Brighton half

Yesterday my training plan took a more social turn, as I ran the planned half marathon with around 10,000 others. Thankfully I didn't need to talk to all of them!

Oddly, despite living in the city for 13 years, and this being my fourth time running a half marathon, this was the first time I'd run the one in Brighton. My first half, in 2017, was in Worthing, purely because a friend had suggested I do it and I couldn't think of a reason not to. 2018 and 2019 were focusing on marathon attempts of various degrees of success, and 2020 was hastily moved to Eastbourne after the Worthing one was called off due to a storm. The late notice of that postponement meant that Brighton was fully booked, so further along the coast I went. 2021 didn't have many races for some reason, and 2022 saw me finally cashing in the literal rain check at Worthing. 

The marathon training plan I've been using called for a half marathon on the 26th of February, the same date as Brighton's half was on, so it made sense to go to the one I could catch a bus to. I'd rested and stretched, and stretched and rested, and was 98% confident that my body could hold up. 

The day was intended as a trial run for the full marathon five weeks hence, and started well with a bus trip into town. I'd packed everything I needed for during the run (drinks, gels, protein bar) and after (deodorant, change of clothes, phone charger, more deodorant) in a handy cool bag and lumbered Dana with it, who dragged herself out early on a Sunday morning on support duties despite being unwell. I ran through the spots with her for where I could see her, and get a supply drop, and posed for photos by the pier before we parted. 

James, look at the birds!

I waded through the crowds and found my starting pen. My estimated time of 2 hours to 2 hours 15 was inaccurate - I intended to run at race pace for the full marathon, 7:07 per km, which would see a finish of around 2 hours 30. I tucked myself away near the back of the pen, getting warm in the sun that had broken through the clouds. I mulled over whether sunglasses would have been better, but decided against it - I would only have a short time running east with the sun in my eyes, as the final return to the finish line would be around midday and the sun would be higher (if it reappeared). I overheard other runners discussing their targets, and chuckled to myself. I wasn't running for a particular time - in fact, I emphatically didn't want a new personal best, as this would involve running a full minute and a half faster than my intended pace per km. Instead my goals were trying to stick to race pace, not injuring myself further and hatching as many eggs as I could in Pokemon Go!

The race started and we shuffled forward the 450m to the timing mats at the start line. I played a familiar psych-up tune, focusing on the run ahead. I ambled round the front of the aquarium and up the only real incline of the run - or so I thought. I knew Dana would be on the inside just past the bus stop so positioned myself to pose for photos. 

I look happier than the two chaps flanking me.

The route along Marine Parade is one I'd done regularly on my Sunday runs, but usually a) on the pavement and b) running west, so this was a pleasant change. I was a bit miffed to not hear my name called out - I'd had it emblazoned on my chest for a reason (attention), was it all for nothing? The crowd thinned out and I switched to a podcast episode for the out and back to Roedean. Round by the cafe, and to distract myself from the smell of bacon sandwiches I checked my pace to find that I was running at 1:50 minutes per kilometre! If I kept this pace up I'd obliterate the half marathon world record by around 15 minutes! This was obviously a GPS glitch and I paid it avid attention for the next few minutes until it settled down to something more sensible, glad that I wouldn't need to replace my watch. 

I scoffed my first energy gel on the slope down to the first water station, finding a bin to dispose of my litter and using the supplied water to cool myself down. I'd got enough drinks with me to stay hydrated, so the water was just about reducing my body temperature. I chuntered along back towards town, being passed by people running their own race, keeping an eye out for Dana and thanking the volunteers who had given up their morning to enable the race to go ahead. By scanning the crowd and making eye-contact with more people I got more cheers and shout-outs from the watching public, so that's clearly where I was going wrong during the first few km when I was largely ignored. Down the initial incline and I spotted Dana, so posed again. 

I never outgrow my MySpace camwhore phase

The route swung away from the seafront and up through Brighton, along a route I'll take in the full marathon. My pace wasn't too taxing so I had a nice time taking in the architectural delights. I passed a runner from a local running club called The Eagles - even though, on this long run, I was taking it easy. I amused myself thinking of more Eagles song titles I could cram into this report, which you'll be pleased to know I managed to forget. One of these nights I'll remember them. Back down towards the sea and I had my second energy gel, diverting from the course across a cycle lane to a nearby bin, much to the amusement of a nearby runner who thought I'd just given up and dashed off to the pub! Passing the Pavilion I hit the halfway mark, and got a surge of speed. Whether that was from the gel kicking in, or Carly Rae Jepsen's Run Away With Me playing on my headphones, I'll let you decide. I was going at a comfortable enough pace to sing along, regardless! 

An iconic sight, with the Pavilion as my backdrop

I saw Dana for the last time, and swapped out my empty water bottle for a cool, full one, then headed into Hove. This was a fairly straight run along the seafront, familiar territory, and I kept an eye out for friends I thought might be cheering. I motored along the Kingsway, enjoying a steady pace, smiling and waving, and almost soaking the poor woman behind me at the water station. We passed the King Alfred Leisure Centre and I was on familiar turf, the route of my regular flat 10k to the power station (albeit we'd be turning by the Lagoon instead). The last time I ran this route my Achilles protested - but that was after 3km, and by now I'd racked up five times that distance. 

Coping better with the distance than others

Around this time I felt a familiar wobble. A bit of a dizzy spell, but no matter, I was prepared for this. I slowed down on the approach to the Lagoon and scarfed down a protein bar. A few spectators mistook this as me struggling and shouted out cheers of encouragement - to which I rebutted that I was fine, just having my tea break! Not thirty seconds after I picked up my pace again I heard my name being called out with far more enthusiasm, and spotted Adam and Simone from my parkrun cheering me on. This helped spur me on, and I turned back towards the finish line, 5k away. 

Five kilometres. It's a parkrun, it's nothing. It's a fifth of my run the week before, I'd already covered three times that. I eventually got my head to think of the remaining distance as that, a much more digestible term than running from Portslade, across most of Hove and Brighton to the Volk's railway. I took my final energy gel, a more water based one which immediately coated both hands in stickiness the instant I opened it, and soldiered on. The beachfront promenade between the Lagoon and the leisure centre is quite narrow so I don't usually run along it, so had no real concept of how well I was doing. It opened out on familiar terrain and I picked up, aided by the sight of two colleagues who had given up their Sunday to come out and cheer for me. 

