Week 10: Sunday - you guessed it
Darren vs Darragh
Didn’t do Parkrun yesterday. Frankly I was amazed it was on. The last time I counted the number of UK cancellations on Friday evening it was 368, so approaching 50% of all events – yet nothing in this bit of Surrey was cancelled. Broadwater were asked on Facebook and said they’d be doing an inspection, which they duly did and confirmed the event was on. Madness.
I did actually give it the briefest of considerations at about 8am, but subsequently went back to sleep. I don’t have a Parkrun streak to maintain, I can’t reach 100 Broadwaters nor 400 overall by January 1st so there’s really no reason to put myself through the horrid weather. They got 157 people though. I enjoyed this pic which demonstrated the difficulties keeping the signs in the right place.
I am, however, currently consumed by the two badges on Smashrun that are getting within touching distance:
- run 365 days out of 730 – current status: “In the two years prior to today you’ve run on 315 different days.”
- run without 2 consecutive rest days for 99 days – current status: “Longest alternating day streak was 63 days in a row. It started on 7/10/24 and ended 8/12/24.”
And for those reasons, I’ve only bloody gone for a run on a Sunday. Only the fourth time in 2024, and 2 of the others were proper races (Farnborough Half, Vitality London 10k). Honestly no idea why I ran 12km in 3 parts in late August, without a Parkrun the day before.
<pause while I go examine Strava>
Oh. Seems like it was just horrendous weather on the Saturday. Same as this weekend, then.
Anyway. It’s a Sunday and I went out for a 5km run, with one instruction ringing in my ears from Helen:
Don’t run near any trees.
Loads of trees have come down and Darragh is still blowing a proper gale around these parts. OK we never got the 90+ stuff but even so, there’s a lot of wind. Also the wind makes it cold:
Ran 5km almost exactly 27 minutes, so 5:24/km. Pleased with that given the conditions. Didn’t wear gloves and by the time I got home I could barely feel my hands. Water from the cold tap felt warm. Brutal, and still considerably more enjoyable than any Runna workout in weeks.