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.

My running this year has gone really well and my current long-slow training is proving to be very enjoyable and I'm seeing results already. I've not run any races, but I can see the positive effects as I cover more distance in the same amount of time at lower heart rates - I'm currently doing lots of long slow runs using a bastardized version of the training ideas in this HADD Article which I discovered when investigating the merits of MAF training.

As this is going well, I started to umm and aahhh about stepping things up a bit and started putting some serious thought into running a half-marathon. I've not run a half-marathon in well over 13 years and I finally feel my training is up to a point where I can complete a half-marathon, and in a pretty competitive time (ie sub-90 mins). I wasn't sure if I should do the Wokingham half in February, the Reading half in April or both.

Well, after a lot of umming and ahhhing, I've finally taken the plunge and entered next year's Reading half. Whilst I think I could probably comfortably do both the Wokingham and Reading halves, I think it's probably best to take things slowly and enter only one that early in the year. The Reading half is the larger of the two, so I've opted for that one. Maybe 2013 will see me do both. We'll see.

That said, running the Reading half-marathon is expensive. The entry fee is £31.50 for an affiliated athlete and £2 more for unaffiliated. As a friend pointed out on Facebook, it's cheaper to catch the train!!! The Wokingham half is only £18 for an affiliated athlete. I hope the medal is huge and goodie bag is full of stuff that justifies the £13.50 premium.

I've just caught up on the coverage of the men's 5000m final at the 2011 Daegu World Champs and Mo Farah is on fire. Fantastic last lap...

Mo Farah has incredible speed left in his legs at the end of the 5000m. It's pretty amazing. Great work and I think this makes up for being pipped at the line in the 10,000m. 2 golds in the Olympics? We'll have to wait and see.

On a personal note, I actually know someone who ran in that race: Alistair Cragg. His dad used to coach us when we both lived back in South Africa. I think he had an OK race. He started off very well but got left in the dust when the pace picked up quite considerably at about 2600m. He ended up finishing 14th over-all and got a whole article for his efforts on the BBC.

I watched this live this morning on the BBC and must say I was on the edge of my seat. This was probably the most gripping 10,000m race I've watched and oh so close for Mo Farah. I think if he leaves his kick until 400m to go (instead of about 500m in this race) he'll get the Olympic gold.

Pete Larson makes an interesting observation about the stride rate too...

During the final straightaway to the finish, if you start when the race time is at 27:04.5, Jeilan takes 32.5 steps over about 9 seconds to the finish line, for a cadence of 216.67 steps/min. Over the same distance, Farah takes 31.5 steps in about 9.3 seconds, for a cadence of 203.23 steps/min. What this suggests is that Jeilan was able to ramp up his turnover during the final stretch to catch up to and pass Mo Farah just before the finish line, whereas Farah’s turnover remained consistent. The one additional step gained by Jeilan by ramping his turnover up was enough for the win!

My money is on Mo Farah for the Olympic Gold in 2012. I'm not putting it on one of my birth-countrymen - the Saffer got lapped!!

11 days ago I ran the third of three of the Queen Mother Reservoir 10k races in the series. This was my first and probably last running of this race.

The 10k race is a very very flat two lap race around the top of the Queen Mother Reservoir on trail/gravel path and grass with a small section of tar as you pass the clubhouse to start your second lap.

Things started well for this run. I'd had a good day at work and was in a good mood, full of energy and I felt I had a new personal best (since returning) in me that night. I headed off to the race with plenty of time, but after a few judgement errors in my attempts to avoid traffic I ended up cutting things a bit fine and arrived at the Datchet Water Sailing club with only 10 minutes to spare. Thankfully I was already changed so with my adrenaline levels high, I grabbed my cash and dashed up to the club house, nearly puked as I entered the clubhouse which was really hot and reeked of old chip fat (I'm not a fan of the smell of old grease), paid my entrance fee and headed outside for my hurried warm up.

