Jo and I Ran the 58th park run in Woodley

Park run is an amazing organisation, there are free 5k runs all over the country and in a number of other countries. We have 2 near us in Reading and Woodley, Jo and I always say we are going to run them more regularly but have not managed as many as we would have liked.

Jo and I did run the last park run in Woodley, as readers of this blog will be aware Jo is a much better runner than me and is incredible, but at this park run I felt really good and Jo was never that far ahead and nearing the end of the run we were overtaking a runner which confused things and I ended up ahead of Jo and finished 2 seconds ahead of Jo, it was a PB for both Jo and I but Jo was not happy saying I had used her for her pacing, I defended myself to no avail, the same thing has happened once before but I tried to say it was different this time but Jo was not having of it. Jo did finish first lady.

The park run is run by a fantastic group of volunteers and one writes a piece about each weekly run which goes on the website. Jo and I's finish did make the news, with a picture of Jo included. there is a link below to the article.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/woodley/news/

Some Photos of the Langley 7 (mentioned in previous post)

                                       Determined to catch Jo

                                       Not at that speed

Today Jo and I took part in the first of the year cross country championship for Finch Coasters. It was a great turn out for the club. Enjoyed the run but the food afterwards was fantastic. We also payed for a bit extra on the parking so managed to get some christmas shopping done in Windsor bonus.  

Training update

Halloween run

Jo and I attended our club Halloween night run, Jo spent ages making the costumes the night before and then finishing them off on the evening we arrived 4 minutes late and they left 1 minute before we arrived. So we went for our own run we did get a few comments and there was one youngester maybe 3 years old who loved our outfits. I had cut up a reflective vest and put some of it on the bones, the first picture is without the flash. We then met the other runners after the run.

Jo is spending a week in Manchester so we both spent the weekend there. Jo noticed there was a 7 mile road race in Langley, so we both ran. It was a great event, it was basically running up a big hill and coming down the other side, it was raining on the way there but the event itself was dry. We did not have our phones or camera with us.

Jo and I's Holiday in Croatia

 Lots of steps on arrival to Dubrovnik which is not what you want when you have recently run a Marathon

We were planning on swimming but the sea was a bit rough

Jo in one of the turrets on the walls of the old town in Dubrovnik 

A view of Dubrovnik old town

The weather on our first three days was not great

A view of part of the national park in Mljet

Jo listening to the Sea Organ in Zadar, the sea organ  is a natural musical instrument, seventy meters long with thirty-five organ pipes built under the concrete. The musical pipes are located so that the sea water and wind movements produce musical sounds that are heard by passers by.

A video of the sound the Sea organ made

This is a picture of the Sun salutation at night in Zadar, the The Sun Salutation, located near the Sea Organ, uses the sun's energy to create a light show that displays from evening till morning. Both the Sea Organ and the Sun Salutation were created by the same architect, and the Sun Salutation uses the rhythm of the waves to produce its colorful series of light pulses. 

Jo and I on the  Sun Salutation

One of the many water falls in the Pitvice national park

The series of water falls in the Krka national park

A video of the above falls 

Where Jo and I went swimming at the foot of the falls in the Krka national park. 

A video of our penultimate night in Croatia which we spent in Split listening to music in the old town.   

Jo and I had a great time in Croatia so much so that I have decided to change my marathon for letter Z to Zagreb. 

My I, Isle Wight Marathon 06/10/13

In training for the Isle of Wight marathon (IOW) , Jo and I ran the harvest trail half marathon in Royston (which is near St Albans) Jo and I were both pleased with our times and it gave us confidence about running the IOW marathon.

We had a couple of days in the IOW so went for a walk in the woods

Sat on the wishing seat, can not say what we wished for or it would not come true.

We were following path 65c which was called smugglers haven, but we missed a turn through the cliffs and ended up on a bit of an adventure.

From this trig point you could see all the way around the Island

St Catherines Oratory, Jo's sister is called Catherine so we thought it rude not to go and have a look.

Jo and I at the finish. We forgot to take our camera so had to use Jo's phone which did not have much battery, hence not many photographs. The Marathon was on road and hilly, we ran down hill to start which meant the last 7 miles were up hill. As always Jo was amazing, we ran together till 18 miles then Jo pushed on and finished 10 minutes ahead of me but more importantly she finished 2nd Lady, there were some nice trophies given out but not for 2nd Lady so Jo was a bit upset but she did get £40 argos voucher.

Lon Las Cymru - Holyhead - Chepstow

Jo and I about to set off from Yate where we left our car. We were meant to get the train from Yate to Bristol Parkway but we were not allowed bikes on the train so we had to cycle to Bristol Parkway quickly to make sure we caught our onward train, which was a rush and did not start the journey off as we had expected. We had our bikes booked on the trains for the rest of the journey.

We went past Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch train station in Wales which is the longest place name in Europe.

Our first campsite in Holyhead

The view over Menai strait from Anglesey to mainland Wales

On day 2 we had three 1 hour plus uphill climbs, they were very tiring especially with all our kit on the bikes. We had to lean forward on the bikes at some points or we would pull wheelies. None of our pictures show how hard or how steep the climbs were.

At the highest point on our bike adventure in Wales 

This was the worst of the off road bits of the route.

The point where we stopped following cycle route 8 and started following route 42 into Chepstow

The view from the Gospel pass in the black mountains. This was one of our highlights

Llanthony Priory. We camped nearby. We both really liked Llanthony it is a place we said we would go back to as there was some lovely walks  

Chepstow Castle the finish YEAH

Jo and I then had to cycle back to Yate. We both found the cycle ride harder than we had thought it would be. We camped and cooked our own meals, which meant our bikes were heavy. We cycled 250 miles in 4 days with four 1 hour plus climbs and the rest of the ride was undulating. Wales is a beautiful country. Both Jo and I were tired but sad to finish.  

Yorkshire Three peaks challenge

Faint blue line was our route; 24 miles, 3 x 700ft peaks in under 12 hours.

We set off at 7:45 in the morning from the cafe in Horton-in-Ribblesdale

Arriving at 8:40 on Pen-y-Ghent in the mist.

Weather starting to clear

We were not expecting to see sign posts for the Yorkshire three peaks.

Whernside in the distance

Ribblehead Viaduct

This sign said it was 1 7/8 miles to Whernside summit a very precise total.

Whernside at 12:20

 

Quick lunch stop

Ingleborough in the distance

The view back across to Whernside from the climb up Ingleborough.

At the final summit at 3:40

Finally finished st 4:30 which meant a total of 8 hours 45 minutes. We were both so tired at the finish we didn't even take a photo! We were both chuffed with our time, Jo had doubted we would even make 12 hours! The walk was beautiful but we underestimated how sore our legs would be afterwards.