.
Firstly I'm really happy that I managed to get to the start line relatively fit. Since having had over 9 weeks out with my knee I had only managed a couple of outings with the balls, the longest being 10 miles just the week before. So I was a little uncertain how I would perform on the day, hence I decided to start towards the back of the 1:45 - 2:00hr start pen I was in so I didn't get in anyone's way. This turned out to be a bad idea. Almost immediately I realised that I was getting stuck behind runners I ought to be in front of and there was hardly any opportunity to overtake. As such I ended up getting blocked in with other runners passing me and going through gaps I couldn't fit through. Probably less than a kilometre had passed when I found myself getting squeezed into a tighter and tighter space. With nowhere to go I ended up tripping over and losing both balls. I dived to try and save one in front of me and ended up flat out on the floor. It's all a bit of a blur but I do remember someone retrieving one of the balls for me and helping me up. I was so embarrassed as the race had hardly started but I just had to get up and get on with it. It was only after I managed to regain my composure that I began to think of how Mo fell in the 10,000m in Rio and got up to win. It made me smile and gave me further confidence.
The roads never really thinned out. They were often quite narrow and largely unfenced. Regular bottlenecks were created by parked cars and traffic islands which would not have troubled most other runners but caused me considerable inconvenience as everyone bunched up. Pedestrians and cyclists were regularly crossing the road in front of me. Trying to find a clear patch of road between all the other runners was tricky. I need to be able to see what the road surface is doing so I can avoid road markings (where paint has been put on top of paint, on top of paint etc) and steer clear of patched bits of road where there are joins, cracks and holes.
Being so close to so many other runners is mesmerising when you're looking at their feet with all those heels and white socks flashing. Add to that the shiny confetti and streamers at one point and it's really hard to keep focussed.
I had to pick the balls up and run holding them through three of the water stations. The first one was mad. I wasn't stopping but suddenly there were people criss-crossing in front of me trying to decide if they were going to the left or the right for water and changing their minds. It was a proper melee and people were just dropping plastic cups in the middle of the road. I decided I wasn't going to risk losing a ball again so just picked them up. It has given me serious food for thought.
I didn't drink as much as I would've liked to, as in order to do so on the run I have to allow one ball to take a bounce on its own while I put the pipe in my mouth. I simply daren't do it for much of the race as there was so little space and room for error.
I bounced one of the balls in a discarded gel sachet and got sticky all over my hand and the ball. This really alters the feel for a while until the sticky gets covered in dirt. Then I found myself trying to dribble through another water station where the floor was wet which rehydrated the sticky again.
I realised that I needed to pay closer attention to where the corners were coming up as I needed time to position myself in the road on the outside of every bend to avoid the crush of the inside line. Suddenly looking up and realising I'm on the inside line as everyone starts getting closer is very unnerving. I knew there was a section of cobblestones and had been out practising over a similar set the night before. Having picked up the balls through some of the water stations I was determined to dribble over the cobbles but as I did so (I had to slow down) I was overtaken by the 2hr pacing group which then created an impenetrable wall in front of me.
I barely looked at my watch. I figured I was pretty much resigned to going with the flow. The race seemed to fly by. People were cheering. Many were laughing, lots were taking photos and filming. I had my chest camera on and at Silverstone I recorded the first and the last 3 miles but I realised that it was still running at mile 10 having started it just before the race. I knew it only had a 2 hour recording life and I wanted to film the end so I decided, as this was just a bit of training fun, I'd stop to change the battery so I could film the end. Rather ironically I then turned the corner to hear a DJ blasting out Culture Beat's dance tune Mr Vain!
As I turned the final corner and could see the finish line I decided I had little to lose. I had plenty left in the tank so I decided to weave my way past as many people as I could. It wasn't easy but it was kind of fun. Only after I'd finished did I realise that I'd missed my target of under 2 hours by nearly three and a half minutes. Initially disappointed I came to accept that it was a good time given the conditions.
According to my Garmin data I ran 14.18 miles in 02:03:34 which is an average of 8:45 per mile (and more than a mile more than the official 13.1 mile distance!). My fastest mile was mile 4 and apparently done in 6:33 which I can't quite believe. And my slowest mile was mile 11 which I'm pretty certain was the one where I stopped to change the camera battery and completed in 9:52.
A handful of people stopped me before and after the race to take pictures, to tell me that they'd read about me or to just ask what I was doing and wish me luck. Everyone I spoke to was very nice and supportive.
I am incredibly grateful to the race director, Lars Nissen for letting me run. It really was an immensely valuable experience and very enjoyable. I hope to return next year, perhaps with others from my club, Petts Wood Runners, to run it normally and to enjoy the sights of the race that I couldn't look up to enjoy this year.
Next stop Bristol - which will be a completely different race and one that I will be bitterly disappointed in if I do not finish significantly under two hours.
A massive 'thank you' to my wife and children for coming to support me in Denmark. I think they enjoyed it too but we're all very tired.

