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Parkrun #61: Prudhoe Riverside, run 4

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Three weekends on the trot! Get in. 💪 This time, it was a return to Prudhoe Riverside, though it turned out the course had changed slightly. Instead of starting alongside The Spetchels , the course started about half a mile(?) upriver, just underneath the Bridge of Terror: Ovingham Bridge. The terror comes from driving through the stone pinch points at each end. It then looped back on itself just past the original start line —  seeing the elite runners pelt past me in the opposite direction at that point caught me somewhat off-guard — before heading off for a solitary lap around the Spetchells, but in the opposite direction to previously. That meant that steep downhill at the end of the loop became a steep uphill at its start instead. Mercifully, it's nowhere near as prolonged as the hills at Chopwell Wood. Or even at Morpeth, for that matter. On the whole, the course always was pretty flat and the extension of the riverside section has just made it even moreso. Which takes a...
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Parkrun #60: Chopwell Wood, run 2

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So, back to Chopwell Wood as a parkrunner for the first time since my 25th parkrun . My time? 31:11. I'll come back to that later. Anyway, I feel like a lot has changed in the 2 and a bit(!) years since that first time — giving up running, turning 50, leaving my job, and probably more — but it's lovely to see that this parkrun venue and its volunteers haven't changed; they're both still delightful. While the Morpeth parkrun has more than doubled in size (60ish to 130ish runners) and lost some of its intimacy, this run at Chopwell Wood was still a pleasingly small affair, with just 45 runners. Maybe it's the hills putting people off, maybe it was the weather (raining for once), but the event remains just how I like it. 🥰 Weather was 11°C and light rain throughout. Felt cold, but I warmed up plenty. So, yeah, my third parkrun back and I was still clocking well over 30 minutes. And I was nearly 4 minutes slower than my previous best time here. But... at Morpet...
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Parkrun #59: Carlisle Park, run 6

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And 5 weeks later, i returned to parkrun, and to Morpeth at that. No runs in between; no training at all. But this time, I tried harder from the get-go. Result? 25 seconds faster. In all honesty, as happy as I am with having hauled my carcass back to a parkrun, I'm a bit disappointed with that time. Yes, I know I didn't exactly help myself by not running AT ALL in the last 5 weeks, but I genuinely thought that if I just set off a bit faster this time, I'd take a minute or two off my previous effort. Well... that reality check landed hard. 😳 On the upside, this time I had zero pain from the knees. 5 weeks ago, I was really feeling it in my left knee the day after the run and feeling the same disappointment that led to me stopping in the first place. This time, nothing. The biggest issue I had was that 3-weeks-and-counting chest cough meant I wheezed my way round the course. What else to say...? 🤔 Oh, the weather was perfect . 11°C and sunny, with bl...
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Parkrun #58: Carlisle Park, run 5

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What the...? Yep, I'm back. Which is kinda laughable, as I've said stuff like that before and then promptly done nothing. Moving on... Since the previous post, it's fair to say I've done very little exercise. The training for the Race for Life simply didn't materialise. Daughter #1 decided she didn't really want to go parkrunning again. Or any kind of running for that matter. And I didn't press it or do any of my own training other than a short, stop-start run alongside the kids' bikes and a 3km run to Weetslade that saw me abort. Even the Race for Life itself was mostly a walk.  And then... today. After several weeks of good intentions but failure to dig out my gear and set a parkrun alarm on a Friday night, I finally did it. It helped that I was committed to giving a friend a lift to her 50th parkrun too. But however it happened, the point is that it happened.  Long story short, I got a time of 31:23 at Morpeth. And that was me trying . While that'...
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Bit dusty around here... 👀

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A new post? After calling it quits months ago? What the...? So, yeah. Daughter the First decided she wanted to do the Race for Life 3K again this year, this time in honour of her (thankfully recovered) Grandma, and she wanted me alongside her. Of course I said yes. Mind, in the last... however many months, I've not run or done any exercise at all. The bike's saddle is fixed, but the brakes remain permanently on. The indoor bike continues to function more as a clothes drying rack than an exercise machine. The most I've done since August is the occasional jog-walk-jog to school when I'm late to pick up the kids. Time to dust myself off, even if it's ultimately just for a 3K run. Earlier this week, I did 20–25 minutes on the indoor bike. Then a jog to school to get the kids yesterday. Today, I finally put on my running gear (which I brought back into work last week) at lunchtime and hit the quayside. A bit red-faced, just under a mile into today's run 😳 I expect...
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The end of the road

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At the end of the previous post, I said this:  "Maybe getting exercise from a bike is a more realistic and sensible option ...but for now I remain in denial. I'm still a runner, damnit!" Well... no more. After weeks of pretty much unprompted pain from my left knee, I've decided to call it a day. At 49 years old, it might seem premature to say it, but I want to save my joints for retirement, to enjoy walks and climbs with my wife. It's in my power to put a halt to the accelerated deterioration of my knees, hips and ankles through injuries that have been a pattern over the past couple of years, so I'm acting on it. No more impact sports. 😞 Don't get me wrong; I'm gutted. I actually started to enjoy something that I'd hated for the entire rest of my life. I achieved things I never thought possible. I set goals and I mostly hit them. I'm proud of that. Now though, I need to set new goals. Maybe cycling, maybe swimming, maybe even just walking (but...
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Round-up: hit and miss, but mostly miss

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It's been a few weeks since the last post here, so well overdue — and you'd expect I've got loads to report on. But... not really. What stands out? A failed purchase of a bargain running watch, a series of multi-day sinus headaches that got in the way, continuing concern about my left knee, and not a single parkrun. On the up side, the kids continue to provide me with opportunities to combine summer holiday childcare with exercise as they go on bike rides. Even if it's never at a sustained 5K pace, it's stopping me failing into a habit of complete inactivity. We even managed to find a part of Gosforth Park that I'd not seen before and it was probably the nicest bit I've been in. Oh, and as you can tell from the photo, the weather has been glorious, in the low 20s most of the time. Not an ideal temperature for running, but just lovely in general. Thankfully it's not too tiring when you're running 2 minutes per kilometre away from your usu...
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