Progress Report: 4 Weeks Back In Training

Sunday 12th January marks being back in training only 4 weeks. In those 4 weeks I have also ran in 2 races, very steadily. Sometimes near the end of a run I feel I can muster some short spurts or sprints but not far and not for very long. Need to be running steadily anyway whilst my fitness is rebuilt.

My first week of Jantastic doing 3 runs a week went well with the 2nd week just beginning.

Although time is irrelevant to me at the moment it is a good way of measuring my fitness and whether or not it is improving. I ran in the New Years Day 10k and the January 5k Prom Race with the following times and paces:

Race	Time	Pace Per Mile
New Years Day 10K	61.38	9.55
January Prom Race 5k	29.12	9.23

By my calculations that is an improvement of 32 seconds per mile, which isnt a great deal but can only be regarded as a sign of improving fitness. There was only 1 training run of 5 miles done between both these races. For January and early february the plan is to carry on doing steady runs but no speedwork just yet. Wont attack any ‘proper’ cross country training till February when I feel much fitter to tackle the terrain.

Here are reports in my local paper, the Grimsby Telegraph, about the following races: New Years Day 10k, January Prom Race 5k

When the Duchess Met the Games Maker (me) – Part 1

On 5th March 2013 Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, came to my town. Having been a fan of admirer of all the young royals including Kate, I decided I wanted to go and see her. The nearest place to me she was visiting was the National Fishing Heritage Centre. The day before she came I decided I would go and see her in my Games Maker uniform as she had been at London 2012 and been a great supporter of the event.

Expecting a large crowd it seemed a good idea to get there as early as possible so got myself to the National Fishing Heritage Centre for 7.30am and was the 2nd person there. Next thing I know I am being interviewed by local news ‘Look North’ less than an hour later. Whilst waiting a photo of myself and the crowd is posted on the Viking FM twitter

Due to freezing fog the Duchess was delayed by at least an hour. It was really cold for me in my Games Maker uniform which was designed for Summer, not freezing fog. Was so glad when she finally arrived. After waving to the crowds, talking to the dignitaries and taking a tour of the centre, Kate decided to greet the crowds. All the time I had planned to come see the Duchess I had hoped I might get a chance to talk to her. The closer she came my heart began beating a lot quicker. As she came along I took quite a few photos of the event. Closer and Closer she came and then…the Duchess saw me and spoke to me!

The first thing the Duchess of Cambridge said to me was “I recognise that uniform” referring to my Games Maker uniform then she asked what I had done at the Olympics. We also talked about the Olympics in general, the sports she liked as I remembered she liked Hockey. It was quite a long chat and I made her laugh at one point. I really enjoyed the chat. Not only did she look fantastic but she was easy to talk to and down to earth. After that she spoke to more of the crowd and left. Shortly after she left I was interviewed for ‘Calendar’ and a few other journalists including many from the national papers. I was also interviewed by a journalist from Lincs FM/Compass FM who got some quotes from myself and the first person there.

To my complete surprise, due to a tip off from a friend, I later discovered a photo of myself talking to the Duchess of Cambridge in most of the national newspapers. A fantastic photo. This one below:

Even more surprising is how widespread this photo was published. In addition to which my local paper The Grimsby Telegraph had photos of me in it for 4 days consecutively as well. Here are some of the sites I have found to date with that photo to be published with links. Will add more when i find them:

 

 The Daily Express. It was on page 5 in the paper version

 

 

 

 

ITV Website. It made a few appearances on that website

 

 

 

 

A BBC News Gallery of her visit to Grimsby

 

 

 

 

The Daily Mail. A slightly different one a but great one of the Duchess whilst she is talking to me. As you can see, I made her laugh!

 

 

 

Sky News

 

 

 

 

MSN News

 

 

 

 

ITV News again

 

 

 

 

My favourite place of all: The Duchess of Cambridge’s own official website

 

 

 

There was also lots of video footage taken on the day of the event by news broadcasters etc but will save that for another post.

St Andrews Hospice Santa Run 2012

It was very cold this morning but such a nice day and couldnt wait to get going, partly because i wanted to keep warm. Not long after arriving at St James House in St James Square in Grimsby, loads of Santas arrived, some of them four legged – in their Santa suits. Knew 2 of them personally. The Grimsby Telegraph was there taking photos of some of the Santas and including a pic of all of us in a group so it should be in the paper in the next few days.

