A new parkrun volunteer and the Huddersfield 10k

This weekend saw a few firsts and some familiar sights and faces.

It all started at parkrun where SJ made her volunteering debut as a barcode scanner, she had a great time but nearly managed to scare one man into never coming to Huddersfield parkrun ever again. Dexter and I were running together and managed a respectable 32.52 time. 

When we crossed the line we headed straight to S-J's scanning queue and waited until it was our turn, and we got a great welcome.   After Dexter and I had had our barcodes scanned we each received a kiss from SJ (Mummy) and moved on. The bloke behind us was a little scared and could quite easily of jumped scanning queues until SJ reassured him that he didn't have to give her a kiss and it wasn't a mandatory part of the barcode scanning process. We all had a bit of a giggle about it and hope it doesn't put the guy off.

There was also a Huddersfield parkrun debut of our friend Ben, and with his participation pushes my total of friends and family introduced to parkrun to 20. He made a great debut with a 25 min run and managed to get in a few photos along the way too.

Let's hope that Ben returns to try and beat his PB, I'm sure he will. This week also saw PBs for Paul (Spuggy) and my sister Jodie, awesome job guys.

 

Not everyone had such success this week and this weeks failure goes to my friend Steve who was suppose to be the 25 min pacer, but because he didn't have a bib and only a few people knew this was his role he failed to hit his time. Not by a few seconds but a few minutes, and not even slower he ended up with a 20.41mins utter fail, but we had a laugh about it. He was supposed to be resting his legs ready for the Huddersfield 10k the next day but just couldn't quite contain himself.

On Sunday it was the annual Huddersfield 10k organised by the Huddersfield Road Runners, it was also a very windy day perfect for a tough hilly 10k run!  Last years Huddersfield 10k was my first official 10k race I had taken part in and was a completely different experience for me. If you want to read my blog about that day to compare the two then please check out my back catalogue. This year was a lot different but at the same time there was many similarities. I met Steve there about 10 o'clock and we collected our numbers then we wandered about for a bit looking at everyone's warm up routines and rituals. As like last year I barely did any warm up, a few stretches here and a little jog there, but some of the other runners were taking it a lot more seriously. There was many familier faces whether it was from parkrun or from last years event which helped make it a more relaxed and friendly event compared with the unknown feeling of last year.

The layout of the start/finish this year was different and that was mainly because they were using chip technology for the first time this year. This meant that there was big blue mats lying across the road in front of the rugby club house and there was lots of buzzers and beeps going off as they were testing the set up. The last thing you need is the technology to fail at the last minute especially as there was nearly 600 runners looking forward to getting there times at the end of the day. As the start time got close everyone started to claim there starting grid positions in the funnel and then Matthew Kelly (not the famous one!) gave a run brief before we set off.

At the sound of the air horn 600 runners set off up the 3km hill towards Netherton, because the road was closed off for a small period of time people could quite easily jostle for postion and not have their pace affected too much. About halfway up the hill there was some road works that the race organisers didn't know about until the day, but luckily the workman that was there had stopped the traffic lights on red so we could pass with ease. At the summit you get another kick in the teeth as the strong winds that were forecasted blasted you in the face with grit and dust from the road but as we headed back down the other side of the hill it eased off. The cheers we all got from the crowds watching at Netherton was great and really does help no matter how tired you are, so as we hit the bottom of the hill again you kind of miss it and could really do with another boost as you get to the bottom of the next  one. This hill was the killer hill last year so I was determined not to let it beat this time, so I slowed my pace so that I didn't over do it and throw up at the top again!  All was going well and I was feeling ok there was no way I was going to throw up but I had slowed my pace too much and I ended up walking the last 10/15 metres of the climb. It still beat me a bit but the happiness of not throwing up made up for it and as soon as I reached the top I was off running again.

I don't know if it's age or whether the loss of my breakfast last year but I didn't remember there being so many downhills on this section but it was great to get back into a pace and breathing rhythm before having to climb the next steep and long hill back up to Netherton. Back at the top there was yet more great support from people on the street just cheering you none stop, it was ace. Also at this point I had started a friendly rivalry with a woman, as we kept switching places, I would be in front then she would find another gear and overtake me, then at the hills I would again pass her then at the top and on the flat she would catch me and pass me again. It was also useful for taking our minds off the tiredness in our legs and at the same time it was helping us to push that little bit extra. We kept with each other down the really steep hill into Armatidge Bridge and swapped place on the slight hill upto the main road and I managed to pick up my pace all the way down the road until I reached the road leading to the rugby and health club. Just as we turned into the road she passed me and I said to her that I'm gonna push you all the way, but that was an empty gesture as I was spent. I was overtaken by a couple of other runners and cheered on by a growing crowd before I crossed the finish line in a time of 51 mins. I was in two minds about my time as I was aiming for a sub 50 min time but then at the same time I was 8 minutes quicker than last year and managed not to throw up. There were lots of positives to take out of this run but at the same it made me realise that if I'm going to do the Huddersfield half marathon then I'm gonna have to up my training.