Track me in Copenhagen

...if you want live updates. If you know me I'll be cluttering up your Facebook feed once I've finished anyway! There is a Copenhagen half marathon app available, through which you can track my progress on Sunday. My race number is 8105.
I thought I'd better put in some decent mileage with the balls this weekend to give me the confidence I need to complete the race on Sunday, so I set out just after 11am yesterday to do around 10 miles. I'm not very confident in my Garmin data this week though as it kept getting lost under the trees and I'm sure it added an extra half a mile to my stats making me look a bit better than I was, but getting the numbers out of the way first: 10.68 miles in 01:34:17 which makes an average pace per mile of 08:50. Like I said though, I wasn't quite that fast. Good enough though considering I've only got to tack another Parkrun on to the end.
It was another full dress rehearsal but this time with a little adjustment I made to my hydration pack. Obviously I don't have a spare hand to drink with whilst dribbling but I haven't found it easy getting the drinking tube to my mouth and away again whilst moving. This is because the tube sticks to me and the straps that hold it in place. Once I'd pulled it up to drink from, it would slap me in the face once I'd finished. So I've taken a couple of key-rings and threaded them with short bits of drinking straw that will roll as the hose is pulled through them (look at the picture!). This means I can pull the hose up to my mouth and when I let go of it with my teeth, gravity will slide it back into place. It worked well until the hose slipped though the top ring. I've now added a hairband to the tube to prevent this from happening. I'll test it properly tomorrow.
It was hot yesterday. Fine when running in the shade but nasty in the sunshine but the good news is that the latest weather forecast for Copenhagen on Sunday is cooler and cloudier. As long as the start isn't too congested I ought to be able to meet my target of sub 2 hours.
The race organisers have published a short piece about me. Google makes a bit of a hash of translating it but it's all good PR. They also want to interview me in person on the day but if you want to see what they've written so far just search for 'Copenhagen half marathon' in Facebook.
I'm taking it fairly easy for the rest of the week. I'll post again after the race.
#kev2balls

Can't be stopping to drink!

Copenhagen 2 : Bristol 3

So it's just 2 weeks to Copenhagen and 3 weeks to the Bristol half. My Bristol race pack arrived Saturday but I have to pick up my Copenhagen stuff at the expo on the Saturday before the race.
I'm going to be brief today. I ran six miles on Wednesday with balls, averaging 8:54 per mile and today did a normal ten mile run averaging 8:40 per mile. I'm not as quick as I was before my knee trouble as evidenced at track night on Thursday. We did 5 intervals of 1k with a 200m jog recovery in between each. My collective time for the 5k was 20:20 which is more than a minute slower than my Parkrun PB which made me realise what I've lost whilst injured. However, I'm still hoping to finish Copenhagen in under 2 hours.
Having had a chat with our coach at Petts Wood Runners I have agreed with him that trying to run the Abingdon marathon at the end of October is just asking for trouble at this point, given how little time I have to train. The intensity required could easily set my knee back, so I've managed to sell my place on to someone on the waiting list.
I'm going to do a bit of swimming this week, a few ball skills, club night, track night, Parkrun and one final long run on Sunday before Copenhagen.
#kev2balls

I'm Back!

And it's just as well as Copenhagen is just over three weeks away. I actually did my first run for nearly 9 weeks on 8th August - just 3.5 miles but the important thing was it passed without incident. Since then I've been on holiday and did a 6.55 mile run in Portishead (half a half marathon!) and a couple of 7.5 mile runs in hilly Wales. The swimming I've been doing seems to have helped me retain a bit of stamina but I've still got some work to do.
I took a couple of new balls on holiday and did a few ball skills whilst away but I realised that I'm going to need to put a few miles in with them to get them in perfect race condition. Brand new balls need bedding in.
Club night at Petts Wood Runners was hard work this week. I ran in group 9, up from group 6 that I ran in before I went on holiday which I found a little too easy. I usually run in group 10 but I'd never keep up at the moment. It was really hot this week and I wasn't the only one that found the heat a challenge. I think I'll stick with group 9 again next week.
I've been doing lots of strengthening exercises that my physio gave me and they've been really helpful. My hamstrings are much better now and I'm trying to build up my glutes as there's really not much to speak of in that area.
I'm putting together all my race gear ready for Copenhagen and yesterday went out for a quick dress rehearsal in everything I'll be running in in 3 weeks time. I have a new top and shorts and tried to get some wear into those new balls with 3.38 miles round Norman park. I also had 4 little flags in my hydration pack that I wanted to make sure weren't going to interfere with my running. I bought 2 Union Flags some time ago so that other runners in Denmark would know I was British. I found at Silverstone that I attracted a lot of attention and people would comment and chat to me so I figured flying the Union Flag would stop people trying to talk to me in Danish. I'm happy to talk to people (briefly) but I'd rather not have to start every conversation with "I'm sorry, I'm English". And on that theme, following 23rd June I felt the need to buy a couple of European Union flags because I don't want 20,000 Danes to think I'm a triumphant Brexiteer.
I don't have the data with me but I know I managed the 3.38 miles in less than 9 minute miles. It was quite hard work but I'm putting a lot of that down to the extreme heat as the last lap got a little easier as the sun went down and I wasn't running in direct sunlight.
Hopefully it will be a little cooler this coming week so I can comfortably put in some longer runs. I'd still like to finish Copenhagen in under 2 hours but it will be close. I'll be able to call that one better in a couple of weeks.

Flying the flag(s)

Caged Lion

I haven't been able to run since my last post nearly a month ago and it's a source of immense frustration. I'll try to explain a little without turning this into a self pitying rant:

My Physio said I needed to get an MRI scan of my knee before she could help me further as everything she had tried didn't seem to be working. In fact I'm convinced the exercises she gave me made it worse. I saw my GP who said she'd refer me and recommend an MRI, but unless you're in danger of imminent death our wonderful National Health Service doesn't always move as fast as you might like. So I almost instantly got impatient and booked a private MRI, the results of which concluded: "Mild thickening of the patellar tendon at the inferior pole of the patella which is suggestive of a low grade patellar tendinopathy."  - which is good news. Only my wife now thinks I'm a big wuss with a low pain threshold.

