My second park run gives me a PB!

Yesterday was the inaugural 5km Parkrun in Northala Fields which is not too far from the area of London where I live.

I have only done one of the Parkruns before but I would like to make them more of my training schedule. They are so well organised and the volunteers that make the event happen every week are up early every Saturday and ensure the race is timed to perfection and safe for all runners taking part.

This was a new addition to the now 400 Parkruns that take place every Saturday in the UK and my running coach Laura Turner had been asked to start the race off. I went down to support and there was a great atmosphere from both runners and volunteers alike.

I was amazed that there were around 180 runners with some of them having run 50, 100 or in one case 252 previous Parkruns. Very impressive indeed! Apparently it is quite "the thing" to run in as many inaugural ones as possible so no surprise it was a big turnout.

The route was one lap around the park and was pretty flat so I was very pleased with my result of 3rd place in a time of 17 minutes 53 seconds which is a new PB for me. It must have helped having the added pressure of your coach being on the sidelines so despite the toasty conditions I sweated my way round in record (for me) time.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and I will be back there and would recommend heading to your local Parkrun sometime soon!

The Great North Swim

Very behind on my blogging so this race actually took place last week on Saturday 15th June.

As you can see from the title this was a deviation from my normal race and was in the water rather than on land. I used to be a competitive swimmer when I was in my teens usually having a gala each weekend during term time so I still am a fan of making a splash in the water.

However; my training of the aquatic variety was not very good this year. I had done three training swims ahead of the London triathlon but as the last blog post revealed I was then unable to train in any shape or form due to the lovely cyst I had "drained" so it meant I was heading to the Lake District for the Great North Swim with only three training sessions under my belt.

Oh well; I wasn't going to be competitive and just wanted to complete the race and have fun. I love the Lake District and being up there was absolutely beautiful. My new favourite place was Buttermere which I discovered the day after the race; however Winderemere was definitely a nice surrounding to be swimming in.

The night before the race I deviated from my normal schedule and had a glass of wine. I know...how rebellious is that? I did carb up as it was an early start for the race itself.

The Great North Swim was split over three days and during that time there were 10,000 people taking part. I had no idea it was going to be that big!

Getting to the start was fun and despite me having forgotten to bring a towel and flip flops (to get to the start once I had changed) there were plenty of stalls for me to pick some up and pretend that I knew what I was doing!

There were different waves of competitors every 30 minutes and I was in the pink wave...are they trying to tell me something? With me wet-suit and fuchsia swimming cap firmly on I made my way to the starting pen. We all had to acclimatize by doing a small lap in the lake which wasn't chilly but did hurt when coming out of the lake across all those rocks! A nice surprise though was that Olympic Champion Rebecca Adlington was on the sideline waiting to see us off on our race (plus she was at the finish line too...see pictures later!)

Whilst waiting for the start I could hear over the PA. that some of the fast swimmers from previous waves were finishing already and was astounded when I heard that a 12 year old had finished the half a mile race in just 12 minutes! There was no way I would be doing my mile swim at that pace so I decided it would be best for me to leave the front of the field open for the under thirteens.

We were soon on our way and it felt great swimming in such a clean fresh lake. We were crossing the lake and turning back on ourselves to finish pretty much next to where we set off. It did go surprisingly quickly and I didn't feel crammed in at all as the swimmers from our wave were pretty spread out. The hardest part is keeping an eye on your route to ensure that you don't go of course or accidentally pass through one of the markers on the inside which would mean disqualification.

But doing the odd second of breaststroke ensured that I stayed on track and finished in a time of 29 minutes 24 seconds which placed me 396th which was not bad at all. I thoroughly enjoyed it and despite feeling wobbly for my first few steps out of the water would absolutely do it again. I hear there is a Great Scottish Swim in Loch Lomond so that may need to be added to the agenda for next year....anyone fancy joining?

Gathering in our pen:

Pink hats on and at the ready:

Goggles...check:

Looks like we are surrendering but it's actually just our group warm up stretch:

Go!

The first stretch in a wonderful setting:

Me / the lone swimmer:

Me and Becky Adlington at the finish (how dare she not look at the camera eh?!)

and already starting to undress in front of her....

Finished!

 Sadly I did also read that one man died during the Great North Swim which is awful to hear. It feels strange writing about an event which I had such a good time at knowing that the day will always be marked with some sadness due to someone losing their life. Of course thoughts are with his family.

A triathlon with an open wound would not be a good idea

Today saw the World Triathlon Series come to London.

I like to do a triathlon each year but this year I decided to be "easy" on myself and enter the super sprint distance rather than the usual Olympic one I have been doing in recent years.

I was really looking forward to it as it was in Hyde Park and would be my first experience swimming in the Serpentine. I had been doing some swim training in my usual outdoor pool in Covent Garden which had been nice in the light mornings / evenings but I have to admit my cycling had been pretty much non existent bar riding my bike to and from the service shop to have it prepared for the race. But that didn't put me off...I knew that I would be able to make the 15km part of the race on the bike.

However; I have always had a cyst on my back but recently it had become a lot bigger and in the past week was really painful. It had made it very hard to sleep as it was right in the middle of my shoulder blades and on Wednesday night even wearing a jacket was sore as it rubbed against the newly formed mountain on my back. I had been to the doctor the previous week who said it would be best to get it removed so I had an appointment next week to see a specialist.

I did my usual track training session on Thursday night but afterwards decided that the size and colour of the cyst meant that I needed to go back to the doctor in the morning as I couldn't wait until next week to see the specialist. So here comes the first of the gross pictures...this is what it looked like Thursday night:

As soon as he saw it the Doc said it was infected and would rupture over the weekend and he would need to release the pressure now to avoid that happening. His words were then "are you feeling brave" which instantly when you hear that from your doctor you get a nervous feeling but being British I of course replied that I was and he could go ahead with whatever he wanted.

He sent me across to the pharmacy to get some local anesthetic and adrenaline and then he was ready to do his stuff. He warned me that it would hurt and feel uncomfortable as he squeezed the infection out. It wasn't as painful as I had prepared for although I did get a shock as he yelped at one point and said that the "stuff" had gone all over him and he needed to take his jumper off. Nice. He said it was a career first for him so I could be pleased that he got something new out of his Friday at work.

On the short walk home I resembled the victim from a teen slasher movie and could already feel the wound weeping down my back. When I took my top off at home it looked like this:

Despite the gruesome look my back did already feel pain free and overnight the red inflammation had started to go away thanks to the antibiotics. Some slightly less gross pictures of the now much improved back area:

So long story short it meant that the triathlon was a no go for me as the open wound would not be good in the Serpentine but hopefully I won't be out of action for too long.

I still went along to the race to support. It was a great atmosphere in the park and I was very impressed by the massive mannequins lining the route:

Wayne (one of my trainers) who I was doing the race with finished on my behalf (actually using my bike, helmet & wet-suit) in a time of 1 hour so in a way I kind of made it round the route! Some pics at least of him triumphant along the way:

So fingers crossed my back is ready for the next race in two weeks time...