Organising and Running the Shepley 10k

Not 2 months after the Shepley first school fun run I now find myself at the controls of another fun run. The Shepley 10k is born and to my surprise it has gone smoothly, routes are sorted forms and sponsors organised and authorities informed. They only thing is the date it seems to be the only day I could have chosen where a lot of our runners from the Shepley First School fun run can't run. For various reasons they can't run on July 6th so I know have to try and spread the word to new runners and try and do this very quickly as its only 7 weeks until the Shepley 10k. So the past few days I've been emailing or social networking my bottom off trying to get the word out there. I've emailed running clubs but apparently there is an established run the day after. And tonight I've been to the Shepley village association meeting to drop some flyers off. 

I could stay for the whole meeting as Clark is still not 100% after his chicken pox and was being a very grumpy boy. So I dropped things off with Rachael to hand out and I returned home to help Sarah-Jane with the boys and bed times. 

I have also been for a couple runs on the route to refresh my brain on where signs and Marshals will go. I ran a variation of the route which ended up being 8km but still a good run. Before I set off I picked up a few flyers and put them in my back pocket in my shorts, as I tend to see other runners as I go and it would be another way to spread the word on the Shepley 10k. I was only 1km in to my run when I saw a guy running towards me on the other side of the road, so I crossed over and like a crazy person thrusted a flyer in his face and mumbled SHEPLEY 10K. I did this whilst still running but I did get a quick reply of 'oh ok' and we carried on our routes. After about 3.5k I saw another guy but by the time I could get a flyer out he was gone, our routes crossed briefly he was trail running along public footpaths and me on my roads. He was flying at quite a pace almost like someone was chasing him. After that it was all uphill and I was so focused on my breathing and keeping my knee going and not hurting I think a bull could have ballet danced passed me and I wouldn't have noticed. By the time I reach the top of the hills I was at 6km and I was pretty pleased with myself as I had kept a good pace up the hills. As I reached Penistone rd and the crossroads pub I could see at the top of the hill another runner, and I thought to myself 'can I catch him?' I picked up my pace a bit to see if I could close the 200m gap. By the time he reached the top of Marsh Lane I had closed the gap by about 50m but I knew I had to up my speed a bit more in case he turned off on to a road I wasn't going on myself. As the gap was now 100m I started to realise how tired I was getting at this pace, plus it occurred to me that the flyers in my pocket could be getting a bit sweaty. So as the gap shortened to 50m I took a flyer out of my pocket and held it out blowing in the wind to dry it off  in case it was a bit sweaty, whilst still keeping up the pace. As I caught up to him I saw he had earphones in like me so I said to him CAN I GIVE YOU THIS, WHAT IS IT? SHEPLEY 10K! OH, WHEN IS IT? JULY 6TH, WHAT? JULY 6TH! MIGHT FIT IN! HOPE SO! I now had to keep at my fast pace to make it look like that was my natural pace and not the pace I used to catch up with him like a stalker. I wasn't until I was about 100m past him that I slowed a bit, as I felt I was a significant distance from him that he wouldn't notice. Luckily I had to cross the road too so I looked for traffic slowed down and carried on at my usual pace until I reached 8km and neared home. I walked the last 100m home and it was only then that I felt benefits of my added pace, I felt strangely stronger and happier and like I had given myself a proper workout.

I hope that the Shepley 10k takes off because the route is a very good run and I think it will lead to a lot more things, for me and for Shepley.

Keep running everyone.

New route and a new 10k

For the past couple of weeks we (Sarah-Jane and I) have been mainly focused on baby names after discovering that we are having another boy. 

I think we have come to the decision that boy number 3 will be called Flynn Richard ______ Pattison. The 2nd middle name is still under discussion and we are back and forth over 2 names, Bishop and Darwin. 

Also I've been busy turning the cogs in my rusty brain trying to find a job and plan my next event. The job front isn't going to well but the organisational skills I gain from organising these fun runs should hopefully help. 

