As ever its been a few weeks since my last update, and as I mentioned at the end of October, I was off to my Second Home in Argentina on the 20th November, for a well earned, and well needed vacation, for all of seven (Yes, 7) weeks. Escaping a good part of the winter months, and hopefully getting a fair bit of running in, wearing shorts and t-shirts, rather than layers and waterproofs. By all accounts, I escaped at the right time, with Storm Desmond and his mates reeking havoc on the Emerald Isle. No doubt there will still be some winter for me to endure when I get back in January, but for now, it's sun, sun, sun.....
But I'm getting ahead of myself, as the blog is about recording what I have been doing and how I am progressing as I move slowly (and as a runner, definitely slower than in days gone by) towards another age group, having gone over halfway through my present group in mid-September, so it's all downhill from here on in for the next 27 months... Or so it would seem, but I am not going to let that happen!
My last parkrun before I headed south was at Hartstown on Nov 7th where I recorded a reasonably respectable 26:32 on a damp day, when the Hartstown parkrun was celebrating their 1st Birthday. There were a few from the RSP Group also running on the day, so it was nice to catch up with folk, and after that I headed to Ongar for a slap up breakfast in the Rendezvous Cafe, which clearly is not something I can do on a regular basis, but it is nice to treat myself once in a while. A few days later it was out spectating at the Run In The Dark in Docklands, which did seem to be a little on the side of organised chaos, but all for a good cause, and a few of us braved the weather to cheer as many RSPers in as we could spot. Unfortunately after that, I was unable to squeeze in any running at all before I headed away. Partly because of the pressure of work, what with heading away for 7 weeks, and partly because I tweaked my back, which was a shame, as I had hoped to get in another parkrun before the holiday, but it wasn't to be. Thankfully, it appears that the back issue was only a trapped nerve, as it cleared up withing a few days, but given my history with the back, it was a little worrying.
Anyway, on Friday 20th, I was off, with my running gear all packed, and wearing my RSP Hoodie for the journey - at least until I crossed into the Southern Hemisphere, doubting the need for a hoodie at this time of the year down here. Having said this was a holiday, of course, you will recall that I lived in Argentina for four years, and Paula of course is Argentine, so it is as much a coming home, at least second home, as much as a holiday. A break from work maybe, but back into the routine very quickly, and with the intention of doing as much running as possible, and enjoying the weather (plus getting a tan too!)... To this end, the same day that I arrived in the morning, the evening took me to Puerto Madero, and an 8K Night Race, the Nocturna. Strange thing down here is that 95% of runners wear the Race T-Shirt in the actual Race, going against all the advice about not wearing anything new on Race Day. Well, for me, I wasn't going to be one of the masses, and wore my Runners Support Page T-Shirt with pride, standing out in Green, among the Blue Shirts everyone else was wearing. Nothing wrong with the Race Shirt, I just wanted to advertise #RSP On Tour - Plus I like to wear something I am comfortable in. The Race itself set off in the dark around 8pm (It goes dark earlier here in the summer than at home at an equivalent time), and with nearly 4000 participants it was similar to the Samsung back home, aside from the temps being around 20 degrees. Given I was tired from 30 hours of travelling, I took it nice and steady, followed the dark streets and dark crowds of blue shirted runners, and was glad that quite a few around me had headlamps at certain points where there were no street lights. I finished in a time of 46:57, obviously not my fastest, but turned out I was 1621st out of 3900 participants, not bad considering.
During the week that followed, I got into the habit of running every other day, getting up early before the temps got too hot, as I tried to acclimatize after a year away from this level of heat. Coming back from injury lay off, I don't want to overdo things, so this pattern for the first couple of weeks was the planned approach. Sunday the 29th, saw my second Race of the trip. This time a 10K, the Maraton Consejo. I've mentioned before that they like to call races over any distance a Maraton, it used to annoy me, but you get over it after a while. This was an early start, having to get across to the other side of the Capital, by early morning bus, but giving ourselves plenty of time, I was nicely relaxed when the race started at 8.30 in the morning, but the temps were already climbing into the mid 20's, and while the route was great through the parks of Palermo, there was little shade prevalent, and by 5K I was overheating. I simply took it easy, and reverted to a walk run strategy, and completed the race in 58:40, again, far from my fastest, but an exceptionally well organised Race, and finishing 444th out of 723, despite the slowish time was encouraging - even the locals struggle with the heat!
That brought me to the end of November, and finally I had clocked over 50K for a month. September and October hadn't reached 50 between them despite running a Half Marathon in those months. But with the knee problem, and then the back tweak, it was a relief to be running again, and heading in the right direction. One important thing to remember when coming back from injury, is not to rush things, and try and do too much, too soon, to get back to the level you were at before injury hit. With this in mind, I declined the invitation to take part in the Sanity Claus December Challenges of running every day in December, sticking to my alternate days for now, until the 25th, when, all being well, I will aim to do my own 12 Runs of Xmas Challenge, running each of the 12 days from Xmas Day to Jan 5th, which kicked me off nicely last year for 2015, here's hoping it will do the same for 2016.
One more Race to report to bring you up to date, Last Sunday, I took part in another 10K, this time the Circuito de las Estaciones - Verano. This is a series of 4 races run over the year, one for each season, something akin to our own Dublin Race Series. Obviously I wasn't here for the first three seasons, but looked forward to this run, given the forecasts were saying it might be a little cooler. Instead of the blue t's for the first two races here, this time it was a Green Shirt, so my RSP top didn't stand out as much, in the crowd of over 3,000, with the 5K being run in conjunction with the 10, splitting at around 2.5K into my race, which lead to a congested start, but, given the wide streets in Constanera Sur, where this race was taking place, it wasn't an issue once we got out of the starting pens. It actually was a tad cooler, probably around 20 degrees when we started, and this route had a bit more shade on it than the previous week's race, however, I had spent Saturday afternoon in my old local, catching up with some old friends, watching football, and partaking of a couple of pints more than one should on the eve of a race, so I wasn't exactly 100% for this one. Having said that, I managed to finish in 57:37, a minute quicker than previously, and again, around half way in the field, finishing 873rd out of 1525 for the 10K.
So, that's me up to date. The Temps are due to get hotter as we head into the summer here. I have two more Races lined up here, another 10K this Sunday, again in Puerto Madero, which is an excellent area for Road Races, and then the one I am really looking forward to, the San Silvestre 8K on New Years Eve, where I hope to run a reasonably decent time, although with 5000 participants running through the main tourist parts of the City, it might be hard. I've already been focusing on Upcoming Races back home, and whilst here, I have my entries made for the Raheny 5 Miler at the end of January, and have my Ballycotton 10M entry in for Mar 6th, and am thinking of parkruns to enjoy when I return.
I'll leave you with some pictures from my runs so far, which hopefully will give you a flavour of my time to date - Adios for now, end of year review to follow before I get home.
Oh yes, I hashed as well after the Consejo Race. The photo showing two of us apparently drinking (we were!) was at a Hash House Harriers Run, and my friend, Reuben was getting "punished" as the day before he had ran two races, a 3K and a 5K in the same day, and won them both!
