c4countdown

Nice one. Looks like about 1% PBs at mine, pretty awful. The course is entirely flat, given that it's along a promenade. Our hazards are icy puddles, of which there can be quite a few.

My first parkrun of the month and I've got slower, again. Course was icy in parts so had to tread carefully and had to go cross-country at one bit due to a huge puddle. Will I ever get below the magic 20 minutes?!

I got 23:48 I think. Pretty terrible. If I give it a few weeks consecutively, I might improve though, plus I'll hopefully do a couple in Dublin at Christmas.

Ryan Taylor wrote:My first parkrun of the month and I've got slower, again. Course was icy in parts so had to tread carefully and had to go cross-country at one bit due to a huge puddle. Will I ever get below the magic 20 minutes?!

I'm sure you will! I've decided on a new tactic for next week, which could also apply to other parkruns with muddy/icy sections. The bit at the end of my parkrun is a muddy field (well, it's muddy now) and there's no grip so you can't run properly through it. Normally I pick up my pace at the end for some sort of sprint finish. So next time I'm going to give it everything for the bit before the field and then just chug through the field at the same speed as I would if I was trying to sprint.

Oliver Garner wrote:Cambridge Freshers' Fun Run - surely race of the day

Just found the results of that here. 15:57 for you and 19:29 for Jonathan Rawlinson. I was about to say that was amazing and your parkrun time should come right down, but then I read:

the Men's course was between 4.8km and 4.9km

But even then that's still well under 17-minute pace for 5km even if it's 4.8km.

I got wiped out by a dog while running today. I was running quite fast at the time (about 5 and a half minute mile pace) and there's always people with dogs where I run, but this one just went straight in front of me with no warning leaving me with no time to react at all and sent me flying. My left elbow is a complete mess and forehead is pretty bruised as well - it felt to me like I landed flat on my face. Luckily it was basically a mud path rather than tarmac or concrete or something.

Jon Corby wrote:

Cunt.

Anyway, has anyone else noticed that the weather is actively opposed to parkrun PBs? We've had unseasonably warm weather recently, and my runs during the week have been quite nice (well, not today's but that was nothing to do with the weather). But every time Saturday comes round, it's just shit. Last Saturday was much colder than any other recent day as well as windy, and this coming Saturday is due to be pretty fucking windy as well. And the few before these have been pretty rubbish too.

Adam Gillard wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:

Adam Gillard wrote: I didn't grab a barcode thingy - I'm 'the 'Unknown' who finished 11th: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fulhampalace/ ... qNumber=63.

I think you can fuck off with that then

Christmas Day is the only one I can do all year - will have to get me a barcode next time!

It's on! Barcoded up!

Adam Gillard wrote:It's on! Barcoded up!

Awesome. 1 hour 14 minutes to go! I sense a Christmas PB today (for me that is).

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Adam Gillard wrote:It's on! Barcoded up!

Awesome. 1 hour 14 minutes to go! I sense a Christmas PB today (for me that is).

Don't know what my time was, possibly just under 21 minutes. Will have to wait for the results. This was my first running race since Christmas Day last year and it's made me realise how unfit I am! I thought I was at about 90% of the fitness level that I had been at this time last year, but now I think it must be about 75%. My upper chest and throat felt so bad at the end that I thought I was going to hurl. Had a good cough now though and feeling a bit better, coughing all the unfitness out hopefully!

I timed mine at 19:26 flicking over to 19:27. Really annoying given my PB is 19:25. It was a better run though given the boggy field you have to wade through at this time of year.

Think I might have managed a parkrun PB with about 21:40. Horrible cold rain here though.

Ian Volante wrote:Think I might have managed a parkrun PB with about 21:40. Horrible cold rain here though.

Good work. Mine was officially 19:27. I asked for a PB for Christmas and Father Christmas failed to deliver. What a git.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:Think I might have managed a parkrun PB with about 21:40. Horrible cold rain here though.

Good work. Mine was officially 19:27. I asked for a PB for Christmas and Father Christmas failed to deliver. What a git.

20:47 for me so also no PB, but my first official time, so you can update your list!

Adam Gillard wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:Think I might have managed a parkrun PB with about 21:40. Horrible cold rain here though.

Good work. Mine was officially 19:27. I asked for a PB for Christmas and Father Christmas failed to deliver. What a git.

20:47 for me so also no PB, but my first official time, so you can update your list!

