Worthing Half Marathon - race report

A long, long time ago - January 2019 - I bought an entry to run the Worthing Half Marathon. I'd run it before, two years previously, only this time it was a means to an end instead of being an end of itself. The early February race date meant it slotted nicely into my training plan for Brighton Marathon that year. Unfortunately the training plan sharply increased my weekly mileage, which brought a sharp pain in my knee, and I rolled over my entry to the following year as I rested most of February. 

February 2020 rolls around, my knee is a lot stronger, and this was part one of my marathon plan. I intended to run two half marathons that year, one in the spring and one in the autumn, and if my knee passed them without complaint I'd register and train for the Brighton Marathon in 2021 - volunteering at the 2020 event. A man, a plan, a goal, no problem! Well, apart from the weather. Storm Ciara saw the postponement of the Worthing Half until the autumn, so I ran Eastbourne Half instead, on the first day of March 2020. If you've not clicked the link to that write-up, it finishes with the following:

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.

That was written on 2nd March 2020.

For some reason, there weren't an awful lot of organised races after that, for a while. The Worthing Half can kept being kicked down the road, eventually being taken over by the organisers of some races in south-west London, and the new date being announced earlier this year. Instead of being a February run it would be the weekend before the May bank holiday, but the weather won't be that hot, right?

Like Eastbourne two years prior, my journey was hindered by the common sight of a British weekend, the Rail Replacement Bus service. Unlike that one, the entire journey would be on a bus, but surely that was a good omen - I'd set a personal best time for a Half the last time I travelled to a race by one! Also taking place in Worthing that weekend - a craft beer tap takeover, with around a dozen breweries showcasing their wares in pubs and bottle shops around the town. My favourite local brewery had pledged to bring along their elusive, festival-only Old Fashioned Imperial Stout, so I had an extra incentive not to back out!

After a largely uneventful bus journey, enlivened only by showing Dana my usual running route to Lancing parkrun, and helping a drunk passenger after he collapsed, we got to the start around 45 minutes before kickoff. I managed to clip my race number to my top despite the wind's best efforts - I've made a mental note to do this before setting off for the next race, and will inevitably forget to do so - and tried to spot any of the Lancing parkrun lot. I had a goal in mind so squirreled myself away ahead of the 2 hour pacer. 

Very long queue in this Subway restaurant

Bang on 8:30 and we were off! The route took us along a brief meander through town for the first mile, and I'd planned a podcast for the first half before switching to music for the second, to keep my speed up when I expected to be flagging. My planned km pace was 5 minutes 40, and the podcast might help from shooting off too quickly. It worked too well, and after two minutes I scrapped the podcast plan, jumping straight into my five and a half hour long running playlist. I was immediately justified when shuffle threw up Carly Rae Jepsen's aural performance enhancing drug, Cut To The Feeling. People streamed past me but I didn't mind - my watch was my pacer. Besides, I surmised, I'd go past them later on, when I've got energy to spare and they're crawling along! 

Two kilometres down and we turned onto the seafront to head west. The wind was at our backs, the sun too, and a ray of sunshine shone ahead of me when I saw my wife taking photos. The route was more or less an out-and-back course covered twice, and we'd arranged for her to wait in a suitable position for a supply drop just after halfway - and, also, to grab content for social media. I sped on, settling in to my rhythm, my calves having finally warmed up. (Pre-race stretches are not a part of my routine - that's what the first mile is for!) I'd run part of this route two months prior, so had no surprises, and tucked in behind a few people going at the right sort of pace for me. The two hour pacers were somewhere behind me - I had no idea how far, but as long as I was ahead of them, it would be a good thing mentally. 

Five k down. A quarter of the way through (more or less), and the equivalent of a parkrun. I was chuntering along past the inter-war bungalows, with the 10k runners intermingling, and I spotted a familiar face. Mark Brockenhurst, local parkrun legend and a strong reason why I kept up with my running during those difficult early years, was doing the shorter run as part of a recovery program. We had a brief chat before I pulled ahead, wanting to keep my pace. 