At 19:30 promptly the 10k runners were sent on their way. Earlier that evening there had been a mighty downpour which left the grass and path very wet with a lot of puddles. It was also quite humid. I started well and soon got into a comfortable pace around about 3:55/km running on the grass alongside the path. I found the gravel path a bit more slippery than the grass. Anyway, I was chugging along nicely and then something happened... I got bored. I lost all motivation to actually push for a fast time and started to wonder if it would have been wiser to run just the 5k.

I think the thing that got to me was this is really a bit of a boring race. It's two identical flat laps with very little in the way of scenery other than the view of Windsor Castle which you could only see from one corner and the undersides of aeroplanes coming and going from Heathrow. There wasn't much in the way of spectators either with sheep being the primary spectators around the course and a few people at the 5k/finish line. There also weren't that many runners in the 10k so company was quite scarce. I was so bored that I worked out that the people who would fill the top 20 places were determined within the first 2km (I was one of them).

Despite my boredom and loss of motivation, I still finished in 16th place (out of 141) in a time of 40:43.

Other than that, a well organised and friendly race, though the smell of grease and then sewerage as you passed the club house wasn't very nice at all.

Don't let my comments put you off this race, this race is probably perfect for those who like nice flat lapped courses. I don't. I've never been a big fan of lapped races and this run confirmed why I don't particularly like them.

I don't think I'll run this race again.

On Sunday 22 May 2011, I ran the Stoke Row 10k for the first time. It's a relatively close race to home, but the thing that sold it for me was free music festival in the pub gardens afterwards. I thought this would be a great opportunity for my wife to have something to do whilst I run around the 'burbs and it would also make the run a bit of a "grand day out", which it proved to be, but we'll get onto the day's entertainment in a moment. First the race.

First, the race description...

The 10k route will start and finish at The Cherry Tree Inn, Stoke Row, taking you through some beautiful undulating Oxfordshire Countryside. Starting at 10.30 am, you will be chip timed, have water stops, plenty of clear route signage and marshalls.

This is pertinent as "undulating" is probably a little tame, but "hilly" is a bit too severe. This is quite a tough run as the elevation graph from my Garmin shows...

As you can see, there's quite a bit of climbing involved. It is also mostly offroad which the race description doesn't mention. It would have been good to know this in advance as I would have liked to have tackled it in my Merrells.

The race starts on the grass outside the pub and funnels everyone across the finish line (probably so the computer can register the chip starting the race). At the moment it's still a small race so there's plenty of space for the runners, but I think this race may increase in popularity which means they'll probably have to rethink the funnel start - possibly extend the funneling a bit.

The grassy start is only about 50m before you break out onto the road and start heading downhill, and quite quickly too. Before you know it, you're diverted off the road onto a wooded trail and you drop about 35m in altitude to reach the lowest point in the race just after 1km. And then you start climbing... for about 3.5km. There's a little table top as you cross a farmers field and then a slight dip, but nothing worth getting too excited about as you're soon climbing again.

Thankfully, things ease off a bit from about 5km, where the one and only water station is. After you've freshened up, you've got a good little downhill to get your legs going again and then it's moderately flat with a slight downhill feel for the next 2 and a bit kilometers. This is mostly along a shaded twin trail path alongside farmland with some lovely views. This twin trail can be a bit challenging as you'll definitely be thinking "I'm sure the other path is smoother than this one?". You'll switch and then start thinking the same thing about the path you've just come from.

After this, you wind you way along some tarred road for a bit before dipping back into the cover of the woods for a nice fast short downhill stint. This is a very cunning ploy as it gets you all excited before making you climb the steepest and toughest of all the hills in the race. And to make matters worse, this steep hill is all off road on a very uneven path. Once you pop out at the top of the hill, you need to muster all your energy to keep you going up the final tarred incline to the finish. Unfortunately, it was at the point of popping out of the woods that we could have done with a marshal as your natural tendency was to turn right, which several people did, including the first lady. I nearly did, but noticed another marshal further up the hill to the left so headed that way, and called back the guy who'd turned right ahead of me.

