Race write ups, August 2024

Phoenix Fridays - Running Madness Friday, Marathon,16.08.24

An overdue chat-athon with Sarah on the towpath, and the miles went by nicely! 

To stick to schedule, and cover sufficient agenda items (which we had been adding to over the weeks), we separated the laps into topics, including: work angst (this ran over one lap), dogs attacking ducks plus other dramas, our respective runs since our last run together, general news, flower shows and sedgeway-ing, and black swans.

I also collected the last medal (Circle) in the Squid Games series. I know nothing about the Squid Games, still, so have had to go back to my old blogs to look at what I wrote when I collected the other two (Triangle medal on 13.11.21 and the Square medal on 26.03.22). Apparently, when I collected the triangle medal, I spoke with the barmaid in the Wier, and learnt that the triangle is the symbol that armed guards wear on their masks, and that there are also circle symbols (normal workers) and square symbols (managers). When I collected the square symbol, I learnt that workers who are the highest levels have squares on their masks and can give orders to workers who have triangle and circles, and apparently (I actually wrote this) I said if I collected the final circle medal, I might even watch the programme. Or I might not, and just continue being clueless.

Anyway, thanks Team Phoenix for a great event.

  

SVN - Mythical Series TiT Day 7, mini-ultra, 23.08.24

The first of two trips to the Costa del Gravesend this bank holiday weekend, where SVN is hosting their annual (and final!!) summer 10 in 10. 

I haven't managed to get to an SVN since last September, and it's been a full year since my last summer trip to C del G, and it was excellent to be back and see the gang! 

A really very lovely day. SVN are wrapping up soon, and I am going to miss the events Tills and Rachel put on very much indeed.

Sarah and I met at St Pancras, in good time for the 7.20 to Gravesend, to find it was cancelled. We sat in the station outside a cafe, which all felt very European-city-break-like, and pondered on the fact the next train was running, which would just get us there in time, but was now late, now later, now not so late...until we'd almost missed it by sitting moaning about the fact it was late. We caught an Uber from the station, driven by the world's friendliest driver, to the Cyclopark, registered, talked a lot and were excited to see everyone, went for a safety wee, and were ready to start on time! 

We did the 3 and a bit mile Rabbit Bridge route, which tracks the following route desription: rocky down hill, hay (HELLO!) field, derelict pub, uphill woods (watch for dog poo), Spain, dangerous downhill, uphill, Rabbit Bridge (bouncy), railway bridge, road where the wind is always in the wrong direction, TURN AROUND!, do the last few bits backwards, uphill to the gate, turn round for the downhill which isn't a downhill for ages, suprise uphill, still not downhill, finally a downhill, garage (wedding bus/ Ferrari/ bikers), horrible uphill, CHECKPOINT!

We did this 8 times, then a mini loop, to complete a mini ultra.

SVN - Mythical Series TiT Day 10, mini-ultra, 26.08.24

Another trip to the Gravesend with Sarah, and this time with Andrew, too. 

Not to be rude about Gravesend, but it's not top of my "lovely places in the UK to visit" list. I was wondering if it was like a chicken and egg situation - was it called Gravesend first, and then became like that, or was it like that and then got called it? Also, Pochantos is buried there, so is that something to do with it? Googling reveals that it's not actually anything to do with what it sounds like, and is probably derived from the Old English word "graf" which means copse, so means "end of the copse". Just probably though, as with anything, I suppose, there are many different schools of thought. That one sounds the nicest though. 

Other place names that I had been wondering about over the weekend, included St Pancras, which (worryingly, now I think of it) hadn't ever actually occurred to me, until talking about it with Sarah and Andrew, that comes from the name of a saint. To be fair, for years I always used to think it was called St Pancreas, so I was more thinking along the lines of body parts, rather than religious people. Anyway, unsurprisingly, St Pancras WAS a saint, and was beheaded by the Romans at the age of 14 in around 303 AD for converting to Christianity, which is a terrible tale. I shall go back to calling it St Pancreas. 

Anyway, back to the running. The route was on the big 5 and a bit mile loop on the "177 route" which I don't like so much as the other one, as it seems mostly to be all uphill, all on concrete, and always in the sun. Still, I felt much better running today than I have since my "challenging" track 100 miler three weeks ago, so I am hopeful I have finally got over the experience. 

Did another mini-ultra, in exactly the same time as Friday, which sounds pleasingly consistent, but probably can't take too much credit for, as didn't realise until afterwards. 

Thank you Sarah and Andrew for a fun day trip, and to Rachel, Tills and SVN for a brilliant series of events, as always!