Tag: running

Operation Dead Men Running

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

With only 2 days until the Zombie Evacuation I thought it was only right to take stock of our readiness to escape the zombie hordes…..

'Dead Men Running' are a group of highly intelligent young men trained in the art of zombie evasion. Years of watching such films as 'Dawn of the Dead', 'Zombieland' and 'Shaun of the Dead' have enabled this group of elite zombie runners to perfect their skills. Living seemingly normal lives as teachers, these individuals have made it their role in life to escape the undead. Normal people would turn into gibbering wrecks at the sight of hungry, blood-thirsty, zirus-spreading zombies, but not this band of brave souls…..

Phil 'The Guv'nor' Lengthorn

Age: 25

Background: Brought up during the early days of VHS by a father who was obsessed with horror films.

Specialisms: Lightning quick, natural leader with extensive knowledge of George A Romero.

Dave 'Mental' Marples

Age: Unknown

Background: Originally from up norf, so used to running after robbers and away from muggers.

Specialisms: Organised, tactically aware and has seen Zombieland over 1000 times.

Neil 'Badass' Rawes

Age: Classified

Background: Raised by mutant mountain men in the heart of Rutland.

Specialisms: Head of communications, quick witted and the ability to confuse.

Simon 'Numbers' Free

Age: Unavailable

Background: Created during a freak algebra experiment in the 1970s.

Specialism: Counting.

May the odds be ever in your favour….

Birthday Wishes and Muddy Running

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 4 Comments

Yesterday was my most favourite niece's 1st Birthday and to celebrate we made the trip to Kent to spend the day with her. Firstly, let me just say that since the birth of Grace my sister has gone slightly mad. And considering she is once again pregnant things are only going to get worse. On arrival we were forced given our own hand-made party hat to wear.

Jill had gone all out to make sure we had a great day: loads of food; birthday decorations; home-made cake; AND party games. Although I was slightly disappointed not to have won pass-the-parcel, amazingly Grace won it, what are the chances of that? Grace got some lovely presents, including her first doll named 'Baby Gracie' which she was very intrigued by. We all had a great day….

This morning the plan was to get very muddy with a run on the trails of Bourne Woods.

I had the iPhone for some pictures and had the Zombies, Run! app on the go. I had already decided on a pretty gentle run this morning and once I spotted how muddy the trails were a gentle run was the only option.

Pretty much covered most of the trails including the hilly ones, did loads of slipping and sliding, which actually reminded me of this ice-skating outing….

Billy Boy was with me this morning, so after about 4 miles we headed to the ponds so he could cool down and clean himself off a bit.

Overall a good run around the woods, loads of people out enjoying the morning, and I did indeed finish very muddy….

Same again tomorrow? Yes please!

 

Great Eastern Run

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

A lovely bright morning welcomed all runners of the Great Eastern Run to Peterborough. The course has changed slightly to last year, it now starts on the Embankment rather than in the city centre, but more importantly, it is still 13.1 miles long.

The past three weeks training has been pretty non-existent due to various niggling injuries. Therefore today's plan was a nice steady pace. Got to halfway in 52 mins, and feeling pretty good, ran the second half in 50 mins. Finishing in a pretty respectable time of 1.42 which I was happy with considering the last month. You can probably tell that the race was pretty uneventful, Peterborough is not known for its fantastic scenery, although I did spot what I think was a tree at one point. But I was given a goody bag, medal and a ridiculously bright t-shirt for my efforts.

The real fun and games began at the finish….

Firstly, when I went to pick up bag from the storage point, they couldn't find it. I had to hang about watching some bloke desperately searching for it, at the annoyance to other runners. I had borrowed Amy's rucksack because mine had somehow disappeared. Therefore when asked what colour it was I said it was black, which I thought it was, it was in fact more of a grey. Doh!

Secondly, I had parked in the closest car park, not realising that the exit to the car park was actually on the race route. Therefore, it was not opened until most of the runners had finished. So in conclusion it took me an hour and forty minutes to run the race and the same amount of time to exit the car park!

