Grim night time challenge

My brother and I did the Grim challenge a few years ago. The GRIM is held over the Army’s vehicle testing tracks so expect it to be interesting - it certainly was!

It's a testing course itself and that's before you get to the obstacles that they devise - waist deep in water and knee dip in mud in the middle of December (back when December was cold!) to name but a few. I have fond memories of this run - not least some of the photos that have looks of shock and "what the hell are we doing this for" looks on our faces.

We've been relatively sensible since then so of course when we heard about the GRIM Night Terror - basically a similar run but at night - I got our entries in straight away.

Never done a night time race before and looking forward to this. We're both running with dodgy ankles at the moment, so a steady run that sees us finishing in as good a shape as we started is hopefully on the cards.

Tour de parkrun - Glasgow parkrun

We were away for the New Year weekend visiting family in Scotland. Luckily I was quite close to two parkruns and managed to take part at Glasgow parkrun on New Year's Day.

After around 4 hours sleep the night before I, surprisingly, really enjoyed this parkrun. It takes place in Pollock Country Park along tarmac paths.

There was a first-timer briefing a few minutes before the start and part of this covered the topic that Glasgow had been voted the toughest parkrun course. I think i'd missed or forgotten that nugget of information! It didn't deter just under 100 other parkrunners from taking part though.

The start sends you downhill and i'm pleased to report that there's a steep downhill run to the finish! It's just the bits in between where you have to do a bit of work. There's great support from volunteers and spectators throughout and it's a very friendly atmosphere.

There was a well stocked bring and share gathering after the parkrun, but unfortunately I couldn't stay.

Tour de parkrun - Strathclyde

We were away for the New Year weekend visiting family in Scotland. Luckily I was quite close to two parkruns and managed to take part at Strathclyde parkrun on New Year's Eve.

Strathclyde parkrun takes place in Strathclyde Country Park. The course is out and back - you run out 2.5km and then come back pretty much along the same pathways. The course is on tarmac paths alongside the loch which makes for a nice setting for the parkrun. It was a bit puddly on the day but after dodging the first couple you just forget about them and run through. It's all part of the fun isn't it?

It was a relatively small parkrun field but that takes nothing away from the event. It was well stocked with volunteers along the course and at the finish and well organised. There was even a warm up to begin with - but it looked a bit energetic for me!

It's a fairly flat course with only one real 'up' bit so a potential PB course if all goes to plan and I get to run it again!

To take a screen shot on a Mac

Nothing to do with running but I'm fed up forgetting how to do this!

To take a screen shot on a Mac you need to press Shift-cmd-3. This will take a screenshot of your screen and save it as a jpg file on the desktop. When it's taking the screenshot it'll make a camera shooting type noise.

Back to running for the next posts!

Force sendng data from Garmin 405 to computer

Ok, a quick post as I forgot about this.

A couple of weeks ago my running data wouldn't transfer off garmin. I'd gotten part way through a transfer but an error occured and the connection failed. The watch seemed to think all data had been sent and wouldn't connect to the computer - despite me knowing that there were runs 'missing' from my Garmin connect activities.

Manual to the rescue again. Who'd have thought that manuals were actually of use?

Well you what you can do in this case is force the Forerunner to send all data to your computer:

• Touch and hold menu > select Settings > ant+Sport > Computer > Force Send > Yes. All data will be sent again.

Massey Runners Christmas Pace Race

Ahh Christmas. A time for relaxation and the odd bit of feasting. Oh and some running too. Quite a bit of running actually which makes for a change and a more enjoyable Christmas time. There's something quite brilliant about soaking up the Christmas atmosphere whilst out on a run. This can be anything from the wintry weather to runs in the dark mornings that are only lit by the sporadic appearance of Christmas lights whilst on a run.

I manage to get to a few races over Christmas. First up was the Massey Runners Christmas Pace Race. A 3.55 mile course along the tarmac footpaths of Coventry War Memoiral Park. It's a race with a difference - predict your finishing time, the runner closest to their prediction is the winner. NO WATCHES / GPS / MOBILES ALLOWED!! It's one of those race that i've always wanted to do but for whatever reason over the past few years i've not managed to get to.

The race started at 11am and as you've probably figured out you run your own race to your own pace and aim to finish as close to your predicted time as possible. It's not as easy as it sounds and it's always useful to try to remember what your predicted time is before starting. I managed to get quite close to my time which was a little bit of a shock! The overall winner got within one second of his predicted time which given the course and the distance is quite an achievement!

It's a local race with around 40 runners this year. It's well supported by Massey Runners and some of the local running clubs. Out on the course there were plenty of supportive marshals. After everyone had finished there were some nice looking spot prizes given out followed by the prize giving itself. A good, different style of race and one for next year if the diary permits!

KP Corporate Kingsbury Water Park 10K – 27th Nov 2011

I have vague memories of Kingsbury Water Park from many (many, many) moons ago and heard about this race and decided to give it a go.

It's described as "a beautiful venue belonging to Warwickshire County Council situated in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside between Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield. The 10k is a two lap off-road race following a route that is mainly off road through magnificent scenery.

Two laps of footpaths, grass tracks and a short tarmac section twisting around the lakes and pools of the water park, with a section alongside the river."

Pleased to report that the race was as described. The car parking was free. The facilities - toiltets, shop and cafe - at the park itself were open which is useful for runners and spectators alike. The weather was sunny and full on glare in your face for parts of the course - always useful when you don't bring sunglasses with you.

The race started on time and as described the majority was off road along grass tracks. There were a few up and down bits which took a little bit of extra care as they'd gottent quite muddy but hopping gracefully (almost deer like) between tufts of grass seemed to do the trick.

A trophy,bottle of water (or energy drink) and a banana at the finish. Couldn't ask for too much more.

I paced myself using the km markers provided and had a fair bit left for a strong finish - a good sign as i've got a half-marathon coming up soon and i'd really like to do a season's best at it. This was a good indicator that this can be achieved so am quite positive about everything.

Only a couple of downpoints. Firstly my knee decided to play up a bit. It can get quite tight but it passes after a couple of stretch sessions - it used to be a lot more permanent (so good and bad). Secondly was that the course itself came up a little bit short on the old Gary the garmin measurement. Aware of the discrepencies that a Garmin can produce but it only logged in at just over 9km.

But all in a good off road race and a great venue so hope to return for some of the other races that are staged here.