Chesterfield Half Marathon

Possibly the hardest part of today’s Chesterfield Half Marathon was getting there as the main A617 in to Chesterfield was closed very early and we really had no clue where to go. 

After accosting a marshal, who also didn’t have a clue, we ended up driving down a section of the course that wasn’t on the A617 rather than the bit that was, that they had diverted us away from. Bizarrely we were then directed to re-join A617 closer to the town centre. Having got that far we were then directed to a car park literally in spitting distance of the start in Queen’s Park. So at least that bit was good.

As well as the Half Marathon, there was also a five mile event which L lined up in and both races started at the same time. There was then a split after the first mile and they went on to do the last four miles of our route. 

After a brief sightseeing trip through the centre we were sent on a three mile jaunt out along the aforementioned closed A617 before we left the dual carriageway to follow the way we drove in on, which was a much more minor road. Then back in Chesterfield there was the loop the five milers did before the finish back in Queens Park.

The route, is has to be said, ran better than it drove! My time of 1:46 is nearly two minutes slower that Nottingham but within the bounds of acceptable.

(Sunday 21^st October)

The London Way

On Saturday we get up early-ish and head off to the Parkrun at nearby Mile End. Well, what else do you do on a Saturday morning. There’s no café but an enterprising coffee van fills the void. We then head for breakfast at somewhere stylishly called La Verde at Riverside near Limehouse DLR station. Then it’s back to hotel to put the do not disturb sign on door.

Later we do some sightseeing and check out a pub called the Good Samaritan, which was L’s boss's old haunt when he was a lad studying at the hospital in Whitechapel. There we drink reinvented Watney’s Pale Ale in the shadow of the old brewery that stands in nearby Brick Lane.

Then it’s a trip to the Jack the Ripper museum, which is ok but it really isn’t based on anything substantial. From there we stumble across the Tower of London where they are preparing for tomorrow’s marathon.

Evening drinks are firstly in the White Hart which boasts beers from the One Mile End brewery, sort of. Not many of them are on, so we move on to The Pride of Spitalfields which a real traditional pub, just off Brick Lane, which serves a good pint of ESB or three. Completely flat of course as is the London way.

We had always intended to do a curry on Brick Lane but are completely railroaded into making a choice by the on street sales tactics of one of the restaurants, Monsoon. Not knowing any of these places we decide to take the plunge but naturally the free drink offer they promised didn’t apply to what I wanted to drink.

The next day we again take in breakfast somewhere near Limehouse but this time at a café called Silvia’s before we head back to St Pancras, via the Tower of London again, where we see a bit of the marathon.

(Saturday 5^th August)