It was thanks to a run in Richmond Park when we were over here on holiday in January 2007 that we ended up moving to England. My wife, Ruth, used to live in England in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and had always wanted to move back. But I was a loyal kiwi who couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live anywhere else other than New Zealand – until I ran in Richmond Park.
I am sure that Ruth knew what she was doing when she suggested that I do my long run in Richmond Park. I had never run in such beautiful surroundings and fell in love with the place. After moving to England for the first time in mid 2008 I became a regular runner, and now walker, in Richmond Park and have spent many, many hours training all over the park – as well as running or walking Richmond parkrun 61 times during the last 6 1/2 years.
Richmond Park looking towards the A3Richmond Park near Sheen Gate
Today is Saturday which is otherwise known as parkrunday. So the day started off with a 5km run at 9am. This time at a brand new parkrun in Oxfordshire by the name of Didcot parkrun.
And then this afternoon I headed up into Richmond Park for the first time in daylight since I can’t remember when. There are hundreds of trails within the park and often I will just wander through the middle of the park following the various trails, but my favourite route is around the parameter. A lap of the park following the parameter trail is about 7 ½ miles and depending on the direction you go you have a steep hill in either the first half or the second half, and a more gradual hill in the other half. I went anti-clockwise which gave me the steep hill during the 3rd mile but also presented me with a great view looking out over Twickenham, Teddington, and down towards Kingston during the last part of the lap.
Richmond Park elevation
And the best news from today’s walk was that I was back to normal training pace. I won’t get too excited yet. I tried to walk a fast mile during my walk on Thursday night and struggled to increase my pace. So I am not planning on doing anything strenuous just yet, but am looking forward to hopefully getting out for another easy 2 or 3 hours tomorrow afternoon.
After two weeks of no exercise at all, and 1 ½ weeks off work due to a lung infection, I was back doing some gentle exercise this weekend.
Having missed my weekly parkrun fix last weekend I ran an easy 5km at Valentines parkrun yesterday – it was Valentine’s Day so what better place to get back to parkrunning than Valentines Park.
And today I went out for an easy 5 mile walk beside the Thames.
The River Thames heading towards RichmondBeside ‘The Meadow’ with Richmond Hill in front of me.Looking back from the top of Richmond Hill towards Kingston. ‘The Meadow’ and the river are at the bottom of the hill.
My lungs probably aren’t fully recovered and mentally there is no way I would be able to recover and get fully fit in time for the Bourges 24 hour race in two weeks time. So I have decided to write February off and just ease back into some very light training this month, and then review things again in early March.
After completing an easy 5 miles in Richmond Park on Friday night I checked my total mileage for January and saw that whilst I was well short of my 500km goal for January at 441km (274 miles), if I added on my running then I was on 472km. Only 28km short of 500km and with a few hours to spare on Saturday morning, the last day of January, I could easily achieve the milestone.
So the next question was “where could I walk to cover 23km (plus a 5km parkrun – it is Saturday which means “parkrunday”) and finish with enough time to get to Southwark by 1pm”. I needed to be in Southwark for the Centurions AGM where I would be presented with my certificate of membership to the Centurions – recognition of walking 100 miles in less than 24 hours in the UK.
Three weeks ago I covered a 30 mile loop from Dartford that went up past Bexley Heath to the River Thames and then back down river to Dartford. And I had walked as far east as Greenwich previously, but my overall London map had a gap of roughly 5 miles between Greenwich and Bexley Heath.
My London map before today’s walk
There is a parkrun in Lewisham (near Greenwich) that I hadn’t done previously, and Greenwich is near Southwark. So my plan for today’s walk started to fall in to place – I would drive to Bexley Heath, leave the car there, walk to Lewisham and run the Hilly Fields parkrun, and then walk back to Bexley Heath, find a local swimming pool to have a shower, and then drive back over to Southwark.
So at 6am I walked out of the house to find snow on the ground. Would this disrupt my plans?
Fortunately not. Once I started driving the snow became thinner and within a few miles there wasn’t any sign of snow at all.
During my walk from Bexley Heath back towards Lewisham it was constantly trying to snow but not heavily enough for it to settle on the ground.
I walked the 8 ½ miles to Lewisham at a reasonable pace arriving about 10 minutes before parkrun was due to start (at 9am) to find plenty of volunteers but only one other runner. But like most parkruns, everyone turns up at the last minute (especially when it is cold) and at 9am 124 of us set off for a 5km run around the park.
After the run I then reset my Garmin and headed off for the return journey – which happened to be 11 miles due to my going back via a different route. I had to head north for a mile or two first in order to connect with another walk on my map – I didn’t want to leave a small gap! And then head west back towards Bexley Heath.
Today’s route – 12km out, 5km parkrun, and 17km back
So I completed my goal of covering 500km in a month, although I did cheat slightly and combine 36km of running with 470km of walking. But 500km is 500km. And is all good training towards my racing goals which start in 4 weeks time.
The Centurions AGM I really didn’t have time to do the extra mileage as it meant that I arrived back at Bexley Heath about 30 minutes later than planned, and as a result I arrived at the Centurions AGM about 30 minutes late too.
But along with three others (of the six that qualified in 2014) I received my certificate and had the opportunity to meet many other centurions – some of whom had qualified over 40 years ago!
Three 2014 Centurions: Richard McChesney C1131, Mark Haynes C1134 and Tony Hill C1133 – Note: Mark and Tony are standing on the step behind me. We are not all 6’4″ or taller!
When I qualified at Southend-On-Sea last August I became the 1,131st person to achieve this feat in the UK. That is less people than have swam the English Channel (1,426), a fraction of the number of people who have climbed Mount Everest (which is over 4,000!!) and less than the number of rugby players who have played for the All Blacks (1,137).
When I qualified as a New Zealand Centurion in October 2013 I was just the 19th person to achieve this feat in New Zealand, and at the UK Centurions AGM four NZ Centurions were present:
Four NZ Centurions: Sue Clements (NZ C10 – 2001), Richard McChesney (NZ C19 – 2013), Sandra Brown (NZC4 – 1999), and Jill Green (NZC8 – 2001). Note: Sandra Brown hold the NZ all-comers record at an incredible 19 hours and 47 seconds. A time that is faster than any other man or women has walked in NZ. She has also completed over 160 races of 100 miles or further and holds world age group records over distances ranging up to 1,000 miles!
And then this afternoon I headed up into Richmond Park for the first time in daylight since I can’t remember when. There are hundreds of trails within the park and often I will just wander through the middle of the park following the various trails, but my favourite route is around the parameter. A lap of the park following the parameter trail is about 7 ½ miles and depending on the direction you go you have a steep hill in either the first half or the second half, and a more gradual hill in the other half. I went anti-clockwise which gave me the steep hill during the 3rd mile but also presented me with a great view looking out over Twickenham, Teddington, and down towards Kingston during the last part of the lap.