The final water station, and I stopped to wash my hands and soak my head. Three kilometres to go, and barring a brief top up of my bottle from a water fountain I've used many times before, it was all go from here. There wouldn't be any more wasted time, I'd take it to the limit. I didn't realise at the time, but I was in a much better mental state than those around me. 

I swear I've not been photoshopped into this picture.

The course swung back from the prom to the Kingsway by the Angel Of Peace statue, giving me a fresh view on things, as I normally run alongside the beach from there. The crowds thickened and I sauntered towards the finish line, responding to supportive comments in kind. My watch bleeped 20km done as I passed the cinema and I let Dana know that I was around five minutes away. I fought the urge to speed up for a sprint finish - I didn't know how much I had left in the tank and didn't want to blow up too early. We passed the pier and I was dismayed to see the finish line wasn't as close as I remembered - still 500m away. Passing several runners being attended to by medical personnel, I saw a line opening up ahead of me and positioned myself to practice my planned finish line pose for the full marathon.

Five seconds before finishing

I crossed the timing mats again, leaping up and punching the air in delight. "This will make a cracking photo" I thought, as the MC gave me a shout-out for my spectacular finish. 

There was a man running a minute or so ahead with me carrying a 25kg fridge on his back. Fair play to him for doing it, and breaking a world record in the process, but his finish drew a lot of attention, and the crowd around him meant that my finish line photo wasn't quite as cool as I would have liked. 

About to lay the smack down on this volunteer

I found Dana, then decided to stop clogging up the finish chute. We sat on the beach and I used the ice packs which had been cooling my drinks to ice my Achilles as recommended. (I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty chuffed with the dual purpose to these.) Were it not for that I felt fine, well enough to find food, but I figured the person with a degree in Sports Science knows more than someone who eschewed exercise for the first thirty years of his life, so I sat and chilled. After rehydrating, and posing for more photos, we went off in search of food, walking without issue. 

A proud finisher

A proud finisher, six years previously. 

Compare and contrast.

After a few days rest, the training plan resumes at the weekend with the longest run in the schedule - 32k/20 miles, and I'm gonna throw in some hills too! 

 

Slowing down

 I'm never going to get another PB.

For those of you not in the running world, PB means Personal Best. I have a chalkboard on our living room door, made for me one Christmas by my lovely wife, on which I have my PB times for a 5k (3.2 miles), 10k (6.4 miles), half marathon (21.1k/13.1 miles) and marathon (42.2k/26.2 miles) distances. It also has a place for my race numbers, and hooks to hang my medals on.

Every time I've broken my PB in the past, I've come home and wiped the old, outdated time off the board before my shower. (Usually using the sweatband drenched in the efforts of the record breaking run - I'm not sure if this is superstitious, or just gross.) This was a fairly regular occurance - one of my resolutions at the start of 2020 was to get a new PB at least five times, which I managed at the end of September by breaking the 10k PB I'd set back in January. I broke the September PB in January of 2021, and with the return of parkrun later in the year I gradually chipped away at my 5k times, bringing it down to 24:18 in November 2021.

So what's changed? Well, for a start, I've stopped doing such a physical job. Six months ago I left a role that was soul-destroying but excellent for my fitness - I'd regularly cycle 12k a day, and walk a further 15 - for an office job. More restful, but my tummy has grown while my stamina has dropped. The Worthing Half in late April would've been ideal - a few weeks out from leaving that dreadful role, still with the residual fitness but after a few weeks of rest - except the heat, a boring course and issues with my sciatic nerve meant my time was two minutes slower than my last half marathon, which took place two years before and on a harder course. 

No matter, I could take the handbrake off and really go for it after that, right? Well, no. Coming back from a weekend in Cologne I felt a bit rough, coughing a bit and generally feeling unwell. After a quick test it turned out I'd contracted the wonderful COVID-19 virus, and while I only missed a weekend of running due to it, the after-effects took a while to get over. I started telling myself that it was the heat, as by the time I was up and running again it was mid-June, the temperatures were exceeding 20 degrees and I never do well in that weather. 

I was lying to myself. My 5k time since has been around the 26/27 minute mark, I've not had a 10k take less than an hour, and I've found myself slowing to walk during longer runs too. The virus and the slovenly job have taken their toll on my body. I'm not as fit as I was six months ago. My last 5k PB was set nearly a year ago, my last 10k PB in January this year (52:30). Comparing my times post-COVID I'm around 10% slower. 

I'm never going to get another PB...and that's ok. I've had a good run. Heck, a decade ago I did no exercise at all, now I'm annoyed because I'm prohibited from running this weekend. I'm much fitter and healthier than I was back then, and given the way the body ages, I was going to hit a point where I'd never get another PB. At least this way I'm aware of it and can pinpoint it, rather than realising I hadn't got one in a year, pushing my body harder than it is capable of, and doing myself damage. I've reached my peak, and now starts the gentle decline, as my body ages. As long as I can keep my 5k time in minutes smaller than my age in years, I'll be happy. 

Hove Story (James's Version)

At the end of last year, I was in a bit of a running rut. My attempts at crowdsourcing routes/distances/soundtracks were ok, but I could sense that the appeal amongst my followers would rapidly wane. I needed something new to keep me going - in the continuing absence of parkrun I'd need another spark to fire my running neurons. A post on the running subreddit (since sadly deleted) provided that spark. I could run every avenue, road, crescent, villas, street, drive, close, way, mews, terrace, walk, grove, square, gardens, lane, leas, brow, croft, esplanade, place, rise, dene, and green in my town!

But where to begin? I found a useful (and free!) website in Citystrides which, when combined with my Strava account, would show me everywhere I've ever run - in Hove and elsewhere. It would be useful to have a visual indication of which streets I'd covered, and which I still needed to go. I deal very well with statistics, and having a list of streets to tick off would greatly benefit me - being able to put a number on my progress was a massive help! 