I'll go through the whole list later to see if anyone else has improved. Ian says he has too. And if anyone not on the list wants to own up to being a parkrunner, now is the time!

Adam's been updated but not Ian. I'm not sure if his time has come up yet. Was it at Edinburgh? If so, you're not on the list, and there's no unknown around 21:40.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Adam's been updated but not Ian. I'm not sure if his time has come up yet. Was it at Edinburgh? If so, you're not on the list, and there's no unknown around 21:40.

Hartstown, Dublin.

Ian Volante wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Adam's been updated but not Ian. I'm not sure if his time has come up yet. Was it at Edinburgh? If so, you're not on the list, and there's no unknown around 21:40.

Hartstown, Dublin.

22:02. Argh!

Ian Volante wrote:

Ian Volante wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Adam's been updated but not Ian. I'm not sure if his time has come up yet. Was it at Edinburgh? If so, you're not on the list, and there's no unknown around 21:40.

Hartstown, Dublin.

22:02. Argh!

You need a new watch.

Did anyone do the double and go out again today? I did, but was 30 seconds slower at 19:57. Much worse conditions though. The field was even boggier and I was just sliding around, and the wind was quite strong too and that makes a real difference. I'm looking forward to the warner weather and better conditions when I can start regularly smashing sub 19s.

Gavin Chipper wrote: You need a new watch.

Did anyone do the double and go out again today?

A watch in the first place would do. I thought about doing the double (it's a luxury here that the run is literally two minutes away, whereas in Edinburgh it's a twenty-minute cycle), but beer combined with it still pissing down this morning discouraged me.

I got my PB for my long run that I do today. It's approximately two and a half parkruns (12.5km) and I did it in 50 minutes and 16 seconds. Given that according to my measurements on Google Maps it's slightly over this, this actually equates to slightly under 20-minute pace for a parkrun and for 2.5 times the distance!

Did 2 this morning

New PB at Cassiobury Park - 20:18! I had a bit left in the tank, maybe I should have started pushing more 5 minutes from home to break that 20-minute barrier.

That was at 9am; then on to South Oxhey for 10.30am. Most of the run was on boggy grass so the times were slower throughout the field; think I got about 23:40 but will wait to see the results.

Next one available to me is Christmas Day, I believe, unless they do other Bank Holidays too. So much fun!

Adam Gillard wrote:Did 2 this morning

New PB at Cassiobury Park - 20:18! I had a bit left in the tank, maybe I should have started pushing more 5 minutes from home to break that 20-minute barrier.

That was at 9am; then on to South Oxhey for 10.30am. Most of the run was on boggy grass so the times were slower throughout the field; think I got about 23:40 but will wait to see the results.

Next one available to me is Christmas Day, I believe, unless they do other Bank Holidays too. So much fun!

Nice work. Your asterisk is now a thing of the past. It's good fortune that it's a leap year this year so Christmas and New Year will bypass the Saturday. As for me, I'm back out again tomorrow so it will be two days in a row for the second weekend in a row!

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Adam Gillard wrote:Did 2 this morning

New PB at Cassiobury Park - 20:18! I had a bit left in the tank, maybe I should have started pushing more 5 minutes from home to break that 20-minute barrier.

That was at 9am; then on to South Oxhey for 10.30am. Most of the run was on boggy grass so the times were slower throughout the field; think I got about 23:40 but will wait to see the results.

Next one available to me is Christmas Day, I believe, unless they do other Bank Holidays too. So much fun!

Nice work. Your asterisk is now a thing of the past. It's good fortune that it's a leap year this year so Christmas and New Year will bypass the Saturday. As for me, I'm back out again tomorrow so it will be two days in a row for the second weekend in a row!

Thanks Gevoby!

I've not done a parkrun for 6 weeks now. I've done a couple of runs in December but both crap weather and my chest felt tight. Hoping I will find a bit of motivation in January but it is just a horrible time of year to be out. Not just the weather but the darkness too. It's dark when going to work and coming home and I don't wanna be running in the dark!

Ryan Taylor wrote:I've not done a parkrun for 6 weeks now. I've done a couple of runs in December but both crap weather and my chest felt tight. Hoping I will find a bit of motivation in January but it is just a horrible time of year to be out. Not just the weather but the darkness too. It's dark when going to work and coming home and I don't wanna be running in the dark!

Get a head torch.

I've just entered the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday 13th March 2016. Anyone else want to join me?

