Month: June 2011

Juneathon Day 15: (Really) halfway through

3 Comments

After yesterday’s weary run, I decided that this morning would be an official rest day – no intervals, no racing, no hills, just a flat two miles. This plan also gave me the opportunity to play with my new toy… Being kept in a soggy pocket had killed my trusty camera, so Sunday and Monday were spent trying to choose a new one. I hate buying new technology, don’t get me wrong I love new technology, it’s just the process of choosing one model out of the billions out there and managing to feel as if I’ve made the right decision. It didn’t help that, although I was 90% certain after reading the 100+ positive reviews, I went on a more geeky camera website, felt confident after reading the full review, but then read the user comments at the bottom of the article -“I have read your review but have to say that the HRT capability of this camera compares unfavourably to the ZG3039 which has a 2-2.45 RAC range and still manages to focus at up to 12000 KFC resolution”. Or something like that. After some mild panic, it dawned on me that I would be using the camera mostly to take photos of ducks and should probably stick with the reviews that identified the fiddliness of fitting the wrist strap as the only negative.

Off I plodded, mainly wondering how I was going to find something interesting to photograph and then realised that that’s never stopped me before. After three-quarters of a mile I realised that I’d not bothered with my Shuffle and that didn’t really bother me. Eventually I came across some geese in a pond and decided that they were a good as subject as any for my camera. Unfortunately the geese had other ideas responding  in much the same way that I would if some clown tried to photograph me at six in the morning – loud and violent hissing. I am many things, but I’m not brave enough to take on a goose so I legged it across the road and used the fancy 15x zoom to take this, all the while feeling like some kind of ornithological paparazzo.

I have no respect for privacy of geese

Landscape-wise, it was always going to be fields – this is the view towards the dawn.

Winter Hill

I think I like my new camera – the next thing on the shopping list is going to be a waterproof case…

Juneathon Day 14: Half way (nearly), adventure and a self-fulfilling prophecy

6 Comments

Today is the (nearly) the halfway point in Juneathon – aren’t we all doing well? Personally, I’m quite chuffed to be 4 miles ahead of where I was in Juneathon 2010. (EDIT: A quite frankly pissed JogBlog has just pointed out that the halfway point is tomorrow. It’s actually been two weeks, which is where my confusion came from. I am an idiot.

Ginge and I had planned a 6 mile loop after work, but the wheels quickly fell off that particular plan. I’d had a hectic day at work – lunch was 15 minutes in Tesco’s car park and the only time I spent at my desk was the odd 5 minutes to make phone calls between other stuff. I’m not complaining, I like to be busy, but it was non-stop and there was a definite lack of hydration throughout the day. I tried to redeem myself with two glasses of water at half four, though that was probably too little too late. The end result was that I was ill-prepared and knew tonight’s run was going to be hard. I say ‘knew’, in reality this might have been ‘made’.

Ginge was feeling tired too, so we re-routed at the 2 mile mark, followed his internal compass off-road and trootted off onto an unknown path into the woods. A bit of mud and some nervous scrambling later, we were down at the lodge, did a lap and then faced the long incline of my old nemesis hill. I’d been bit a bit stop-start throughout the run and, although I perked up during the pretend trail running, I found myself grinding to a halt as we reached the main road. Each step was heavier than the last, slowing me down as if I was wading through treacle. So I stopped. After a quick  whinge, I reminded myself that if I ran home I would get my tea quicker, had a quick motivational kick up the arse from Ginge and tackled the hill on much fresher legs than I expected.

4 miles done. It was hard, but the worst thing was the nagging feeling that my head had made it even harder.

Juneathon Day 13: A change in routine

4 Comments

This week’s routine is all over the show. On Thursday I will be going to Manchester for a swift half with my mate Rob, who I haven’t seen for ages. This means that Thursday’s social running has been replaced with social drinking. An uncharacteristic burst of efficiency on Sunday saw us get the big shop out of the way a day early, thus freeing up Monday to do my normal Thursday run. Tuesday will see me running with Ginge, Wednesday I’m back to normal with my morning run/evening yoga, Thursday we’ve discussed and Friday will be after work (possibly after collecting Ginge from the pub) because there’s no way I’m getting up any earlier than I have to after being out the night before.

The prospect of towpath puddles put my companion off the idea of canal running, so we met in the town centre and set off on our usual path. We tried to think of an alternative, but everything we came up with involved a hill (seemingly hills are worse than puddles) until we set upon the idea of starting off on our normal run then going through the park. I never go through the park due to the high concentration of al fresco Special Brew drinkers, having two of us made me brave though and I have to say that it was very nice. There’s enough little bits of the past remaining to make it feel like a proper municipal park (the little brick groundsman’s shed on the bowling green for instance) and enough signs of investment to make it feel modern and cared for. The sweet irony of all this, is that it was uphill all the way.

We did a round 5k that would have been a round 3 miles, but I couldn’t be bothered walking the last 0.1 of a mile.

Juneathon Day 12: Canal adventure #11 – Gathurst to Wigan

7 Comments

Today’s canal running took us back to bridge 46, the site of the very first adventure.