I must thank everyone who tried to talk to me afterwards and give me pats on the back etc. I wasn't the most talkative or responsive for at least 10 mins after.  It's nice to know so many fellow runners that will cheer you on, congratulate you and pick you up when your feeling crap after putting everything into the last sprint of a run. Most of you I have only met over the last year and I look forward to growing these friendships and find new ones too. Roll on the Huddersfield 10k 2015 to see how things have changed again in only a year

And as always Keep running everyone

Temple Newsam's 1st Birthday and Team Pattison tourism

This past parkrunday Team Pattison packed up early and headed off to Temple Newsam parkrun to join in the celebrations for their 1st birthday. This was also Team Pattisons first team tourism, I had done a couple on my own before but this was the first one that we all were taking part in.

We arrived and met up with my friend Steve and made our way round to join the ever growing crowd at the start. There was a large following from the Huddersfield running bunnies that had made the trip up the M1 too, which added to the already great atmosphere. Whilst we all arrived Leigh Harvey was going round handing out party hats for everyone to wear, we even put one on Flynn. 

As this was our first time at Temple Newsam parkrun we didn't know the course or where the start was but I did know courtesy of social media that they had changed the course a bit. I had no idea what from or to so it was useless information to us but for those who were more regular I'm sure it was helpful. So after a bit of standing around looking a little lost and scared we got the call to go to the start, from Ronnie the "ppoty" (parkrun personality of the year 2013) and event director. It seemed no one knew where the start was so Ronnie led the way and soon had us all lined up ready for the start and the run brief. Then after a couple of introductions and a couple of photos, we were off and across the grass/muddy path we went. 

When we reached the start of the downhill it seemed everyone had under-estimated the warning we got at the run brief about the icy bits and taking them steady. There was quite a lot of accidental Temple T's, regulars of Temple Newsam parkrun will know what I mean. For those of you that don't here is a photo to explain.

At the bottom of the hill we could trust our footing again and pick up the pace, and not long after dodging all the puddles we were already for the uphill back to the start. There was kilometer markers placed around the course which was nice but it made me think if there were any at other parkruns I had been to, and there wasn't any. It's only a small thing but it was nice to see, I can see how it could get confusing at 3 lap courses and part lap courses but on a 2 lapper it's great.

After climbing the hill up to the house I started lap 2 and was already being too slow for my friend Steve who had stayed with me for a bit but was stronger on the climb so decided to keep going rather than wait for me, which I totally understand and wondered why he hadn't do it already. 

The second lap was a bit quicker to start with as I knew where I was going this time but when it came to climb the last hill again my legs felt really heavy. I still managed to make it up in a pleasing time but the finish was now right at the top of the hill right in front of the house so the extra 50m climb up to the finish really hurt mentally but the friendly reception I got from the volunteers was great. About halfway up the hill I had noticed that S-J, Dexter and Flynn were struggling and were last. Mainly as the buggy we use doesn't have the most suitable front wheels for the muddy patches and the bumpiness of the footpaths. So after a quick chat with Steve and  a catch of my breath I ran on to catch them up and help. When I caught up with them Dexter was helping the tail runner Nikki Coop collect the markers and cones etc as they went by. Nikki Coop was brilliant with Dexter and taught him the correct way to do the Temple T.

I took Flynn and the buggy off S-J for the final hill climb so she could cross the line with Dexter and they got a amazing cheer as they crossed the line thanks to all the people who stayed back after they had finished themselves.

At the finish I managed to get a quick word with Nicola Forwood and meet Poppy for the first time, and  Nicola got met Flynn again 4 months after the last time at Huddersfield parkrun. it's safe to say he was a lot bigger now than when she met him at only 3 weeks old. Unfortunately it was only a brief meeting as we had a very excited 5 year old who wanted to play in the playground by the car park before we had to go and pick up Clark. So even with the ice and mud I had a fantastic time, S-J not so much but we will definitely be back again maybe in the Spring or summer. 

Thank you to everyone at Temple Newsam parkrun and a special thanks to Nikki Coop who kept S-J and Dexters spirits going through until the finish.