Being a good sport I also let him pass me again back to the finish as he would have finished ahead of me had he not gone wrong.

The finish is then back on the grass outside the pub where you started. Once crossing the line, you're handed a goody back, which this year included a coffee mug and a homemade flapjack which was very tasty, though no where near big enough for my tastes .

Several people have commented that the course was too long. My Garmin recorded the distance at 10.4km and whilst I agree it may have been slightly over 10k, I don't think it was too much. I can't trust my Garmin too much given the amount of time spent running under quite dense wood.

The official results for the race put me in 15th place out of 272 finishers with a race and chip time of 43:43.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment during the race, so my wife and her parents had to keep themselves busy eating bacon sarnies and drinking tea and coffee, but from midday things started to get more entertaining. The pub set up a limited bar outside and ran the usual bar inside. Unfortunately, they're limited by the single till inside so the two queues for the main pub bar were out the door all day. Normal pub food was on offer from the main bar and burgers and other BBQ stuff from the outside bar. We went prepared with a picnic so only needed drinks.

As we were there from the race, we managed to nab ourselves one of the double deck chairs (what a brilliant idea) that had been set out, laid down our picnic blanket in front of it and made ourselves comfortable for the entertainment, which included, to quote the website...

Carol Decker, The Lynne Butler Band, The Joint is Jumping, Kith and Kin, Bleak Angel, The International Ukulele Club of Sonning Common, The Cotton Dons, The McRobbies, Better Than Life.

We didn't see everyone as we only stayed for the most famous person, Carol Decker, who happens to be the wife of the pub landlord, who came on late in the afternoon. Once she'd done her bit, we headed off home.

All in all a very enjoyable, scenic and challenging race with great post-race entertainment making this a good day out. The only downside for the whole day was the cold wind that kept punctuating the afternoon whilst we were enjoying the music and the long queues to get drinks from the inside bar.

On Sunday 15 May 2011 I ran what I think I should start to call my local 10k race - the Woodley 10k. As with the Shinfield 10k race, this is also a fast and relatively flat race and I thought I may just be able to get the sub-40min 10k I just missed at Shinfield.

Following a request from a colleague, this and hopefully my future "first time" race reports, will be a bit more in depth.

Given Woodley is so close to home, and the fact that parking is limited to pretty much whatever Woodley town centre has, my wife and I cycled to the race. Bike racks are very limited too, but nothing a long chain and a firm fence post or tree couldn't solve.

The Woodley 10k starts and finishes at the town end of Memorial Recreation Ground on Headley Road in Woodley. When we got there the kiddies' 3k race was still underway and in it's final stages and quite a large crowd of runners and supporters building up around the start/finish area. For those concerned about these sort of things, there were plenty loos on offer: about 8 port-a-loos as well as those in the buildings at the recreation ground, and a fitness instructor gave a little aerobics type warm up routine just before the race started.

The start was effectively a very wide mass congregation behind a line drawn on the grass. There's nothing to really restrict you behind the start line, but once you cross it, you're funneled down from a width of about a football pitch to the width of a 2 lane road in about 200m thanks to orange mesh fencing on either side. This is definitely long enough and I didn't notice any severe bunching, though I did find myself up near the front so I have no idea what it was like further back in the field.

Once off the field, it's a bit of a sharp turn into the rec ground drive, across two speed bumps and then out onto the road. I can imagine this initial bit being a little tough with a large crowd. Once on the road, it's quite flat for about the first 2.5km as you make your way through the quiet neighbourhood roads and then you get your first climb as you head up towards Bath Road. Nothing major, but noticeable enough to drop my pace below 4:00/km for the first time.

Once you reach Bath Road, you run a short section on the pavement and then turn back in towards Earley to the first water station. It's then pretty flat and fast for the next 2km until you reach Wokingham road where you will find yourself at the highest point in the race looking as a great big long downhill towards the Showcase roundabout. According to my Garmin, we dropped about 25m in altitude over about 2.2km. This is a great downhill to the lowest point in the race with the only thing slowing you down being the water station as you pass Station Road at about the 6km mark. It's then a slow and continual climb back up the hill back towards Woodley with another water station at about the 8km mark.