The start and finish - Bridge 46

It was raining then and it was raining today, the important difference being that the first run was in February and I’m lead to believe that we’re now in June. We’d always planned this to be a tea-time run and (for reasons that we’re not quite sure about) we stuck with that plan, despite the fact that it was lovely and dry this morning, merely drizzling this afternoon and generally peeing down by 5 o’clock. Despite the weather and the fact that he didn’t have to join me (“It’s not my bloody Juneathon…”), Ginge and I duly trekked off to Gathurst to run the towpath to Wigan Pier.

As it was a there and back again, we ran the first half only stopping for one photo. This is the home of Wigan Warriors RLFC and Wigan Athletic and used to be called the JJB Stadium before its owner, Dave Whelan, had a fit of modesty and changed it from the name of his company to his initials (I know it was because there was some changes within his business empire, but he still named the bloody company after himself). In our house, it is merely known as…

...The Pie-dome

There was a lot of puddle dodging and nervous edge running because while I don’t mind getting my feet wet, I prefer not to in the first few yards of a run. Despite this, the first half went pretty quickly and soon we were at the halfway point – Bridge 52.

Half-way - Bridge 52 - the most glamorous bridge we've seen so far

Historical detail on Lock 86

We passed the British Waterways offices (incidentally, BW have denied by tweet that they are involved in a topless calendar, but may consider it in the future. I bloody love Twitter) and the Wigan dry dock…

British Waterways

Well at least something was dry

…before stopping for photos at Wigan Pier.

Gazing out on t'pier

The Pier was made famous by two Georges – Orwell and Formby Sr – and is disappointing if you’re after candy floss and arcades. It was even disappointing to George Orwell, who travelled there in 1936 only to find that it had been sold for scrap (at a price of £34)  in 1929 .

Wigan feels pier pressure when compared with Blackpool

A replica pier was built in 1986 and the area is now being redeveloped as The Wigan Pier Quarter (not The Wigan Pie Quarter as I misread). It is cobbled and as such, a pain in the arse to run on in the rain.

Did I mention that it was raining?

One of the features of canal running is the differences between towpaths – they can be tarmac, unmade paths, cobbles, paved, grassy, meaning that you can end up with a variety of running surfaces on one run. This run took in cobbles, unmade paths, block paving (complete with decorative features)…

East, west, home's best.

…and water.

We were able to run round this on the way out...

By this time, my feet were soaked and I adopted an approach of running straight through anything that didn’t appear deep enough to drown me. On we splashed, taking in this beauty…

Pure Genius

…and what appeared to be an ancient monument to the Gods of Lego.

We've no idea what this is.

I completed the run with a splashtastic sprint finish to the bridge and am now on the look out for a new camera as mine appears to be a little waterlogged. I dried out ok so fingers crossed that it does too and there’s no lasting damage.
Miles run = 6.8
Canal miles completed = 3.4
Total canal miles = 67/127*
Bridges = 46-52

*Officially over halfway there! Which is a little scary as I’m sure I have less than 11 remaining stages planned for completion.

Juneathon Day 11: Canal Adventure #10 – Chorley to Johnson’s Hillock

1 Comment

Today’s plan was designed to fit in around Ginge having his hair cut and take in a sneaky bit of canal. By rights, this section was supposed to be done as part of the the very last run when I will join up the East and West sides. We parked up in town and I hoofed it down the road, up a never before run (by me anyway) hill and down the other side to the canal. For those of you that think I only run in lush green places, I have to confess to a little bit of editing on this run. Only about a quarter of it was on the towpath, so things I didn’t take pictures of included:

  1. The town’s bypass
  2. B&Q
  3. The chap drinking cans of Stella whilst sitting beside the bypass near B&Q at 9 o’clock in the morning

I did take a photo of a demonlition site, but the sign that remains seemed appropriate for Juneathon.

I need one of these for our house during the Athons

On the way to the towpath, I accidentally went through some private property – my only defence for tresspassing is that I didn’t notice the slope to the canal because my attention was caught by the brightly coloured tape, smashed up pick-up and fluorescent signs. They brought it on themselves.

Bridge 78a

Down to the canal at bridge 78a and up past the U-Boat. Yes. The U-Boat. This first appeared last year, soon caught the media’s attention (it even trended on Twitter) and is now open to the public with a full multimedia experience thrown in.

The Leeds-Liverpool U-Boat

Bonkers isn

Yup. It

Sadly, it was too early for me to have a look on board, so I plodded on.

No blog is complete without wildfowl - today: geese. Honk!

The end of the canal bit, but not the end of the run.

I’d mapped the route last night and had got it into my head that it was about 3 miles. As I reached the end of the canal section I realised that I’d misjudged that slightly and the only way that it could possibly be that distance was if I ran up the hard shoulder of the motorway (am I the only one who frequently thinks that motorways would be ace to run on?). 4.75 miles later I found Ginge in the car park and that was that.

More proper canal running is planned for tomorrow – I’ve decided to make Monday the last chance to name my Garmin (I love the ideas so far) and we’ve a crowbar on standby so that the tin of Uncle Joe’s can be prised from my grasp.
Miles run = 4.75
Canal miles completed = 1
Total canal miles = 63.6/127*
Bridges = 78A-80
U-boats = 1