The St Paul's church in Shepley is in need of money to match a grant they have been given to refurbish their facilities and if they don't raise the money they lose the grant. So I offered to set up a fun run for them to help raise some of the money they need. And so I was straight onto the contacts I gained from doing the Shepley First School Fun Run, and was planning routes out in my head. I came up with a couple, a short one around 6k and a longer 10k one too but I wasn't sure which was best so over the next few days I ran them both. They both followed a similar route but the 10k took a few extra roads in along the way. After completing them both I decided to go with the 10k mainly because it was more of a challenge but I felt a bigger sense of accomplishment after finishing. I still have to sort a few things out with the Shepley cricket club and set a date and time but as far as permission goes the SHEPLEY 10K is born. 

The route has slightly changed from this picture. You get a great sense of scale from it and every time I look at it I can't believe its only 10k it looks huge. I'm very excited about this run and with it being a possible July date should be a very nice day for everyone who will be involved. As the church host a lot of community clubs I.e dance classes, guides etc. I'm very optimistic that we should be able to get the word out quickly and to a wider audience than we did for the school plus I hope we will get a few more volunteers for Marshals too. 

As always I will keep you informed as to my progress and my runs, and keep running everyone.

Yorkshire Warrior. Water, mud and northern grit.

Luke and I were up early in preparation for setting off to Harrogate for the Yorkshire Warrior. Luke came to pick me up at 7.20am and we set off at 7.30am intending to be there by 8.30am. We got there at 8.15 and our excitement had now turned into a slight case of nerves. About 5 mins behind us was Jessie with Matty and that was our team, as Rob had to drop out yesterday due to family reasons.

Luke, me and Matty keeping warm and feeling nervous

After parking in an almost empty field as we were one of the first there, and by the look of other Warriors turning up we were also the least prepared. After getting our numbers signing the health and safety waivers we stood around for a bit and then made our way over to the start as people were gathering in anticipation of the first wave of people setting off. I took a few photos over the next 25 mins and the crowds just kept growing and growing. We couldn't help but size up our competition even though it wasn't a race, and when we weren't sizing people up we were commenting on their outfits. This was all because we were nervous about what we had signed up for.

It was now time for wave 1 to head to the start so we all went down to see the first start of the Yorkshire warrior. There was a man dressed in spartan attire with a microphone getting completely into character and doing a good job too. He was there to explain something's and to give the warriors a quick warm up, then he set them off with a 3 count. 1.2.3. And they were off really excited and worried at the same time, no one really had an idea as to what was a head but we soon found out.

As 10 minutes later the Spartan called the 2nd wave to the start and that was us, we lined up at the front for some reason like we were gonna be off like a shot or something! Like the wave before we got our briefing and our warm up before we were set off too. This time it was a 10 count to build the tension more, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 GO.

We set off pretty quickly but so did everyone else but at the first gate 100m away we all slowed again as it was too small to fit everyone through at full speed. This was why we were at the front so we could get through the gate and be off on our way without too much disruption. We ran for about 500m before we reached a wall and had to hurdle it, this lead us into some trees where we had to negotiate down trees and logs until we reached another wall, again hurdling it. A little run then brought us to what they called the spiders webs, a group of trees all tangled with string and wire in all different directions and you had to navigate through this to the other side. At the other side we were startled by the sight of a fellow warrior slowing to light a cigarette which made a few of us laugh. It was then down the hill to the next obstacle, a cargo net crawl under a gate into nettles leading down to the Salmon run. This was our first of many encounters with cold water, we had to get in the stream and advance upstream for about 200m in freezing water, and slippery rocks. At the end of this section was a 30ft climb up a muddy banking to an old railway line, the railway line was long gone but trees and shrubs and roots were there instead. From here was a couple of quick obstacles a tyre clamber followed by a crawl through a 20ft tube barely wide enough for stocky people so it was an elbow crawl slightly uphill.

