One week down. 7 runs completed. Nice.

To celebrate….a photo blog.

A gentle plod round the woods avoiding various obstacles on the way, including mud, fallen trees and endless paths.

3.1 miles done.

Total Juneathon mileage = 24.3

Today was a good news day.

The Y11s took the first English Language paper this morning and the majority of them came out pretty confident about the whole thing. Now that might sound good, but that is not today’s good news.

Day six into Juneathon and I was at the gym tonight on the treadmill, meaning so far I’ve managed to run every day. Now that definitely sounds good, but again that is not today’s good news. 

No work to do tonight because tomorrow’s lesson planning was done during my extra free lesson this morning. Today’s good news? Nope.

Tonight’s dinner was homemade Chicken Chow Mein, it was lovely. But even that is not today’s good news. 

So what was today’s good news I hear you ask?

This little beauty was waiting for me when I got home…

Enough said. 

Total Juneathon mileage = 21.2

It felt like a long day at work: final prep for tomorrow’s first English Language paper. 

Therefore, it was a quick trip to the gym tonight to get the run done. Treadmill. 4.1 miles. 

In other news….

This was today’s dinner, homemade burgers and salad…

Total Juneathon mileage = 17.9

Last night was a great gig in Hull: Beauty in the East.

So to keep it going I sorted a great playlist for this afternoon’s run, Paul Heaton all the way. Had a bit of Housemartins, The Beautiful South and some Heaton and Abbot, 

The run itself was a gentle jog around the woods, taking in the pond so that the dog could take a dip: 3.2 miles.

It’s been a good week all in all, I’ve run 6 of the 7 days. Just about on target for the 1000 miles this year: 420 miles done.

Total Juneathon mileage: 13.8 

It’s a Saturday, so of course, today’s run was Parkrun: Rutland Water Parkrun. 

I’m a big fan of Parkrun, I love the whole ethos of it. The free timed run, the community feel, the fact that so many fabulous volunteers get out there every week to ensure it happens. In fact, I’ve even put my name down to a bit of marshalling. 

Recently, Parkrun has been about plodding around at a steady pace; today was very different. 

A challenge had been thrown down: Mr Dave Marples was in town. I was now involved in the biggest head-to-head in recent history. Bigger than David and Goliath. Bigger than St George and the dragon. Bigger even than May and Corbyn. 

Dave’s underhand tactics were clear from the off. He arrives 1 minute before the off, in an attempt to rattle me. He was no doubt warming up and stretching out of sight, or more likely probably popping banned high performance pills.

At halfway we were still neck and neck, a pretty good sub 7.45min/mile pace, but things were starting to hurt. Turning into a head wind didn’t help, cue Dave’s sneaky drafting tactic. Even my constant weaving couldn’t shake him off my tail. He was following closer than a fat kid following an ice cream van. Like a fart in a Russian space station, I couldn’t escape his clutches.

A breathless few words between us with 500 metres to go proved to be pivotal, it went something like this:

Me: Not sure I can up the pace.

Dave: Me neither.

My tactics had worked. It had lulled him into a false sense of security. I pounced on Dave’s momentary lapse of concentration. I was gone. Like a rat up a drainpipe. 

Powering the last 100m meant I came away with a MASSIVE 6 second victory. It was hard work, very hard work, I even managed to avoid throwing up over the timekeeper on the line. Result. 

Congratulations to Mr Dave Marples on a good time. Rematch is going to be big. 

Total Juneathon mileage: 10.6

Who would have thought that day 2 would be so difficult. Physically, emotionally and spiritually. 

It was tough. I had to be strong. I had to be patient. It had been over a year since I’ve had a session like this. I was a mess; bits were dropping off me. At times I was a complete state. Left. Right. Forward. Back. Up. Down. At times I had to look very hard at myself. Tell myself over and over again that everything was going to be alright. Trust in the session. But I couldn’t help but question myself. Should I be doing this? Was this the right thing to do? What was going to be the outcome? It felt strange. Completely different than what I’ve been used to. But after 35 intense minutes I was finished.

My hair had been cut.

As for today’s run…2.5 miles in the woods with the dog.

Total Janathon mileage = 7.5