Keep running everyone

*****S-J edit*****

I had a lovely time! I genuinely thought I might die going over the wet muddy grass track, as the buggy seemed to think it should be a bloody plough!  The first lap was honestly horrific in my defense I did get so cold at the start I couldn't feel my toes and it was an uphill start and I couldn't run down the hills due to ice!  Also one of the little known joys of pushing a buggy in the ice is you have to hold it back down hill so it was like resistance training! Nikki Coop was ace and we didn't even finish last (just v nearly last) I will do it again in the sunshine!!! 

17 and counting where will it go from here.

January so far has been full, action packed and a slight blur. My life as a stay at home father has returned after a short break as I returned to work. I joked at the time when I returned to work that I came back for a rest, and after a couple of weeks of school runs, baby feeds, after school clubs and countless parties the joke has defintely lost its punch line. 

The first week back coincided with the start of Jantastic, a website for runners to join a running community, log their runs, set yourself targets and achieve those goals for the first 3 months of the year. It's designed to help you keep to your New Years resolutions or to get back into the routine of running after the Christmas break. As well as that it's a very helpful tool to push your training that little bit extra and with the added social element of running teams and rivals it adds a little bit more fun into the cold winter months.

So during the day in the first week I was cruising around almost zombie like but on auto pilot and then on an evening I was pounding the pavements trying to get my running back on track and the training for the big runs of the year started. With a few 10k and 10m runs planned and my first half marathon all before the end of April I needed my training runs and my routine back. The second week has been a lot smoother and I even managed to find a bit of time to do a bit of shopping and planning for the up coming Shepley First School fun run. 

The boys have settled down too from the change from Mummy to Daddy during the day and we've had a lovely time almost getting to know each other again. It's a strange change for them too having just got use to Mummy and her routine and way of doing things to then have Daddy do things slightly differently or at different times. Just a slight change can throw them and that was all to true with Clark taking a couple of steps backwards with toilet training, luckily he seems to be gaining those steps back again already.

My running is also back on track and with the added pick me up of new shoes thanks to Nana and my birthday present I have managed to meet my Jantastic targets fairly easily. As ever the routine and awesomeness of parkrun is going strong and this weekend was another record breaking for Huddersfield parkrun. 621 runners, breaking the record by 9 and only 3 weeks into January is such a fantastic start to the year, keep up the good work guys. This parkrunday we also had 4 new parkrunners join in, Becky joined us a couple of weeks ago but this week her husband Paul came along and ran with their sons Zane and their new arrival Travis in his buggy, thus creating Team Horsfall. Along side Team Pattison and Team Horsfall was my sister Jessie and she had brought with her and all the way from Liverpool, her boyfriend Matty who was running his first parkrun and being a parkrun tourist as well. We've already talked about plans for us to do the return trip to Princes' parkrun (Liverpools parkrun), as I've already said to a few people 2014 is the year of parkrun tourism. 

I then got thinking about how many people I have directly or indirectly introduced to parkrun and how many of them have really enjoyed it and continue to take part in parkrun. When I say indirectly in kind of mean the butterfly effect, I.e. They registered because they came with someone I introduced to it via word of mouth or social media. Roughly counting I think I got to about 17 people that I know of that have taken part in parkrun resulting from me taking part for the first time back in June of last year. Only 7 of these are family members and the rest comprise of friends or friends of the family, and this is just the start, I wonder how many of these 17 will end up encouraging others to take part too. This is one of the main reasons for the success of parkrun and why Mr Danny Norman gets wildly passionate about parkrun when talking stats and growth on The parkrun show podcast. I enjoy Danny's passion and I hope that it rubs off a little on everyone, then hopefully the stats and growth will continue.

I hope to increase my tally of people I have help to discover the joys of parkrun in the next couple of months and with the Shepley First School fun run being held at Huddersfield parkrun this year I could easily double my number if not treble it. Only a few people at Dexters school have heard of it never mind take part in it, so with the possibility of about 30-40 people taking part in the fun run, my number should increase a lot. However It's not about how many I can introduce it's how many of them continue and return on a regular basis to increase their fitness, better their times or just as a regular fun and social event. This is usually due to the fun friendly atmosphere and people that run, volunteer and organise Huddersfield parkrun. So a big thanks to Simon, Mark, Kerry, Kev, Jo and many others sorry I don't know everyone's names, keep up the good work and let's keep breaking those records too.

How many people do you think you have encouraged and introduced to parkrun and all its awesomeness?