This hill is quite a toughie and took quite a chunk out of my time. Thankfully I'd built up quite a "cushion" in the preceding kilometres so by the time I turned back into the recreation ground road, I was still on course for a sub-40 min 10k.

The race then finishes back on the field you started on, but a little to the side of the starting straight with a little climb to give you a final burn on your legs as you sprint to the cross the line. Well, it burnt my legs as I had someone breathing down my neck for most of the long hill. He passed me just as we entered the rec grounds, but I dug in deep and sprinted away from him on the grass to finish the race in a new "PBSR" (personal best since return) of 39:42. Yes folks, I'd just dipped below 40 mins for the first time in well over 12 years and I felt great. Knackered, but absolutely delighted with myself.

As the race is chip timed, the official results were available pretty quickly and were printed and stuck to the window of one of the buildings as they became available. Just before leaving, I popped over to confirm my time and position. I couldn't believe it, I was on the first page of results in 23rd place (out of 596 runners).

As a well earned reward, my wife and I then cycled down to our favourite pub, The Wheelright Arms, and have a big Sunday roast and a couple of beers for lunch. All in all this was a great race and a great day out.

Monday was a public holiday and it turned out to be a great day for running. The weather was warm, the skies clear and I was in the mood for some running.

I ran the Reading Runner's Shinfield 10k, my first 10k for the year. As this is known to be a fast flat course, I also thought it would be a good chance to set myself a new "since returning" personal best to get the running season off to a good start.

Prior to this race, my PB was 44:26 run on the Yateley 10k course. I've been training a lot more carefully and consistently this year so thought a PB was definitely on the cards and aimed for what I thought was a good time of sub-43 mins.

I started the race as I usually do - too fast - but for some reason it felt right and the pace - about 3:56 - 4:00/km - was very comfortable. Given I'm concentrating on 5k this year, I thought maybe it was because I've been consistently running as faster paces in training that this faster than planned pace felt so comfortable so I stuck with it in the belief I'd probably slow down dramatically at 5k or maybe 6. Well, I did slow down on the 5th km, but not because I was tired from going too fast, but because the 5th km had the water station in it. I've still not mastered drinking water from a cup whilst running and really miss the Miltons tasting water baggies we used to get in South Africa. The 6th, end of the 8th and all of the 9th kilometers were slow due to a strong head wind and I finished off the 10th nice a quick.

As the 8th and 9th kilometers were hard due to the wind and I like to push the last kilometer, I didn't actually check my watch for about 2.5 to 3km so had no idea how close I was to my goal of a sub-43 so imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner onto the finish straight to see the clock saying 40:30. Huh!!! 40!! I was shocked. Without even trying to I'd nearly run a sub-40 10k at the very beginning of the season.

In the end I finished in a time of 40:42 and was as chuffed to bits. I still can't believe I managed such a great time. I definitely believe I have a sub-40 min 10k in me this season but I wasn't expecting one until at least next year.

As this was a race and I'm now racing in minimalist shoes, I raced in my Vibram Five Finger Bikilas. What a good idea. Several large sections of the course had very questionable tar, some very course concrete and a long offroad section as we crossed a field between 8 and 9km. Had I been barefoot, I think my goal of sub-43 may have been a little over optimistic.

So all in all a brilliant start to the season. The official results are now out and I came 59th out of 696 runners. Not bad at all. I'll definitely be doing this one again next year.

Wednesday evening saw the running of the second of the three Yateley 10k races in the series, and like the first one, I ran it barefoot.

I'd had a bit of a sedentary two weeks building up to the race following the onset of the early signs of the dreaded top of foot pain (ToFP) that cropped up during my piggies hill training session on 22 June. With only a single tabata rowing session done between then and the race I went in the race very relaxed and rested with my foot feeling good too.

