Over the Christmas holidays, I was compelled (a visit was due anyway) to return to sunny South Africa for the first time in five years - my first Christmas back in SA in 7 years - by my cousin's desire to marry a gun-toting children's pastor (lovely chap).

As part of my holiday back home, I decided I'd venture out to see what South Africa's first and only (at the moment) parkrun was like. It'd been a very very very long time since I last ran in South Africa, let alone raced, and from the one other run I'd had in Jo'burg during my hols, a gentle 10k, I knew it would be a toughie.

So nice and early on Christmas eve, I bundled my wife into the car and we headed down to Delta Park for a quick spin round the park (me - my wife doesn't run). We got there with about half an hour to spare so I could warm up and introduce myself to the organiser - the one and only, Bruce Fordyce. During the intros it came to light there were quite a few of us "foreign" bods there. There was me, another chap from Cambridge (also a Saffer) and 3 Kiwis, all doing our first SA parkrun. It was also a much larger turn out than expected with 24 people, which isn't bad considering up until that point the record had been 31 with absolutely no publicity.

Around about 9am we all gathered for a photo...

... and set off for what is probably the toughest parkrun you'll encounter. Due to Delta Park's location and the general geography of Johannesburg, hills are unavoidable, and boy is this a hilly run. Thankfully it's only a single-lapper (I prefer single lap runs) scenic run with a good mix of trails, grass and tar. I've only done the Reading and the Delta Park parkruns (note to self: I really must aim to do other parkruns this year) and I definitely prefer the Delta Park run.

A combination of the altitude, hills and varied terrain saw me finish in 7th place in a rather slow time of 21:43. You'd be amazed how much of an impact altitude has on your running performance - it's really hard work running at about 1600m above sea level, especially up hill, after only training at sea level for several years.

Unfortunately, things didn't go well for everyone...

Perhaps Aristotle was correct or perhaps it's because we South Africans are still bitter about the rugby World Cup but we somehow contrived to welcome our All Black friends by planting a snake (suspected Rinkhals- spitting cobra) in the first 300 metres of open grassland. A few minutes after we had set off Kelly hobbled back with a bite above her ankle.

Kelly was rushed off to hospital where she was treated and discharged a couple of hours later. The doctors were not entirely convinced that she had suffered a snake bite-. And we comforted ourselves by remembering that many venomous snakes are extremely reluctant to exhaust their poison in defense prefering to save venom for their prey. In other words they bite often but don't expel poison. The Rinkhals much prefers fat rats, toads and other snakes to skinny Kiwis.

— Christmas Eve 2011 Race Report

You'll never get that kind of excitement and action at a parkrun in the UK.

Sadly, I didn't get the chance to run another parkrun whilst in SA, but Bruce plans on putting the marketing engine into full swing this year to get the word out that parkrun has made it to SA and needs runners. If all goes well, parkruns will be sprouting up all over South Africa in the next few years.

I wish them the best of luck and will definitely be bringing my barcode with me when I next visit South Africa.

I've just received this weeks' Parkrun newsletter (dated 6th October 2011) and I'm very chuffed to find this within it:

My reason for returning to South Africa was to spend a few days with an African running hero who has decided to bring parkrun to the masses in his homeland. Many of you were previously introduced to Bruce Fordyce last year when he ran Bushy parkrun the day before completing his forth London Marathon. For the unenlightened, Bruce is a running legend throughout the world with many records to his name not least of which is the nine wins at the grueling Comrades Ultra Marathon of which eight wins were consecutive. Bruce has won the London to Brighton ultra marathon three years in a row plus a number of other highly significant events and still holds the world record at 50 miles. He is a previous record holder for 100 mile distance too.

