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 work across the Thames from the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake and on many occasions I've thought to myself, "Can you run round the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake?". I've plotted a route on Google Maps on several occasions and it appeared do-able, but never actually tried it, until today .

Last week I noticed them doing some severe mowing over on that side of the river so today I thought I'd go see if I could run right round and answer that question...

Can you run round the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake?

After today's run, I can say: YES. Yes you can run round the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake. Look, I did it (switch to the Google Satellite view to get the most accurate data):

Would you want to run round the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake?

Probably not. It's not the easiest of runs. There's also one major hurdle to get over, but I'll get on to that in a moment.

As you can see from the above route, I started at the David Lloyd gym and headed downstream along the Thames to Sonning, crossed Sonning bridge, diced with death for a little while before cutting into Sonning Eye. I then followed the signs and road for the Reading Sailing Club. Once there, I continued straight through their car park and out the outside. Up until this point, things were pretty easy. Nice smooth flat paths and gravel roads.

Once through the sailing club car park, I followed a foot path which got progressively narrow and harder to follow. After a little detour and a short stumble through some nettles up to my waist, I back-tracked a bit and started following a path along the shore line. Soon this too started to narrow and fade and on several occasions I found myself stopping to locate the path again. After a couple more minutes of running, the I got the distinct feeling the paths were no longer from human traffic, but more likely wildlife traffic as I found myself ducking under low branches and leaping over thorny bushes. I also ran through shoulder high reeds, still following a path, until eventually I ran out of land. I'd followed the shore of the main lake and rounded a small lake being fed by the larger lake. Two ankle deep wading steps were called for and I was back on my way along a path.

After a little more rambling and fighting for a path, I entered a very large opening which had recently been mown. From here onwards things were pretty easy going and I started getting quite cocky with myself thinking I could come along with a machete and clear away the tougher bits of the path I'd just covered and this could be a regular route. I also secretly hoped they'd mow this bit I was running across regularly. Soon I found myself on the lovely smooth tarred section that runs along the north side of the rowing lake heading towards the clubhouse and my route out onto the road and back to the gym. And then I encountered my major hurdle: an 8 foot high green metal fence with pointy bits on top. Yes folks, the Oxfordshire side of the rowing lake is all fenced in with no pedestrian gates and the only gate out being the electric one by the clubhouse, which required a pin code. Oh poooh!!!

I doubled back on myself and ran back along the rowing path to see if I could find a convenient place to scale the fence. No luck. That's one high fence, and given the spikes on the fence and the brambles and other wild vegetation on either side, I didn't want to risk clambering over in my wet shoes. So cap-in-hand I went back to the club house, ventured in, surprised a very friendly man in a Team GB tracksuit, explained how I got in and asked if he could let me out. Surprised by how I got in, the man kindly let me out and I was on my way. I felt like a captive bird set free.

I then foolishly thought I spotted a shortcut back, which turned out not to be and soon found myself heading back towards where I'd come from. Thankfully, this time the fence next to me was only waist high, so I jumped that and diced with death back to Sonning Eye; running head-on into traffic on narrow roads without any pavements is pretty daunting. Once in Sonning Eye, it was plain sailing back to the gym.

So, would I do it again?

Definitely not. I enjoyed by run today, but I don't think the rowing peeps will be too happy with me repeatedly asking to be let out like a puppy needing a wee. I also don't think my legs can handle too many scratching sessions like today's and I don't think they'll be whacking a convenient path for me anytime soon.

So there you have it folks... if you've run along the Thames and wondered if you could run round the Redgrade Pinsent rowing lake, I can proudly say you can, but you probably don't want to.

Somehow I missed this when I added my last training run, but check it out, I've tipped over the 1000km mark for my running this year:

Assuming I put in about 200km a month for the rest of the year (not likely), I could crack the 1000 mile mark this year. I'm not going to aim for it, but we'll see how we get on.

Well folks, I'm pleased to say I succeeded in my challenge to run at least 3km every day for 30 days as my Calendar page from Garmin Connect can attest:

This was a great challenge and one I'm going to come back to, but maybe not quite so rigidly or with so much gusto at the start of the month.

As part of doing my 30-day challenge, I decided I would NOT give myself a training programme to follow. I would just run and listen to my body, with the exception that I would do a long run on the weekend. If I felt good and felt I could go fast, I did. If I felt like plodding, I did. This worked really well and I ended up only wearing my Garmin to record my route and distance as evidence of my progress and only checked it at the end of each run. It's quite refreshing just running again without any trying to run to clock or beeping pacer. I think I'm going to start doing this more often.

Now forcing myself to run everyday has taught me a few very important things. Running every day is fantastic, when you're up for, but you MUST listen to your body and take a break when it says you need one. If you don't and you run, you won't enjoy it and may start to resent it. You're also likely to incur aches and pains and niggles or even a full on injury if you don't.

