Shoes

For running shoes, I always used to buy Asics then I discovered Hokas.  I don't know how or why, but I swear they make me run just a little bit faster.  However, due to the very muddy Parkruns I've had to buy some new shoes that are just for the gym and chose some Brooks.  I'd not heard of Brooks before but they are perfect for treadmill running.  I bought them from a lovely running shop, Metres to Miles tucked away in Epworth along with some long Ronhills for those long cold runs.

I'm assuming that I will run the actual Firelighter race in the Hokas but maybe they will be worn down by then.  I'm not sure how many miles a pair of shoes will last, I've certainly got a lot of miles to run before the 1st September!

Parkruns

There aren't many things that will make me get out of bed on a weekend, but I do make the effort to join our local Parkrun.  Although, sometimes I wonder why I do it when its cold and wet - and I oftern get passed by 5 year olds and 80 year olds!  The last 3 Parkruns have been very muddy which slows me down quite a lot and one week my feet got wet 😒. Thankfully the course has been altered a bit to avoid the worst bits.

I've just completed my 25th Parkrun in a time of 36:26 which is 7.29 mins/km.  My fastest time is 33:50 (assisted by the pacers) and my average (mean) is 36:03. I think these times aren't good but I did come 3rd in my age category of VW50-54.  Although this time isn't very fast it is still faster than I need to complete the Firelighter which I'm aiming for 8.48 mins/km which will give me around 50 mins spare time for checkpoints etc.  I hope that will be fast enough to complete the 57.2km challenge within the 9 hours time 😬