When I say it's good news I mean that there's nothing catastrophically wrong but having seen her today for the first time since the scan was done, my Physio still thinks it will be three weeks before I can run again. She also said that this type of tendon issue can take up to three months to heal completely! This is very worrying in terms of my participation in the Copenhagen Half.

My Physio also discovered that I have very short hamstrings today. She thinks that failure of these to lengthen properly when I'm running is probably resulting in my knees being too far forward when my heel strikes the ground which is putting them under increased load and causing my current problem. So, for the time being, I just have hamstring stretches to do. I also need to get myself a Swim Pass and start swimming a lot more. I've been a few times but if it's all I can do for a few weeks I need to do much more before I lose all my stamina.

The pain I'm in does seem to have peaked. The stairs are easier and I can get my leg into the car without physically having to lift it with my hands now, but good grief! it's slow progress. I am going to the park in the evenings to sharpen up my skills with the balls which keeps me amused but I can't wait to get back out there running with them again. There's still plenty of time.

 

Blistered Balls or a Pint of Pimm's?

The answer is probably a bit of both. More of that later.
I've been at the physio twice this week. The second time earlier than planned as the exercises I've been doing for my knee seem to be making it worse. I can still run but it's aching more. So I thought I'd ask if completely resting my knee for a few weeks would speed things up, because now is the time I can afford to take a break. I'd much rather stop to let it heal properly while it doesn't really matter than have this linger on. Anyway, the physio says that's a good idea and that I can still swim or cycle. As I don't have a bike, I'm going to swim. The rules are 'any stroke but breaststroke'.
At the moment I have my knee strapped to lift the kneecap off the tender tissue underneath. The short diagnosis is 'housemaid's knee'. At the end of next week I'm getting a brace that will do the same job to wear whilst running.
So, my break conveniently coincides with the Euro '16 football, so instead of running I can sit back and watch England crash out of the tournament. Perhaps I should run.
I say I'm having a break but I am committed to a team running event at Crystal Palace on Wednesday that I'm not going to pull out of. It's only 5k. I'll rest after that. In any case, there are beers to drink at the finish line.
So there isn't going to be much to report on for about three weeks. I'm itching to do the 15 miles I had planned for tomorrow but I know I need to play the long game. It should pay off.
My other news this week is that the good people at Great Run have agreed that I can run the Bristol half marathon dribbling my balls. This is going to be great practise as the field is around 10,000. It's exactly a week after the Copenhagen half so it's going to be a busy time. The application form for Bristol asks "Do you have an interesting story that may be of interest to the media?". I ticked that box.
I'm going swimming tomorrow, I won't bore you with the results of that.

Oh! That title! I did a few ball skills in the park this afternoon. Not quite as sharp as I would've liked. I'm not sure if it's because my balls are getting so worn they're beginning to blister or because I had a pint of Pimm's at the school summer fair. Like I said - it's probably a bit of both.

My strapped knee - that I shaved rather more of than it turns out I needed to.

Horse Poo, Rain & Soggy Jelly Babies

It's been an interesting week following Brands Hatch. On the Monday I finally got round to seeing a physio about my knee and back. I've been concerned about my right knee for a while. It doesn't bother me whilst running but it's really painful to kneel on. I wanted to get it seen to before it started impacting on my running. I'll spare you the details but it's all treatable (including my back). The only thing is, one of the many exercises she wants me to do is to run backwards for 10 minutes twice a day - as if people didn't think I was crazy enough already! I tried it out before club night on the roads around Willett's Rec. I had to run in the middle of the road as it's too dangerous trying to run backwards on the pavement. There are too many trees, posts, lumps and bumps to trip over or bump into. Obviously you have to look out for cars when you're in the middle of the road and many of them on Tuesday had fellow club runners in arriving to training. I was a laughing stock. I tried to explain this to the physio yesterday at my second appointment in the hope that she would give me an alternative exercise but I've been told to go to the park when it's quiet and do lengths on the grass. On top of this humiliation she wants me to shave my leg for next week so she can strap it.
I saw a guy running this week with a hydration pack and he had the pipe coming up under his arm so it was pointing up on his chest. I'd always had mine coming over my shoulder so the pipe ended up pointing down. I've experimented threading the tube through different ways and I've come up with a way that means I can now drink on the run. I have to stop for a second to put the pipe in my mouth but I can then carry on running whilst sipping from it. When I'm done it pings back into place (almost). It needs further practise.
I was going to run this week after I'd volunteered at Bromley Parkrun on Saturday. I had everything in the car but it was really humid and oppressive. Watching some of the runners cross the line, grumbling about the heaviness of the air I decided not to bother and to go on Sunday instead after it had rained. The only trouble with that idea was that I was meeting friends in the pub Saturday night to watch England v Russia in the Euros. I managed to only drink three pints so I was pretty fresh when I got up to volunteer at Junior Parkrun this morning.
Once Junior Parkrun had cleared I got ready for my run. I managed to do the first lap in the dry but by mile 2 it was raining and it continued to rain for the next 12 miles - sometimes very hard! To begin with I tried avoiding the wetter bits of tarmac but it soon became very wet everywhere with many puddles to contend with. This makes it harder to dribble as you have to put more effort into bouncing the ball to make it come back to a suitable height. The water takes a lot of the sting out of each bounce. This is probably why my left shoulder began to ache a little. It's fine now though. I also had a trail of horse poo to contend with each lap. It went right across the path so I had to time the bounces well but it's all good experience. The rain also made all my Jelly Babies go soggy!
The increasingly difficult conditions meant that I did lose control once and had a couple of other wobbles but I still managed to do 13.52 miles in 02:00:58 which is 08:57 minutes per mile. I'm very happy with that as it was raining really hard at times. I now know that I can deal with it if it rains in April and that I'd much rather it did than have glorious sunshine. I don't cope with the heat well.
Now back to the real world. I have to take my daughter out to buy new school shoes.

