Hemerodromoi Marathon with Saturn Running, 29.10.2022

The Hemerodromoi Marathon with Saturn Running - to celebrate Richard's 300th Marathon! Huge congratulations Richard!

A beautiful sunny and warm day (even by summer's standards, never mind for October) running down by the River Thames from Runnymead. I may be a bit sunburnt. Imagine that! There are still so many leaves on the trees, and so many are still green. But the autumn colours were looking vibrant in the sunshine. Beautiful!

Bit of an adventure to get there - a bus, a train from Waterloo to Virginia Water (picking up Sarah on the way!) and a rail replacement bus. A very posh bus it was.

We got coffee on the walk to the start, and saw the sun rise.

There is a new path at Runnymead, and the course was changed to make the most of it, so it went further west than before, and less east. I was excited to do a new bit of Thames Path, until I remembered on lap 5 that I had actually done a race on that bit before, and must also have run along it when I did the Thames Path with Andrew in 2014. But things look different in the opposite direction (is my excuse).

A great day for catching up with friends, and lots of chats on the way round. I think I managed to condense moaning about work to about 1/2 a lap (sorry, Sarah), so this left time for more interesting topics (such as Beyoncé and TikTok dances, lampshades, custard and cakes, and beginning our wish list of international marathons), which was important, as our last chat-a-thon was two weeks ago. On lap 6 we both learnt that the other one had felt secretly under prepared for today, due to variously perhaps having a bit too much rum or too much wine in the preceding night or two, and were surprised with ourselves to have made it to the end. Hurrah!

Aid station highlights today included vegan beer bottles, watermelon, the discovery of a giant bottle of pretzels hidden away, and of course, Richard's cake. 

Travel adventure in reverse on the way back, with the addition of a Waitrose picnic on the bench by the bus stop by the road waiting for the rail replacement bus (also a posh bus).

Hemerodromoi means, I think, "daily runners" from Ancient Greece, who were running messengers - taking important messages from one place to the next by covering incredible distances by running. 

Congratulations Richard! Thank you Team Saturn! Well done to everyone 😊

The Day Before George's Birthday Run Marathon with Saturn (14.10.22) and Steampunk Run 2 Marathon with Phoenix (15.10.22)

 

The Day Before George's Birthday Run, Marathon with Saturn Running, Friday 14.10.2022, 04:18

Flump Friday! Sarah and I tested out our legs after the 100 miler 4 days ago, and happily found they were still working. A lovely Friday morning running along the Thames, starting from The Thames Side Brewery in Staines. Beautiful weather, especially for October! 6 laps for a marathon, fuelled mostly by a snack of a giant flump, a pretzel, and a peach heart each lap. Seemed to do the job! Navigated our way around the many swan obstacles (swan-stacles), and saw the polar bear and the unicorn (really, we did). Flag of the day in the "Flag House" was Thailand. The skeletons on the balcony above the Slug and Lettuce now have scarves on, and are joined by a little dog skeleton. Nice cup of mint tea in the Brewery cafe afterwards. Super day, and I love the medal, which is a magnet and a bottle opener! Thank you George and Team Saturn for a great event!

 

Steampunk Run 2, Marathon with Phoenix Running, Saturday 15.10.2022, 04:45

Another run a little further up the Thames. Nice views from the #26 bus to Waterloo. Sarah and I met on the train (front carriage, of course) to Walton on Thames. Surprisingly, I suppose, given that we only caught up yesterday, there was still lots to catch up on!

Starting at the Weir Pub, it was the eastbound 5km route, so 8 laps for a marathon. Quite nippy to begin with, but soon warmed up! Nice and sunny (actually quite dazzling) until the start of the last lap, when it got a bit miserable and started raining. 

Legs were a bit more tired today, but still working, and it was another fun day. Some good Steampunk fancy dress! Today's animal facts: I learnt that rabbits and guinea pigs speak different languages (or do they? and what about accents?), and bees have two stomachs (they must be so tiny!).

Fun catching up in the pub afterwards for the Chip Buffett! Here I learnt many more animal facts, mostly dog related, including getting some idea (actually, more of a vivid idea than I might ideally have wanted) about what happens when a dog eats tights, or knickers. 

Thanks Andreas for the lift to start, Sophie for the lift to the station, Annabel for the Chip Buffett and Sarah for drinks! Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix for a fabulous day!

Vampire 100 miles, with Phoenix Running, 08.10.2022

A brilliant weekend with Phoenix Running at Denbies Wine Estate. Lots of different events going on over the weekend, including the Vampire 100 miles, which I completed with my princess twin, Sarah.

100 x 1 mile loops around the vineyard.

"How can you run the same loop 100 times?? That must be boring!" some people ask. Not at all! Had the best weekend catching up with so many people, it was such good fun. I love this event and it's festival atmosphere! Including all the random 100 mile chat, such as with Dave from Purbeck and Gloria, and a new idea for a new line of nail polish colours "Post Marathon Pedicure" which will include fetching shades called Day 1 (dark red), Days 5-7 (varying shades of purple), and Day 10 (yellow bruise). 

Plus, Denbies is beautiful, and I would be quite happy to live there, ideally in the turret of the main building, which will require me to win the lottery, and therefore require me to start buying lottery tickets. 

The loop is nice to run on, and has lots of nice different sections. We have named them as follows. Princess Avenue (moved up by two vines to usual, due to the grape harvesting happening!), puddles!, slippy stones, grass carpet walking hill, dark and hot downhill, freezing steep downhill, left turn (don't forget), Positivity Pen, and Jeremy Vine vine and the elephants.

Started at 08.00 on Saturday, and it was such a beautiful sunny day, and Sarah and I got to wear our new vests (thanks Kerry for the photos!)

Watched the sun rise over Box Hill, move over the whole sky, and set, and then the moon rise and shine brightly all night. It was a bright, clear, and freezing night.

At midnight we decided to ask what lap we were up to, and found out it was 74, so were down to our last marathon, so we celebrated with a mocktail and a wee stop.

Following our tent envy at the last Denbies event, we made more effort with our tent this time....

Thanks Tara for coming by and bringing baked delights! Thank you Max and Genevieve for being excellent pacers. 

Well done Andrew on your marathon. Loads of epically brilliant dig-deep performances at the event, and huge well done to everyone! Congratulations to Jan on your 100th marathon! 

Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix, and Karen and Mat from Timing Monkey, for a brilliant event and for looking after us wll.

We finished about 06.30 just as the sun was starting to rise.

We ran it in 22:33:12, for 100 miler #18 for Sarah, and #13 for me, and I was happy to get through #13 without anything unlucky happening 😆Thank you Sarah for my fabulous card!