Month: May 2017

by

Wings for Life Cambridge 2017

wings for life 2017

Oh dear! The camera cannot lie. Here’s me snapped at 3k and 15k running Wings for Life in cambridge. Actually I didn’t feel half as bad as I looked and I went on to 18.3k before David Coultard, the F1 racing driver (rtd) caught me up, deactivating my chip.

A few thousand of us started in Cambridge at 12am exactly and we are pursued by Dave in the catcher car who starts out 30 minutes later at 15kph and gradually increases his speed. It’s great fun, run on closed roads and well organised. It’s sponsored by Red Bull and there are plenty of free samples, if you like it, including at the drink stations. Like most runners, I favour water at a drink station and that was plentifully available. But here’s where the story turns dark and sinister.

As I ran diagonally to grasp a cup of water, I gently collided with a another runner and was deflected helplessly to a more remote area of the drinks table full of what I thought to be weak fruit cordials. Reader, I drank one in haste and ran on, fearful Dave had me in his sights. I quickly comprehended I had imbibed Red Bull instead of aqua and took off like a rocket! Actually, the only negative effect was a feeling of thirst caused by the excessive sweetness and I knew I would be caught within a few kilometres. On the return bus, we were all given a bottle of water so I have no complaints. It was a good day and I’ll do it again next year. The winner this year did well over 60k before Dave caught up with him!

It was a great running weekend. The previous day, Saturday, I ran Cambridge parkrun at 9am and then went over to a nearby village and ran a 7k at 10.30am. It’s all manageable if I don’t expect to run at peak speed. I particularly like the Cottenham 7k. It’s a charity fund raiser, Lorna volunteered and I always buy a load of plants from the local Horticultural Society stall.

Here’s me risking life and limb in the cause of increasing diversity in the natural world. I’ve created a pond with different levels of depth but I haven’t thought sufficiently about putting in the water lilies which sit around 75 cms deep. I think I’ll get a scaffolding plank which shoud be much stronger. I’ve nearly fallen in twice. This pond is situated in the Green Minds therapeutic gardening project Web site: www.greenminds.co.uk or you can follow me on twitter:  https://twitter.com/GreenMindsCambs

Beyond irony! The evil Tory party are championing increased workers’ rights  as part of their election manifesto. As if.

 

 

by

Still running but other stuff happens……

I seem to have a small modelling habit, at the moment, which potentially could get out of hand. These are uncompleted works in progress and will be painted. Commisions will be accepted and individual pieces can acquired for either £9.99, £19.99, £199.99 or£1999.99. Pricing is also a work in progress but I’m inspired by the example of designer perfumes which garner more sales because of the cachet of a hefty price tag.

I’ve been neglecting running a bit recently although parkrun remains a weekly staple. What I’m not doing is regular long runs apart from occasional 10k races. Well, this has got to stop. I’ve given myself a stern talking to and yesterday I did 10 miles along the river Cam. It was freezing. Wind chill, blanket cloud, lousy light. I should have headed north where it was blanket sunshine. Anyway, the run went well.

This weekend I’m doing Cambridge parkrun at 9am then driving to a local village to do a 7k run. The following day, Sunday, I’ll be in the centre of Cambridge for the Wings For Life run. This is a 2000+ race without a fixed distance. The idea is to run as far as possible until you are caught by David Coulthard, the F1 driver, who overtakes you in a (relatively) slow moving car. Last year I managed about 13k until Dave overtook me. Impressively, all roads will be closed to traffic. When you complete your run, a fleet of buses return you to the centre of Cambridge. All this went very well and it was efficiently organised. Like parkrun, it appeals to all types of runners and the atmosphere is great.

 

We spent an enjoyable day watching the London marathon near Canary Wharf, around mile 18. We stayed until the sweeper car went past and the race officially finished. And still they came, walking and staggering. It’s always a humbling situation.