I first met Bruce in 1987 when I was part of a 6-man team providing information and support during his 7th Comrades win. Little did I know the circle would be closed when Bruce took part in the Bushy parkrun this year and decided that parkrun was something that South Africa needed. Introducing parkrun to Africa is not without challenges as the majority of the population does not have Internet access and don’t receive email. Nevertheless, it is with excitement and pride that I announce that Bruce is now our Southern Africa parkrun representative and if all goes to plan in the next few weeks we will see the first African parkrun start in Delta Park, Johannesburg on the 12th November.

This is brilliant news and I can almost guarantee this will be an incredible success. I would expect this Parkrun will be very busy from day one and I reckon it'll surpass any UK event in number of runners within a few weeks.

I used to run for the club Bruce runs for, Rand Athletic Club, (I'm assuming he still runs for RAC, I've not seen anything to say he doesn't) which is one of South Africa's largest running clubs with over 2300 members. They already have a very popular weekly 5 and 8k time trial on Tuesday evenings and I would expect these Parkruns to be just as popular, especially as Delta Park isn't far from Old Parktonian Sports Club. Delta Park is also nicely situated for Randburg's other large club, Randburg Harriers, so if you add their numbers too, this will be huuuge in no time. Of course the Randburg Harriers runners may not be too happy with the Parkruns clashing with their Saturday time trials, but who knows, maybe they'll ditch the Saturday runs in favour of the Parkruns.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on the developments of this and may just pop round for a quick spin round Delta Park (I haven't run in Delta Park since I ran cross-country in high school) when I'm over in December.

In January I drew up a few goals for the year regarding the 5K distance, namely sub 19-min around about 2 April and then a sub 18-min 5K by the end of the year. Well, I think I was a little over-ambitious with these goals. The 2 April deadline came and went without a run. Problems on the home front meant there was no way I was going to be running that weekend, so I delayed my attempt. In training I soon realised I wasn't like to get sub 19-min this early in the season either, so I settled for around about 19:30 for the start of the season and we'll see how I get on from there.

Well, last Saturday I kicked off my 2011 season in fine form. It was a gloriously sunny day and I headed down the road for the Reading Parkrun, my first for the year. The weather was good and the turnout was incredible. At 9am we were sent on our way and I soon fell into the groove and had a very enjoyable run, in my Merrell Trail Gloves. I'd actually forgotten I'd set myself a mini-goal of 19:30, but ended up finishing 10th over all in a new PB of 19:33 anyway. Not bad if I say so myself. I definitely need to work on my speed, overall cardio levels and race pacing but I'm still way fitter and better than I was this time last year.

Things are going to be a little different this year on the racing front too: I'm going to be racing in shoes, well actually in Vibram Five Finger Bikilas on the road and Merrell Trail Gloves offroad. I've come to this decision for a few reasons:

1. English councils and the Highways Agency are currently in a rather frugal phase when it comes to repairing and maintaining roads. Potholes aren't repaired until someone loses their car in it and the current surfacing policy seems to be spray some sticky stuff onto the tar that's already there, throw some black stones at it and see what sticks. As a result, the roads are effectively big long stony paths with a nice build up of loose stones towards the curbs. This is a nightmare to run on barefoot and quashes any hopes of a good time.
2. I plan on spending a lot more time running offroad. I find running offroad very enjoyable and way more relaxing than running on the road. I've also got my eye on several races that are either entirely offroad or have sections which are offroad and these are generally not very conducive to barefoot running.
3. I'm gunning for some good times this year. I've got a good year's worth of training and running under my belt now, so I think I can start pushing things a bit and aiming for the times I used to run. I don't expect to be anywhere near my all-time personal bests, but I am hoping for some good times, and I don't want these attempts ruined by encountering one of the above issues.

I will however continue to do most of my training barefoot. Offroad training runs and recovery runs will likely involve shoes, but that's it.

Monday sees my first 10K of the season on the rather flat (apparently) Shinfield 10k coarse. As it's apparently a flat one and I'll be running in the Bikilias, I'm hoping for a good time to start the season off with. We'll see how it goes.

Headed out for my third Reading Parkrun on my own this morning. My wife hasn't been sleeping too well, so I left her in bed this morning whilst I went off on another of my barefoot adventures.