I Wanna Know What Hove Is

I also needed to define where I was running. Hove hasn't been a separate town since 1997, when it merged with next door to become Brighton & Hove. An afternoon searching for a boundary map just showed the borders of the unified city - I was unsure if I'd complete all of Hove in a calendar year, and didn't want to add the larger area to an already daunting goal! I sought other methods to define the area. Historical maps, while a fascinating way to pass a few hours, were not forthcoming, and the telephone dialling code of 01273 covered an area that made me whimper like a chilly puppy. It did send me down a promising rabbit hole though and I realised that the outgoing postcode area of BN3 fit squarely over Hove. A browse on Google Maps for landmarks to signify this both old and new (the name of the alleyway, and the change in parking zones) confirmed this. 

This made things easier for my spreadsheet - there are a few sites that list every postcode in a certain postal area, and a copy and paste with some formatting tweaks gave me a solid list to start. Next to the list of roads were two columns to check each road off - one to signify I'd run the street prior to 1st January 2021, and one for 2021 and beyond. I'd run approximately 25% of the roads in Hove before, as part of my normal runs, and wasn't sure if I'd manage all of Hove in a year so wanted to give myself a cushion in case it proved to be too tricky. A third column turned green (from red) when I'd run a street - a nice visual indicator. 

I'm Outta Hove

Looking at the spread of Hove on a map, our flat is based fairly centrally. The town was my oyster, I could go in any direction to start, rather than needing to (say) head west for every run, duplicating the first km or two nearly each time I'd go out. I elected to cover the south east corner for my first run, on new year's morning. I realised that 9am on new year's day during a government lockdown would be the smartest time to run down Hove's main shopping street and that was the first street I completed in full, sprinting down deserted cobbles. I pushed on further towards the seafront, doubling-back around some minor streets as I passed them, and running along the north side of the seafront road Kingsway, covering the small parallel streets mostly used for parking that I knew would come to haunt me if I ignored them. I hopped back and forth across the border between Brighton and Hove, zig-zagging around listening to Poppy and cursing the Georgian architects for their love of little fiddly mewses. My times for this run were slower than usual, partly as I was planning my route on the fly (and thus peering at Google Maps on my phone) and partly due to the hangover. I finished with a satisfying 5% of the streets ticked off, and had a well-earned nap that afternoon!

Hove Minus Zero

Ten days later, and a chilly start to the morning blew away some cobwebs! I wanted to cover more of the south east side, so built on the previous run to cover some more streets. Another run of route planning on the fly - I knew which area I wanted to cover, but the order of streets was done en route leading to several unnecessary doublebacks. I crossed to the opposite embankment on the bridges across the railway - while I wasn't going to finish those roads in this run, I did future James a favour by saving him a few metres of running when he came back to complete those roads! An 80's hair metal playlist soundtracked this run, which included a frosty sprint past the place Dana and I held our wedding reception. Again, to help future me, I covered the fiddly little mewses off the long straight road, leaving that road to a sprint another time. I ignored the road leading to a trading estate on the old goods yard - Lyon Close didn't look like a proper road after all, more like a private road. I also added a street to my list - Julian Road doesn't have any properties facing onto it, so hasn't got a postcode assigned! I'd need to keep an eye out for this in the future.

Gimmie Hove

(These song title puns are going to be a constant thing, just to warn you.)

The following weekend, I decided that the western side of Hove needed some love. Half of Old Shoreham Road would get covered; several small estates either side would be ticked off as I passed. (Not the little stub of a road - English Close - next to Hove cemetery, though. That was to another trading estate, so didn't count, right?) This was a cold, soggy run, but I was honing my route planning skills now. I divided the run into segments for each estate and reducing the amount of double-backs from the previous runs. What looked to be a trio of cross streets on Google Maps turned out to be a row of garages - these didn't have a street name so could be safely ignored, unless I needed to use them as a shortcut! At 11k I still had some run left in me, so ticked off another small area near Hove Park and took the run to a total of 13k. A bit of a change up for my soundtrack this time, too - a half hour comedy podcast first, and then my running playlist on shuffle.

Sea Of Hove

One of the more concerning aspects of the last few runs was that they were taking a lot out of me. After each run I'd needed an hour long nap in the afternoon, not something that had been necessary post-run in years. I wasn't sure whether it was a side-effect of having to think more while running (planning a route was requiring more thought than just running) or a consequence of not having had any caffeine since the turn of the year. To test this and work out what to tweak going forward, I didn't plan a run to tick off any streets - just to run down along the straight flat road to the power station (in Portslade) and see whether this would tire me out enough to need a nap. I pushed myself a bit faster than I had done for the last few runs as well. Seven km in and I was flying, so tweaked my route back to cover a portion of the Kingsway. The streets around this part of Hove were laid out in a grid formation (thank you interwar street planners!) so when I returned to cover this area I could run along the parallel New Church Road to start, then work my way back going up and down the north/south aligned streets without worrying about "filling in" the gaps on either east/west road. I turned up Walsingham Road and stopped my run when it beeped at the 10k mark...5 metres from the end of the road. I realised my mistake, let off a string of words only usually used when Gillingham concede a last minute equaliser, restarted my watch and logged my shortest run on Strava!

Your Hove Keeps Lifting Me Higher

A lack of nap after the last week's run showed that it was the en route thinking, rather than lack of caffeine, that was wearing me out. The caffeine break was only for January, so I needed to change things going forward. I tweaked my pre-run morning routine and actually planned a route in advance, rather than just picking a direction and figuring it out on the go! Using the Notes app on my phone I kept a list of roads to run in the order that I'd take them. I'd still need to refer to a map on the go but it would only be for a glance rather than any real thought. I headed off to the furthest point from home while still being in Hove, in the north west corner; it turned out to be a post-war estate of bungalows overlooking Benfield Valley. With over 250m of climbing and plenty of double-backs this didn't set any personal best times, but I got to see new places, and get 16km under my belt. Partway round I noticed that I tended to run in a clockwise direction, keeping to the left side of the street, and taking more right turns than left. I wondered if this was why my left ankle had been aching lately (as that would be required to "push off" more when turning) and tried to keep things roughly equal between my ankles from then on. I've not had a peep of complaint from either joint since, so that was good to resolve! I'd also settled into a regular routine with my soundtracks of 30 minutes of comedy (thank you BBC Radio 4) and the rest of the time filled with my personal best playlist on shuffle. 

