I came up with this:

Crystal Palace parkrun, followed by a run to Lloyd Park, a freedom run* around the Lloyd Park parkrun course and a dash** along the tram line*** to make up the distance.

Crystal Palace parkrun was fun.  A couple of nervous first-timers, some enthusiastic marshalling, two wolves**** and a determined young lad doing great service as the tail runner.  It has hills (though they really aren’t that bad compared to some) and dinosaurs***** and dog walkers who say hello.

The run to Lloyd park was uneventful.  I toyed with the idea of stopping to take photographs with which to adorn my blog, but the industrial estates, roadworks and forlorn christmas tree, while authentic, really weren’t that picturesque.

Lloyd park was as I remembered.  Grassy and hilly and riddled with potential shortcuts.  I did manage to resist them (and even put in a token long-cut at some point when my memory played me false) but also walked a fair bit, as I was beginning to flag ever-so-slightly.

The last section was tough.  I was exhausted and pretty much every street name featured “hill” in it somewhere.  But it was a pretty enough footpath along the tram route, and it got me to fifteen miles.  Not all of them running, admittedly, but it’s all time on feet, right?

After that it was a tram back towards Croydon, a chocolate milkshake and a bag of crisps.  Followed by an afternoon featuring the sofa and the cat.

I ache.

* or freedom run/walk/stagger to be precise
** hobble
***footpath along-side the tram-line
****wolf-style dog products.  Big, furry, muchly toothed.
*****according to the description.  I completely failed to spot them.

Last February, I took part in Febtathlon as a way to avoid going cold turkey after Janathon.  I introduced it as follows:

In the absence of any rules, I’ve decided to don the mantle of my five year old niece and make some up. Following her example, I shall add ever more complicated rules over the course of the month, and at the end I shall have won!

It appears that the spirit of Febtathlon is alive and well.  For parkrun has revamped its most events table.  To be included, runners now need to have attended at least 20 different events or 5 inaugural events…

…and if you sort by inaugural events…

…I shall have won!

Yay for Febtathlon!

…but 11 miles in, I wimped out and got the train home.

Nothing.  Zip.  Diddly.

But Saturday is parkrun day, and parkrun trumps sloth, so at 9am I joined 316(!) other freezing runners for the inaugural Newbury parkrun.

Yes.  Despite snow and sub-zero temperatures, 317 people took advantage of the generosity of the volunteers and ran* around the flat, single-lap, hard-packed gravel** course with stunning views***.

And in the throng were plenty of familiar names and faces, including:

• the race photographer that I first met at Southwick parkrun
• a parkrun tourist who I’ve watched vanish into the distance at  Ally Pally, Wanstead Flats, Hampstead Heath, Valentines and Wormwood Scrubs
• the parkrunner who gave me lifts between the longest parkrun’s seven venues
• the chirunning coach from a great workshop I went to last March
• a posse of Basingstoke parkrunners I recognised from Eastbourne’s inaugural run
• two of the touring party of Burnham Joggers
• and Chris and Linda Cowell, who are at 1st and 5th place on the most events table and who have clocked up 77 and 63 different venues respectively.  Respect.

*jogged gingerly.  At least in my case.

**allegedly.  Underneath the snow.

***so I’m told.  I was too busy watching my step to look up.

Another brand new parkrun today, this time in Mile End.  It starts at the south end of Mile End park, and is twice around a lollipop.  The design of the course gives you plenty of opportunity to see the other runners, to shout encouragement at your friends and to monitor the progress of your rivals.  It’s all tarmac, undulating and already has a (male) course record of 15:23.

Reason 2:  Mile End to Hyde Park with Fortnight Flo and Plustenner.  7.3 miles, 1:27:33, 11:56 min/mile

After the parkrun, we ran along Regent’s Canal to the Thames, along the Thames to Parliament Square and then up through various parks to the Hyde Park band stand for the post Janathon meet-up.  The Thames Path may not be completely along the Thames, but the stretches of road are fairly short, and the route is very well sign posted.

As we ran along Victoria Embankment, we had a short game of “I went to London and I…” to help to take our (or at least my) minds off our feet / ankles / knees / hips / breathing.  Our selection went something along the lines of:

I went to London and I brought back a blister, some great memories, Febulous runs one and two, a beefeater, some new route ideas, a runny nose, a tourist, a man with a nice bum, a great view of the London Eye, a miniature big ben, victory over the Victoria embankment, a lambourghini, a london bus, sore shoulders, ???? and amnesia.  Though quite where we put all this stuff remains a mystery.