The sun beat down on us, close enough to the sea but protected from a cooling breeze by a stubborn string of flood defences. With very little shade I made good use of suckling at the plastic teat of my water bottle, knowing that I could swap it for a fresh one at the halfway point. I was confident that I was staying hydrated, but the appearance of a parrot dressed as a pirate in the road ahead of me had me questioning this - especially when he started cheering me on by name! I put this down to having my name visible across my chest, but took a cup at the water station and doused my head with it anyway, just in case. 

Amberley Drive was planned to be another part of the planned garden city of Goring-By-Sea, but World War 2 put paid to that, and it's now just a concrete road around a 900 square metre field. Not many trees, so no protection from the sun, but I motored along, around the field and heading back towards town. The next time I did this, I'd have less than a parkrun to go! What was concerning, though, was my left foot steadily going numb. This had happened once before on a run to Lancing two weeks prior - after slowing to walk on that run the feeling came back, and I did the same this time, taking 30 seconds longer on to traverse the 8th kilometre until the blood returned. At this point I made a deal with myself. If I knocked it on the head now I'd have to walk the next 3km back to Dana anyway. As I had to travel that far, I might as well get back up to my usual pace - slightly quicker, to make up for lost time - but if the numbness came back I'd quit straight away and get this checked out before I ran any further.

I carried on, back along the wide seafront road, back up to pace without any issues. By now the faster runners were passing back on their second lap, but I ran into the sun, glad I'd put my sunglasses on. My playlist churned out banger after banger, Ride of the Valkyries segueing into pop rock into dance remixes of dream pop songs. I spotted Dana and sped on, glad that I knew I'd see her again soon after for a fresh drink. The course split for the 10k runners to finish, while us Half-Marathoners took in the loading bays behind Worthing High Street as we turned round for the second lap. The soundtrack was Holding Out For A Hero, and I was holding on to the fact that I'd have the wind behind me again soon. I swapped out my empty bottle for a slightly cooler and significantly more full one and headed off. This was a psychological blow, running away from the finish, knowing that each step was one I'd need to make again on the run back. I consoled myself by looking at all the people streaming towards the end of their first lap, knowing that I was ahead of them, and told myself that I'd done this lap once before so I know I can do it.

Back past the bungalows and I could feel my legs getting heavier. This was nearing the longest run I'd done all year, and I still had more to go. The pounding sun was draining and it felt like I was running through treacle. The thrash-metal soundtrack was asking a pace of me that I couldn't keep - I skipped to the next track and not even pure pop pleasure could give me a boost. This was a severe cause for concern - not even Carly could help! I could hear a group behind me getting closer and closer and I knew it was the two hour pacer group. They sauntered past me, and this was a kick in the tits. I tried to tell myself that as long as I kept them in sight I could possibly reel them back in with a sprint finish near the end, but I knew this was it for a sub-2 hour time. I grimly kept with them as far as the water station, drenching myself again, but I was fighting a losing battle.

Footage from the official Twitter. I look shattered.

I chuntered around the field, telling myself that I had less than a parkrun to go, seeing the gap to the pacers increase with every step. With just over 4km to go I passed a copse of trees and decided that if I was going to finish this, I was going to do it with an empty bladder and watered the plants. Relieved and with a fresh spring in my step, I bounded back onto the route, with renewed optimism!

This lasted all of 500m before I realised how far ahead the pacers were and the rest that I'd given my body wore off. Seeing them disappearing in the distance, I slowed to walk a couple of times, catching my breath and finishing my cola bottles. Sub-2 was not an option. A Half-Marathon Personal Best time was out the window. But I was damned sure I was going to set a personal course best, and if the 2:15 pacers tried to overtake me, I'd trip them up! I wasn't going to trip them up. Probably. 