Higher Hove

While my ankles were now in a better condition, one downside to that realisation is that while testing it I missed a road. Not just any road, but one of the most inconveniently placed roads that I could've missed out - 3km away from home and slap bang in the middle of an estate I'd ticked off! To return there would require a fair amount of covering old ground. I was annoyed, and also glad I realised it when I did, rather than at the end of this whole ordeal. This prompted me to buy a map to colour in - CityStrides had been dispensed with early on as I couldn't find a way to make it only show my runs from 2021, and a physical map would be a backup to my spreadsheet. I wanted to get this street covered before I forgot I hadn't done it, so resolved to do it at the earliest opportunity. Buoyed by my realisation that covering the "border" of an area will make it easier to complete, and with some intriguing podcasts lined up (as well as the comedy one there was a now-infamous episode of a podcast dealing with race in the workplace, and a cracking episode of another about one-hit wonders) I chose to run the entire eastern border of BN3 north of the railway line, then downhill towards Hangleton and the missing 40m stub. While this wasn't a run that ticked off a lot of roads on my spreadsheet, it was one that covered a lot of ground - as well as the northernmost (and highest!) point in Hove, it nearly covered both the furthest east and furthest west points as well!

Crazy Little Thing Called Hove

Due to some outstanding holiday I took a few days off in February. Without much open all I could really do to kill time was run, so I headed out on a flat, residential run towards Portslade - I wanted to cover the western border. My plans for a longer run (I wanted to fill in everything south of New Church Road to the previously-run Walsingham Road, but a faulty fire alarm back at the flat led to me cutting it short (at "only" 10k) and heading back to fix it. By now my street map had arrived so I could begin colouring it in! Unfortunately it didn't cover the western-most part of Hove so I had to bodge it as best I could.

Hove Goes On!

Back out the following weekend, and my decision was made for me - I was going to cover the rest of the ground I'd intended to during my days off. Covering a large portion of Portland Road made things easier going forward, when planning the streets running between that and New Church Road. A flat route with a pleasant breeze coming off the sea kept me cool but didn't drown out my podcasts - this time, as well as the regular Saturday morning comedy one, an interesting episode about the "AC/DC Rule". By now I had covered over a third of the total streets of Hove in just six weeks - while one of those weeks had a bonus midweek run, I'd taken a break from a run dedicated to covering new streets on another weekend, so was confident I'd manage it before the year was out. I had already cleared the "pre-2021" column on my spreadsheet and was not ruling out the possibility of completing it before my birthday in August!

Can't Help Falling In Hove

The addition of the paper map really showed clearly which areas I was missing. It highlighted that Western Road wasn't quite covered, despite small areas being run in the first two runs of the year. I had also run back along it on my Christmas morning run so wanted to cover it fully before I forgot and conflated the "12Ks of Christmas" run with one of my dedicated Streets runs. I plotted another general borders run, covering Western Road and then the rest of the Kingsway after, before filling in the rest of the area south of the big Tesco on Church Road. About halfway through I did something that I'd somehow never previously done in seven years of running - I tripped! Luckily I didn't go sprawling, my other foot providing enough support quickly to style out of the stumble, but I was surprised that it had taken me this long to find an uneven pavement (especially given the number of tree roots pushing to the surface)!

HoveGame

By this point, my terrain preference was obvious. The flat roads by the seafront were all but complete - the hills north of the railway line were vast swathes of unrun roads. I needed to change this, so I set off north up Sackville Road, towards a hillside estate with a royal naming system. This was the sunniest run of the year so far, and the exposed, south facing hill took a lot from me. I climbed around 250m in total, quite a shock to the system after the last few weeks of flat runs! After the comedy podcast had ended I tried something new to listen to. Ryan had sent me a playlist of Lady Gaga album tracks he recommended, and the fresh music helped distract me from running up and down the hillside. A couple of songs were added to my running playlist for future use too. MANiCURE went on straight away, and Gypsy was added with the knowledge that 75% of the time it'll be skipped, but the other 25% it'll come on at the perfect time to give me a mental boost! After finishing this run I was 43% complete with my list of roads - not bad for the end of February!

Crazy In Hove

Well, after that hilly session, my legs deserved a break, so I returned to the flat, and headed west to Portslade. The earlier run along (most of) Portland Road helped me cover the smaller areas to the south of the railway, ignoring some private roads, and then worked my way back from Boundary Road on the north/south streets. The many short streets pushed me past the 50% mark - I was now well on the way to completion. I took the following weekend off from running the streets, as I had banked enough time, and ran from Lancing Beach Green back home - it was on the anniversary of the last UK parkrun weekend and I wanted to commemorate it by running that course (and beyond).

Addicted To Hove    

With the halfway mark passed I could plan the different areas a bit better. This time I went back up to do more of the hills - this time on the houses built either side of the old railway line to Devil's Dyke. Another hot, sunny run with little shade, not helped by a footpath shown on the map that was blocked off leading to unplanned doublebacks. By now I'd given up the idea of any personal best times to come from this experiment and just focused on ticking off the roads. I'd like to say the slow pace of this run was to boost my stamina, but really I was just knackered. The return of a second comedy podcast to a weekend drop added to this - I've noticed I'm slower listening to spoken words rather than music.

I Believe In A Thing Called Hove

With the Easter weekend looming I planned to use the two bank holidays to tick off the Tongdean estate. With a weekend before that, I juiced my stats a little bit. The section between Old Shoreham Road and the railway had a large number of roads less than 200m long - so I cleared them off. I had an extra bit planned, running down The Drive to the seafront and doing the Avenues towards Palmeira Square, but I got south of the railway and decided not to push myself any further at risk of injuring myself. 