Gavin Chipper wrote:I've just entered the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday 13th March 2016. Anyone else want to join me?

Maybe. How much is it? Can't find the price anywhere on the website and don't want to go through to payment confirmation to find it.

Adam Gillard wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:I've just entered the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday 13th March 2016. Anyone else want to join me?

Maybe. How much is it? Can't find the price anywhere on the website and don't want to go through to payment confirmation to find it.

I paid £25 but I think it's £23 if you're a member of an affiliated club.

I ran a half marathon distance today in 1:28:56, which I was quite pleased with. I don't know how realistic it is, but 1:25 would be pretty awesome to get in March. I have half an eye on trying to do a sub 3-hour marathon one day, and a 1:25 half marathon would be a good step along the way.

There are quite a few online calculators where you type in a time you can run for a distance and it tells you what the "equivalent" is for different distances. I think they tend to overestimate people's abilities over distances longer than the one you typed in. But this one seems a little more realistic. It thinks I should be able to do 5km in 18:14 and a half marathon in 1:25:22 to do a 3-hour marathon.

This one says 18:49 (which I'm pretty sure I could already do) and 1:26:21.

This one says 18:28 and 1:25:32 (seems fairly realistic).

This one says 18:46 (reckon I could do) and 1:26:20.

By the way, I know it's not saying that you should automatically be able to run a marathon in three hours if you can run those times - you still have to do the training - but I still think they are optimistic in where they put the equivalent times.

Also, although my parkrun PB is only 19:25, my run has a hill and the recent boggy conditions have hidden my improvement since then, so I think I could run at least 18:46 on the flat with reasonable conditions.

I got this picture in a parkrun e-mail this week. Nice one Ryan!

In the last preliminary game of last series, it was mentioned that the challenger Tim Down was a keen runner. He also appears to be on Apterous. And if this is also him then he has a parkrun PB of 17:45! Is this enough evidence to put him on the list?

Spookily similar to me that picture. Unfortunately I still haven't ran a parkrun in 2016. My first one will probably be Lincoln.

Ryan Taylor wrote:Spookily similar to me that picture. Unfortunately I still haven't ran a parkrun in 2016. My first one will probably be Lincoln.

Hopefully this will happen. I think you mentioned that there's a bus that goes there, but hopefully someone with a car is going!

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Ryan Taylor wrote:Spookily similar to me that picture. Unfortunately I still haven't ran a parkrun in 2016. My first one will probably be Lincoln.

Hopefully this will happen. I think you mentioned that there's a bus that goes there, but hopefully someone with a car is going!

The 26 bus goes from Pennell's Garden Centre, which is just across the roundabout from the Thorpe on the Hill Travelodge (where everyone is obviously staying). Dunno when the earliest is on a Saturday but you can get timetables from the Stagecoach website. PC Coaches also do a Newark-Lincoln service which will go past that spot.

We had another Co:parkrun on Saturday in Lincoln.

Out of 341 runners, we had:

4. Me - 19:13 (PB)
27: Ryan Taylor - 20:58
212: Zubair Patel - 29:20

Zubair isn't actually registered for parkruns, but came along anyway and did a very good job considering he hasn't done any running for ages.

I set a new PB so I'm going to update that other post. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to put me ahead of James Bradley or Jonathan Rawlinson.

You missed the Co:Parkrun on Saturday night.

2 runners, me and Gev.
Fox & Hounds to McDonald's.

RESULTS:
1. Jono
2. Gevin

Jon O'Neill wrote:You missed the Co:Parkrun on Saturday night.

2 runners, me and Gev.
Fox & Hounds to McDonald's.

RESULTS:
1. Jono
2. Gevin

Gevin + heavy bag + general knackeredness + lack of motivation.

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:You missed the Co:Parkrun on Saturday night.

2 runners, me and Gev.
Fox & Hounds to McDonald's.

RESULTS:
1. Jono
2. Gevin

Gevin + heavy bag + general knackeredness + lack of motivation.

Surprised you didn't post the Sunday Pool results instead.

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:You missed the Co:Parkrun on Saturday night.

2 runners, me and Gev.
Fox & Hounds to McDonald's.

RESULTS:
1. Jono
2. Gevin

Gevin + heavy bag + general knackeredness + lack of motivation.

Surprised you didn't post the Sunday Pool results instead.

Shit, forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me.

Gevin 2-0 Jono
Gevin 2-0 Corby
Gevin 1-0 Mark Deeks

(Gevin 0-2 Adam Gillard)

I think that's right.