Rihanna gave way to Chvrches, and I turned the corner onto the home straight. The long, final 2km. The end was in sight, I guess, I assumed that blur on the horizon was the finishing line. I told myself that if I slowed down to walk then I would not get a beer afterwards. I fixed my stare on the nearest person in front of me and slowly reeled them in, passing them and doing the same on the next person. My hips barely moved, it seemed that my knees and feet were doing all the work. More Carly on my soundtrack. I stopped looking at my watch, I didn't want it to demoralise me. The crowds deepened as I approached the final 100m. A few paces ahead of me was an older guy running for a local hospice. Just me and him. I could easily beat him to the finishing line, but he was running for charity, I was doing it for fun. I wasn't gonna take it away from him. I hung back, raising my arms to gee up the crowd and raise the noise level, then hung back even further to make sure he didn't block my finishing line photos.

Poser.

I stumbled through the finishing chute, grabbing as many goodies as I was offered, and found my wonderful wife. We retired to sit in the shade, and I dunked water over myself to cool down. I knew I'd lost a lot of fluids so rehydrated as quickly as I could. I felt good, slightly disappointed that I hadn't beaten my previous time, but proud that I'd done it. Eight years ago I struggled to complete a 4.5km run, averaging a pace of 7 minutes and 40 seconds. Even my slowest km during this was half a minute faster. 

It's a cool picture, but not for £16!

The Curious Tale of Stephan Bleibtrau

Parts of this story might have been slightly embellished because while Football Manager is detailed, it’s not that detailed. Yet.

It’s March 2040. My Chemie Leipzig side are gunning for a fifth straight Bundesliga title, being run close by the noisy, energy-drink-fuelled neighbours from across the Elsterbecken. My hard graft, buy-low-sell-high attitude coupled with my innovative win at all costs tactics (nicknamed Lady Amalthea) had seen us overtake RasenBallsport to become the dominant side in Leipzig. The first game back after the international break saw us hosting our local rivals from deep in the bowels of the former Zentralstadion. A win would pretty much guarantee the title, adding it to the Club World Championship won earlier in the season, and we could concentrate on the upcoming Champions League quarter final against Liverpool. Lose, and it could break our season. Draw, and we’d hold our lead, but I wanted the sticky, sickly, Taurine flavoured club to suffer. 

It was at this point that I realised having two goalkeepers from the same FIFA region might not have been a smart decision. 

I welcomed the majority of my international superstars back from their travels without incident. French winger Yaya Toure (not that one, obviously) had barely played and was whizzing round the training ground like an 8 year old after a bag of Haribo Tangfastics. Oyvind Skollerud, the Norwegian striker who had the all time Chemie record goalscorer, um, record in his sights, had scored twice in a 10 minute cameo off the bench and wanted to add more to his total. Marius Wirtz, my €78m defensive midfielder poached from Mönchengladbach and my missing puzzle piece, was telling everyone who would listen how he two-footed a crate of Red Bull drinks at his local supermarket the night before. My team, my wonderful boys, were up for the derby.

The outfield players were, anyway. I looked across to where Jan Zimmerman was warming up the keepers with the goalkeeping coaches, and instead of seeing Luis Garza and Luis Vela debating the merits of Stetsons versus Sombreros, all I saw was Jan kicking footballs at a spotty 17 year old who looked like he weighed all of 50 kilos soaking wet. I called him over.

“Jan, where are the Luises?”

“Uh, Ontario, the last I checked.”

“Oh, how lovely for them! Are they visiting Her Majesty, Carly Rae Jepsen? They do know we’ve got a game tomorrow, yes?”

“Flight’s delayed, boss. Snowing, innit. Due in Berlin tomorrow at 12:30.”

“But we kick off at 12:30. In the derby. They’ll still be showing as on international duty, we won’t be able to select them!”

“Well, boss, I’d like you to meet Stephan! As soon as I heard about the delay, I pulled him out of the Under 19 squad to train with us. He may have the agility of an angry dishwasher, and the communication skills of Marcel Marceau…”

I looked at Jan expectantly. He had a butface.