With around two-thirds of the streets completed, I went through the rest of the spreadsheet to tidy up any postcodes that wouldn't be valid (private roads, apartment buildings, etc). In doing so I realised that I'd missed another street that would be downright awkward to tick off - English Close, by Hove Cemetery. (Not quite a private road on a trading estate as I first thought!) With the maintenance done my new total was 71%, after three months of running. The comedy podcast finished and I fancied some hair metal, but as I hadn't finished listening to the new Evanescence album the day before the mixture of Poison/Whitesnake and goth rock was quite a shock!

All You Need Is Hove

A Good Friday run! Well, an alright Friday run. Tongdean was my easter goal and I started with a warmup jog across Hove Park, listening to 80s wrestling themes, before switching to my regular running playlist. Hills, and the knowledge that I had another three days after to finish this run, lead me to cut it short at 14k. I was now at 77% and took a fortnight off to rest after some headaches and trouble sleeping deeply. 

You Know You Hove Me

What was supposed to be a light 5k to finish off Tongdean got extended when the music podcast previously mentioned dropped the first episode of a two parter about Taylor Swift's rerecordings (the titling format of which inspired the title of this post) and the Gossip Girl podcast, which usually drops on a Tuesday, was delayed until Friday (and inspired the title of this section). With nearly two hours worth of content I quickly expanded my route to give me more time to listen to these pieces! I decided to fill in the area around West Blatchington, tick off the elusive English Close (at last!) and then, if the mood took me some more of Aldrington as well. As long-time Jim Steinman collaborator Meat Loaf once sang, Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad, but I could only struggle to a round 12km. I was now over the 80% mark and confident I would finish this before parkrun's return.

Stark Raving Hove

In the week preceding this run two important things happened. Firstly, we lost music producer Jim Steinman. His Wagnerian rock wasn't to everyone's tastes, but was something I was raised on, so I paid tribute to him by queuing up a playlist of his music to listen to after the comedy podcast. (My times also improved when this happened.) Secondly, I discovered this incredibly useful map on the Brighton & Hove council website, showing clearly which roads were public and which were private. While this would've been handier four months before, it set my mind at ease about missing certain roads (Miles Walk) but also pointed out a road I'd ignored that I really needed to cover (Lyon Close). Regardless, this warm 10k cleared off everything remaining in the south west corner, plus more residential streets around the centre of Hove. 89% done, and I could see this finishing in two more runs!

We Found Hove In A Hilly Place

May 1st. The hilly section in Hangleton that I'd been pretending didn't exist needed to be ticked off. Fortunately I had the second part of the Taylor Swift podcast, in addition to the usual comedy podcast, and I'd saved the Gossip Girl episode for the weekend as well. I knew this would be a long run, but the mornings had been cooler over the last week, so I could cope with it. I'd had a Hangleton route planned for a month or so, and after reviewing it I planned a route for the remaining streets in Hove just in case. I scuttled back and forth around the interwar housing estate, baking in the sun, giggling at the Gossip Girl podcast taking three minutes out of the episode recap to talk about how dull a certain pop star is. At the 10k mark I started to feel hungry - I could cope with the rest of this estate, but the plans to finish all of Hove in one run would be too ambitious, so I gave a little nod to the Taylor Swift episode by finishing at 13k and heading to Waitrose to pick up lunch. With 29 roads left out of 432 to complete, I knew I would finish it on the bank holiday Monday. 

Whole Lotta Hove

Bank Holiday Monday. I had a free day, and I knew that I had around 10k left. I had a new episode of my regular Monday podcast listen, plus a holdover - the "apology" episode of Reply All, the show that looked at racism in another workplace that prompted criticism of racism at their show. I went out early enough that there would be few people around, and just went for it. The doubleback to tick off Lyon Close added an extra km to my run, but I probably would've strung out the run to 10k anyway - I dislike finishing a run on an odd number, unless it's a multiple of five (or the number 13 - listening to Taylor Swift for a decade has done a number on me). Whether it was the extra caffeine or the knowledge that I was so close to the finish line I don't know, but I had my fastest 10k time since September last year. The extra speed wasn't enough and I ran out of podcasts, so for the final time in this project, I switched to my running playlist. The boost of Ride Of The Valkyries warmed me up, and then I finished with Gypsy - the song that I discovered on an earlier run around another part of Hove, and I knew would hit perfectly in a moment like this. I sprinted down the final road, no medal or finish line waiting for me, but pleased at what I'd achieved.

We Found Hove In A Statsless Place

I'm really looking forward to running just for the sake of running again. While I've enjoyed seeing different parts of Hove, going places I've never been before (and probably won't ever go to again, The Meadows), I'm looking forward to just putting on a podcast and running where the mood takes me next weekend. I've run around 205km over the course of trying to complete this project, and I estimate that around 13% of that was running over old ground. With better route planning I could get this down to 7-8%, if I do this again. (I won't do this again.) (I might do this again.) But for something that I thought would take me a whole year to do, and that I might need to pull in the roads I'd previously run in years gone by, to be over before the first working day of May? That's something I'm proud of. 

Crowdsourcing my runs

Over the last few weeks, I've hit a bit of a creative slump with regards to my running. In the absence of parkrun and the social aspect therein, I've been doing the same routes and getting bored of it. I decided to shake things up a bit and ask my friends on social media to choose for me. A soft launch on Twitter using a carefully selected series of polls (to prevent people telling me to run a marathon in 20 minutes) kicked things off.

Manipulating polls to get the results I wanted

The week after, I tried Instagram, giving followers who cared enough to interact with my stories the choice of a fast and flat run, or hills (hills hills). Unsurprisingly they picked the hills, with a follow-up question seeing 2/3rds choose hill repeats over one big hill in a poorly worded question. Due to wanting a beer on a Saturday night, I elected to do these the morning after watching the film/war-crime Cats, but on the bright side after three 2km reps up a steep hill my hangover was gone! With a nice 2k to get there warming me up (and down afterwards), and the hill being a kilometre high, it was a great route to discover for the future.