A 1km run up and round the surrounding hills led to the log carry. Choose a log and then its up and down a banking a few times then off running again. Into the trees we went and then it was water time again which was thigh deep 10ft puddle with a queue at the other side leading to another puddle. This one was different this was a foul smelling bog stomach deep to me a 6ft tall guy never mind some of the 5ft tall warriors around me. Once you were in this bog you had a rope to guide you across this 30-40ft puddle but you had to use your feet to feel you way as the guy in front of me found out the hard way. He tripped over a log under the water and went face first into the bog, poor guy got a mouth full too. Once out of the bog you had three big bankings to climb up and down on the way to the first set of 6ft walls to climb. I was worried about these as I was afraid I would be too tired to pull myself up. It was all in my head and I flew over them my feet barely touched the tops and I was over both of them.

 

Off we were again running for another km until we came to a 15ft climbing wall to get over then a cargo net climb and then running another 500m until we reached more water holes to cross. We were doing well as a team keeping together and helping each other when we needed it, we even became 'those guys' who high five each other after each and every challenging obstacle, it was fun and kept our spirits high. This was very important was we descended down a muddy bank to the entrance to THE TUNNEL. An abandoned railway tunnel 800m long in complete darkness, or that's how they had sold it as in the description for the event. It was sneakily filled with water ankle deep in places and knee deep in others which was actually quite refreshing! They did provide torches but they were useless and were more about being able to see other people rather than where you were going. Some poor girl actually went over on her ankle in there and was taken away in an ambulance as we came out the other side, which is bad you don't want to see others get hurt whilst having fun. From the tunnel we ran another 1km then we had to jump in a ditch covered in places by netting so we had to crouch down or bend to keep our heads out of the netting. The further we went in this ditch the more muddy it got and I almost lost my shoe it got that boggy. Once out of the ditch we ran again until we had to do the ups and down or over and unders if you like. Then it was the big round hay bales 1 high to start then 2, then 3, back down to 2 then 1 again and then onto the last obstacle for a while the barbwire crawl. It was a good 2km run from here and about halfway we came to a sign saying 5 miles halfway. We couldn't believe it we felt like we had done about 7 miles by this point, but we carried on and came to an A frame climb with a Hydration station on the other side.

We stopped for a drink before pushing on and coming to another A frame climb, which was beside a tree with a very tempting branch to swing off the other side. Somebody gave into temptation and broke the branch and must have fallen about 7ft but he was ok. Running over the next field was hard as the ground was so uneven but we soon were at the next climb, over a cargo net then a couple of walls. From here it was back towards the hydration station but on the way we had to climb up and slide down a couple of bankings. By this point my knee was starting to rear its painful head again and I was having to walk a bit but at the hydration station I had a chance to rest it. The next obstacle was another crawl through a small maze of poles not too bad but all this was on a slight hill which wasn't good on the knee. It was about now where we started to miss the water puddles as we were getting warm again, but got distracted by a deer being chased by a dog, by the time we had got our heads around the funny sight we had reached the next obstacle. We were pretty excited about this 1 by now, it was the ice bath. I didn't think I would have been excited by an ice bath before today but I was and as we climbed up it Matty decided to dive in head first which got him a cheer from the others around us. It was really shocking having to duck under a plank and dunk yourself in the water but I didn't want to get out after it. It was very refreshing and lifted our spirits, and so did the sign that said 2 miles to go that was there too. Running again we came to some streams that we had to cross and cross again and again. We were soon in another water hazard and climbing another muddy bank then onto another 15ft climbing wall. We were told we only had about a mile to go which was great news but as rounded the corner we realised we had THE TUNNEL to do again the other way. As its pitch black in there it's not safe enough to run so as we were walking it gave my knee a chance to rest but my calfs decide to get a touch of cramp. I needed to stretch them out a bit and I got the chance on the steep slope we had to climb at the end of the tunnel. We were close enough to the finish to have spectators cheering us on and they could see I was struggling so cheered my number to pick me up. Which it did and hurdled the next obstacle without any problems. It was really annoying my knee because it was only that, that was slow us down I didn't feel tired too much and my muscles were fine on the obstacles it was just the impact of running on my knee.

