Running On Empty

Getting a bit desperate when I have to blog about a short walk in the hills, isn't it? But I've not done a single proper run since the 12th July. That's 6 or 7 weeks ago. Wow. No wonder I was instantly puffed out on the first steep climb today. A panorama from the summit cairn of Cold Law in Northumberland Regardless, just wanted to note it here. The walk was about 4km at most and an out-and-back route from a car park in the Harthope Valley straight up Cold Law to its cairn and  trig point and then back the way we'd come. While the ascent was strenuous at times (esp. in its early stages), it was no real bother, but the descent again showed up the weakness of my left knee. Just enough jarring to make it feel like I'd twisted it again and to make me swing a straight leg rather than bend it. Must get doing some wall sits to strengthen everything around it...

As the summer heat continues (albeit only 18C today), my running buddy and I headed back to Seaton Sluice to have another go at the 7.5K loop taking in the clifftops to St Mary's island as well as some waggonways and part of Holywell Dene. All of my photos were of the wildlife on this run, it seems 🤷‍♂️ Aaaaand... given this was weeks ago now (ignore the publish date), I've forgotten pretty much everything about the run except that we ended early as my running buddy was just shattered. Fair play. It was still a lovely morning.

Three full weeks since my last run and I only go and try a parkrun at a course with a killer of a hill in it. And, ultimately, this became only the second ever parkrun that I've had to walk part of. Disappointing, but this time it was down to a persistent injury rather than a dodgy gut. Things were going ok for most of the run — I'd at least made it up the hill without needing to walk, even if I was taking very short strides — but at about 4km, I started to feel the knee. I had maybe another half kilometre to go before the steep downhill to return to the start/finish area, but even over the course of that, I could tell it was going to be problematic. The 5 or so metres of downhill as I made the final turn by the duckpond just confirmed it. And as soon as I rounded the corner to descend properly, it took only a few yards to concede that finishing after a bit of walking was better than not finishing at all. Not me, for the record. I just 'borrowed' the image from the Park...

I'm writing up this run pretty late. Like, 4 weeks late. (Even if the publish date is the day of the run.) So yeah, for some mad reason, I decided to go for a run at 10pm about a month ago. I must've been feeling pretty good to have been up for a run at that time and the weather was decent enough that it wasn't freezing. I even aimed to do 7.5K instead of the usual 5K, heading up to and around Burradon pond, in the hopes of working up to a 10K event later in the summer. Unfortunately, I messed it up on two counts. First, I got my bearings completely wrong on the tracks skirting the housing estates by the pond. This is a perennial problem with me and this area. I simply can't get it in my head to map the trails on a map (before the run) to the real-life tracks that I run. Anyway, it meant I was accidentally cutting the run short and I had to improvise a bit to get back on track. Even the swans at Killingworth Lake had called it a night Secondly though, my left knee start...

No, not that Colton Herta , but yes, he is the reason I named the run that. Herta in his IndyCar days. Photo blatantly pilfered from the BBC Sport pages. So, last weekend saw the family visiting my father-in-law in Leeds and we ended up staying overnight in Colton, on the eastern side of the city. The weather was glorious — maybe a little too glorious — and I knew that Temple Newsam was within reach of our hotel, so a route was planned for the Sunday morning: The route, as planned on onthegomap.com, which is still my favourite route mapping tool. As it turned out, while it was only 16C at the time I ran, when the sun was on you, it was sweltering. In the end, I only just managed the 5K before the heat and the jarring nature of the run, with hard, rutted paths, took its toll on my left knee. While I did hit 5K, I cut the run short by about 250m to give my knee a break and to cool down a bit by walking the last bit back to the hotel. The Avenue at Temple Newsam, heading downhi...