Being a Fun Run and not a race it was still my intention to run it as fast as possible with the aim of about 17 mins. The course was 3 circuits amounting to 2 miles. Unfortunately a few minutes in a wardrobe malfunction occurred again. This time the belt didnt snap, it slid down but left my Santa pants unsupported. As a result I was once again running the course holding my pants up! Dont worry Folks I was wearing my normal running gear underneath .i.e. running shorts and t-shirt!

As I had predicted earlier my fellow Clee AC clubmate Jon Dollery, who was also running as a Santa, was the first one back! Knowing his pace he probably did it in about 12 mins. My stopwatch had me finishing in 17.05 which bodes well for the 5k on Tuesday, despite my little malfunction.

Donations are not due in till March 2013 so either donate to me personally or use my donation page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JasonNeilson

St Andrews Childrens Hospice, Grimsby can be found at http://www.standrewschildrenshospice.com/

This afternoon I attended a service at Grimsby Minster in memory of Laura Mcphee, the girl who I ran the Hull Marathon for earlier in the year. The charity can be found at http://lauramcpheememorial.webs.com. Please Support them. The service was really nice.

Clee AC 5K Series 2012…So Far

October 5K Results: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Finley-Thompson-wins-2012-13-Cleethorpes-5k-road/story-17030846-detail/story.html

November 5K Results: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Record-field-latest-Cleethorpes-AC-winter-5K-race/story-17275863-detail/story.html

It is always my aim in any race to beat my previous time and next Tuesday it will be no different at the December 5K. My time in October was 26.01 which was followed by a time of 25.57 in November, quicker by only 4 seconds.

The race is hosted by my running club, Cleethorpes Athletics Club, and should be able to reach my target due to some Hill reps and a little bit off road running I have done since. With my aim to run at 8.30 mins a mile the target for the 5K will be 25.30. Should I be able to run quicker I will do so. I am going to do it!! Hopefully the weather will be a little kinder next week but wont bet on it.

Results above of all the runners in the previous races are from my local paper the Grimsby Telegraph

When The Running Bug First Bit

I first succumbed to running Fever or to be more precise, when I first discovered that I enjoyed running back in September 2009. It was a Fun Run, specifically the Lumbard Fun Run.

My friend Annette from my local wargames club had shown an interest in doing the Lumbard Fun Run that year and she had always ran in it in previous years in addition to which she had been seeking sponsorship. Initially I just wanted to go down to the Fun Run, support her and cheer her on and then I thought: instead of just supporting her, why dont I actually run the race with her? It was then I decided to take part in the Fun Run itself. Unfortunately I only decided to take part in the Fun Run just over a week before it took place so only had a short period of time to raise sponsorship for the event. The charity I chose to help on this occasion was Cancer Research UK. Being a member of a gym at that time the only running training I had was on a treadmill.

Both Annette and myself decided we were going to do it in Fancy Dress so there was some discussion over what we both might wear for the event. It was not until the actual day itself that we both saw our costumes. Being a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean I had hired an excellent Pirate outfit from Twinkles Fancy Dress at Cleethorpes and Annette had become dressed as a bumblebee. For this Fun Run Annette also brought her lovely dog Flash with her and with whom she ran with. Flash was an incredibly enthusiastic runner on this day and he practically dragged her along. I ran with both of them and we all completed the 4 mile course in 45 minutes although there was a litttle bit of walking involved. It was during this run that I found I actually enjoyed the running.

The Lumbard Fun Run was won by Sam Atkin, then 16, of Lincoln Wellington Athletics Club in 19 minutes 24 seconds. As far as I am aware The Lumbard Fun Run has not taken place in Grimsby since then, which is a shame. It was a great event and loads of people took part.