So, with a bit of success from these, I opened things up to user submissions. Knowing that they'd probably send me on a route that includes Land's End, John O'Groats, Mordor, Atlantis and Venus, I kept things simple and asked for music submissions. The rules included one track per person, and outlawed any repeats. I also pledged to listen in the order of submission to avoid any suggestions I was adjusting the playlist to make it easier on me. I also privately promised to run for the entire length of the playlist - had I admitted this, I could pinpoint exactly who would submit the longest song they could find just for a laugh (and one of them couched their suggestion with "the longest version of this song you can find", proving me right).

I was nervous about it, especially knowing what the second song was, and only familiar with about a quarter of the songs submitted. How would they fare as running songs? How would they hold up as songs at all? How far would I have to run? Where is the love? Do they know it's Christmas? D'ya know what I mean?

1. MØL - Bruma (Patrick)

Straight in with something new, a shoegazey metal band from Denmark! If the two coffees to start the day hadn't woken me up already, this definitely would have done. I really liked it, it reminded me of Arch Enemy and I'm going to check out more of their work later this week.

Song: 8/10

Suitability as a running soundtrack: 10/10

2. Crazy Frog - Axel F (Conor)

And the first of the troll submissions. (To be fair, with the amount of shots I've taken at Swindon Town on Twitter, I deserved it.) This started as a "grit your teeth and pray for it to end" song but the steady beat and 80s synths really helped me click into my pace - it's just a shame about the ringtone championing amphibian singing all over it! 

Song: 3/10

Running: 8/10 (I'll add the original to my regular running playlists)

3. Bastille - Joy (Dana)

Any song after the preceding one would be a blessing, but this just clicked with me. Maybe it was seeing the sun breaking through the clouds above the piers, maybe it was just the general pleasantness of the song, but it definitely uplifted my spirits ahead of what could turn out to be a gruelling run. 

Song: 8/10

Running: 8/10

4. Bill Withers - Lovely Day (Kerry)

And another nice song. A steady beat, a song that moves along at a fair clip, it was a surprise that I found it so easy to run to but I'm pleased it was added. I don't know that it would've clicked quite as much if it had been chucking it down but it really was a lovely day for running!

Song: 10/10

Running: 7/10

5. Vidiots - Dog Rap (Ryan)

I was nervous about this song to start with. I had absolutely no idea what to expect and was slightly scared of what I would have to listen to. Luckily, within about 10 seconds I realised it was exactly the sort of rap parody you'd see on SNL or an episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and I had a great time with it! I did have trouble keeping my cadence to it, unfortunately.

Song: 7/10

Running: 6/10

6. Turbowolf - Domino (CJ)

I won't lie, I was half hoping that this would be a metal cover of a Jessie J song. It wasn't, but that wasn't much of a detriment - just three minutes of full on rock 'n' roll, and another band I'll check out more of later!

Song: 9/10

Running: 8/10

7. Rammstein - Deutschland (Sophie)

Finally, a familiar song! I've run to this track before, and it's not the only one of theirs that I've run to, so I could relax into the run a bit easier. I really should remember that my mask blocks infection but not my voice, as I think I scared other runners by singing along.

Song: 10/10

Running: 9/10

8. Das Sound Machine - World Championship Finale (Amie)

And from a German band to a faux-German group, performing a mash-up of Fall Out Boy and DJ Khaled. While I didn't enjoy the Pitch Perfect movies as much as people expected, this was a clever combination of two songs I was vaguely familiar with, didn't overstay its welcome, and even raised a smile!

Song: 7/10

Running: 5/10

9. Brothers Osborne - It Ain't My Fault (Dad)

Again, more expectations of pop song covers dashed, but even though this isn't a countrified Zara Larsson song it still rocked! A good steady beat, it reminded me of a train but that may have been because I was running next to a railway line! Another pleasant discovery. I realised at this point that this was also probably the most different male vocalists I'd listened to in succession in years.

Song: 9/10

Running: 7/10

10. HUNGER - Light It Up (Elise)

Knowing the musical overlap I have with Elise, I was surprised to hear a(nother) male vocalist on this track. It was great despite that, the song reminded me of a third act heroic run in a teen movie, which really boosted my serotonin.

Song: 8/10

Running: 8/10

11. Prince - When Doves Cry (Julia)

The first of three submissions from the same person, and reluctantly the only one I could keep. It's to my shame that I forget how good a musician Prince was, and this was a welcome reprise. It soundtracked the portion of my run along the western arm of Brighton Marina, and reminded me of that beautiful moment when two people called Milhouse finally meet.

Song: 10/10

Running: 9/10

12. BLACKPINK - BOOMBAYAH (Laura)

I'm glad I stuck to my guns regarding not using shuffle, as it lead to this colourful trend - mix black and pink and you get purple, the previous artist's signature colour! Another familiar song, another relaxing segment of the run, by this point along the foot of the cliffs towards Saltdean. By now I was confident of being able to run to pretty much any song - alternating between music and podcasts over the last few years had broken me out of old habits of needing fast paced songs to keep me going. I could just settle in and enjoy the mix of English and Korean!

Song: 9/10

Running: 9/10

13. P!nk - Raise Your Glass (Emily)

It is a fault of my own that I associate too many songs with the TV show Glee. I noticed it working my way through Van Halen's discography the other week; I noticed it here as well. I mostly put that out of my mind after the first verse, focusing on P!nk's snarky asides that didn't make it into the sanitised, TV friendly version. It also made me realise that I really should listen to her more!

Song: 8/10

Running: 8/10

14. Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - The Girl From Ipanema (Jess)

This was the first song that genuinely threw me off my pace. I stumbled and said (probably too loudly, I'm sure that people overheard) "what the fuck is this?!" when the French jazz came on. Over five minutes long, I felt myself slowing, and willing it to end. My colleague's attempt to throw me off worked - I'm just glad she didn't choose Ed Sheeran!

Song: 2/10

Running: 0/10

15. A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran (So Far Away) (Charley)

(This worked really well, but the plan for using the gif came to me within seconds of the intro and I couldn't not do it)

Song: 9/10

Running: 8/10

16. The Walkmen - The Rat (Garry)

By this point I had hit the turn around point and was heading back towards town, along the undulating clifftop. It was also the penultimate song that I had no idea about, and another surprise! Chock full of driving drums, it reminded me (to no detriment) of The Bravery's An Honest Mistake, and I was pleased to find out later that the two songs were released within six months of each other! Another song that'll find its way onto my regular running playlists in the future.

