Owls Count

The plan for this race was simple. A quick warm up, then some miles at intended race pace of 8mm, followed by the half marathon at the same 8mm pace, and finishing with a quick warm down. This would mean that the half marathon would be run in a time three minutes slower than my [...]

Saturday morning saw an early start, so that I could get to Basingstoke in time for the parkrun 5k. Last time I had been down I had not eaten enough before going, so I started this morning with a good combination of cereal, a banana, and coffee. The trip to the park involved a 2 [...]

I was heading up north for a weekend of orienteering. On Saturday the races were in Leeds and they started late enough in the day that I could go and run the local parkrun first.
We stayed on the outskirts of Leeds and woke early enough for me to eat breakfast before travelling in to the [...]

A while back I went to the inaugural North Hampshire Time Trial. Since then the series has been rebranded and the event is now the Basingstoke parkrun, but this was the first Saturday where I had managed to get back again.
I started fairly well - managing to keep at a reasonable pace, but without going [...]

Yesterday saw a trip to Windsor to run in the 26th Windsor Half Marathon. A 1pm start saw an odd morning routine based around deciding when to eat and then travelling early to avoid the traffic.
A bit before the start of the race I went for a slow warm up. This did not have the [...]

Yesterday I took part in the ‘Down Tow Up Flow’ Thames Towpath Half Marathon 2008 - a run along the Thames tow path from Windsor to Marlow.
During last week I kept checking the weather forecast and it kept point to a hot day. Yep, the forecasters were right - it started hot and just got [...]

This past weekend I went to the inaugural North Hampshire Time Trial - a 5k race around the Basingstoke War Memorial Park. I travelled down on the morning by train and walked across to the park. It would have made more sense to use the journey to the park as a warm up, but [...]

As I was heading up to Stockport for the weekend, for the orienteering and to visit family, I decided I would also get up in time to run this 5k race. Originally I had planned to travel up on Friday, but plans changed and I ended up driving up on Saturday morning - meaning a [...]

A rather good Father’s Day outing - with most of the family running. The course went round the town I lived in for ten years.
I started at a good pace and after 600m realised that I was just behind my brother. I ran down the main hill with him, but he pulled away just after [...]

I have lived in Reading for five and a half years and often taken some notice of the local half marathon, but not too much. Last year, while in China (IIRC), I was talking with one of my colleagues and we came to the idea of running this year.