Week 2

Tuesday

The run planned for today was for 4 miles so we decided to run with Sue, Sharon, Sam, Hazel and Anne, who were doing a 4.5 mile run to Joiners’ Square and back again.  It was a really enjoyable run even though it was completely flat.  Sam, Kath and I were at the front and it felt like we were almost running at our ‘normal’ pace but it turned out that our average speed was just under 12.42 minutes per mile.  The actual distance was 4.68 miles so we were pleased to have got a little extra in.

Thursday

I was debating whether to go today as it was windy and was sleeting earlier.  It hardly seemed worthwhile to risk getting wet and cold for the sake of 3 miles when I could easily do it on the treadmill.  However, I felt that I had to go, mainly to clarify where we were going for our Christmas night out tomorrow.  I had been thinking the place was in Newcastle but Al had never heard of the place and she knows Newcastle quite well, so I had a look at the menu and was horrified to find it was in Stone.  How did I miss that? I couldn’t possibly go to Stone and I certainly couldn’t afford the taxi back.  Anyway, it turned out good in the end as Pinocchio’s had been taken over by this place fairly recently, so it was definitely in Newcastle.  We went for a run with Sue, Liz, Sam and Anne, following the route I thought they were taking; Leek Road to Leonard Avenue, then along there to Leek New Road and back to the crossroads at Baddeley Green and back to base along Leek Road.  Something must have gone wrong with that route as we completely lost sight of the other three and ended up running on our own with Sam. Up until then the weather had been quite reasonable but then the heavens opened.  It wasn’t long before both of my running jackets were soaked through and the chilly wind blowing straight on to my wet skin.  It was awful! None of us enjoyed it one bit and I was cursing myself for not going the gym instead. NEVER AGAIN!

Saturday

After the disaster on Thursday night, it was fantastic to see the sun out for this morning’s parkrun.  At first I didn’t, however, realise how cold and frosty it was as the back garden looked ok.  It wasn’t until I opened the front door and saw all the cars frozen up and nearly went flying on the pavement outside my house that it dawned on me that maybe the run had been cancelled.  After quickly checking Bibi for any emails or messages, I decided that it probably wasn’t as bad in the park.  Half of the runners were missing but it was a big credit to the other half who bothered to turn up.  If any of you are reading this: Well done to all of you!  The course was quite icy and slippery but still quite passable with care but of course, Kath and I didn’t have shoes with spikes, so we had to take it very easy.  First lap went without any problems but at the beginning of the second lap I skidded a bit but managed to stay upright without pulling or twisting anything.  We laughed because we broke our pw time (personal worst) but couldn’t care less as we really loved it.

Sunday

Originally w were going to meet at 11 o'clock at Festival Park for this week’s long run which was for 5 miles but since it was pouring down we decided to leave it for a couple of hours.  We didn't want a repeat of Thursday's disaster and especially not with 5 miles.  Later the sun  came out and we set off from Morrisons car wash; running along Pavillion Drive to Cobridge Road and then left on to Etruria Road.  From there we ran to Marsh St; Broad St and Potteries Way to Clough Street.  We then turned left along Etruria Vale Rd, Pretoria Rd, Belmont Rd and cut through to Etruria Rd for a short stretch before going on to Etruria Old Rd.  We ran a loop around the estate but got briefly lost amongst the new buildings and then returned to Lanehead Rd and Forge Lane.  If we hadn't got lost; we would have had to run to the end of Festival way and back to Morrisons but now we just needed to out so far and still managed to walk at the end as the 5 miles was up.  It was a nice, almost flat run and the weather was reasonable for a change 7 degrees and dry :-)