Song: 8/10

Running: 10/10

17. Chemical Brothers - Galvanize (Eveline)

I could've sworn when I was listening to this song that it had been used on an advert, or TV show, perhaps as part of an exercise montage - but Wikipedia is remaining mute on the subject. Regardless, it made me feel like I was in one, so this is going on the playlist from now on. You might say it...galvanised...me into running faster!

Song: 8/10

Running: 10/10

18. Russ Abbot - Atmosphere (James)

The final song on this list that I knew nothing about - and within seconds I was convinced it was a hastily written song to cash in on the popularity of Agadoo. According to Google this was written by Joy Division, but I'm certain that's incorrect. Spotify credits the singer, and it's really not good. I'm just glad it had some semblance of pace to it so it didn't drag!

Song: 1/10

Running: 1/10

19. Britney Spears - Toxic (Adam)

About ten years ago the branch of German budget supermarket Aldi in Canterbury closed down, and the cramped site was taken over by upmarket supermarket Waitrose. The sudden increase in quality is a perfect metaphor for the vast uptick in quality between the last song and this. The Grammy award winning track is the musical equivalent of doping - listening to it makes you run faster, lighter, easier and happier.

Song: 10/10

Running: 11/10

20. Faithless - Insomnia (Laura)

This was a song I was convinced I knew, but two-thirds of the way into the song it still wasn't ringing any bells...until the bells kicked in and I recognised the bit played on Invicta FM on the car rides to school all those years ago. Another great song to run to, soundtracking my run along Marine Parade back to the pier.

Song: 9/10

Running: 8/10

21. Garbage - Temptation Waits (Charlie)

The opening track on the first proper album I ever owned, and the third track on the "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" original soundtrack album...this is very possibly one of my most listened to songs, ever. A slow burner, it explodes on the listener partway through - and I guess knowing I only had ten minutes left of my run helped boost my motivation too!

Song: 8/10

Running: 8/10

22. Focus - Hocus Pocus (live at the Rainbow) (Jack)

This was submitted with the caveat of "hopefully a 15 minute live version". The longest one I could find was "only" eight and a half minutes, but the yodelling and guitars sped me to a fast finish on Hove Lawns. I really need to give the studio version another listen!

Song: 8/10

Running: 9/10

Had I just been listening to podcasts, I probably would've called it a day at 10 or 12k. I tucked another 6k under my belt (two more pints in my beer total), covered a more interesting route, and good lord are my legs feeling it now! 

Eastbourne half marathon

After April's failure, I decided to rethink my marathon strategy. Too little training would see me plod over the line after a quarter of a day, ashen-faced and regretting ever trying this running lark. Too much training would aggravate my runner's knee, and I'll end up seizing up 14/15 miles in again. I needed to strengthen my legs. I decided not to do a full marathon in 2020 (a decision partly made for me by the London ballot) and instead split it up - a half in the spring, and another in the autumn. I picked Worthing for the spring half - just along the coast from my regular lovely parkrun, it was one I did in 2017, flat, fairly well attended, decent support, flat, and near to a pub I'd been meaning to try but never had an excuse to. I refreshed my knowledge of the route, used Google Street View to adapt to the slight tweaks, did an 18km (11ish miles) Sunday run up and back down a 300m hill that had defeated me during last year's marathon training, visited the town to eyeball the route, and tapered my exercise the week before in preparation.

The more observant among you will notice that the title of this post does not contain "Worthing" anywhere in it.

Unfortunately two days before Storm Ciara put paid to the event, and it was rescheduled. I frantically tried to book in for Brighton Half - much closer, but also much more popular, and I was denied. Not believing I could raise enough for a charity place in two weeks I was pointed in the direction of the Eastbourne Half by my lovely wife Dana instead. I'd never run it, only supported my baby brother when he ran it three years ago, so I signed up. The last few days in the run-up were spent analysing segments on Strava, a wonderful run report on Runnit, and Google Street View until the hill got too scary and made me cry.

Oh yes, unlike lovely flat Worthing, Eastbourne had a whacking great hill after the first 5k or so. Still, I should be warmed up by then, and it'll be all downhill after, mostly flat along the promenade. I could do this. When I signed up I put down my predicted time in the 2:00-2:15 category - a PB, as my current PB was 2:18 at the time, but I was secretly hoping to crack the 2 hour mark. 

The Day Itself

After an earlier start than I would've liked, brought on by rail replacement buses (well done Network Rail for scheduling work blocking all trains to Eastbourne on the day of this event) and several trips to the bathroom, I bade goodbye to my wife and nestled myself quietly on the right hand side of the starting chute. I then edged my way across to the left hand side when I got a text from her giving her position on the left of the course as we headed out - I didn't want to miss the photo opportunities! A brief pose later and I decided to start taking it seriously. Plugging in my headphones I queued up a comedy podcast which got immediately quiet. Great. 

On a previous long run I had an issue with my phone in cold temperatures, as the metal case would contract ever-so-slightly, pressing down on the volume button and making whatever I listened to go silent. I had prepared a backup this time round though - an old Nexus 5 without a sim card stood in and I opened up the podcast app...to find none of my podcasts had downloaded last night! I hoped that Spotify wasn't facing the same issue, as then I'd have a very quiet run, but thankfully it was up to the task and I could listen to some banging tunes instead. As well as this technical issue, my smartwatch GPS decided not to connect, leading to a reset around 3 minutes in, which ended up working as well as a stroppy teenager and became little more than a glorified stopwatch. All these issues in the first five minutes made me think that those Luddites might've had a point!