Also the first game where I beat Jono as the single greatest* game I've ever played.

*Definitely not flukiest

Gavin Chipper wrote:Thanks for reminding me.

You could've thanked me in the form of "not mentioning our games" tbf

Jon Corby wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Thanks for reminding me.

You could've thanked me in the form of "not mentioning our games" tbf

Without the assassination attempt in Graeme's car, I might have.

As some of you might know, me and Jono made a £50 bet at COLIN last year on who would finish ahead in a parkrun a year later. Well, that happened today. We did the Chelmsford parkrun, and you can find the results here. Well, you will be able to when the site updates properly, but the results are also here at the moment.

Anyway, there were a whopping 518 runners, and the results of importance were:

5. Gevin - 19:09 (PB)
152. Jono - 24:10 (first run)

So I won £50. It was close but I think my dive for the line did it.

I would have set an even faster time, but they changed the course today and apparently it's now longer. I was ahead of the 19-minute pacer the whole way but still didn't make 19 minutes. I spoke to him afterwards and he said the old course was about 13.06 and this was about 13.12. He didn't give units but I presume he was talking about miles + 10 (and maybe also getting it mixed up with a half marathon which is about 13.1 miles) but I didn't question it. 5km is actually a bit under 3.11 miles so it does tally up with what I've heard people saying before, that Chelmsford is - was - short. People go there for PBs. Not any more!

I've also updated the time list, which is quoted below:

Gavin Chipper wrote:Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Oliver Garner - 17:29
Matt Bayfield - 17:56
James Bradley - 19:04
Jonathan Rawlinson - 19:09
Gevin Chapwell - 19:09
Adam Gillard - 20:18
Giles Hutchings - 20:36
Ryan Taylor - 20:39
Ian Volante - 22:01
Kirk Bevins - 22:16
Jon Corby - 22:25
Richard Brittain - 22:55
Jon O'Neill - 24:10
James Laverty - 25:53
Lauren Hamer - 26:30
Zubair Patel - 29:20*

*Zubair isn't registered with parkrun, but ran at Lincoln anyway in a time of 29:20 in position 212. There was only one "unknown" around that position so it must have been him.

Jono slots in above Laverty, Lauren and Zubair, and I'm now level with Jonathan Rawlinson and annoyingly still behind James Bradley.

Your crowing and gloating in this thread is quite unpleasant Gevin. Imagine people who were good at Countdown doing similar.

Jon Corby wrote:Your crowing and gloating in this thread is quite unpleasant Gevin. Imagine people who were good at Countdown doing similar.

Bet he has a drink of water at the finish too.

Ian Volante wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Your crowing and gloating in this thread is quite unpleasant Gevin. Imagine people who were good at Countdown doing similar.

Bet he has a drink of water at the finish too.

I sip it out of a glass behind a desk.

Gavin Chipper wrote:In the last preliminary game of last series, it was mentioned that the challenger Tim Down was a keen runner. He also appears to be on Apterous. And if this is also him then he has a parkrun PB of 17:45! Is this enough evidence to put him on the list?

That is indeed me on both counts. Feel free to put me on the list. If I ever manage to beat 17:29 you can rest assured I'll be back here to let you know.

Tim Down wrote:

Gavin Chipper wrote:In the last preliminary game of last series, it was mentioned that the challenger Tim Down was a keen runner. He also appears to be on Apterous. And if this is also him then he has a parkrun PB of 17:45! Is this enough evidence to put him on the list?

That is indeed me on both counts. Feel free to put me on the list. If I ever manage to beat 17:29 you can rest assured I'll be back here to let you know.

You are now on the list.

Gavin Chipper wrote:Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Oliver Garner - 17:29
Tim Down - 17:45
Matt Bayfield - 17:56
James Bradley - 19:04
Jonathan Rawlinson - 19:09
Gevin Chapwell - 19:09
Adam Gillard - 20:18
Giles Hutchings - 20:36
Ryan Taylor - 20:39
Ian Volante - 22:01
Kirk Bevins - 22:16
Jon Corby - 22:25
Richard Brittain - 22:55
Jon O'Neill - 24:10
James Laverty - 25:53
Lauren Hamer - 26:30
Zubair Patel - 29:20*

*Zubair isn't registered with parkrun, but ran at Lincoln anyway in a time of 29:20 in position 212. There was only one "unknown" around that position so it must have been him.

