Dad-daughter 10K challenge 2024-2025…Post IX 12th April 29 Days until Bristol 10K, 11th May, 2025
New home tucked under the picturesque Mendips called for a Google search to locate the nearest Saturday morning Parkrun.
I arrived at Axminster/Cheddar reservoir car park whilst there was still a nip in the air, wearing a woolly hat, soon discarded as the sun did its work. The route, fairly flat, winds its way around the reservoir then diverts along the Starwberry Line – the track of a disused railway line. Twice round, and then a short run across a playing field to the finish.
Trying not to look as exhausted as I feel. Lungs busting. My head tells me the scenery is unbeatable but the perpetual attempt to run at my limit tends to concentrate the mind on the next step, rather than appreciating the natural beauty al around the course.
I did pray. And it was fairly corny. ‘They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength…will run and not be weary’ from Isaiah.
Meanwhile, in London, unbeknownst to me, daughter Rachel was hearing the starting claxon at exactly the same time, 9am, and propelling herself around another Parkrun, Victoria Park, Hackney.
There the similarity ends.
My time: 28:33
Rachel’s: 26:44
So, again, it’s well-done R. An impressive time!
With 29 days to go before the Bristol10K, what should be done? My intention is to shift gears in terms of distance, if not pace, from 5K to 10K two or three times a week. We’ll see.
Encouragement in life is as necessary as turkeys at Christmas. But where do we get encouragement from? It’s all a bit slippery, can’t be timetabled, and it’s not something that can be tamed…but neither is it completely random as if it’s just out of reach and subject to the whims of a capricious Universe or mischievous divine hand.
So, I take encouragement from looking back at my previous three 5K runs and the moderate improvement in times from almost 30’ to 28’30’’ ish - not a trend that should concern R…but I’m pushing!
I haven’t mentioned podcasts in recent posts. And neither can I today. Strava on knocked out my phone’s ambidextrous capabilities: it can’t handle Strava and YouTube videos at the same time. I had planned to listen to Jordan Peterson’s ARC conference speech whilst making my way round the course; doing so would have masked my wheezing at least from me! Alas, I had to wait until the car journey home for JP to let rip in my lug ‘ole.
Encouragement in life is as necessary as turkeys at Christmas. But where do we get encouragement from?
For me, JP is like a skilled physician; he’s taken the pulse of American and Western society and discerned its ills, its malfunctions, and, like a good professional, gives solemn warnings about the inevitable destination of the Western world if it continues to ignore the warnings. He can stare into your soul from the platform and deliver the direst of prognoses and leave you hungry for a cure.
But here is precisely the moment when I depart from JP. Good on diagnosis/prognosis, but I’m off for a second opinion…not about the diagnosis but the cure. The route back to health.
Enough, enough! This is a blog about running and the co-aim of a daughter and a dad to run a 10K in 2025.
But that’s the trouble with runners, especially slower runners like me, it gives you time to think…and when the legs are sending a message to the brain to Stop, to pray.