With 2 obstacles to go we could hear all the crowds watching the final obstacle and after a couple of walls we could see them too. As we came to the final obstacle, a climb up a man made slippery slope, I saw Sarah-Jane and the boys who had come to see us finish. They had made signs for us and Jessie had one too.

We conquered the last climb and we ran together to the finish line and even sprinted the last 20m. We had done it we had finished it and in a fairly respectable time too, unofficially we had completed it in 2hr20m. Officially we were Yorkshire Warriors it felt brilliant to say that too, we collected our T-Shirts and put them on. The T-Shirts were great they were proper running T-Shirts not like the cotton T-Shirts you usually get, these ones you might actually use again or at least I will on my training runs. We then got congratulatory hugs from Dexter and Clark, and they had been practicing their well done Daddy chants too.

We hung around for a bit to see some of the other Warriors cross the line and to get some food. Then we headed back to the car to get changed out of our muddy and stinky clothes and go home for a shower.

It was a fantastic day and I would certainly do it again next year and recommend it to others too. For a first time event it was set up and run very well indeed, and I can see it being full next year. We thank you Yorkshire warrior and will see you next year.

Keep running Everyone.

Yorkshire Warrior training DONE

It's been a interesting couple of weeks and training has gone as well as could be when training for free. No gyms, no swimming pools, no treadmills, just the roads and my living room floor. I've done the 16km/10miles needed for the Yorkshire warrior so I know I can go the distance. Instead I tried to train for strength and increasing my short run times. So I've been running 5k's and trying to beat my PB which I did on the second attempt. It's been a while since I've tried to do 5k's and to beat my PB so quickly was cool and made me realise how far I've come in 9 months. I beat my PB by 20+ seconds and since then have keep my times around that.

I've also been doing body weight workouts at home like press ups, sit ups, burpees etc. Now I'm no experts in these type of workouts and I'm probably doing it all wrong. But I've been surprised at how well I've done and how I've progressed since starting these workouts.

Yorkshire Warrior training and shocks

It's been over 2 weeks since the Shepley First School Fun Run and I've only managed 2 runs in training for the Yorkshire Warrior on the 20th April. That's not say its been quiet in the Pattison house, it hasn't.

Almost as soon as the Fun Run was over the snow came and brought most of Shepley and England to a stand still. Then Sarah-Jane developed a cough and was off school which turned out to be whooping cough as well. We have a few family members going through different stages of Cancer, some doing well and some not. Both boys have had little illnesses, sickness and small case of chicken pox. But there has been a bit of a shock that has kept our spirits high and that is that we are expecting our 3rd baby due on the 21st of September. We had our 12 week scan today to date and check measurements, and we were at 16 weeks not 12 so a lot further on than first thought. Baby is healthy and all looks well so that's the most important thing, I was just glad it wasn't twins!

This week I had managed to get back to my Yorkshire Warrior training, with a couple of quick 5k runs. My plan is to keep my speed up as well as my fitness, as we will only be running in between obstacles and then I'm sure there will be queues at each obstacles so will be able to rest while waiting. I know I can run the full distance but I haven't trained for the obstacles. So this week I have done some extra strength workouts in between my runs, to keep my muscles going and to give me a prayer of finishing the Yorkshire Warrior. I've never been any good at press ups and this week proved it with a couple of Faceplants after very few press ups. I'm determined to get better at them and also to try to regain the six pack I had when I was 14, by doing sit ups, burpees, etc.

With the clocks going forward last weekend it is again safe to run round the Knowle and up to the station again in the evening. The lack of street lights put an end to runs round the Knowle etc. but now the sun is still up when I run I can go back to the ups and downs that I started on back in June last year. The extra daylight also means that as soon as the last bits of snow have melted Rob and I can get back to our Thursday evening 9 holes of golf.

An update on our Fund raising from the Shepley First School Fun Run and we are looking at reaching £1300 when all sponsors are in, which is brilliant and better than we expected. So a big thanks again to all those who took part, helped out and sponsored us.

Keep running everyone