It's only just struck me that I never posted about any of the other fantasy parkrun courses I'd tried designing. Let's make amends for that. By now, I've actually run and posted about two such courses: Weetslade Country Park near Gosforth Park Watergate Forest Park near Team Valley ...but where else did I have in mind? Plessey Woods Country Park near Bedlington offers more woodland, pasture and riverside running opportunities: Plessey Woods fantasy parkrun route; 3 laps of the main loop Starting near the visitor centre, it heads downhill through the open grassy area towards the footbridge over Pegwhistle Burn before doing three undulating laps up to and through the meadow, down to the River Blyth and back alongside Pegwhistle Burn to the start of the loop. After the 3rd tour, it's back up the hill to where you started. To be honest, this would probably be a fairly brutal parkrun, with lots of up and down, some of it even up steps, if I remember rightly. But the s...

Yonks back, when I was still all keen, I started making up 'fantasy' parkrun courses based on places I'd seen on Google Maps or onthegomap.com that looked suitable for a 5K run. This weekend, I finally made it to one of the green bits I'd spotted on the map: Watergate Forest Park. The lake at Watergate Forest Park is probably its main feature but I barely saw it While I'd already mapped out a 5K-ish route a while back, there was also a 5K mapped out on AllTrails too and it turns out that even on the free tier, you get to see your location on the route as you run. Bonus! Turns out it was only about 2 minutes' drive from home too. Anyway, how was the course? Pretty good, actually. The paths are mostly fine-to-medium grade gravel and fairly wide, with a little bit of regular forest floor type of trail too. On the route I took (I veered from the AllTrails route a little), the gradients were also pretty good: a few hundred metres of gentle undulation followed by abo...

What better way to wind down after working half of Saturday than to head out for a run in a new location, and one that I've meaning to visit for years? Muchas gracias to The Wife for giving me the time and space.  So, Whittle Dene it was. A few years back, I was googling for good places to see bluebells in Spring and this was one of the top recommended places. It's a bit late now to see bluebells in their prime, but there were still a few around today in among the wild garlic. There were moments on this run, which started across the river at Prudhoe Riverside Park, that were properly beautiful and the discovery of the little huts near Whittle Mill  partway in was delightful, but the few photos I took were rubbish, sadly. I'll just have to go back someday and take better ones.  There's another reason why I want to go back too: I didn't do the full route I'd planned to run. I simply didn't have the time. I came close, but by the time I turned back ...

Today was unbelievably good weather for a run. Sunshine, blue skies with fluffy white clouds, and just 10°C. Given the choice between the Tyne valley and a return to the Seaton Sluice area, the latter won out for the sake of being marginally quicker to get to. Looking south along the clifftops to the lighthouse on St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay This time, we'd head south from Old Hartley clifftops (the southern end of Seaton Sluice, basically) towards St Mary's Island and Whitley Bay before coming inland past the caravan site and the golf course to reach the waggonways. From there, another 90° right-hander to head back northwards along said waggonway to Holywell Dene and then down into and through the dene and up again towards the Delaval Arms and down the bank back to the clifftops. A nice mix of seaside running, fields, railway lines, a tree-filled valley and riverside run. I really was blessed to grow up in this area; it's as delightful now for running as it was for g...

Yep, an actual parkrun. And a new location, to boot. On holiday, no less. Wonders may never cease. It's too much of a cliché to have your photo taken next to the venue sign, right? So I went meta instead and took a photo of someone having their photo taken. In the days leading up to today, the weather has been glorious. Today, we got Lake District weather, albeit with only cloud and not rain. Nevertheless, it was lovely to be out in a fresh, green landscape and on a course that was new to me. In terms of challenge, it felt similar to Morpeth. Two laps and with a brief but notable climb. Here, however, you only had to do that climb once rather than the three times you get in Morpeth. Mostly running on grass, and with a decent dew, meant my feet got a bit soaked even before we'd started. The trail shoes were a bit unnecessary, but I wasn't sure what to expect . 🤷 Given this was my first timed event in 6 months, I really wasn't expecti...