“But…?”

“But I also left a bottle of whiskey in your office, with another one packed for tomorrow at 2:15.”

I put a brave face on, though I’m fairly sure my smile didn’t meet my eyes, and turned to my saving grace. 

“Always glad to make use of our excellent youth facilities, Stephan! Jan will warm you up and then we’ll take you through the defensive drills - should be familiar to you, we play it my way across all age groups and genders at this club.”

I threw him a freshly printed “Bleibtreu 30” shirt, and he caught it. At the third attempt. I glanced at Jan.

“It’s the strong whiskey, boss.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Matchday. After an unsuccessful night of begging, pleading, crying and cajoling Lufthansa to divert to Leipzig, or at the very least drop my two keepers off on the way - I offered to pay for parachutes, too! - I was resigned to starting with a goalkeeper who wasn’t even born when Marcus Rashford was elected the UK PM in 2023. Rather than flood the defence and midfield and protect Bleibtreu as much as possible, I stuck with my attack minded "Lady Amalthea" approach, reasoning that if the ball was up the other end I was less likely to suffer a coronary whenever Red Bull attacked.

This lasted all of seven minutes. In their first attack their left winger whipped a cross into the box. Bleibtreu watched, gormlessly, as it sailed over his head to the grateful Andy van Eck who slammed it home. As the five thousand away fans burst into a chant of “dodgy keeper” Bleibtreu looked around, desperately wanting the ground to swallow him whole. My opposite number goaded me from his technical area with a bizarre crotch-chop gesture. I heard a voice in my ear.

“My daughter’s standing next to his Mercedes with a rock, boss. Just say the word.” My coach, Pol Lirola, hissed in Spanish-accented German. “Just say. The. Word.”

Before I could respond to my right hand man press ganging his eight year old into acts of vandalism again, we kicked off. A fired up Skollerud exchanged passes with Ognjen Ilic, brushed off a half-hearted challenge from an RB CB and burst clear of their defence! With only the keeper to beat, he wound up, put his laces through the ball, and slammed it against the post.

Barely had the 46,000 strong Chemie faithful sucked in a breath for a disappointed “awww” before the ball rebounded back, off their goalkeeper’s skull, and into the net for an equaliser! The awwws turned to cheers and I had to restrain Lirola from getting another FA charge for “comparing an opposing manager’s mother to farmyard animals”. 

Toure woke up and started to demonstrate every single point of his leadership rating. Dictating play, pinging cross field balls to stretch the RB side, pointing at things, he took the game by the scruff of the neck. Both sides settled into a pulsating rhythm, but neither managed to test the opposing keeper until 25 minutes in. One of my “elite” centre backs got his left and right mixed up and suddenly van Eck burst clear with only Bleibtreu to beat. Our fans were already preparing the “chin up Stephan” chants when he leapt, catlike, across the goal to turn van Eck’s shot around the post. From the resulting corner he made a superb double save, once with his hands and one with his face, to keep the scores level. 

While this was going on, the RB left-back had been goading Toure with the usual attempts at gamesmanship - “Johnny Halliday is overrated! Amelie is dull! Victor Hugo’s work is padded out with pointless digressions!” - and Yaya had had enough. He picked up the game by the scruff of the neck. A mazy run through the home defence, twisting and turning and leaving his nemesis flat on his arse, ended with Toure slamming the ball past their still shell-shocked keeper. We held a two-one lead at the break, and I confiscated yet another flick-knife from Lirola as I bundled my backroom staff into the dressing room.

Ignoring Jan’s suggestions for a team talk I calmly reminded my boys of the perils of complacency and lavished praise on my defence. Bleibtreu seemed to grow three sizes with confidence, and I sent the team back out accompanied by the roar of the home fans in the Kai Druschky stadium. Toure picked up exactly where he left off, with a second goal two minutes into the half, and we were 3-1 up and purring. Jan suggested we see out the second half by shutting the game down, but I wanted more! I wanted to humiliate the jumped up village team from Markranstädt! 

