Tuesday 29 January 2019

January parkruns 2019 and Brutals online

It can be brutal out there sometimes
That's the end of the New Year ! (and here comes the snow...)

Well that was a bit of a busy January ! instead of the three events last year with a bit of a leisurely trip up to the Running Show and meeting family and friends we had 15 events and were to busy to go anywhere ! More importantly for Runners - all the new events were parkruns, with free downloads courtesy of @PersilUK as part of their #DirtIsGood campaign.

I have to say I can't fault their marketing - go out - do stuff - wash it with our stuff - and by the way - here's a load of events to go and do stuff at (aka parkrun). It's a modern play on the famous Michelin restaurant guide - which was invented by the French tire company to get car drivers to actually drive their cars outside of Paris and use them - thereby needing more new tires. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#History  and sspimg.com/michelin-guide-history )

So here's a definitive list of all those 12 parkruns below - we have been to from Edinburgh to Monmouth to Norwich to Poole. To say we've covered over 5000 miles (Michelin will be pleased), seen over 6100 finishers and made over 80,000 images available - to be honest - even I'm surprised at that !

There's also the other three January events we have been to and the future races for February in the table below - the two big big ones being the National XC champs in Leeds this year and the Cambridge Half Marathon - both with free images provided on the day - courtesy of the superb race sponsors Saucony. However I must point out the challenging and equally rewarding Steyning Stinger for local Sussex runners - it's fantastic and supports a great local club.

Date Event Free gallery Gallery or Future race Event website
Tue-01/01/2019 Serpentine 10k http://sspimg.com/Serpentine-10k-2019
Sat-05/01/2019 parkrun Lloyd Free images http://sspimg.com/Lloyd-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-05/01/2019 parkrun Vogrie Free images http://sspimg.com/Vogrie-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-05/01/2019 parkrun Forest of Dean Free images http://sspimg.com/Forest-of-Dean-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sun-06/01/2019 Tadworth Ten http://sspimg.com/Tadworth-10-2019-Gallery
Sat-12/01/2019 parkrun Southampton Free images http://sspimg.com/Southampton-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-12/01/2019 parkrun Cannock Chase Free images https://sspimg.com/Cannock-Chase-parkrun-2019-gallery
Sat-12/01/2019 parkrun Rising Sun Free images http://sspimg.com/Rising-Sun-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-19/01/2019 parkrun Worsley Woods Free images http://sspimg.com/Worsley-Woods-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-19/01/2019 parkrun Poole Free images http://sspimg.com/Poole-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-19/01/2019 parkrun Leamington Free images http://sspimg.com/Leamingston-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-26/01/2019 parkrun Worcester Free images http://sspimg.com/Worcester-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-26/01/2019 parkrun Catton Free images http://sspimg.com/Catton-parkrun-2019-Gallery
Sat-26/01/2019 parkrun Oakwell Hall Free images https://sspimg.com/Oakwell-Hall-parkrun-2019-gallery
Sat-26/01/2019 Brutal Men only http://sspimg.com/Brutal-Men-Only-2019-Gallery
Sat-26/01/2019 Brutal Women Only http://sspimg.com/Brutal-Women-Only-2019-Gallery
February Next month future races
Sun-03/02/2019 Watford Half https://watfordhalf.co.uk/
Sun-17/02/2019 Hampton Court Half Marathon http://bit.ly/Hampton-Court-Half-Entry
Sat-23/02/2019 National XC Champs Free images http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/
Sun-03/03/2019 Steyning Stinger Free images http://www.steyningac.co.uk/
Sun-03/03/2019 Cambridge Half Marathon Free images https://cambridgehalfmarathon.com/
Sun-17/03/2019 Brentwood Half http://bit.ly/Brentwood-Half



A quick message from the team at the Muscular Dystrophy Town and Gown - Oxford 10k (which we take the photos for! - please help them out if you can)

Amazingly our Oxford town and gown has been voted by the Running Awards as ‘best 10k in South East England’ and have been awarded with a lovely gold badge (attached)!

We’ve now been shortlisted to have a chance of winning the NATIONAL award. We’re very excited and think that the Oxford town and gown really deserves this status. It would be brilliant if you could circulate it amongst friends/family/colleagues. If we were to win, it would really help expand the event even further, and give the charity great exposure.

Voting ends on 1st March and the winners are announced at the running awards dinner on 25th April. 


Please click here to submit your vote in the ‘10k National’ category:  https://therunningawards.com/vote/179/242#vote. We’ve also been shortlisted for the Town and Gown Series here

and finally - here's a few pictures from the last few events - first parkruns then some Brutal
just a note - the parkruns are very very dark in the early winter mornings in the dark woods - it's been a really technical challenge and pushed our cameras to their technical limits - which always makes getting good images slightly harder !

So here's some pictures from around the parkruns with the @PersilUK team and the fun we have been having at them together !












































And this is what the images looked like with the Persil parkrun #DirtIsGood branding - which everyone with their pic2go sticker could receive very soon after the runs to use on facebook and social media - anyone tagging @persilUK and #DirtIsGood on their posts stood a chance of winning a years free supply of Persil's new 3in1 tablets - and there have been plenty of happy winners so far !






Meanwhile over at the Brutal Women and Men's only races we had a bit more mud and indeed #DirtIsGood !

All go at the start of the Brutal Womens race

oops up side your head, I said oops upside your head. Julie's having none of it.

raging. silent raging.

Yes, this is silly !

Its as if the mud and hills are not there

just how much fun is this ?

this is even MORE fun !!

Running the sand - easy work

much friendly fun

fast running frowning fury

it's double thumbs up

water depth is a relative thing - depending on your size... up to your ankles or...higher

that's a wrap to the end of the course !

The Brutal Men were of course a completely different kettle of fish... or were they ?

grrrrrr etc etc as ever !

strength and agility

water ? what water ?

Sticking to the dry route eh ?

water ? no, I never noticed any....

easy running in on the sand at the finish

Top team mates

mudstacle in their warm weather tights, zooming along
so that's about it so far - social media posts with @persilUK and #DirtIsGood stand a chance of winning a prize (don't know when the end of the competition is!) and makes for an interesting social media search if you're into that sort of surfing...

We have a line of very busy events coming up (refer to above table), so it's going to be a lot of planning and then a lot of images to sort out after each race - and it's going to be very pressured to get the turn around done to our high standards. Meanwhile our thoughts are with Paul driving up in the snow and rain to Bolton from Sussex, he's not going to go too fast today ! And my wrist is booked in for an operation on March the 4th, right after I see a friend/cousin and town counsellor start the Cambridge Half Marathon ! (what a small world it is becoming) then I'll be off for 5 weeks, so might be a bit less typing on here - I guess for a laugh we could test how siri copes...

Reflective and bright clothing
until next time, train carefully, if it's dark at night - please wear something bright (like these tops https://amzn.to/2B8q7OP I have a mountain warehouse one - and they are simply fantastic) and also don't have an overbright LED blinding people - because when they can't look at you because it's too bright - they also can't see you... for cyclists I'm going to try to do a demonstration of what having a second white light that points backwards from your handlebars onto your chest does for rider visibility (hint: a lot) and it doesn't need to be super bright - but it's enough to give size and depth perception to the other person looking at you - which is very very important and that is something that is not given by a single bright dot headlight that blinds people. Double-ended front bike lights anyone ?
At the very least in this weather - drag out a white T shirt and put it over the top of any black or dark tops you are wearing, even over your dark running waterproof top - because any dark tops are simply a death trap in the dark - give people any chance of seeing you !!!

train safe, keep warm, time for some gym ?
until next time
Anthony