Was close to a PB today but sadly couldn't quite make it. 13 seconds off with 20:52 although I ha it timed at 20:50. There were a couple of moments where I was what I'll call "coasting" - where I'm just on autopilot and not really thinking about the run, my breathing or my pace. It's these coasting moments that cost me I think.

Anyway that is apparently my 10th parkrun now so that's pretty cool!

You could call them "costing" moments.

I'm a poor/terrible apterous player who appeared on countdown once last year and lost.

My running ability is slightly better and I could even be classed as "mediocre".

Can I be added to the lower mid table area of that list with my PB of 22:43?

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/york/results/ ... ber=232417

Dave Nicholson wrote:I'm a poor/terrible apterous player who appeared on countdown once last year and lost.

My running ability is slightly better and I could even be classed as "mediocre".

Can I be added to the lower mid table area of that list with my PB of 22:43?

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/york/results/ ... ber=232417

You are now there. And if anyone else wants to admit to doing parkruns, let me know!

Gavin Chipper wrote:Right, I'm going to put up a ranking list of Countdown/Apterous parkrunners. I'll check it every so often to see if anyone's beaten their PB, and if anyone is really insistent that they don't want to be on the list, then I can remove their name. And if I've forgotten anyone, let me know and I can add them. This list is unlikely to be anywhere near exhaustive.

Oliver Garner - 17:29
Tim Down - 17:45
Matt Bayfield - 17:56
James Bradley - 19:04
Jonathan Rawlinson - 19:09
Gevin Chapwell - 19:09
Adam Gillard - 20:18
Giles Hutchings - 20:36
Ryan Taylor - 20:39
Ian Volante - 22:01
Kirk Bevins - 22:16
Jon Corby - 22:25
Dave Nicholson - 22.43
Richard Brittain - 22:55
Jon O'Neill - 24:10
James Laverty - 25:53
Lauren Hamer - 26:30
Zubair Patel - 29:20*

*Zubair isn't registered with parkrun, but ran at Lincoln anyway in a time of 29:20 in position 212. There was only one "unknown" around that position so it must have been him.

Gavin Chipper wrote:I've just entered the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday 13th March 2016. Anyone else want to join me?

This was today. I did much better than I was expecting. My recent training runs hadn't been as good as I wanted, and I was thinking that my target of 1:27 was looking a bit optimistic. But with nice conditions on the day, I managed to get 1:24:50! Well that was the "chip" time starting from when I actually crossed the start line. My "gun" time was 1:24:54. Still under 1:25, and that was my "deluding-myself goal" when I first signed up for it. Full results can be found here.

Also, I typed my time into a few time conversion calculators and they all think that that time is equivalent to a sub 3-hour marathon. Obviously I'd have to do the extra distance training, but that's quite encouraging. I'm not sure I'll ever actually do a marathon though - it's just so bloody long!

Well done Gev, that's a very impressive time. What does that correspond to in terms of an octototal?

Jon Corby wrote:Well done Gev, that's a very impressive time. What does that correspond to in terms of an octototal?

Not sure exactly, but certainly over 900.

Speedwise, 1:24:50 is equivalent to just over 20:06 for a parkrun but for over four parkruns.

Yeah, that kind of thing always staggers me. I think there was a bit in the parkrun news once about a 100,000m runner, and they ran each of their twenty consecutive 5k's comfortably faster than I can do one

Jon Corby wrote:Yeah, that kind of thing always staggers me. I think there was a bit in the parkrun news once about a 100,000m runner, and they ran each of their twenty consecutive 5k's comfortably faster than I can do one

The 10,000m world record is done at pretty much the same speed I run a 200m race at

By the way, the winner of this half marathon did it in under 1:10, and the world record is under an hour! So Corby, you might look up to me (I know you recognise my general superiority as a human being) with a sense of awe, but I also look at these people's times and think "Fuck!"

Ian Volante wrote:

Jon Corby wrote:Yeah, that kind of thing always staggers me. I think there was a bit in the parkrun news once about a 100,000m runner, and they ran each of their twenty consecutive 5k's comfortably faster than I can do one

The 10,000m world record is done at pretty much the same speed I run a 200m race at

The world record is 26:17.53, which is 1577.53 seconds. So divide by 10,000 and multiply by 200 and you get 31.55 seconds. That's a ridiculously fast time to be able to maintain. I don't know what I could do over 200m, but I don't imagine it's much faster than that anyway.