My dog is called Harry Hawkes. Despite being named after the famous local race, I've never really run with Harry. He's a miniature Schnauzer so not a big long legged hound. And although I have seen schnauzers running at parkruns my dog always prefers stopping and sniffing when on a walk and has only run when … Continue reading First parkrun with my dog

With GBR over last weekend my next goal is a sprint tri on Sunday. But in the meantime we are busy in the office working on our next event, the Harry Hawkes Raceday. We have a new race this year , the Ditton Dash 10k, which starts at 8.00 on June 24, preceeding the Harry … Continue reading Course measurement

By the time we had eaten at the Premier Inn in Brentwood I was feeling tired and slightly out of sorts so had gone to bed early at around 10.15. I woke on the Sunday at just after 6am and felt pretty good. John Greaves was travelling with me and we got an early breakfast … Continue reading GBR Day 2

Saturday 21st dawned bright which was nice for the wedding in Windsor. Harry and Meghan were getting hitched and this was causing something of a stir amongst the UK populace.  The other main event in running circles taking place that weekend was the Green Belt Relay, often foreshortened to "the GBR". The two events coincided … Continue reading GBR Day 1

The Stragglers was, some felt back in the day, a little too serious for those just wanting a bit of gentle exercise and social running. So a separate group formed to cater for this cohort under the name of Little Feet. This was a play on the Stragglers logo which is a foot on the … Continue reading Little Feet to GBR

At some point most runners, cyclists, swimmers think about moving to another level and doing a triathlon. Clearly there are some major events which a lot of us will not ever get to. The Ironman lives up to its name with a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run. Even the … Continue reading Triathlon

Wednesday dawned bright and I got in a very pleasant 5 miles mainly on tracks through Richmond Park. Combination of tired legs from Sunday and usual hills and dales kept the pace slow but that wasn’t the point, was it? Averaged around 10.30 mm. Spent the day working on The Harry Hawkes and Ditton Dash … Continue reading Staying on Plan

Running in the Richmond Half on Sunday prompted reflections on how the face of running has changed over the last 40 years. In 1978 very few people had run a marathon, and even half marathons were fairly unusual. The long distance road race for most was  10 miles. And nearly all races were organized by … Continue reading The state of the game

Ranelagh Harriers are a proper grown up running club, established in 1881and based in their clubhouse in Petersham. They have organized their annual Richmond Half Marathon for many years and it remains pretty much unchanged. By todays standards it could be considered quirky, but amongst club runners it’s a firm favourite. Before the start runners … Continue reading Ranelagh Richmond Half Marathon

I took Friday off. Both from work and running.The weather forecast looked good and I needed to bring a boat down the river from Staines to Teddington and this looked an ideal day to do it. All went well and it was an interesting trip. In fact I got a river view of a route … Continue reading Parkrun