I got very wet today

BH10k - Blumin' Hilly

In fairness, I was warned by a friend who'd run the Brands Hatch 10k before that it was a bit hilly but I'd brushed it off. I'd watched a YouTube video of the track and decided it wasn't an issue. However, stood on the track at the top of Paddock Hill Bend it was an awful long way down and even further up to the top at Druids. On top of that there were awkward cambers that I haven't had to deal with before. Having said all that, it was all good experience and I just stopped for water briefly at 2 and 4 miles.
I was a bit disappointed at the size of the field as I was hoping to get more experience of running in a crowd but there were only about 200 runners. I took it fairly easy on the first lap as the track was more challenging than I'd anticipated but according to my Garmin I covered the 6.12 miles in 53:03 which is an average pace per mile of 8:40. Not bad considering the hills. My chip time may just come in at under 53 minutes but I'll have to wait and see about that.
I had kitted myself out with the GoPro camera on a chest harness as well as my hydration pack which I had deliberately overfilled just to get used to running with the weight. But as I approached the start line the camera wouldn't come on. I've been calling it a GoPro in all my posts but in reality it's a cheap copy and I paid for that today. It's always been a bit temperamental. I certainly won't be trusting it with the record attempt and will buy the real thing before the Copenhagen half. At least it saves me the bother of all that editing time tonight.
It was cold to stand about today but not a bad temperature to run in. Towards the end there was a very light drizzle which was quite refreshing and made my shoes squeak on the tarmac - I'm guessing there were a lot of petrol and oil spills being rehydrated.
It was a shorter distance than I would've run this weekend but I won't take the balls out again until the following weekend when I might try a half marathon distance.
As I was leaving today a group of spectators asked me:
"Did you lose the balls at all?"
"Of course I didn't!"

Brands Hatch in the June drizzle

Keep Your Balls Well Separated

I broke my golden rule today. Just after 10 miles, as I decided to try and put in a fastest final lap, my balls kissed and one of them bounced off ahead. I managed to catch up with it and keep the dribble alive but I don't think Guinness would be happy on marathon day - I'd have to come back to the point where they touched.
Anyway, aside from that it was a pretty good run. I'll get the stats out of the way first this week and then I can blab on about everything else. Ten laps, 11.20 miles in 01:41:41 which is an average of 9:03 minutes per mile.
It was warm again today. I should've got out earlier. There were clouds about which brought welcome shade but when the sun comes out it's a bitch. I've learnt to speed up a little when the sun goes in and the wind picks up.
I was wearing my new hydration pack today (I bought myself the Inov-8 one I tested last week) and also the GoPro camera. I wanted to run in exactly the kit I'm going to run in on Friday when I do the Brands Hatch 10k. And that's another story. I contacted them via their website to ask if they'd let me run. I heard nothing so messaged again and then on 25 May the charity Events Manager replied: "My immediate response would be no... safety... stray ball..." blah, blah, blah "...but I am open to discussion." So I replied at length, sending him video links, answering his questions and explaining that I could almost literally to a 10k jaunt with my eyes closed. After a little nudge on Friday afternoon to see if he could let me know before the weekend he said: "Yes we are happy for you to take part" so I thank you Tom Abbott (www.hokh.org) for your willingness to listen.
I'm lucky enough to have a park behind my house so a couple of evenings this week I've gone out to practise some ball skills. It's something I'll be doing more of whilst the light and the weather hold. I'm getting much faster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gyvh1MH_Bw
I didn't notice until after I got home today and washed the filth off my hands but the index finger on my right hand has split. It's a minor injury but it has reminded me of the importance of keeping my hands well moisturised even in the summer. It will heal before Friday.
Someone on Twitter called me an 'oddball' this week for what I am attempting. Someone else suggested 'evenball' which look me far longer that it should've to understand.
So the next update I'll do will be Friday night after Brands Hatch. I'm off for a shower now and then I'm going to scour YouTube for videos of the Brands Hatch race track to see just how hilly it is. It won't be a problem but it's best to be prepared.