The dictionary defines hubris as “excessive pride or self-confidence, often leading to a downfall”. In persisting with my attack based strategy, holes appeared at the back and by ‘Eck, van Eck slammed home his and Red Bull’s second of the game with fifteen minutes to go. Our two goal lead had been reduced to one and I switched to the Schmendrick defensive tactic I kept in reserve for tight games. Off came Skollerud, on came the mercurial Italian centre back Bennati, and we bunkered down for a nervy fifteen minutes. Our only outlet for pressure relief was Toure, and he did his best to keep the ball up the other end, but after the RB LB was taken off with twisted blood, the fresh legs of his replacement easily outpaced our knackered Frenchman. Shot after shot piled in, pinging off the frame of the goal, being blocked by various body parts of various Chemie players, but as the 4th official held up his board we were still leading. 

90+4. We’d had the allotted injury time, and amidst the deafening whistles from the fans imploring referee Wischer to blow up for full time, van Eck picked up the ball on the halfway line. Easily evading the despairing lunges of my worn out defenders, he slalomed his way towards my nervous puppy in goal. Two of his team-mates had made similar runs into space, keeping up with him, but he only had an eye for goal and the match ball. As he entered our area Bleibtrau summoned all 9 points of his rushing out rating and came out to meet the Dutchman. van Eck steadied himself, picked his spot, and placed his shot carefully against Bleibtrau’s big toe. The ball ballooned harmlessly into the home fans where it promptly disappeared, suddenly reappearing seconds later after Wischer blew for full time. 

In the full time huddle I had nothing but praise for my last minute stand-in. Making his debut in a 1st vs 2nd clash, against our local rivals no less, I couldn’t hold back.

“Nice work, Stephan! Am I proud of you! When you go home tonight, there’s going to be another storey on your house!”

He looked at me blankly. Jan whispered in my ear.

“Boss, I keep telling you, nobody understands your classical literary references.”

I came up with a more understandable reward. The very next day Stephan Bleibtrau signed a five year contract, no negotiation on the wages and bonuses he requested, and as long as he wants to stay here there will always be a place for him at Chemie. If he leaves I’ll retire the number 30 shirt in his honour. I can’t see him playing another first team game for the club, outside of dead rubber CL group stages, but it won’t matter. He saved my bacon in that derby game, and I’m forever in his debt. 

Unless he starts agitating for a move to Lokomotiv Leipzig. Then the little sod’s banished to the reserves until the end of time.

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. 

Ten years of Taylor

Ten years ago was a different time.The internet was generally nicer, unless your parents had bought you a music video for your 13th birthday and it had gone viral. I was living in Canterbury, in a long distance relationship with a girl from Germany who was living in London, and I was working at BT. Working hard, in fact, because I was working ten hours days, six days a week, to assist with the roll out of a new system, and had been since mid-February. This was the final week of the launch and I needed a break. I was physically and mentally drained and needed live music as a carrot to get me over the line, to take my mind off work.

I had been idly browsing the ticket sites since I realised how gruelling this work would be and found something promising. A gig on Wednesday 30th - I had an early start that day, so would be able to make it to London in time, plus a later start on the day after so I could sleep in if I got back late. It was at the O2 Arena - the right side of London, and I could ride up rather than faff about with trains. It was only an hour’s ride (or an hour and a half if I stuck to the speed limit!). Tickets were £38 for a seat up in the Gods level with the stage, but I’d dropped a similar amount on other gigs before. The only surprise was the artist.

Taylor Swift was, at the time, a country star dabbling in pop music. To 2011 James the former was more important than the latter - being raised on a healthy diet of The Eagles, among other country-adjacent artists, I was more interested in the twang of a steel stringed guitar than the bounce of a pop hook. I had left pop music behind as a teen, after all, the idea of liking a female pop singer was naive and foolish! (I missed out on some excellent Kylie gigs, among others, before realising my error.) Still, I’d enjoyed another pop album in Teenage Dream the year before, I could cope with some mild ribbing and threats to my masculinity. 

