Chris Curtis Web Site

For the first time in ages, the sun is shining and there is blue sky. The snow has all gone after very heavy rain yesterday. It is still cool and wintry, but the heart lifts.

I now own a telescope – a rather attractive Celestron 4SE computerised one. I am delighted with its performance – though the weather has been tricky here with too much cloud to use it for more than a few hours in total so far (I have had it over a week). As well as amazing views of the moon and Jupiter, I have been able to find and observe lots of deep sky objects including the Andromeda Galaxy, the Ring Nebula, the Hercules Globular Cluster and many more.

I went out this morning to join over 1,000 people all over the planet on the “world wide festival of races“. During this weekend, you either join in an organised race or run the distance using a gps watch (as I did) for the “Kick the Couch” 5K, the “Zen” 10K or the World Wide Half Marathon. Being realistic I went for the Kick the Couch 5K and finished in a new personal best of 29:12 – finally, after literally years of trying, beating the half-hour barrier!

I was not at my best. I have been ill all week and do not feel 100% today, but was determined to get this run in. I stayed dry, but it is grey and gloomy and the rain is never far away. Everything is autumnal in yellows and browns and it is cool – a good thing, really. I set off too fast but after 2K realised I was well under the 30 minute pace so gritted my teeth and kept going. The fourth kilometre was very hard: I was fading very fast and it seemed a long way still to go.

Anyway, a significant target met, even if the run felt scrappy and uncomfortable rather than smooth. Next target – under 1 hour for the 10K.

According to the software, personal bests for ALL the distances up to and including 10K were set this month. I am officially running faster and further than ever before.

It has been hard to run recently. It is dark much earlier in the evenings and this is a very busy time at work. If you miss a run or two, you feel much worse the next time you go out. It is all too easy to lose the running habit.

I decided I had to get out this afternoon and as the weather was calm and pleasant – neither too cool nor too warm – I thought I would run my old 10K route: the first time in many months. I started off gently and let myself have lots of short walk-breaks but also had some good long runs at steady pace. I ran along the pavement for 2K then up a track and through the woods until I came back roadside at about 5K to go through the industrial estate south of Gatwick airport, along a track between the railway and river, underneath the airport itself and back through quiet streets to home.

I was delighted with the run. new PBs for 1K, 1500m, 1 mile, 2K, 8K and 10K. Not threatening any records but respectable “jogger” times – just over the hour for 10K and all the distances now under 3K are at less than 5:30/km. Legs felt great (lack of running recently!) though my nose was runny and I have felt like I have a mild cold for days. Good motivator for more running.

Well, the running programme now calls for 5K training runs. Officially, there are no stops, but I find myself having to walk to cross roads or even having to stop for traffic and I still have a tendency to stop the clock for a minute or two about half way round, but I am just back from the first of these runs and my gps watch says that I ran or “jogged” 98% of the way. It took me 31 minutes and 56 seconds. This is a new personal best and if I keep it up, I should be running under 30 minutes by the time of the world wide festival of races (http://www.worldwidefestivalofraces.com)

Although these runs are laughably slow, they were unimaginable for me just 10 weeks ago when I was struggling to jog for two minutes. It is amazing how quickly the body adapts and develops if trained right. I am enjoying it too. It was light when I set out and dark when I returned. The evenings are becoming cool now and the sky was quite lovely as the colours faded through a million types of subtlety and a big, creamy yellow harvest moon emerged from behind picture-book clouds. I was in a private and wordless place, just pounding along at peace with the world – feeling the joy of everything moving, breath panting, blood rushing and being alive.

I was held up so ran a much shorter distance than usual and scored a new PB for 1500m – nothing to write home about, but the running is becoming easier each time, as well as faster.

It was a beautiful evening, but it already feels that summer has gone. The sky was full of shower clouds. It was becoming dark before 8pm, though the moon lightened the scene and there was a blustery, cool wind. The sky was in cold tones, with the colour sucked out. Lovely, but not a summer evening really.

I was pleased with my run tonight. PBs for 1500m, 3km, 2 miles and 4km and an overall pace of 6:17 mins/km. It felt fairly hard, but the new shoes are definitely limiting the impact on my legs and especially knees and shins.

The weather was fresher. There was a breeze and although it is still very warm, and definitely summer, it was not anything like as “sticky” as it has been recently. We are moving into the end of summer. Grass is high and dry. There is already a little gold in the tree-leaves and nights have that lovely stillness. It is dark much earlier too.