Before the event both myself and Annette were photographed by the Grimsby Telegraph who talked to both of us about the event. Both the photos of myself and Annette and the write up of the event were published in the Grimsby Telegraph on September 21st, 2009. Photos of the article can be seen below:

 

The Grimsby Telegraph article on the Lumbard Fun Run in 2009 is still available online at: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/RACERS-RUN-RIOT-TRIBUTE/story-11547850-detail/story.html

New Years Day 10K 2012 and Some Of Its History

This year was the second year I had taken part in the New Years Day 10K and as usual it was a great event to be part of with hundreds of runners taking part. Before the event it was my understanding that 481 had entered the race but only 421 participated and completed it. My plan this year was just to improve on last year’s time which was 1 hr 4 mins with the aim of completing in an hour or less. Having managed to get to the start line without a hangover having drunk only a bottle of cider and a can of Stella Artois – the lager, not the cider – the night before I was nevertheless still feeling a little tired when the race began. The night before I had gone to Clee AC Chairman Andrew Gristwood’s New Year Eve Party at his house, which was excellent as always. Unlike some runners I know I find it impossible to run with a hangover but thankfully I did not have one.

Uncertain of the weather which turned out to be good running conditions, I actually wore last years New Years Day 10K T-shirt under my Clee AC vest. Over Christmas i had been feeling very under the weather and very “wiped out” so had only ran twice in the week building up till New Year mainly due to having a really bad cold and very bad cough. In the early hours of Christmas Eve I had been sick several times as well. At least in 2011 I did not have a really bad cold to run with on the first day of the year.

The New Years Day 10K 2012 was the beginning of Week 5 of my marathon training. The plan this year was to start at the back behind all the other runners as had been suggested to me by other runners beforehand as I was informed I would have a better race. That was exactly what i did. I may have set off a little too quick it was impossible to tell this time as I had accidentally forgotten my stopwatch which is highly unusual for me as I always run wearing it. After the first few circuits I found I had got myself into a steady pace which I had managed to keep going throughout without stopping. Before exiting Chichester Avenue into Taylor’s Avenue at the 5km mark, I clearly heard the Marshall call my time as 29 mins 56 seconds. It was then I realised I was running close to my steady pace of about 10 mins a mile. After running down Taylor’s Avenue the route turned left and headed towards the Beachcomber past the entrance to the Country Park. Once the Beachcomber was in my sights I started to feel much better as the finish line was only a short distance down Kings Road from that point. Crossing over the small bridge above a small stream there I decided to quicken my pace a little to the finish line and was glad to have finally finished the race. Up to the 5km mark I was unusually tired which I would not normally be after running 3 miles. I thoroughly enjoyed the race. There were plenty of people supporting us runners along the route and at the end as normally happens. My finish time, according to Clee AC, was 1 hr 1 mins 15 seconds. The Results of the 10K race can be downloaded from the Cleethorpes Athletics Club website as a pdf by clicking here. It seems this year was only an improvement on my time by 3 minutes so I look forward to completely trashing any of my times so far in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above are some screenshots of the Grimsby Telegraph article on the New Years Day 10K 2012 on their website. The Article itself can be found here: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Athletics-Brown-wins-Clee-10k-race/story-14305324-detail/story.html

Recently an article had been published in the Grimsby Telegraph detailing the history of the New Years day 10K race. Although I had missed the actual article I read it online on the Grimsby Telegraph website. To my surprise it turns out the race had first been ran on New Years Day 1976, shortly after the Cleethorpes Athletics Club had been formed! I would have been 3 when that first race had been run. Read the article yourself by Colin Wright on the Grimsby Telegraph website here: http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/RACING-NEW-YEAR/story-14208571-detail/story.html

To see photos of the New Years Day 10K, please follow these links:

Great 10K Cleethorpes Run – Gallery on the Grimsby Telegraph website by a member of the public
Cleethorpes 10K 2012 photos from the Wolds Vets Photostream
Cleethorpes 10K 2012 photos by Adrian Royle
Cleethorpes 10K 2012 photos by Geoff Pinchbeck
Cleethorpes 10K Photos by Paul Mortimer

Before closing this post I thought I would have a little look back on last year’s race:

 

Here is a clipping from the Grimsby Post which republished the details of the New Years Day 10K last year. On this occasion I was wearing a Santa Suit which, feeling in a festive mood, I decided to wear just for fun. Thats me on the bottom left of the clipping. In 2011 I ran the race in 1 hr 4 mins.

 

 

 

 

Here is the entire Article on the New Years Day 10K race in the Grimsby Post. Last year the race was won by Gregan Clarkson.

 

 

 

 

On a entirely different note if there are any of you out there with a running website or running blog just leave a comment on here with your website/blog address and I shall be happy to link back to you.