Month: June 2019

I imagine “ginnel” is probably a Yorkshire term and if you are from other parts of the country you might not know what I am talking about.  Little secret hidden ways that take you between or behind houses transporting you across town without sharing your space with cars or most other people for that matter.  You only discover them if you are a runner or walker because they are like hidden streets in Harry Potter, not exactly invisible but simply not noticed by passing muggles in their metal boxes.  When you are running “round the houses” in the morning through most residential areas, you can run down the middle of the road because it’s so quiet but if you venture onto the main roads then you had better watch out because drivers believe the speed limits haven’t come into force yet!

The ginnels are useful because they take you completely away from the traffic.  I didn’t want simply to replicate yesterday morning’s run by the canal, beautiful as it was, so I simply plodded around the houses and though my favourite ginnels and down a few I hadn’t used for years.

Only 9 days left now and feeling OK despite overdoing things earlier in the week.  A nice gentle few runs over the weekend including parkrun in the morning.  No heroics!

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Luke 8:17 NIVUK

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.

 

It is a bit of a milestone today because I have now done this challenge 20 days on the trot (so to speak) and therefore have just 10 days left!

It’s actually quite a relief to be able to visualise the end of this epic because in a number of ways the term “challenge” has lived up to its name. The lack of rest days has been a bit of a shock to the system and, for example, if it’s rubbish weather or a very busy work day then the option of simply giving it a miss and making it up later in the week just isn’t there. Twice in so many weeks I have ended up soaked through and certainly there have been a few occasions where I really didn’t want to go out running.

I have indulged myself by continuing to do a long slow run on Sunday and running club efforts on Tuesday evening. If you watched my video I posted on Tuesday you will see I even did a race! With just 10 days remaining I will have to stop this practice and confine myself to the mandatory 10K each day and no more. The bottom line is that I need to make sure I get through this in one piece. I have now worked out that if I only do the 10K every day then I will reach 200 miles in the month which is my subsidiary goal.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I am not complaining. I set this challenge with my eyes open and if it wasn’t challenging then it wouldn’t be worth calling it a challenge. That is part of the enjoyment and I wouldn’t take it back. I wonder what sort of regular mileage I settle into when I’ve finished; I’ll hazard it will be more than I did before. I delight in the surroundings especially in the early morning and I never tire of seeing early morning mist over the water of the canals and lakes.

10 more days, bring it on!

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.”

‭‭Gen.‬ ‭1:31‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.

For me, a rest day now consists of a light 10K jog. Tell me again why this was a good idea?  Yesterday was supposed to be a nice jog in the country (Race the train “fun” run) but turned into a hardcore trail race.  Slippery muddy paths through the woods, torrential downpour that not only made you soaked through but converted many tracks to rivers.   The run, all be it only around  3.5 miles long was remnant of the Boxing Day Chevin Chase of 2015 where it seemed that most of West Yorkshire had been submerged!  The main aggravating factor of yesterday’s run was that it was a race and despite my best intentions of not treating it as such, once I am in a race I tend to, well, race!

Therefore this evening’s run was  much more sedate affair.  It had to be because I felt distinctly fragile after yesterday’s escapade.  I stuck to the roads because I couldn’t face muddy paths and I was trying out new running shoes and you just can’t get them dirty, can you?  The other difference today was that it was sunny and around 20 celsius which meant that it, compared with being freezing and wet, was like being in in a tropical paradise.  At 20 degrees though, it’s not likely to kill me.

“It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding-place from the storm and rain.”

Isaiah 4:6 NIV

Richard is running 10K every day during June, to raise money for a public access defibrillator to be situated at Rothwell Baptist Church.  To sponsor him and make a donation, please visit his Just Giving Page.