Reason 3:  Round the Serpentine with Fairweather Runner and I Like to Count.  2.3 miles, 23:12, 9:51 mins/mile

While Jog Blog, Moving Along, Fortnight Flo and Trainers in the Rox waited for the other ‘athoners to arrive, three of us went for a swift (for me, in light of my earlier runs) run around the Serpentine.  We successfully avoided the cross country (roller) skiers and managed to resist the temptation to go for a swim in the ice-capped lake. 

We got back to find that Hels Bels, Running Better and Travelling Hopefully had arrived, so it was off to the pub for a swift half and then to the restaurant for pizza.

Yay.

*I have also been known to listen to Ian Dury.

• Financial ethics is a fundamental and vital principle based on the expectations of individuals to do their best to distinguish between right and wrong and to always try to do what is right.  Ethical behavior is not simply a matter of character.  It is a matter of decision making, and ethics are advanced or depleted one decision at a time.  Every individual is capable of making choices and is accountable for the consequences of those choices.

For some reason, I love this concept.  Advanced or depleted one decision at a time.  It’s a phrase I turn to time and time again, in a wide range of circumstances.  It can get me out of the door to running club on a cold night after a rotten commute (going running gets me one step closer to my marathon goal).  It can bolster my will-power in the face of chocolate and cream cakes (not eating this one now gets me one step closer to my pre-marathon weight-loss goal).

But it’s also forgiving.  Missing that session or eating that cake are not catastrophes, but small detours which can be recovered from.  Because if I’ve depleted my fitness goal today, tomorrow I can advance it.  One decision at a time.

I finished my janathon efforts with a club interval session.  10 short efforts that added up to a mile.  And the pace?  7:17 min / mile. 

Woo hoo!

*Yes.  I confess.  I have been known to listen to The Seekers.

So last night, I spent the evening reading blogs.  I followed operation lean bean to Caerphilly and back, accompanied fairweather runner to an unseemly number of BMF classes, watched in awe as jovial gnome clocked up another 5am run, stood by in amazement as jens runs clocked up the best part of 100 miles of injury induced walking, admired paintings by hennie mavis, went on a boozy weekend with travelling hopefully and  waited with baited breath to find out if run tezza would overhaul last year’s total.

I was so absorbed by all the activity that it came as a bit of a shock to realise at 10.35pm that I hadn’t actually done any exercise at all.  So after cleaning my teeth, I knuckled down to 4 sets of 10 [weedy] push ups and a plank or three (front, left side, right side).

And just before my 24 hours expires, I have even remembered to blog.

• 9am – coached long run of 13 miles for people training for a marathon (schedule assumes London)
• 9.30am – pot luck long run of 11 miles which may or may not have anyone running at your speed
• 10.00am – coached run of 7 miles with a bit of solo work tacked on at either end to make up the miles
• anytime o’clock – solo run

I decided not to set the alarm clock, and to make the decision when I woke up.  Trouble was, I woke at 8.20am with the sure and certain knowledge that I wanted to try the 9am run.

One rushed shower and an inhaled bagel** later, I jumped into the car, and made it to the meeting place for 8.59am.  Phew.

It’s a good session.  About 14 people with a running pace about 11m15s and with regular stops to regroup.  It was the first time at a club long run that I haven’t felt like I’m running a threshold run just to keep up.  I may have found my long run solution.

Which given that my marathon is 11 weeks today*** is probably a very good thing.

*Actually, I have no real plan.  I tried one, but fell out with it very quickly, so I’m now concentrating on clocking up two good mid week sessions and a gradually increasing long run at the weekend. 

**Running nutrition is a mystery to me, but I figure anything as tasty as an onion bagel with Marmite must be on the list.

***Thank you random parkrunner for pointing that out.  I’d been thinking of it as over two months away, which felt like a lot of time.  Suddenly 11 weeks seems panic-inducingly close.  Especially when you take off the 3 week taper at the end (the only bit of the training plan that I’m adopting).

The route is a route of three parts:

1. a short anti-clockwise (US translation: counter-clockwise) lap on grass
2. a long clockwise lap on tarmac
3. a short clockwise lap on grass (the reverse of part 1).

My top tip: “Remember part three”.

Because at the end of part two, you can see the finishing funnel with lots of people standing around cheering. More than one person sprinted past me to the line…only to find out that there was still one bit left to run. If you know that, and don’t sprint, then the cheering crowds of the already-finished will give you a wonderful lift to take you round the final part.  But I imagine that if you don’t know that, the last little bit seems to go on and on and on.

Thanks to two runners, Eastleigh regular Robert Spencer and parkrun first timer Victoria Heaysman, both of whom (unwittingly) paced me round and spurred me on to a sort-of-sprint finish. 

And thank you, as ever, to all the volunteers who put on such a slick first event.  It a great, flat course with a touch of variety to keep it interesting.  Definitely one to try, if you’re passing by.