Greek holidays, hot sun and a new running venue

Just back from 2 weeks' holiday on the beautiful Greek island of Samos, where the temperature started high and got higher, reaching 39 degrees at one point. So a good time to enjoy the delicious food, relaxation at the beach, floating and swimming in the Aegean and the hotel pool, and a bit of sightseeing around the island.

The temperature meant it wasn't great weather for running, and I originally didn't plan to do any at all, but we took our shoes and shorts along on the offchance and in the end we did 4 short runs, 2 at either end of the holiday when the temperatures were marginally cooler.

Running at a leisurely pace and in the early morning also helped, and running along a beautiful coastline with the prospect of fresh fruit, Greek yoghurt and honey for breakfast was a nice reward for toiling up the hills in the heat.

So around 12 unexpected Greek miles to add to the June miles total - which I'd expected to be rather modest due to the holidays.

Back home and the weather in the UK is pretty hot too, albeit not quite in the same league as Greece. Since getting back I've managed a couple of trips to Dulwich, doing 5 and 4 miles, and also a visit to Fairlands Valley Park in Stevenage, a nice park with lots of scope for long runs alongside a couple of artificial lakes and through trees. It's a long thin park, split by a road, but a lap of the larger part of the park is around 2.5 miles, so it probably covers a similar area to Greenwich Park, and it's a lot quieter. There are some gentle hills too, although not quite in the Greenwich league.

But all in all a good venue for running when we visit Hertfordshire. On Saturday I did a couple of big laps and one smaller lap for a total of 5.9 miles. Just over 44 miles so far in June, with my total for the year now at 415 miles.

While I was on holiday I read a really inspiring book: Born to Run by Christopher MacDougall. It's a difficult book to categorise but at its heart the messages are clear: the human species originally survived, and then thrived, as a result of our ability to do endurance running; our bodies are capable of much more than we believe, as long as we eat well (avoiding processed food as much as possible), keep hydrated, and run easy - running is meant to be, and feel like, fun; and modern, expensive running shoes which provide a lot of support and cushioning and promote heel striking rather than forefoot running, actually cause, rather than prevent injury.

It's a book which taught me a lot and I'll be trying to put some of it in action from now on.

Since my last blog entry I've signed up for a few more races: I'm going to do the BUPA London 10000 again, in May 2011; I've signed up for the New Forest Half Marathon on 26th September this year and, next year, I'm going for the big one: 26 miles 385 yards at the Brighton Marathon on Sunday 10th April 2011.

Lots more about those in races in future blog entries....

Success !

Big success at the BUPA 10000 on Monday - I finished in 54:14, well ahead of my 55 minute target... 8m 44s per mile, and while it didn't feel easy it certainly felt a lot more comfortable than the first 2 10ks I did back in 2008.

The weather turned out to be perfect for running: cool and grey but not much wind. As with all BUPA races the start was really well-organised - I was in wave 4 out of 9 and having got there early I was right up at the front of my pen so got off to a nice clean start.

As usual a large proportion of people sprinted away at the start - not sure about the point of that unless you're elite - better to finish strong than start strong - but anyway, I went off comfortably and reached the 1km mark on Embankment in 5:49. As I started to warm up my pace picked up and I did 5:28 and 5:21 for the next 2km, putting me nicely on target for 55 minutes. The race leaders passed in the opposite direction at this point - fantastic pace they keep up and it's like watching a different sport when you see their leg extension and length of stride.

The course was basically very flat but the fourth km into the City contained the only real hill so my 4th km was a little slower at 5:32. The streets around the City were quite narrow and there were a few kerbs to watch out for and the enclosed spaces meant it started to get a litle hot, although they had showers set up around here which were welcome. I passed the half-way mark in 27:34, so still right on schedule.

Exactly 5:30 for km 6, and then a bit of downhill back onto Embankment, with kms 7 and 8 taking me 5:23 and 5:17. This stretch seemed to pass very slowly although it was probably worse for the people running the opposite way knowing they still had 8km to go.

The turn off Embankment onto Horse Guards was very welcome, especially as Sophie was waiting there to cheer me on, and the 9th km took me 5:18. Turning up Whitehall I knew I was on target for a good time and just tried to keep my pace up until the final turn into The Mall and under Admiralty Arch. The last 400 metres were a lot more comfortable than my previous two 10ks and I managed a little sprint to make my last 1km the fastest of the race in 5:16, bringing me home in 54:18 according to my watch, although the "official" chip time was 4 seconds quicker.

A really enjoyable run and a well-organised race - and thanks to generosity of my sponsors I raised over £200 for Cure Parkinson's Trust.

A big thank you also to Sophie for supporting and photographing me on the day - and for all the support she gives me the rest of the time.

So... back to the 750 mile challenge: my total for May was an excellent 80.31 miles, and three runs this week have taken my overall total past the half-way mark to 382.6 miles. So still ahead of schedule.