Kitted out

Don't Garden on Race Day

Another decent training run in the bag, although it's been a rather busy day. First to Junior Parkrun with my son, then off to a friend's house to pick up a new hydration pack to try out. After that I spent the rest of the morning tackling the jungle our allotment has become - first with a heavy petrol strimmer and then with a lawn mower. My shoulders will ache from just this tomorrow without doing 10 miles with the basketballs. I then bought a sack of gravel and spent 40 minutes weeding and tidying up the front driveway.
It was quite warm this morning but I knew it was going to cloud over this afternoon with rain on the way, so I went out at 4pm to do 9 laps (just over 10 miles). I was trying out a new hydration pack today, the Inov-8 Race Pro Extreme 4 Litre Running Backpack SS15 which has an unnecessarily long name but is really rather good, having all the weight of the water sat on your hips rather than your back and handy mesh pockets on the hip fins for Jelly Babies and gels. As soon as I started running today I was worried that the pack was going to chafe and that perhaps it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be but as I ran the first mile far too quick (7:40) I took a few moments to make some adjustments and it was much better after that.
A few comments today. Nothing really worth mentioning though. I did get hit by a football (an accident I think) and I nearly squashed one of those silly toy dogs that got under my feet. Then there were the usual scooters, bikes and pedestrians to avoid. Oh, and a crazy lady started jumping around in front of me at one point, although it turned out to be a crazy lady I know - Hello Sarah!
I am still stopping briefly every mile to check my pace and have a few sips of water and I realised today that over the course of a marathon if I stop for 15 seconds every mile that adds up to 6.5 minutes. I can't really see a way round this although I might try going two miles at a time next week to see how I cope with that. It might save valuable seconds.
So I did the 9 laps I was after as the rain began on the final lap, which was 10.12 miles. My total time was 01:30:07 which despite a 7:40 first mile makes an average pace per mile of 8:54. I admit I was tiring a little towards the end but then I won't be doing any gardening the morning of the London Marathon. Last weeks pace was very fast so I hope I can fall somewhere between the two next week when I do 10 laps - about 11.25 miles.

Here comes the rain!

A Great Day!

It's been a very good day. It started in the sunshine as I was a marshal at my running club's members' 10k. I managed to get some really nice pictures to share with them too. Oh, and there was lots of cake at the finish. Then in the last games of the Premiership, Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 and Tottenham got spanked 5-1 by Newcastle meaning Arsenal beat Tottenham into second place.
Anyway, to the basketball.
I went out at 5pm today with the intention of doing the 8 laps it was too hot for last week. And it was easy. But I learnt (both last week and this) how power sapping the sun can be. It was much cooler but the sun was in and out during my run today and it's so much easier when it's in.
I had two comments from children on bikes today; one from a girl about 7 who said "You're really good!" and then a brief conversation with a lad of about 14:
"I can do that!"
"Can you? Can you do it for 9 miles?"
"Err, no."
I did 9.03 miles in 1:16:58 which is an average pace per mile of 8:31. This is nearly a whole minute per mile faster than last week when I did 2 miles less. My last mile was the fastest too at 8:07. Very happy with that. I had more to give. I might try 10 laps next week.

Too Damn Hot!

It's been a beautiful weekend. I knew it was going to be warm today but I still wanted to try 8 laps of Norman Park, having done six last week. It's started off well as it usually does. I wanted to run approximately 9 minute miles but did the first in 8:30. I deliberately slowed after that but the heat was nasty and I decided fairly quickly that 8 laps was going to be horrid. Besides, I had a BBQ to get home and prepare for. Pride wouldn't let me do less than last week though, so I did 6 laps again and topped it up slightly to 7 miles. Even so, having stopped twice in the last mile for water my pace had dropped to 9:59. It was far too hot. My average pace for the 7 miles was 9:27. This is still (just) within world record pace but I couldn't have kept it up for much longer today. When I got back to the car it was telling me the temperature was 28 degrees. It's highly unlikely to be that warm in April next year and I sincerely hope it isn't!
Somebody in the park asked me if I was a Petts Wood Runner training for the marathon. I'm assuming they too are a PWR but I'm afraid I'm not sure who it was. Hello to you if you're reading this and thanks for your 'good luck' message.
I've decided I won't bother blogging about not losing control of the balls any more. You can just assume I haven't. It's extremely rare that it happens now (but for one last time, it didn't happen today).
I booked my place in the Copenhagen half marathon this week and also my flights. REALLY looking forward to that!

Danes Rock!

I love Denmark! Copenhagen here I come. Sunday 18th September.

Thank you Lars!

Back in the Saddle

Following Silverstone and Brighton, today was my first trip out with the balls since 13th March. Not a great deal to say about it other than the sun was shining and it was really pleasant to be out. I did six laps (6.81 miles) in 58:50 which is an average of 8:39 per mile. Pretty comfortable. No big deal. No loss of control. Looking forward to more days like this as I increase the milage again.
I sent an email to the organisers of the Copenhagen half marathon yesterday asking if they'd let me run that in September. It'll be good practise as I understand about 22,000 people run it. I figure the Danes are a pretty friendly, relaxed bunch so I'm hopeful of a positive response.
I'm probably going to run the Ted Pepper 10k tomorrow (without balls).
I'll let you know what the Danes say.

