Tag: Running

Juneathon Day 13: A change in routine

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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

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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

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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

Juneathon Day 10: Mostly uneventful

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Now that’s a title to get people flocking to your blog, but I’m nothing if not honest. Up and out before six and the only people I passed were  a couple of dog walkers, one with several collies – I was grateful that he delayed crossing the road, thus thwarting the plans of one of them who definitely looked like he wanted to herd me.

I seem to have entered a slightly dysfunctional stage with my Garmin, today I pretty much ignored him and did a steadyish three miles, nothing fancy. I’m liking the suggestions so far, although Fortnight Flo has managed to suggest my uncle’s name (the father of Simon and Jonathan) and possibly that would be just as unnerving as Ginge’s ideas. Maybe I could go all Rumpelstiltskin and offer a special bonus prize to anyone who guesses my aunt’s name? Not you Mum, that’s cheating.

 

Juneathon Day 9: Name my Garmin, win sweeties

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Crikey, I just thought that I’d managed to miss a day of Juneathon. I remember running every day, but my last blog was titled Day 7. Today is Day 9. What happened to Day 8? Turns out (and thank you for not noticing this) I titled Day 7 as Day 77 (with the subtitle of Bleary, so that’s my ready-made excuse) and Day 8 as Day 7. Idiot.

Today is Thursday and Thursday is social running day. We spurned the canal in favour of one of the local country parks, conveniently forgetting that the word ‘Valley’ in its name is a clue to its geography. Off we trotted, dealing with the usual work, relationship and life issues on the way. The sun was shining, the dog walkers friendly and I was going about 3min/mile slower than I did when I was racing my Garmin training partner of mystery. The annoying thing was that it felt nearly as hard as going at  my usual pace, it seemed most unfair.

We did 3 miles and then lurked in the car park while we continued to set the world to rights and I stared at a chap in a pair of tiny running shorts. He had lovely long lady-like legs and I found myself mulling on the unfairness of this, as well trying to imagine what he would look like with my sturdy man thighs (he’d be shorter and would look ridiculous in tiny running shorts, which would serve him right for nicking my legs).

I have also reached the momentous decision to name my Garmin. I talk to him (ooh, it’s a boy!)  enough as it is, usually muttering something along the lines of “Am I indoors now? Does this look like indoors? See, there’s a bloody canal there, do I have one of those in my house? No. I. Am. Outdoors”. Thank you for all your ideas so far; Ginge has suggested Jonathan (as a play on Jan/Juneathon) and Simon (because I’ll have to do what Simon says), they’re good suggestions, but he was also just naming two of my cousins and that’s a bit weird (incidentally, you have no idea how much attention I had to pay while writing a card to Jonathan in January – it took all my concentration not to write “To Janathon”).

Anyway – this weekend’s canal running takes us to the shiny metropolis that is Wigan. Land of pies, piers and the regional delicacy that is the Uncle Joe’s Mint Ball. Immortalised in song by Mike Harding, this spherical sweetie is a thing of beauty and the waft of peppermint oil on the breeze near Wigan Wallgate is a sensory experience that is rarely beaten.

Give one to your granny and watch the bugger go

I am willing to offer a tin of Uncle Joe’s (with none missing, I promise) to one lucky blog reader who comes up with the best name for what is usually known as That Bloody Thing – just add a comment at the bottom of this and that’s it. In the interests of ethics, I’ll follow JogBlog‘s lead and there will be some kind of independent adjudication involved.