I think I may have gone out a bit too far a few times in the first 3 and a bit weeks and by Friday the 26, I really wasn't up for running and starting to feel a little over-trained. This is when I'd normally take a day or two off, but didn't as I was aiming to complete this challenge.

Sadly, I've had to force myself to take a break after 30 days. I find myself feeling a little over-trained with my right hip flexor a little tender after runs. I wouldn't call it an injury, just an annoying niggle that wasn't there before.

I'll give myself the best part of a week off and start a similar challenge again, but this time without any rigid goals. Who knows, maybe 3 long hard weeks is my limit and maybe the 4th needs to be considerably lower in mileage than I did. Only time will tell.

One thing I'm very impressed with is the monthly total: 231.18k of running.

Over on my personal site I've just written about Matt Cutt's brilliant idea of doing or not doing something for 30 days straight. Given today is the first of the month so as good a time as any, I'd decided I'm going to do my own little challenges.

I'm starting with something easy...

I'm going to run at least 3km everyday for 30 days

Now as I mentioned in my post, this shouldn't be too hard to achieve on Monday to Friday, but the weekends may prove a bit tough. As it's only 3km, I should be able to easily squeeze in a run.

As with all my training, I'll be logging everything in my training diary on Fetcheveryone.com.

I'm quite excited about this challenge, not just for the challenge of doing something new, but to see what kind of impact this will have on my running.

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.

Well, we find ourselves in the middle of 2011, not quite slap bang in the middle, but near enough for me to provide a mid-year update.

Training

So far my training programme has suited me well, though I will be making a slight change. Since the beginning of December last year, I've been working on the following schedule:

• Monday: run - usually a hard session
• Tuesday: swim - usually about 2.5km
• Wednesday: run - varies between easy and hard, depending how I feel
• Thursday: full body weights session
• Friday: run - usually a longish tempo run
• Saturday and Sunday: either race or rest

All training has been almost exclusively barefoot and when it hasn't been, as with all racing, it has been in either my Vibram Fivefinger Bikilas (road) or Merrell Trail Gloves (off-road).

Now we're in race season, this format has changed slightly, only in as much as weights sessions are dropped before weekend races and after Wednesday races. For the rest of the year, I'm going to switch the swim and the weights sessions around, unless I'm racing on the Wednesday in which case I won't do a weights session. I'm also going to start adding in at least one more run, probably on the weekend, to try and up my mileage a bit.

Mileage

Talking of mileage (or should I call it "kilometerage" as I do everything in metric?), last night saw me click over the 500km mark in training and racing this year. I've been quite good at recording my training and racing, but realised I've not been tracking my warmups and cooldowns for races, each of which is easily 2 - 3km each, whilst I have been for training. I'm going start recording these now too.

If all goes well, I should tip over the 1000km mark by the end of the year. Nothing in comparison to what a marathon runner may clock up, but certainly a long way for someone who runs mostly barefoot, is concentrating on speed and who only clocked up 668km last year.

Racing

Now with all this training and some pretty good mileage, how has the actual racing been going? Well, actually very well. Here are my results so far this year:

I didn't expect to get back below 40 mins for 10k this season but so far I've managed it twice and once so far on the Yateley 10k which is considered a bit of a harder run. If I'd thought I was capable and aiming for it, I think I could have dipped below 40 mins for my first 10k too. That will definitely be on the cards for next year.

I've got a couple more interesting and fast races scheduled for the rest of the year so hopefully I can get a few more sub-40 10k's and hopefully that sub-19 5k. I'd love a sub-18 5k this year, but I think that's pushing it a bit. I had originally planned a sub-18 5k this year, but now I'm in full swing, I've come to realise this is a bit of an unrealistic goal for this year.

Rest

So as you can see, so far so good. However if I want to keep this up I need to rest, and it's time for a rest. I haven't had a rest since the week starting 14 March when my wife and I had a lovely week long break in the Lake District so I'm taking the next week off to give my body a chance to recover. The intention is to do absolutely no exercise at all, bar cycling to and from work. If I get the urge, I may do some exercise which is not running or commuting, so either a swim, indoor rowing or possibly a weights session, just no running.

Oh yes, and Tuesday this week saw me tick off another goal I've had on my 2011 list, but haven't actively been gunning for: I've dipped below 80kg in weight for the first time in years. I'm not a svelte 78.8kg. Down over 20kg since 29 Jan 2010 and down 5kg since January this year. And best of all, I haven't been on any specific diet. Exercise alone and my usual healthy diet has done it all.

All in all, the first half of this year has gone well on the running front and hopefully the second half will be just as good, if not better.

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.