I had a relatively good run today. I had intended on running at a consistent pace in the region of 3:48 to 3:54, but after a relatively quick first kilometre (I still don't go out gently enough), I started feeling a bit tired and settled in at a more relaxed pace. Finished off with a fast last km with a near-sprint at the end. Still managed a sub-20 so I'm happy. This run also tipped me over the 400km of running this year.

I'm running the Forest Five on Wednesday evening (probably in huaraches rather than barefoot as it's all offroad) and I'm on the early shift again next week, so I may not be up for another Parkrun next week, but I'll see how I feel.

This weeks results:

Time: 19:52
Overall Position: 12 / 122
Age Category Position: 2nd

For the second week in a row that crazy nutter was there at the Reading Parkrun running without any shoes. Don't believe me? Well check out the photos (more here):

Things were a lot cooler this week thanks to the clouds and light drizzle, but I think it was more conducive to running. I had a great run this morning, but unfortunately, I don't learn. Last week I mentioned I set off a bit fast, well this week I set off faster (3:25 for the first km) and found myself in the lead as we approached the bridge. It was at this point I realised I was being silly and backed off a bit and settled into a pace of around 4:00/km - the pace I planned on running the whole race at. To be honest, I don't think I could have kept up a pace much quicker thanks to my blistering start.

That said, I can't really grumble too much about my fast start as it meant I managed to smash a whopping 28 seconds off my time from last week setting a new personal best (PB). The overall pace of the race was a bit slower this week too, but I think everyone still had a great run.

So my results this week were:

Time: 19:41
Overall Position: 14 / 127
Age Category Position: 3rd

I think that's a good bit of speed work in preparation for Wednesday's Yateley 10k. I'll be doing that barefoot (though probably not anywhere near as fast as this 5k) so if you're there, watch out for the crazy fool - I'll be the one in the red shirt

Oh yes, and don't forget: Comrades online tomorrow morning.

Check it out, some crazy nutter did the Reading Parkrun yesterday morning completely barefoot...

And that nutter was ME . Yes folks, I have now technically done my first race in over 10 years and I did it barefoot. I opted for a mostly grassy 5k and it was fantastic.

I've been contemplating doing the Reading Parkrun for a while now however have always been put off by the weather or the fact I had to make my decision to run by 6pm the night before. Not anymore. On Friday morning I heard the weather was due to be glorious this weekend, so I thought I'd register for the Parkrun this weekend and give it a go. Well, things have changed since I last considered doing the Parkrun as now you only need to register once, print off your barcode and take it along to ANY Parkrun in the country. No more pre-registering the night before. Just turn up, run, and flash your barcode when they register your finish position. Brilliant.

So with myself registered and barcode printed, my wife and I got up early on Saturday morning and cycled down to Thames Valley Park. The weather was wonderful, as predicted, and there was quite a turnout. Apparently there were a record 115 entrants in yesterday's run. At 9am we were promptly started and things got off with a blistering pace. I somehow managed to get a little caught up in the excitement of it all and started off a little too quickly, but I soon settled into a comfortable pace and finished in a time of 20:09 - waaaaaay quicker than I was expecting. I was only aiming for somewhere around 23:00, so I'm chuffed to bits.

Of course, I suspect a lot of my great time has to do with the fact that the course is mostly grass. There is a short section with a gravel path, but most of this has nice grassy verges so there's not need to continually run on the gravel. The gravel wasn't completely avoidable but I didn't really have any issues with the sections I couldn't avoid.

So my results were:

Time: 20:09
Overall Position: 16 / 115
Age Category Position: 5th

All in all it was a great run and I'm glad to have done it. I think I may have to get my bare feet down there more often too.

Oh yes, and for those who don't know anything about Parkruns, essentially they are free relatively informal timed 5k runs run in parks all over the country, open to anyone and everyone (provided you're pre-registered and got your barcode). Check out the about page for more details.