Another weekend, another non-parkrun 5K-ish. Google Fit reckoned it was just over 5K, and running buddy's watch thought the same. Onthegomap.com strongly disagreed. Anyway, this time, I completely forgot to get any photographic evidence, so here's a map of the route instead:  Being in my spiritual home of Seaton Sluice, I was absolutely in my element. Starting at the harbour by the Waterford Arms, heading under the road bridge and past the old bottleworks site (and that of the old bridge that I never knew), we headed up the dene to the far end of the village. From there, uphill to the Delaval Arms and downhill again to the clifftops before following the coast back to the Kings Arms and finishing with a lap of Rocky Island. The whole thing was around sunset for once, which was nice too. Unfortunately, I'm writing this at least a week after the event, so my memories of how I felt on the run are a little hazy. But I think both my hip and knee were fine this time, w...

Finally, a weekend run again. Let's quickly recap what I've been up to. Or not. First, I've not been running. Parkrun has had to be abandoned, as I'm taxi driver every Saturday morning now at parkrun time.  Secondly, I've not been running or even cycling or swimming since the snow-halted attempt at Blyth in early January. Thirdly, I've got a job again. From March 2025 to February 2026, I went without an income, which was probably the most prolonged stress and confidence-shattering period of my life. Mercifully, I'm now employed again, but the job's requiring a lot of hours right now, so exercise has been way down the list of priorities.  Today, however, the running buddy and I got back out again, heading to The Land of Oak and Iron (i.e. the Derwent Valley) for an easy 5K in beautiful woodland and mainly along the old railway line there (gentle gradient ahoy!). Really glad we didn't just go to Weetslade Colliery Park (my initial suggestion), as it ca...

Do I really need a 2025 retrospective? I barely did any running. 90% of what I did was parkrun and here's the truth of how often I attended that, from the 5K app: Blue squares are attended parkruns. Apols to those with colour-blindness. So, I guess the main headline or achievement for 2025 was that I did anything at all. Especially considering I called it all quits in October 2024. I almost got into the habit of attending parkrun regularly, even if I'd not been doing any midweek training runs, but then that died off in November (albeit not entirely by choice). February 2025, probably the last time I wore that top.  😢 Positively, I've had very little grief from my knees and hips since restarting. That may be helped by the significant amount of rest between runs. But what can I look forward to in 2026? What can and should I aim for? Well, the sidebar on this blog has the following unmet goals for 2025 and 2026: Starting training again (regularly) Get under 27 minutes at ...

Welcome to 2026! And good riddance to 2025! (I have my reasons.) Last post here was mid-November, so what have I been doing running-wise since then? Missing lots of parkruns, for various reasons: visiting in-laws, ill health, work stuff, and ferrying Daughter the First to her volunteering sessions at a local stable Managing to get out for a single 4K run (big whoop) Adding about 3 kilos in weight over Christmas and New Year Trying to attend a parkrun today, only to be scuppered by last-minute snow Needless to say, I'm not feeling the fittest I ever have done and I suspect I'm back to square one with my parkrun fitness revival. Hey ho. 🤷‍♂️ Sunrise at Blyth Links parkrun this morning, just after we'd been told it was cancelled I'd hoped to at least get 2026 off to a good start by doing both the New Year's Day run (at Newbiggin) and the regular Saturday run a couple of days thereafter. A banging headache and accompanying lack of sleep did for the fi...

Very quick post to say 2 things:  1. Volunteering at Leazes Park last weekend was called off due to the course being icy (the event was cancelled)  2. I'm unlikely to make it to any parkrun this coming weekend, volunteering or otherwise, as the family (including me) has some kind of plague (read: flu-like symptoms, but not COVID, apparently) So... zero exercise happening right now. Fingers crossed for Saturday 6th (though I'm competing with Tynemouth Christmas Market that day). 🤞

Groundhog Day! Last week, at Druridge Bay, I came 78th out of 161 finishers. This week, at Druridge Bay, I came 78th out of 161 finishers. Head asplode! 🤯 As for my time, it was 28:31, which was very similar to last week’s lateness-corrected time, but not identical. A little slower, in fact, but I’ll let myself off, as I did zero exercise midweek this time. The beach at Druridge Bay, but last week. Forgot to take any photos today. 🤷 I also had my running buddy back with me today, which was great and her positivity probably helped keep away the thoughts of “Why am I doing this to myself?” that I’ve been getting midway through the run. She even got me a coffee at the end, which was very welcome after the chilly wind outside had started to cool me down a bit. So anyway, I’ve run around the 28:30 mark 3 times now since returning to parkrun and it’s starting to feel like that’s my new plateau. Either I need to up my midweek game or I have to get comfortable with this level of achievement...