Brighton Marathon

I did my second ever marathon yesterday (no basketballs) and the weather was pretty much perfect in Brighton. My only other marathon experience was at London 2012 where (as some of you may remember) I raced in fancy dress. My London time was 03:56:02 and in Brighton yesterday I managed to finish in 03:39:30. The more I think about it, the more pleased I am with that time. For a start, people weren't suggesting to my family that they call me an ambulance this time! I was in a mess after London but in pretty good shape at the end of Brighton. And today, I was expecting to be really sore and struggle to walk properly but I'm in remarkably good shape. Yeah my legs are a bit sore but it's not restrictive. I'm amazed.
When I signed up for Brighton I wanted to go sub 03:15:00 but having missed three core weeks of my training programme following Silverstone (due to that partially dislocated rib) I knew that was unrealistic before I started. I headed off at Brighton hoping to finish in a 15 minute window 03:30:00 - 03:45:00, so job done on that front. I'm particularly pleased as I didn't get to do a training run longer than 17 miles, so the last nine were new territory for my body.
So now I have to start working on my upper body strength (not something I've ever been known for) so I can cope better with the additional strain of dribbling basketballs and running a little more hunched than you would ordinarily. Hopefully this will help prevent injury during training too.
I have decided not to enter the Liverpool Marathon on 30th May to chase that magic 03:15:00 finish as it's probably unrealistic to get fit for that in such a short window. I'll also probably not run the Midnight Marathon in Dartford on 2nd July as my bother-in-law announced his 40th birthday party that night the day after I signed up for it. So I won't have a guaranteed place at London for the record attempt. Hopefully the charity I want to run for will secure a place for me but they won't know until the end of the month, otherwise I'll enter the ballot (again!). I understand there may be a small chance of getting a place via my running club but if all else fails there must be a hundred other charities that would snap me up for the PR opportunities this would bring them.
The next race I'm signed up for is the Summer Shakespeare on 30th July, which I had thought was a 20k but it seems it may actually be a half marathon. They have agreed to let me run with the basketballs so I'm going to aim to break 01:45:00. I'm sure I'll run some other smaller races between now and then as there seem to be lots of opportunities now I'm a member of Petts Wood Runners. I'm also considering entering the Abingdon Marathon in October. But for now, I'm going to put my feet up and look forward to tracking all my PWR friends in the London Marathon this Sunday. Good luck everyone!

I don't look it, but I'm really happy.

Heckled (again)!

I think I've been to the Osteopath five or six times in two-and-a-half weeks and I'm still not fixed properly. I'm better than I was, but not perfect. I got a chance to speak to her on Thursday and told her that (assuming I wasn't going to do any long term damage) I really needed to put a long run in this weekend, given that the Brighton marathon is only two weeks away. She said that as long as it wasn't screaming at me I should be OK. So I ran just over 4 miles Friday night. I did Parkrun Saturday morning and this morning I ran 17.71 miles (it wasn't a planned route, that's just how far I'd gone when I got home). It felt really good to be running again and my back hasn't bothered me too much. It's aching a bit now but I was really pleased with how it went considering it's been three weeks.
I've been in the newspaper this week. An online article went up last Thursday and a print version was published Wednesday in the Bromley News Shopper. As a result of this, not long after I started running today, I got heckled by someone who (from the other side of the road) shouted after me: "Where's you balls?!" I didn't have time to stop and see who it was even though the teacher in me wanted to correct their grammar (but that would've been mean and pedantic anyway). If you haven't already seen the article you can find it here:
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/14381364.WATCH__Bromley_man_in_training_to_beat_bizarre_world_record/

So there are two weeks of tapering now before Brighton. I'm not going for the 03:15:00 finish I wanted to. I'll see how I feel on the day and aim for something between 03:30:00 and 03:45:00. It's a training run now.
I signed up for the Dartford Midnight Marathon on 2 July but the day after I did, my brother-in-law announced his 40th birthday party is going to be that night. So I have a dilemma. Now I'm considering the Liverpool marathon on 29 May to go for that magic 03:15:00. I still don't know if I've got it in me but I want to give it a go.
I've also been looking for other race opportunities to run with the basketballs. In short, the Windsor half have said 'no'. The Maidenhead half have said 'no'. The Bracknell half has stretches of grass, so no good. I'm still waiting to hear from the Tonbridge, Clacton, Folkestone and Severn Bridge half marathons but the Summer Shakespeare 20k have said 'yes'! As soon as I'm done writing here I'm going to sign up for it.
I'm not going out with the balls until after Brighton now so it'll be at least 3 weeks until I have anything to report on that front but having done 13.5 miles already I'd like to go for 15 miles next.
I'm sure I'll have something to say after Brighton though.

Oh the irony!

So, very pleased with Silverstone. What I neglected to mention though was the injury I picked up after the race, not thinking it would be a big deal at the time. I managed to finish the race without major incident but whilst queuing for the St John's people to look at my fingers I thought I'd take off the chest harness that was holding the camera I was wearing. In trying to wriggle out of that I managed to partially dislocate a rib. Usually one trip to the osteopath sorts me out but I had to go three times last week and it's still not fixed. It seems that running  13.1 miles slightly hunched, as I was with the basketballs, has put additional strain on my back. Once that rib moved all the muscles have tightened up around it and this tightness is preventing it from popping back into place permanently. So I'm taking lots of ibuprofen and icing it several times a day in order to reduce the swelling and relax the muscles. I'll have to go back to the osteopath later in the week to see if I can finally be fixed. I really need to be running. The Brighton marathon is fast approaching.
While I've been injured I've had time to edit the footage I shot at Silverstone. It's up on YouTube now:
http://youtu.be/rbp4EVWin38

