Category: The Athons

Juneathon 17/30 – Feline groovy

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Another Sunday, another day when I prioritise cake over Juneathon…

We’ve now reached a point where the potentially achievable treasure items are all a bit of a distance from the house, which is unfortunately because I know that I will have a hat trick of early runs this week.

Today I decided to chance my arm and have a quick trot down to the lodge to hunt out the elusive waterfowl suggested by Fairweatherrunner. It was in the lap of the gods whether or not the swan family would be obliging and come out for a swim. I can only apologise to any other park users who were alarmed by the sight of an over excited grown woman exclaiming “Yes! Swans!” as she got near the water’s edge…

The swans weren’t being entirely helpful as they were bobbing about on the far side of the water, slowly drifting towards me but at a speed that meant that I didn’t have enough time to wait for them to reach my side and, conversely, if I ran to the other side they would be just as far away as when I started… Anyway I settled for a few long lens baby swan paparazzi shots and looped round the lake to find that although they were nearer from that side, my view was completely obscured by the rhodedenron bushes.

Not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR baby swans

I ran up the big steep hill to get home and as I scuttled into the car park, I spotted another of @torsparkles‘ suggestions – a cat  sunning himself on the pavement. I tried my best to act nonchalant and sneak up on him, but it quickly descended into a bit of a game of cat and mouse (weirdly with me as the cat and him as the mouse though) around a car before I managed to grab a quick picture.

The cat was rubbish at hide and seek

Juneathon 16/30 – how much do you trust me…?

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Thanks to a spot of oversleeping last Saturday, today was my only bite at the cherry with one particular piece of Juneathon treasure. This of course was Parkrun tourist Abradypus’s suggestion of a Parkrun t-shirt. I am now spoilt for choice as I sit equidistant from 3 different Parkruns but don’t tend to run any on a regular (or even irregular) basis. In fact, it’s a full 11 months since I ran my very first Parkrun, also at Pennington Flash.

As we gathered round waiting for the pre-run announcements, I peered at my fellow runners in the hope of spotting the elusive garment. I was just toying with the idea of using a Parkrun volunteer t-shirt when my eye was caught by a flash of red. There it was, a Parkrun 50 shirt. Unfortunately I’d decided to run unencumbered so I lacked phone or camera. It was too late to nip back to my car and judging by the athletic form of the gentleman changing into his well earned prize (not that I was staring) he was likely to finish while I was still on my first lap. My only hope was that he would have a brew afterwards and not be freaked out my the red-faced sweaty woman asking for a picture.

Anyway, I ran; the hills didn’t seem as daunting as last year and i was happy with myself, even though I think I was a touch slower this time. I remember that I was feeling as if I was running really well at that time last year, but it was also one of my last runs before my hip and knee turned on me and I ended up having to make friends with a foam roller and a physio.

I didn’t get a photo of the actual treasure, so to compensate here is a picture of assorted waterfowl.

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For those of you with a less than trusting nature, here is some independent verification about today’s treasure find:

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I am now off to the big city for lunch where I I have a strong suspicion that there will be local ales and maybe even a Manchester tart…

Juneathon 15/30 – halfway and counting

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It has been observed that some of my treasure hunting has been a little too, shall we say, lateral in its approach. In response to this, may I present what is probably the most literal piece of treasure I will find.

A red door (as suggested by Follystone).

Oh and I did a token 1.5 miles because it’s Friday night and I wanted my tea.

Juneathon 14/30 – Pier pressure

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The Lancashire coastline is punctuated by piers; Southport, Lytham St Annes, three at Blackpool… I’ve run past two of them (maybe I need to venture to St Annes for a race one day) and any one of them would have made for a jolly Juneathon day out. That’s not my style though.

I ran after work today. Literally. Changed in the ladies and then a sprint downstairs before any of my colleagues spotted me in Lycra and wicking fabric. It’s not that I’m bothered by what I look like (heck, the other shoppers at my local Tesco will testify to that), more that I can’t always be doing with the bewilderment and questions. Maybe it’s a female thing, but any mention of exercise is often met with huffing and puffing, talk of grudging trips to the gym or a complete lack of exercise being worn almost as a badge of honour. I know I sometimes moan a bit about going for a run and I do love the sofa and the knitting and all the lovely indoors things, but I also bloody love my running. You are all welcome to remind of this point in the future when I’m whinging about going out.

So I don’t really admit to running at work. Especially if I’m in a spell where I’m doing longer distances – I can imagine the conversations; “So what did you do this weekend?” “Um, well I ran 10 miles in the pissing rain” “Oh”. If you met me at work you wouldn’t guess that I run (sod it, if you met me at a race you might not guess that I run) so I keep schtum.

Anyway, I got out of the building only to be spotted by one of our managers who cycles. He looked somewhat perplexed that I was standing at the side of the road swearing at Miles (“It’s a bit of cloud cover, not a steel vault you git, get a bloody signal and don’t you dare ask if I’m indoors”). He wanders around the office in cycling shorts though, so I’m not too bothered about that.

When Miles decided to play ball, I sped off down the road, down onto the canal and down to Wigan Pier. It’s not a pier where you’ll get an ice cream or try to win a mildly deformed teddy bear with a crane, in fact it’s not much of a pier at all* (and probably isn’t what Morning of Magicians had in mind when he added it to the list). But it did make a nice three mile loop and if it’s good enough for George Orwell, it’s good enough for me.

I bet George would be well chuffed to have a pub named after him

We actually ran to Wigan Pier as part of last year’s canal running/Juneathon crossover – it was mostly raining and drowned my camera.

*the pier was actually a coal tippler where coal was transferred from tram to barge. I think that’s the kind of joke we had to make do with up north while the Industrial Revolution was on.

Juneathon 13/30 – the hills are alive

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After the ups and downs of the Badger 10k I decided that I need to do some hill training. Admittedly I had the same thought after the Bolton 10k. And the Folkestone half. And the Pennington Flash Parkrun. And in fact I have this thought any time that I am faced with anything steeper than say, the Norfolk Broads. This rarely turns into actual hill training though. I say rarely, what I actually mean is never.

Badger 10k elevation – it felt worse than this looks. Especially at the end.

This time I stalled for as long as I could (by reading Everything You Need to Know About Hill Training) but realised that thinking had to turn into doing at some point. Even though I could have already ticked @torsparkle’s suggestion of hill off my treasure list, I’ve been saving it in the knowledge that I will have to do some early morning runs and these would be made easier with some convenient treasure.

Luckily we’re spoilt for choice with hills round here. I had a gentle pootle down to one of my nemesis hills (there has just been the once where I’ve managed to run the whole way up it) and did a set of five 30 second repeats up the hill, aiming at around my 5k race pace as fast as my little legs could carry me. I might have done more, but my early morning insides hadn’t got the memo and a run/walk home was called for…

I’m not quite sure where to go from here, either increasing the number of reps that I do or the length of each interval, especially as this article suggests that a short, sharp 10 second burst can be really effective in improving strength and speed (incidentially, The Guardian recently reported how High-intensity Interval Training helps all sorts of people, but we take that sort of article with a pinch of salt don’t we?). In the meantime, I shall go to yoga, work on my core strength and emerge with a bikini body – results not actually guaranteed.