Still, just to make absolutely sure people knew I was a man’s man, no homo, totally straight, I delayed my spring shearing until after the gig, and rode up still rocking my shaggy hair and winter beard. As well as my leather jacket covered in patches showing my love of classic rock bands - not completely a fashion choice, I’d also be riding home late on a March night and this jacket was warm - I wore what was to become my standard pop gig uniform of a Rammstein t-shirt. I polished off a pre-gig Nandos (I’ll say this for the O2, it doesn’t lack for food options - a lot easier than having a BBQ outside Brixton Academy) and took my place in Block 402, row G - pretty much slap bang in the centre of the block. As I sat down I felt uncomfortably out of place - my attempts at a counter-cultural appearance coming home to roost - and shrunk down in my seat, trying desperately hard to fit in. 

(My Rammstein t-shirt choices have paid off at subsequent pop gigs - the door staff at Brixton never asking to check my ticket at Sigrid/Camila Cabello more than once as “literally nobody else at this gig is wearing a Rammstein t-shirt” - and the flip side of wearing a Carly Rae Jepsen shirt to see Rammstein making somebody’s day! But combined with a biker jacket and my approach to hair/beard styling being to grow it until I got bored, it was not the best look.)

The pre-show playlist teased a theme of “acts I’d seen at the O2 previously” by playing BOB’s Airplanes, featuring Hayley Williams, but sadly wasn’t followed up by any of Metallica, The Eagles or Avril Lavigne. I busied myself on my phone, killing time until the headliner came on at a surprisingly early 8:30pm - nowadays that sort of start for the main act is wonderful, as it signifies either a long set (or even better, an early night) but at that time, just a baffling time. Comments that it led to an early finish so that her fanbase can get home before their bedtimes were unnecessarily snarky and probably accurate. 

Comparing the setlist to that of the tour DVD she later released, we got a shorter set - only 13 (ha!) songs to the eighteen she performed in the US. I didn't care. After a rollicking first half (standouts being The Story Of Us and the now-memory-holed Better Than Revenge - the two faster tracks), by the time Taylor had made her way to the B-stage with an acoustic guitar and was strumming her way through her second album's title track, I was so overcome with feelings I was an accidental thumb-press on "Send" from tweeting a proposal to my then-girlfriend. As someone who tended to suppress any showing of emotions, both publicly or privately, this was uncharacteristically passionate for me and probably would not have had the desired outcome. Instead, in a twist that would be great foreshadowing if done on a TV show, that was the first song we heard as a married couple just under five years later!

Not even the interminable Dear John could put a dampener on things, as the set closed with the two BIG songs from the tail end of the album, in Enchanted and Long Live. A brief encore of Love Story and we were making our way out, past shuttered restaurants, into the cold night air. None of the merch on offer was nice enough to tempt me - for the best, as I picked up a tour shirt in an online sale for $10 a few years later. A swift ride home (let me have that one) and I was opening the garage to put my bike away at the same time that I would normally be queuing up to get food for the hour long train ride home. I had a couple more long shifts ahead of me, but I felt like I could cope with them now. I was a Swiftie - I just wasn't capable of admitting it to myself yet!

As soon as tickets for her next London gig went on sale, I was there to buy them. That gig wouldn't be for nearly three years after this one, and in that time I'd not only openly admitted to being a Taylor Swift fan, I'd roped in several others to come with me as well. The three of them expressed some cold feet in the week leading up to the gig, and were surprised that I was again happy to go on my own, certain that I'd have a great time! (And I was right, too - despite a shambling idiot appearing on stage nearly spoiling it, and after Ed Sheeran's cameo there was a stage invader as well.) In terms of performance, it may not make my top ten gigs of all time, but in terms of importance to me, my first Taylor gig is one of the top three.

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!