PJs In The Park & The Pick and Mix - marathons #75 & #76

If there's anything I love more than running, then it has to be wearing my PJs in a park, whilst eating pick and mix....so how could I refuse these two lovely marathons.

PJs in the Park was a couple of weekends ago, and fresh from watching 100s of people walk/ run 100s of miles the weekend before, I was inspired and ready to go. So inspired in fact, I even changed out of my PJs and into running clothes, thus I turned up feeling slightly under (or over?) dressed when I realised many other runners had taken the name to heart and gone for the full blown PJ look (although a fellow runner did say to me that he liked my pajamas, so I'm not sure what that says about my fashion, but hey, you can't please everyone's taste all of the time). The run was organised by the ever well dressed Rik (today in an Old Mr Go-to-bed outfit) at Phoenix Running, and I love Phoenix Running because you know for sure that you're going to have a great day at their events. 6 hours lay ahead, in the quite fabulous Nonsuch Park, and as many 5km laps as you so wished.

But first, a word on Nonsuch Park, because something with a name like that deserves a mention. Should you have spare time on your hands, and an interest to delve further into the colourful history of the place, the Epsom and Elwell gov site gives a good overview. But, in short, Henry VIII, delightful man that he was, began building a palace here in 1538, on his 30th anniversary of becoming king. And why not. If I had been king for 30 years, I believe that I too may choose to build another palace to add to my grand collection, to mark the rapturous occasion. And what's more, I would move all of the poor people out of the way of where I wanted my palace to be. Which is what dear Henry did, as inconveniently there was a village on this site called Cuddington, which “was cleared away and the owners compensated” as the Epsom and Ewell website so delicately puts it. And what’s more, should I build such a thing, I wouldn’t stop at just one palace, no. Nonsuch was built as part of Henry’s new hunting estate. An entire hunting estate. And I would as well, while I was at it, decorate the walls to celebrate the birth of Prince Edward, born the year before. I’m not great with architecture, but by all accounts it seems these decorations were quite something, covered 900 feet of walls, and hadn’t been seen in England before. Blimey. Such was the extravagance and huge undertaking, that Henry VIII actually died before it was finished, which he must have been quite enraged about. Never mind though, it stayed in the royal family until 1670, when King Charles II made an error of judgement by giving it to his mistress Barbara Villiers who demolished the palace in 1682 to pay off her gambling debts. She did such a good job, that only tiny fragments of the palace remain today, but there is a wonderful manor house and a quite stunning park left in its place.

 

Three events of note today. One, I got stung by a bee. Two, I had a good run. Three, I ran the second furthest of all of us there, which is probably the only time in my life that my name will be second on a results list. These were all of them very exciting events, not least of all being stung by a bee. I haven't been stung by a bee since I was very small, and having had the pleasure of renewing the experience, I hope it doesn't happen again until I'm really old. Being somewhat out of practice in how to deal with bee stings, I figured that after a couple of minutes, as my arm hadn't dropped off, and I didn't seem to be having any sort of awful reaction, that it was probably OK. Which was more than could be said for the poor bee (although, as it stung me in a completely unprovoked manner, my sympathy for it was limited slightly), which lay still on the floor, having bee(-n) trod on by John, who helpfully had made sure that it would sting no more. 

A few moments later, it was time to start, and as I stood under a tree lathering on a final layer of suncream and listening to the race brief, I found the bee sting still stuck in my arm. It was really quite big, now I looked at it. Bees really are remarkable creatures, literally sacrificing themselves when threatened, for the benefit of their species. My bee must have skipped class on the day of this lesson, as the only threat that I seemed to have posed to it was to be standing in it's flight path, when it must have been flying in reverse, sting first, straight into my arm. Whether the bee community at Nonsuch Palace will miss this particular bee's unique survival strategy or not, I remembered that never-the-less when bees sting you, they release some kind of chemical, which attract other bees to the scene of the crime, and so the rest of the gang were probably on their way. I hastened a nervous glance up to the sky, where I was sure a shadow was forming on the horizon, but at the very moment the starting hooter went off, and I shot off to escape the wrath of the bees.

I really enjoyed the run today, and settled in well to the lap, which had a pleasing number of things going on. There were meadows filled with swaying grasses, and a children’s birthday party going on, complete with very small children lining the course for a few laps high-fiving everyone, and shouting such encouragement such as “I hope you win!” on the first lap, “I REALLY hope you win!” on the second, and by the third "I REALLY hope YOU win!". Then a woodland, more meadows, some paths, lots of dogs (all looking a little bemused about why they should be out walking on such a hot day), the odd peeved looking bee buzzing backwards, and a lovely flat out and back section along a shady path which must have been a mile or so long, and was lovely after being out in the meadows in the baking sun. And a fabulous aid station, which was situated such, that so great was the heat  from the baking sun that all the sweets had melted into one. Yum. I ran 10 laps, 32.8 miles in 5:46 and enjoyed every minute. The only trouble was getting the medal home, such was it’s bulk, and my diminished strength from the day’s endeavours.

A week later, and it was time for the Pick and Mix, an event organised by the Beds, Bucks and Northants group of the LDWA, which had been cancelled during the winter due to snow, and re-arranged for today. I hadn’t done an LDWA run for a couple of months, and had missed them, so had been looking forward to the day. Due to a long and tedious story which I won’t bore you with here, I ended up needing to catch the train, which on paper looked, if not quite a doddle, at least like a train might get you to within spitting distance of the start, within a reasonable time. As it turned out, this wasn’t true, and following a 5 am start and a four hour journey (in which time I could have made it to Italy, or half way to America) including a 5 mile walk, I arrived in a startlingly bad mood, at Great Missenden where the event started. Looking on the bright side, which I wasn’t inclined to be doing at that moment, I hadn’t missed the start, as the event was literally a ‘pick and mix’ - you could choose to do any number of any distances of laps you liked, as long as you had started sometime after 8:00 am and and were finished by 6:00 pm. As it was still, even after all that, only 10:30 am, I had plenty of time. 

After a few miles, once I started to get over my bad mood, I did really enjoy the event. I never really managed to get out of first gear, and never really felt in the mood to be running very fast, if I’m being quite honest, and so I didn’t, to be quite frank. But I loved being out in the countryside, which is really beautiful around these parts, and the 12 mile, 8 mile and 6 mile loops which I did, showed it off to it’s best in the sunshine, with the red kites soaring overhead.

It was a little unusual, in that as I was running on my own, and because everyone started at different times and was doing different things, I didn’t really see many people all day, other than back at HQ between laps and at the end, where as usual there were plenty of familiar faces to catch up with. It was an excellently organised and relaxed event, and I recommend it to anyone wishing to try a walk, or a run, from anything from 5 miles, up to 10 hours. 

And so, having picked and mixed my loops, I began the long journey home, where I returned to my PJs, to consider my next event, which is the Stars Wars IV Run on Sunday. I have noticed, the names of events seem to have got much more creative since I started doing them. My first few marathons had names like the London Marathon (a marathon in London), the Blackpool Marathon (a marathon in Blackpool), the Richmond Park Marathon (a marathon in Richmond Park); all quite self explanatory. Even the Bolton Hill marathon (a marathon up some hills nears Bolton) and the Midnight Marathon (a night marathon) were all very logical. Then I started doing LDWA events, and the names became instantly more fanciful; The Elescar Scelter, The Amesbury Amble, The Punchbowl, The Steppingly Step. It must have caught on as now there's all sorts; Cake-a-thons, Jaw-droppers, Groovy Babies, Magna Cartas, Right Royal Runs - you can run to almost any theme you wish. 

And with that, may the force be with you.