September 2019 Run Update and Excess Photo Dump

Club running, building distance, illness, injury, and the first ‘race’ in years helped September blow by.  Stats:

Total miles: 158.9.  Average: 7.9 (20 runs)
Long: 13.1 (one of the seven over 10 miles)
Pubs:12 on runs, 20 overall
Thursday club runs: 3 for 28.7 miles

Mid-month, while suffering fever/chills/headache/congestion worse than anytime in years, I ran the steep, half-marathon distance out-and-back to Romsley.  Along the pavement, a mallard appeared to have died in his sleep.  Metaphors.  Everywhere.

Here are some good canal shots from Saturday the 21st when I did this loop (on the map, below, motherfucker) via the canals north of town and back along the Worcs/Bham canal:

It was too early for the pubs (even a Wetherspoons) and I’d forgotten how pleasant a continuous long run — without a pub break or two — could be.

There were few others on the towpaths which made it easier to take in the splendour of the old structures north of the centre.

The canal makes a sort of moat around the old city hospital which may have been useful in slowing patients deciding to self-discharge ahead of treatment completion:

The Leafy 10 K in Bournville was my first race in years, and it was fun.  Absolutely pissed down all night so the fields were not only sodden but 1-6 inches under water in most areas.  Just before the 4K mark, a woman I was passing stepped out in front of me and I tried to slow down and, instead slid onto my back and about 15 feet down the turf.  Cool.

I was making the last of my pledged mileage for Swiftember (one of the annual club things) on the day which required a little more than the 10K course so I ran to and from the race:

I eventually received a race time which I think was reconstructed from the finish photos, so potentially accurate.  A couple of folks passed me after the split (me splashing along in the Cubs hat, below) but I picked up 16 places on the midway position without causing any noticeable damage to the hamstring injury of a few days before.

August 2019 Run Updates and Excess Photo Dump

A busy running month coupled with much to do at work left few interesting bonus photos for the end-of-month round-up.  And, so it goes.

Miles: 155
Runs: 23 total, 6.7 miles average
Long: 11.5 miles
Pubs: 13 on runs, 16 overall

Out for a longer run than normal (lately) one Saturday this month, I planned to double-dip the fine pubs at the northwest edge of Halesowen before heading home.  After the Waggon & Horses I found the George shuttered (Rest In Peace) but still managed to take in the Queen’s Head without too much of a change in direction:

Thankfully, some civic-minded soul replaced the “M” (however tentatively) on this street sign.  Or, leading as it does into the Gay Village, perhaps the “M” stands for “Misleading.”

The Collossus of Digbeth appeared before us on our Bank Holiday weekend ramblings and, for some reason — perhaps drugs were involved — I had “Get Down Tonight” by KC and the Sunshine Band stuck in my head for the next two days:

The days continue to diminish as we head into September.  By the next update, night will dominate; until then….

 

The Fox, Gay Village, Birmingham

Pub #2315:

Middle aged women always lament (except when they thank the deities for) the invisibility that age has bestowed upon them. The dude equivalent is just how hard it is to get a beverage at a gay bar when you’re closer to 60 than 50. Oh, well…as I wrote earlier, there were still cheese and tomato sandwiches left by the time I could join the rest of the running group out in the quaintly named “Lady Garden” in the Fox.

Good pub, though, and if I had more time (new member, so I felt obliged to try to be more social and less of a weirdo) I’d scan the murals wrapping the bar area for a diva I actually like: where’s Nina Simone? Dusty Springfield? Bassey? Piaf? Christ, I AM really old.

 

Birmingham Swifts Running Club

I was once in the Fetch Everyone Running Club to get reduced entry fees (England Athletics affiliates save two quid on race fees).  When I stopped racing after the Ridgeway Challenge, this seemed pointless (although I almost stayed in because friends in the Hash House Harriers always referred to it as Feltch Everyone).

There are several running clubs in town but none especially convenient to get to for midweek training/social runs.  I started looking for one a little more seriously this month ahead of the impending (and, to be cautious, only still likely) move out to West Bromwich but even the so-called “West Bromwich” (and not “Walsall”) Harriers do their runs at a permanent location in Walsall … good if you are a driver but not so much on public transport from work in south Birmingham then home after.

The Birmingham Swifts turned out (or perhaps “came out” is more appropriate) to be as good as I could hope for.  The Thursday runs start a mere 2½ mile jog from the lab (with some pubs to explore beforehand nearby) and are a direct bus ride home (now) and a direct tram ride home (post-move).

Plus, they go to the bar after the Thursday run.  I think I might fit in.  However, I expected more innuendo from this group than once during the stretches (“reach up…breathe…and bend over”) and the other time at the beer garden regarding the sandwiches as I selected a cheese. and tomato after the last burger was gone (“oh…you missed out on the meat”).