Silverstone Half

What a day!
Very cold and foggy to start with but by the time the race started the sun was out. It was still cold, but the sun was shining and this was my first test amongst thousands of other runners. That was the main aim of today, to see how I could cope with lots of other people around me. Up until now I've only had to avoid the odd dog and walker and the occasional child on a scooter. This was different and as I have to focus on the floor about 10ft in front of me I was finding the flash of trainers quite mesmerising.
There was a secondary goal. I was aiming for a time of 1:55:00 but my happy window was 1:55:00 to 1:59:59 i.e. anything under 2 hours. Although I didn't pay much attention to the Garmin on my foot, I ran at what I considered a comfortable pace for the time I was aiming for. It was only as I reached mile 12 I noticed I wasn't going to make 1:55:00 but I finished in around 1:57:30 (tbc) with quite a decent sprint finish so I was happy.
I had all sorts of comments from other runners and spectators. Far too many to mention here, but there was lots of "Oh my God!", lots of "Fair play, mate!", a "That's just showing off!" and my personal favourite "Now that's just silly!".
Everyone was really supportive. Firstly I'd like to thank the organisers for letting me do it but the other runners were great too. Lots of encouraging words. I hope I didn't get in anyone's way. I had to take a wide berth round some of the sharper turns as it got a bit congested. I'd particularly like to thank the guy that guided me over the metal walkway they'd put over the gravel we had to cross. He made sure I had a clear path and talked me though it. The balls really didn't bounce too well on it.
It was great to have my family there too. I could hear them cheering from the stands and I could hear my son as he chased me all the way down one of the straights.
I did have to get patched up by St John's at the end. Nothing too serious but at around mile 5 the tip of my right index finger split open and by the end of the race my left one had split too, It's a consequence of dry winter hands. The split on my right finger is really quite deep and is going to take a while to heal. It doesn't make typing this a comfortable experience!
So, overall a very positive experience. Now to focus on the Brighton marathon (without balls) before picking up the basketball training again.

Nice Crossover!

So I've been concentrating on improving my pace for the Brighton marathon of late and have neglected my balls recently. However, the Silverstone half is this Sunday and I needed to break in the new race balls I'd ordered. I only pumped them up this morning so I needed to spend some time with them making sure the pressures were right. I took one of the babies I look after to the park, along with the two balls this morning. I pushed the him in the swing whilst dribbling the balls, and he went back and forth just dribbling (he goes through a lot of bibs). Because they're brand new they need a bit of scuffing up. They have a bit of a greasy, oily feel to them from when they were made.
After work this evening I went back to the playground at dusk to work on them some more. Practising some skills with my back to the main park I heard a "Nice crossover!" from a guy walking his dog. It turns out he used to play a bit. We had a good chat and he might even go and have a runout at my old club. It's nice meeting new people locally - that's what I like about my job.
Anyway, the balls feel OK but I'm going to give them a scrub in the bath later to remove whatever that oil is. I'll have another little practise with them tomorrow.
I'm feeling pretty good about Sunday. It should be fun. I expect I'll attract a bit of attention and I'm hoping I'll have the energy to put in a decent sprint finish. I'm looking forward to seeing how many people I can demoralise by overtaking them in the final straight. It's always good to be doing the overtaking at the end - it means you've paced yourself well. I'll make another blog post Sunday night and that's when I'm going to go public with the record attempt and this blog. It'll be interesting to see how that affects my viewing stats and whether anyone gives a sh*t!
See you Sunday, Silverstone!

PS. I've been thinking about having that last minute nervous pit stop and contemplating having to ask someone:
"Excuse me, would you mind holding my balls while I have a wee?"

New race balls

Busted Garmin

So its been three and a half weeks since I've been out with the basketballs. I had to take 10 days off from running completely due to a virus but ran the Bramley 10 (without basketballs) on Sunday. I followed this with 7.22 miles at a 7:20 minute mile pace last night with Petts Wood Runners. Not necessarily a great idea ahead of todays planned 13.5 miles but there you go.
Despite working perfectly last night and having been charging this morning, I got to the park and my Garmin would not switch on. It seems to have died. Problem! I had no choice but to run without it using the church clock to roughly judge my pace each lap. I wanted to try and run 9 minute miles and while I was moving I probably did that. However, without the clock visibly ticking I took a little longer each lap to have a drink and get jelly babies out of my back pack. I also stopped after six laps for an energy gel.
As I intend wearing a chest video camera at the Silverstone Half in March I thought I'd better practise running with it. I didn't switch it on to begin with and it was just as well as it was a bit loose and flopped down during the first lap. I then got my thumb caught on it and lost a ball briefly but once I'd stopped to tighten the screw I had no further problems.
It was a really nice day for running. A little cold but as my upper body is doing a lot of work too, I soon get warm. It's been the first time for a long while that all the paths have been dry which makes it a little easier on the hands but I already had a split finger before I even started today. Due to the time of year, the nature of my work (which means washing my hands all the time) and being outside a lot, my fingers are cracking and splitting. I had to bandage one up and tape the finger of a surgical glove over it to protect it. This worked well so it didn't affect my performance too badly.
It was tough doing an extra 2.2 miles on top of my last outing. There wasn't too much to report in terms of incident and comment (perhaps because people could see I had a camera strapped to me) but I did have to negotiate a large woman and her little dog who took up the whole path at one point - woman on one side (looking the other way pretending she couldn't hear me coming) and dog on the other attached by a retractable lead. I just bounced over the lead and the dog.
The major talking point came on the final lap as a council van was driving down the path. There's a really dodgy bit of path that has been wrecked by tree roots which I avoid running over, never mind bouncing balls over. As the van had taken the good bit of path I had to take the lumpy bit if I was to keep going. Sadly I hit a particularly bad lump and a ball rolled off under the van. It got caught under the double back wheels and is never going to be quite the same again!
So I did about 13.5 miles in about 2hrs 10 minutes. Slower than I wanted but I've now done the distance (for Silverstone). I'm still confident I can beat 2 hours and push for 1:55 on the day.
You can see the video of 'basketball vs van' on YouTube via this link:
https://youtu.be/F07XXhHNP00

I stopped each lap to keep a tally in the dirt on the car.

