Not Quite Past It Yet

After their endeavours yesterday, L and Daughter marshal at Forest Rec parkrun. Damn, this probably means I’m expected to run. So MD and I do. A time of 25:32 shows that neither of us are quite past it yet.

We hear taht they are trying to set up a new Parkrun in Alvaston Park, which would be good. Whilst we are inundated with Parkruns in Nottingham, ones in Derby are rare beasts indeed. Apparently everything is agreed but they need to pay Parkrun £3,000 as a start up fee, presumably for all the equipment. They are trying to get this through a community scheme that Aviva are running but personally I would have thought going round all the local parkruns with a bucket asking for donations would have done the job.

L then has her tennis, despite the relatively high winds. A least she has a ready made excuse if her shots go astray. I head over to fix my Dad’s internet. He’s been struggling to understand which of his three passwords he has (for his account, his router and his Wi-Fi), he should use where. I talk to his ISP's support for him and translate.

I have a home match and then later in the evening L and I meet up with some friends for our biannual night out. This time it’s a curry at Daughter’s local Masala Junction, the winner of Nottingham's Best Indian award this year, although Daughter appears to have had a better offer. We do drinks first in the nearby Doctor’s Orders and it’s a good night even if the food, while good, is nothing spectacular and we order far too much. 

(Saturday 3^rd November)

Not Getting Any

It’s the second running of the Derby City Half Marathon today which starts from Derby University. In my opinion it has a far better route than the better known Ramathon but pulls a fraction of the field, only 460 finishers today. This is mainly due, I think, to the fact that no one knows about it because it is barely advertised compared with the heavily promoted Ramathon.

The route has had a few tweaks since last year presumably to ease the traffic congestion. The first part is again a lap of Markeaton Park before heading through the city centre which is followed by a long drag through Pride Park to get to Alvaston Park then a long drag back along the river.

There was a definite attempt to keep us off the roads this year and this meant a surprise section on grass through Darley Park. I will pack my trail shoes next time.

Drinks seem to be short supply with the second drinks station at 6 miles and the third at 11 miles, which was a long time to go without a drink. They’d also left one poor bloke on his own to man it.

The mile markers were a problem last year and they didn’t look any more accurate this year either. At mile 11 I appeared to be on course for a corking time of 1:38. The next mile which was all uphill out of Darley Park put paid to this as this mile took me nine minutes but that still left me on course to break 1:40. Sadly the last mile again seem to be super long despite being mostly downhill and I finished in a devastating 1:42:08.

Probably not too devastating though as its two minutes quicker than last year. Onwards now to Leicester in two weeks’ time. Sadly I think they gave me the same medal as last year, the t-shirt was quite good though.

While I’m running, a work colleague tries for Glastonbury tickets on our behalf as I couldn’t have a go with the race and ticket sale both happening at 9am.

My expectations are at about the same level for Glastonbury tickets as they are for me winning the race. Needless to say, he doesn't get any. There's no festival in 2018 so it's a long wait until the next one.

We head out to Caning Circus later. We visit the Falcon again, got to the H&H for food before then visiting the Blue Monkey and the Borlase.

(Sunday 9^th October)

Derby City Half

Apparently it has been 19 years since a half marathon went through the centre of Derby but today they are putting that right. This was something I expected the resurrected Ramathon to deal with in time but they have been beaten to it by the new kid on the block, the Derby City Half. This is a new race from Sporting Futures, the charity who organise the Derby 10K. There is even talk of a full marathon in the future.

With the involvement of Sporting Futures it is perhaps not surprising that huge chucks of the 10k course are used, although in reverse. The race itself starts on Derby University’s Kedleston Road complex and incorporates three city parks into the race.

The field is relatively small with around 600 in it. I’m not sure if this is deliberate for year one but it’s actually not a bad turnout considering the lack of advertising. If it causes traffic chaos then it should achieve sufficient publicity to massively increase its numbers for next year.

First up on the route is Markeaton Park where it’s all twists and turns on gravel paths before we’re heading back past the start and off down Kedleston Road which is straight and slightly downhill. So it’s a fast start and I’m already up on schedule.

Then we are straight through the centre of town, which is nice and with plenty of people out supporting including my nearest and dearest. L has been running, so hasn’t got the boys with her to cheer me along on this occasion.

The route incorporates the good bits of the 10k course but also the bad bits e.g. it’s a long dull drag across Pride Park to get to Alvaston Park where my father is loitering then a long dull drag back alongside the A52.

We then head out to the third and finally park, Darley Park, taking in part of the course of another Derby race, the Colin Potter 10k, before heading back to the city centre and then back to the University.

All the way through I am comfortably up on my pace, I was looking for a 1:44 but should smash that. However throughout the mile markers left something to be desired and the 13 mile marker arrived with around half a mile still to run which they crammed into the alleged last .1 of a mile. Several people reported that even then it was only 12.9 miles but I can’t confirm that.

The finish was seriously uphill but other than that it was pretty flat and I finished in 1:42:49. I'll take that.

Loved the race and I'll be back next year. It’s on a great date as well, midway between the other local city halves at Nottingham and Leicester. So hopefully they won't move it. It throws down the gauntlet to the Ramathon, Derby's other half despite a cheap looking medal and t-shirt. There was also a lack of drinks stations, luckily I had L on hand producing extra ones for me.

My parents come up for Sunday lunch afterwards and to see our new revamped abode. Then in the evening we head to the Horse and Jockey at Stapleford for a few drinkies.

(Sunday 11^th October)