The music didn't let me down, serving up pop banger after pop banger as we ran through the town and out the other side. Five kilometres down, and we started going up. I knew this section would be hilly but it was fine, we wouldn't be going as high up Beachy Head as I went the other Sunday, so it'll be easier, right? I forgot that the gradient up Devil's Dyke is a lot more forgiving than this and I regretted leaving my crampons, pitons and Sherpa back at base camp. After breaking through the cloud cover, ducking an airplane cruising at the usual height, and getting higher than Snoop Dogg on an average Tuesday, we turned and descended back to town. This was somewhat easier than the preceding few kilometres!

Breaking out of the trees and along the seafront I was greeted by a cool breeze at my back, refreshing and pushing me along. I passed the five mile mark and with some frantic maths (fingers were involved, I'm not ashamed of admitting that) calculated that I was slightly behind a 2 hour pace, but it was all flat from here so I was confident of getting that back. The crowds started picking up as we ran through the main part of town, emphasising again the morale boost from having your name printed on your shirt and people cheering for you. 

Under the pier at the six mile point I fired off a quick text to my wife with a rough ETA for when I'd see her, and politely requesting more water. We had walked this part of the route a couple of hours earlier, from the station to the park where the start/finish line was, so it was nice to be on familiar ground. I raced two small spectating children for a brief 50m portion of the course (and beat them - if they're going to challenge me I'm not going to let them win), did a bottle swap, bade goodbye to my wife and then embarked on the second half of the race as Britney's Toxic filled my ears.

Dana managed to swap drinks and take photos at the same time

There was a psychological blow of having passed my wife/the finishing line and now having to run away from them both, each step taking me further and further from them. I tried to shake it off, cursing myself for not putting any Taylor Swift on my running playlist, and a Dua Lipa track was not the right mood. A quick skip brought up a much better song and the ensuing endorphin rush settled my mood. I tucked in behind a guy in an orange vest who seemed to be going at much the right pace and turned my brain off for a bit - I didn't need to calculate my pace, look out for a supply drop, or acknowledge anybody cheering for me, so I could let my body go into autopilot for a bit.

Around mile 9 Rammstein gave way to the best song of the last decade and I rejoined the real world. Either my pacer was flagging or I discovered a fourteenth wind, as I decided I could go a bit faster and left the guy behind. The route took two right turns in fairly quick succession and I was fairly certain I was heading back towards the finish again. (I suppose the relative position of the sun would've been a bigger clue, but at this point such intelligent thoughts were beyond me.) In the shade of the marina, a nice cool breeze lowering my temperature nicely, I whipped off my sodden head ruff and stuffed it into my pocket. My rough calculations had me still on course for around a 2 hour finish - the 2 hour pacers I kept up with up and down the hill had disappeared in the distance, but my estimations still had me on for a good time. 

I wanted to give myself every possible boost I could and delved into my pocket for some jelly babies. Pulling out the bag I was surprised that I only had two left - had I really been ploughing through them without realising? Delving deeper, passing my sweaty head ruff, I realised that they were tumbling around loose. Slightly disgusted I contemplated going without before reasoning that any additional liquid would be good rehydration, especially if they included bonus sodium crystals. 

Apologies if you're reading this while you're eating anything.

A triple header of Chvrches tracks kept me motivated through an intricate course around the Sovereign Harbour - I think I've now seen it from every angle barring underwater - and I passed the eleven mile marker at around 1 hour and 40 minutes down. Just over two miles to go, twenty minutes to get sub-2, I'd need to pick up the pace slightly but it was possible. The opening drum roll of Born To Run filled my ears and I grabbed a bottle of water to cool me off from the final water point. There was a slight gradient up to the promenade but then it was all flat from here. I chuntered along, grimly focused on the leisure centre by the finish line, gradually reeling it in. I tucked in behind a broader gentleman to deflect the wind at mile 12 to give Dana an ETA for finishing. Spotify did its best to keep my pace up, the shuffle supplying two songs from Master Of Puppets and Black Sabbath's Paranoid to keep my blood pumping.

The final 500 metres of the Eastbourne Half Marathon course features a flat straight road, a slope down to a pedestrian subway, an echoey tunnel under said road, a slope back up to the road, a sharp right angle and a grassy finishing chute to the line. Not ideal for a sprint finish but I motored past my windbreak and gave it my best. I was expecting to see Dana at the finish line (somewhere in the crowds) so she caught me by surprise at the 500 metre marker, snapping away.

A lone runner

I wasn't sure how much time I'd lost in the earlier technical faffing but estimated it to be around 3 to 3 and a half minutes. Checking my watch I saw it was going to be close to finish below two hours but went for it anyway. Turning the right hand bend to the finish line I could see the clock showing 02:01:40 something. I knew I hadn't crossed the start line just as the clock started, but doubted that I'd taken two minutes to start. Sub two hours was gone, but barring a catastrophic collapse - I was fairly certain I could crawl over the line in time - I was going to get a new PB. I decided to make future James's PB attempts a little bit harder and carried on my pace rather than ease up.

Note the clock behind me

I crossed the line, grabbed a medal from a youthful volunteer (almost barrelling into the poor little mite and knocking him over), and stumbled to an open space. Dana had caught up with me fast enough to take pictures and found me napping peacefully a few metres from the finish line. I'd run my furthest distance since last year's aborted marathon attempt, and barring a slight stiffness early on when attacking Beachy Head, my knee hadn't whispered a peep of a complaint. I had earned my post run banana and non-alcoholic beer!

Was I disappointed that I didn't get under two hours? Yes, briefly. But when the blood returned to my brain and I could think rationally, I saw the positives of yesterday's run. I took nearly seventeen minutes (16 minutes 49 seconds) off my previous PB for that distance, which was on a mostly flat course to boot. I'd done a long run with poor preparation on unfamiliar roads with no detriment. And I left everything out there - there was no point looking back on the race where I thought "oh, if only I hadn't slowed to catch my breath/posed for a photo/stopped for a pint, maybe I'd have done better". There was no way I could have physically gone any faster. I'm proud of my chip time of 2 hours, 1 minute and 13 seconds. 

I can very probably beat that at the rescheduled Worthing Half this autumn. It's a flatter course, I'll have an extra half a year to get fitter, and I'm confident of shaving 74 seconds off my time to get below two hours. For now though, the most important part is that I beat my brother's time at Eastbourne when he ran it!