"Are you going ALL the way round the park?"

...Yes. Ten times sir.
It was really quite warm today. Fourteen degrees by the time I'd finished. I wished I'd worn short sleeves. The weather was much better than my last outing with far less wind to contend with and no flooding, although the paths were still wet. Pretty good conditions in fact apart from the top corner of the back straight which was very wet and muddy from the Junior Parkrun they do on a Sunday morning. It's this bit of track that obscured my Garmin screen every lap.
Because it was considerably warmer than it has been, there were a lot of people in the park but thankfully all the dog owners had good control over their animals this week. I stopped briefly every mile as usual to wipe the mud from my Garmin and check my pace. I also took the opportunity to take on water from my camelback at this point.
The first seven miles or so were pretty uneventful but I did begin to get a few comments this week - the first of which is the title of this post. The following lap the gentleman in question removed his cap and proclaimed "I take my hat off to you sir!" On about the ninth lap a runner caught up with me and we had a brief chat on the move:
"Marathon?"
"Yes, next year."
"What's the current record?"
"4 hours, 10 minutes and 44 seconds."
"You'll do it easily at that pace."
"I know."
"Good luck!" And off he went.
On my final lap all the football games in the park had finished and the players were making their way home. As I passed a bunch of lads, one asked:
"What lap are you on?"
"Ten"
One of the other lads then colourfully expressed his astonishment!
Finally, after I'd finished and was stretching my calf muscles, leaning against the car with the balls at my feet, a small West Highland Terrier approached. He had a little sniff of my balls (you know, the way dogs do) - seriously though, I mean the basketballs. He walked round them and then cocked his leg! Fortunately his little squirt fell short but the owner was very apologetic.
So, I did ten laps which is 11.26 miles in 1:38:46. That makes an average pace per mile of 8:46. Not bad and still well within world record pace. Just another 15 miles to do.
I may not go out with the balls quite so often for the moment so my blog posts may be a little less frequent. I've decided that the Silverstone Half is not going to be a problem now and the important thing to focus on is getting fit enough to finish the Brighton Marathon in under 3:15 thus guaranteeing me entry to London 2017 for the record attempt. I've also got the Bramley 20 to run in three weeks.

Oh, and I lost a ball once today, damn it!

It wasn't immediately obvious what my time was!

New Year, New Balls

So, it's been nearly three weeks since I've been out with the balls. I have been out running, including the Box Hill Knacker Cracker on new years day which prevented me from training with the balls on Sunday because I ached so much. However, my right hand has recovered nicely.

Before Christmas I emailed Molten to tell my contact how my training was going with the two balls they kindly sent me to test. I included a link to this blog to prove I wasn't just a chancer selling the balls off on ebay. As I'd settled on the cheaper rubber ball as the best option (given what the more expensive ball did to my hand last time out) I put in a cheeky request for another couple of balls to continue my training with. I thought that given these balls retail for £10-£12 I presented excellent potential for some cheap publicity for them but I haven't heard a peep from them. I'm kidding myself that my contact is speaking to her bosses about putting together a serious sponsorship package for me but I'm not, in all honesty, holding my breath. Maybe they're waiting until after the Silverstone Half? Anyway, I bought myself a couple of new balls.

I was free all day today between school runs but I had to wait until gone 1pm for it to stop raining. I decided to wear my camelback water carrier and I had to spend some time getting the right pressure into the new balls but when I started off I lost a ball at the first corner, the wind was so strong. I lost control another two or three times on that back straight where it was so windy the gusts were like sticking your head out of a car window on the motorway, making it difficult to breathe. Halfway round the first lap the path was flooded and having had such a battle down that back straight I thought to myself 'Sod this! I'm going to throw the balls in the car and just go for a run'. But the sun came out briefly on the less windy side of the park and I decided to persevere.

There were four sections of path where I had no option but to pick up the balls to jog through flooding and I was chased briefly by several excited dogs at various points. I had to stop dribbling at one point so one woman could catch up with her dog that had done a runner when it saw me coming. She was screaming his name after him in increasing desperation: 'Budgie! Budgie! BUDGIEEEEE!' Yes, it's a stupid name for a dog isn't it? Anyway it turns out he was frightened of the balls so I had to wait for her to catch him. Another (thankfully small) dog took a particularly aggressive tone with me and took a bite at my leg. I stopped briefly to see if I was bleeding but didn't seem to be so I carried on. It's only as I write this that I've examined my leg more closely and noticed the little sh*t has punctured the skin.

At one point on that notorious back straight, the wind gusted so hard that it took a ball out from under me. It blew so hard that it was tricky catching up with it running back up the path. I lost a lot of time there.

I was a little concerned for my hands in the cold and wet, particularly in the top corner where the path was very sandy but I'm pleased to report that both my hands are unscathed this week. Ideally I would've liked to do an extra lap this week but the conditions and the fast approaching school run meant I had to settle for another nine laps. I did 10.26 miles in 1:35:02 which is an average page of 9:16. A little disappointing but it was my first trip out since Christmas and the conditions were the worst I encountered so far. I should be satisfied.

Maybe I'll hear from Molten before my next post?!