Keep running everyone

Merry Christmas and a Happy Double parkrun 2014

Happy new year everyone and I hope Santa brought you all some amazing gift this Christmas. Most of our Christmas was centred around parkrun ands it's many holiday events. As well as the runs there were plenty of presents and food and lots of family time.

At last count in the past 15 days Dexter has done 4 parkruns and 19 in total (almost 2 and a half marathons and for a 5 year old that's incredible), SJ has done 5, and 15 in total since giving birth to Flynn (just as incredible) and I have done 6 because of the double on New Year's Day and 26 in total since June.

These runs have been some of the best parkruns I have done with various fancy dress and festivities involved. So much so that the parkrunday after Christmas Day when I was running in just my usual attire it felt strange and is almost felt a little naked. 

This wore off by New Year's Day as my focus was on the excitement of doing the double parkrun of Dewsbury then Huddersfield. There was a good number of regular Huddersfield parkrun runners at Dewbury parkrun doing the double including the EDs Simon and Mark, and the rest of the Huddersfield running bunnies. 

Then this parkrunday it was completely back to normal but with a few extra faces and some new gear to run in. It had been my birthday this past Thursday and SJ had got me some new running clothes which I immediately donned for this parkrunday, all matching colours too. Plus I was trying out a new toy I got for Christmas from Santa, a video camera in a pair of sunglasses which can record in full HD and for a good couple of hours too. I asked Santa for them specifically for the Yorkshire Warrior in April but knew I needed to get used to them so why not try them and film my parkruns now and again. 

There was a few mishaps with the glasses and I didn't manage to record he first 3km of the run but the  last 2km or at least most of it was and I was impressed with the quality and ease of use once I had it going. I also took some footage of my after run, where I had a chat and rest with my friend Steve before I went off to catch up with the rest of Team Pattison. Plus we had a new face running with us this week, it was Becky, my sister Jodie's best friend. It was her first parkrun and she did a brilliant sub 40 time as her first PB, a good bench mark to start off with. Brilliant job Becky. When we got home I looked through what I had managed to capture and made this short video as a test video for what could be a regular thing.

Now at this time last year I was setting myself a mileage target to hit based on what I would usually run around Shepley. I had set myself a target of 1000km but I didn't even get close I think I'd be lucky to have got 800km and if it wasn't for parkrun I don't think I would have gone past 500km. So this year I won't set a distance target instead I have come up with a different target. Whilst organising the New Years Day double parkrun I posted on Facebook that 2014 would be the year of the parkrun tourist. For those who don't know what that is, it's a person who travels to other parkruns other than the Home parkrun they have designated online. So my target for this year will be to do at least 5 more different parkruns, not including Huddersfield, Barnsley and Dewbury as I have already done these. There are at least 10 that are within 1 hrs drive of us so fairly easy to do. So I have no excuses on completing this target this year, plus I have at least 3 10k runs, a 10k obstacle run, a 10 mile obstacle run and a half marathon to train for and all before august. So mileage shouldn't be a problem this year, the test is breaking the usual parkrunday routine to go to a different parkrun. 

Here are a few photos from the Christmas period that I have liked from the Huddersfield parkrun Facebook page and a few of my own when I remembered to get the camera out. 

Plus I hope you enjoy the video even if it is a bit rubbish, I hope you all have a good 2014 and hit all your targets you set yourself.

Keep running everyone

 

Go Team Pattison

Christmas parkrun and last weekend at work

Over the last couple of weeks my running has all but disappeared to tiredness from working or other plans have taken priority. Other than parkrun last week I hadn't done any training runs and as a result I have put on a couple of pounds ok maybe 6. I not one for worrying about my weight but I was about a pound off losing 2 stone since I started running and keeping fit 18 months ago. That was a couple of weeks ago and I was looking forward to breaking the 2 stone mark but the lack if runs has now put that back a few weeks/months. Then this weekend It was my weekend in so the usual parkrun would be off the table and another run crossed off. However this parkrunday was the Santa parkrun with dress up encouraged, so was gutted I was going to miss it being at work etc. So all week I had been working an extra few minutes here and there so that there was a possibility I could duck out from work for an hour to run with Team Pattison at parkrun. I still had to wait and see how busy work was on the day, so there was no guarantee I could leave until the last minute. 