And now for something completely different….

A crazy Austrian man jumped from 24 miles up in the air in an attempt to break the sound barrier….

And….he did it!

Failure. Blood. Running.

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

Failure. I hate to admit defeat, but for one reason or another I am officially announcing that September's challenge has been extended into October. I'm slightly disappointed that I've had to take such drastic action but with a two week half-term coming up, together with the fact that my body is finally starting to feel better, I feel it is the best option. The challenge of learning to ride a unicycle was always going to be difficult fully fit, but with various aches and pains appearing (none I think directly related to unicycling) completing the challenge in one month was near impossible.

Blood. It has been a busy week at school. Various assessments taking place and an ever increasing pile of marking that needs completing. Thursday saw the school's open evening, and the annual 'teach the parents' classes I put on. All was going well early on, I was doing the old descriptive writing session using sweets to encourage the use of senses in our writing. We had got through the sight, sound, touch, smell parts without any problems. At this stage I did the old comedy healthy and safety speech before tasting sweets, “please don't eat sweets if you are allergic to anything that could possibly be contained within the sweet”. I should also have mentioned loose teeth! Before I knew it I had a prospective student in front of me in tears, blood flowing down her chin and tissues being stuffed in her mouth by her mother. She was quickly whisked out of the room passed other prospective parents and students, leaving a trail of blood from the English classroom. Not the 'English is Fun' look I was going for. Needless to say that could be one less student joining us next September.

Running. Today I went for a run, the first for three weeks, and although my back was a tad sore it felt good to be finally running again. So I'll be partaking in the first Frostbite run tomorrow morning at St Neots. The Frostbite Races are a great little series of six races held throughout the winter (hence the name) for local club runners to enter. I'll use tomorrow's race as a nice training run and take it pretty steady. That should put me in good stead for next weekend's Great Eastern Run, a half-marathon run around the picturesque streets of Peterborough. Followed, of course, by the Zombie Run later in the month.

 

Unicycling on hold…

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

After what has been a disastrous monthly challenge so far, I felt a post was needed to explain to my fans followers exactly where we are.

It has been over ten days since I last sat on a unicycle, due to a touch of sciatica. I don't intend on boring you with the details, you only need to read Unicycle Day 15 to find out more. Needless to say the chances of successfully managing to learn to ride the unicycle has taken a battering. It may well be that September's Challenge moves into October *sharp intact of breath*.

I'm also very aware of the fact that the Zombie Evacuation run is getting closer. After bullying persuading various teachers to join me in running away from zombies whilst overcoming obstacles I need to ensure I'm fully fit. So I've done the sensible thing, stopped the unicycling and I haven't actually been running for the past 10 days. I have also penciled in running the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough next month, so depending on how the next fortnight goes will decide if I do that or not.

The drugs seemed to have worked, my leg is nowhere near as painful as it was last week, it feels more like a 'dead leg'. This weekend I have done next to nothing in an attempt to get back on track. Well actually to be more precise, I have done nothing interspersed with a whole lot of nothing.

 

Juneathon Day 30

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 5 Comments

Today’s run a steady dog jog, 4 miles on the trails around Bourne. A pretty uneventful run, except for bumping into Shaun who was in the middle of a 17-miler! He did invite me to join him, but I’m running the Thurlby 10k tomorrow so didn’t want to go crazy!

Total mileage today = 3.95

Total Juneathon mileage after day 30 = 114.07

After ten days of Juneathon I decided to take a more relaxed approach to the whole ‘run everyday’ mantra. Due in part, to workload and Euro 2012, but also the fact that I didn’t want the added pressure – I missed out on 6 days actual running. But on a positive note: I really enjoyed the month, mileage was good (considering I dipped out on some runs), had some really great runs, read some fabulous blogs and good banter on Twitter. Well done everybody!

Juneathon 2012: a success!