LATE! 😱 For the first ever time, I actually missed the start of a parkrun. I came close at Denton Dene once, but this time, I was actually about 45 seconds late getting to the start line. Things that didn't help: Having to do a U-turn just after I set off, as the barriers came down on the level crossing I was approaching Google Maps giving me the time it would take to reach the entrance to Druridge Bay Country Park rather than the car park that's a few minutes inside Me foolishly trying to find a space in the main car park, which was inevitably full Me casually taking photos for the blog instead of getting to the start line Me forgetting where the actual start line was and heading to the briefing area instead All in all, #FAIL. Yes, nice illustration of the wet conditions, but... GET TO THE START LINE, YOU IDIOT! Putting all of that to one side, remember I came back to Druridge Bay for a reason? The low-hanging fruit of a slow PB at a flat venue? Well... Previous best: 27:44 ...

A solo parkrun visit today, for the first time in a while. Certainly made getting out of bed a little harder than usual, but managed it nonetheless. Time: 30:34 (official parkrun time) Weather: 12°C and breezy Or, from my own timing as I crossed the start and finish lines, a much more satisfying 29:57. Yeah, I took quite a while to even reach the start line, but then there was a field of 603(!) runners and I was towards the back of that crowd. Oh, and a new record today: my worst ever finishing position of 380th. 😂 (That is, if you exclude the sole 5K I did with Daughter the First, when I came 530th). Heading North up the promenade offers a good view of the lighthouse on St Mary's Island It's still feeling like a bit of a slog, this parkrunning lark, but at least I'm in less doubt these days about whether I'll complete the 5K without walking. Pace was pretty consistently around the 5:40/km mark today, with a min of 5:36 and max of 5:45, but any thoughts of a sprint fi...

NINE! Nine runs at one venue. Whatever happened to the tourism thing? Result: 31:08. At a flat venue too, but I'm gonna let myself off given how congested the start is here. I'd practically done 2km before I was able to run at my own pace. Sadly, "my own pace" wasn't even quite what I'd hoped for, with a best pace of 5:41/km. The day before, on a training run, I'd managed 5:30ish. And the week before, I'd managed some around 5:20/km. So, improvement's proving a bit slow in coming. 🤷‍♂️ Swallow Pond at Rising Sun Country Park. Not today.  Photo © Oliver Dixon ( cc-by-sa/2.0 ) Any positives from this weekend's run? I turned up and I did it. Keeping the momentum is as important as anything else. It was hard. If I'm not finding it hard, I'm probably not helping myself to improve. The first couple of kilometres genuinely felt comfortable; though maybe that's because they weren't fast 😂 Yes, I realise points 2 and 3 kinda contrad...

It was all going so well... 😂 So, the chart I cheerily presented in the previous post , which showed the percentage gap to my venue PB coming down nicely, now looks like this: Seems like having a parkrun week off doesn't do much for your progress. Who knew?! Ooof. I guess it's a bit of a reality check, with yesterday's official time being 31:33, but there are still positives here: It makes me feel even better about the Chopwell Wood run in particular 😁 Jesmond Dene's not an easy run anyway, and this time's still closer to my venue PB than the 2 recent Morpeth runs I intentionally started slowly to avoid kerfuffle and barging in the tight early sections, so the time isn't exactly a shock I'd had to abandon a run after just 2K the previous day because I felt so bad, yet I managed the full 5K on a tough parkrun I had negative splits the whole way and even dipped below a 5:30/km pace for the final 2km Oh, and here's another positive: Sharing the run with s...