At 7:30pm we were sent on our way and I paid special attention to my pace. I went into this race wanting to crack 45 minutes and intended on doing so by keeping a constant pace that sat in the 4:20 min/km to 4:28 min/km range. This plan worked beautifully. I managed to remain disciplined and didn't get caught up in the excitement of the start of the race too much and managed to keep my pace more or less within this range right up until the 8th km. This included the particularly stoney tarred section along Reading road between about 5.5km and 7.2km which this time I chose not to try and avoid.

I suspect I could have kept this pace up beyond the 8km mark had it not been for what happened next... just after the 8km mark the pain on the top of my left foot returned, and with a vengeance. It was pretty damn painful, but as I'd got most of the way round, there was no way I was going to stop now - I'll probably regret this later. I quickly found it wasn't as painful if I turned my foot inwards slightly and almost rolled over my big toe (could the cause of the pain be due to a slightly outward pointing left foot?) so with my slightly adjusted gait and slower pace I headed for the finish.

Turning into the field entrance I glanced at my watch and noticed I was still on course for a sub-45 10k, so I floored it as best I could, passed a couple of people and crossed the finish line with a new PB: 44:43.

Pleased as punch I handed in my timing chip, grabbed a water and a choccy bar and headed back to the car. The pain in my left foot starting to really sink in now too. Impressively I had my official results SMS by the time I got back to my car too...

So all in all, I had a great run, except for the onset of ToFP at 8km, but that's incidental really as I'd managed to set a new PB and still had a great time. Still no sign of any photos from this or the previous race though - I'm starting wonder if they had an official photographer this year.

Now I'll have to see what happens with my left foot over the next few weeks. Hopefully it'll recover completely in time for the 3rd and final race in the series on 4 August.

Better late than never. Last Wednesday saw me take on my first imperial distance race (we only do metric distances in South Africa): The Forest Five (mile) at The Look Out in Bracknell and what a fantastic evening and offroad race it was.

Following the test run I did on the Monday, I had intended on running in my huaraches, but then common sense prevailed and I opted to run in my Vibrams instead. I decided not to run in the huaraches as I've not done much running in them yet and the last thing I wanted were blisters from the different style of footwear, especially likely as I'm not too sure I've got them properly adjusted yet.

My wife very generously offered to drive me to the race and we arrived with about half an hour to spare. As I pre-registered online I already had my number so had plenty time to locate the race start - it's a little walk into the forest - and warm up. It was a very pleasant evening, so getting warm wasn't a problem.

At just after 19:30 we were sent on our way by the most feeble sounding airhorn I've ever heard, or didn't. The air part was there, just the horn part made no sound at all: should have used a vuvuzela . As usual, I set off a little quick, but I managed to ensure it wasn't too quick and soon settled into a pace of about 4:20/km. The route was slightly different from the one I found online and ran on the Monday, but only in the last half of the race in which they brought us back in a large arc which included a lot more little ups and downs than the original route. This added a nice challenge and I suspect caught a few of those who've run the old route a little by surprise. They did however warn us at the beginning that it was a slightly different route, though I couldn't hear why. My watch also reported the route to be slightly shorter than 5 miles, but I think we can attribute this to the tree coverage over large parts of the route - the race organisers assured us the route is accurately measured.

As can be expected, my Vibrams lived up to expectations and protected my feet enough for me to maintain a nice fast pace without blocking too much feedback. They also draw a lot of funny looks and even a couple of comments with one chap commenting on having read Born to Run, but not being brave enough to try barefoot or Vibrams. I encouraged him to give barefoot a go and he then bid farewell and left me in hist dust .

All in all, this was a very pleasant race. It was a relatively small field, on a fabulous evening in a beautiful settings. This is definitely a race I'll be doing again. This part of Bracknell forest will also be getting a lot more visits from me too: it's a fantastic area to run.

Oh yes, and my official results:

Time: 34:34
Overall Position: 56 / 327
Age Category Position: 28