Luckily at 8.40am on parkrunday I left work jumped in my car and drove to meet up with the rest of my parkrun family, I even arrived with 10 minutes to spare so didn't have to rush into my Santa outfit. As I had to be back at work ASAP I was running on my own so left the rest of Team Pattison at the back of the pack and headed towards the front. After a quick Christmas sing song instead of a run brief instigated by Kerry, we were off. Everyone involved was in great spirits and were very festive in the various roles, and some of the marshalls had Chirstmas songs playing on speakers from their phones as we ran past. I had a great time at parkrun the only thing that sullied it was my time, I only just managed a sub 24 time. I hope it was a result of the flailing Santa suit that acted more like a parachute at times, and the tiredness from working since 6.30, and nothing to do with my fitness and lack of training. I had no time to dwell as I now had to get back to my mums quick shower and change back into my work clothes then drive back to work.

Back at work and I was feeling a bit rough from all the running around I had just done over the last hour. Luckily work was fairly quiet and I hadn't been needed whilst I was out, not sure if that's good or not. I really enjoy my excursion from work I felt like a little boy skipping school or something.

This weekend at work has been my last as from January 3rd I will be leaving AGAIN. SJ goes back to work after her maternity leave on January 6th, and as we have found out the cost of 3 children in child care is stupid. I would quite happily stay on at work and put the kids at various settings but to do that would mean I would be paying £90 to go to work each week. So I will be becoming a stay at home father again, a job I love but  it just doesn't pay enough!!

Why in this day and age can you not afford to go to work!! Whilst it is, with a little scrimping just affordable to stay at home and look after my kids. This is without claiming benefits, not that, that is the answer but we wouldn't qualify to claim if we wanted to anyway. Enough now I'm not one for ranting which means it must be really annoying for me to rant about it.

Anyway back to the festivities I completed my last Sunday at work then headed home to get ready for the Santa's grotto my mum was putting on for the kids and a few other friends and their children too. She has done this for the past couple of years and it has been really good for the kids each time, and this year was no different. It was however Flynns first visit to Santa and he seemed to take it well.

So this weekend has felt really Christmasy and a good start to the holidays. Thank you to Simon, Mark, and Kerry at Huddersfield parkrun and all the volunteers they had this weekend. 

Plus thanks to my mum and Peter for another great Santa's grotto. I now can't wait till Christmas Day and the Christmas Day parkrun with the boys and both buggies, plus all the presents and family time too.

I know I should take my own advice as well when I say this, keep running everyone. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Dexter and parkrun fame

Over the last 2 weeks Dexter has had a great deal of excitement surrounding parkrun. About 11 days ago whilst watching 'The One Show' SJ sent in a photo of Dexter and I running at parkrun on his 10th run. She did this because they were announcing the final 10 for Sports personality of the Year and asked the viewers to send in photos of people in their household who should be recognised for their achievements.

SJ sent this photo in with the tag line, this is Dexter running with his Daddy completing 10 5k parkruns and we thought no more of it. We went off doing some tidying and forgot about it but about 20 mins later we heard Dexters' name on the TV and we came running to rewind it to see if we heard right. We had, so we rewound it again and shouted Dexter to come watch TV, he had no idea what was about to happen. We pressed play and this happened,
 

So when parkrunday came and he was crossing the finish line he was greeted by it's Dexter off the TV. He was then approached by Jude who thanked him for getting her on TV too! This puzzled Dexter as he's still at that age where the rest of the world doesn't really exist and he doesn't get why other people saw him on TV, and that other people can watch the same thing as him. 

All week at school he was asked at about it by various parents and still he was a little shocked at the attention he was getting. Plus SJ and I were getting the strangest of questions from people like "did The One Show ask you for a photo of Dexter?" "Did you get any money for it?" And "Will he be on again?" to which our reply was NO it was just a bit of fun.

Then this past parkrunday eve we got a message on Facebook that Dexters 10 club T-Shirt was ready for us to pick up at the next parkrun. So on parkrunday when we picked it up the lovely attention Dexter got for his T-Shirt was great and it made him feel great. So thank you to everyone that made a fuss of him and made his parkrunday even more special.

If that wasn't enough we then joined in the annual Huddersfield Santa Dash where Dexter, Clark and Flynn were star attractions in their reindeer outfits. Plus some star apperences from last years  and current Santa Dash champion parkrun ED Simon and this years runner up and Co parkrun ED Mark, well done guys on your efforts today.

Plus the Santa Dash got a small section on the local news program where the boys, SJ and I can be seen running/walking in our various costumes and Tinsel. 

And to top off a great day we went to see the Coca-Cola lorry mainly for SJ and I as the boys had no concept of what it stands for, but that didn't stop Dexter loving it.

What a great weekend, and don't forget to keep running everyone.