What’s my NENDY?

I think most of us know that NENDY stands for Nearest Event Not Done Yet, in regards to parkrun. I have been using the Chrome extension Running Challenges for a number of years, and at the moment it states that my NENDY is Chadderton Hall parkrun.

Recently, I have been also using the 5k App, which has my NENDY as Roberts Park parkrun. Why are they different?

Running Challenges has Chadderton Hall as being 68km away, in a straight line. The 5k App has Roberts Park as being 70.4km away, with Chadderton Hall 70.6km away. What the heck is going on?

Running Challenges calculates your NENDY using the location of your home parkrun, which in my case is Lancaster. The 5k App uses your location according to Google, and as we live 2km north of where Lancaster parkrun is held, this is the distances are different.

Chadderton Hall is almost directly to the south of where we live, while Roberts Park is to the east. This slight difference has resulted in Running Challenges and the 5k App giving different NENDYs. I expect that if we lived further away from our “home” parkrun, this could occur more often. I will keep an eye out for what happens when I complete either of these two parkruns.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

Me and my lovely wife wandered into Waterstones a few weeks ago, and on the first table as we walked in, there was a stack of this particular book. I had a little read on the back and felt inclined to purchase a copy. Prominent displays definitely work.

The woman at the counter said to me that she had really enjoyed Yellowface, but that the author usually wrote fantasy, which she didn’t read. Another good sign, or so I thought.

Anyway, Yellowface is all about two competing authors, one incredibly successful, Athena, and the other not so much, June, who are friends. At the end of a night out to celebrate Athena’s new Netflix series, she chokes in her apartment and dies. June tries valiantly to save her, but in the end her friend is pronounced dead at the scene. However, June decides to steal Athena’s recently completed novel which hasn’t been read by anyone yet. She stuff the hand typed manuscript into her bag and leaves.

Interesting premise so far. Slowly, over the course of the book the initially wholesome Athena is revealed to be as equally loathsome as June. Hear in lies a problem. Neither of the main characters are very likeable, and one of them is dead.

There are some interesting passages in the book describing the publishing process and how some books are literally dumped once they’ve been published, and others are given a huge push, for example, by being given the prime position on the leading table in a bookshop.

A nod to Rebecca Kuang for making Athena’s overachieving almost a carbon copy of her own. However, the book dragged. There was far too much about Twitter and social media, and June’s protagonist almost feels like an after thought, with the ending taking place during a storm on the steps where part of The Exorcist was filmed.

I’m sorry to say that I only gave Yellowface three out of five, and that was a little generous. My lovely wife, decided to surprise me with the first book in Rebecca Kuang’s fantasy series, The Poppy War, which hopefully will pull me in.

Croxteth Hall Parkrun

Morecambe parkrun was cancelled this week due to a food festival along the prom, meaning that Lancaster would be busy. I decided to head towards Liverpool to complete my NENDY (Nearest Event Not Done Yet), which was at Croxteth Hall.

I set off nice and early as I wanted to get in a good warmup run. Being a fan of Veloviewer I knew that there were a couple of “Tiles” that I could tick off. I found the carpark with minimal Sat Nav difficulty and as it started to rain I set off my my warmup, heading to the start/finish area with ten minutes before the start.

According to the website – “Croxteth Hall sits in a traditional beautiful Country Park and is one of Liverpool’s most important heritage sites. Formerly the home of the Earls of Sefton, this stunning building is preserved in time. When you enter Croxteth Hall you step back in time as the house is frozen in the Edwardian age.”

I have to say that the hall was stunning.

A few minutes before the start there was a first timers briefing, although no one was completely new to parkrun. The route involved one lap on wide pavement or farm tracks.

I set off near the front, but not near enough, as I was immediately hemmed in by a fair number of slower runners. I’ve said it before, but if you’re going to finish parkrun in 25 or 30 minutes, you probably shouldn’t line up at the front. Fortunately, the paths were nice and wide and I soon had plenty of space to run at my own pace, which was surprisingly fast considering that I’d been awake at 4 am with a vomiting dog. My lovely wife Helen cleared up the mess, but I struggled to get back to sleep.

More amazing was that I finished in a time of 20:26 in 16th place overall. I was also 2nd in my age-group. It was also my fifth best age graded result with 73.98%. All four of my higher results have been at proms, either Morecambe or Fleetwood.

There were over 300 participants at the event and I have to say that it was one of the best parkruns that I had ever done. Friendly people, wide paths, and only one lap. The only drawback was that I struggled to find the correct footpath to take me back to the carpark and completed an extended cool down. I would say, that if you are in the vicinity of Liverpool, you should make an effort to visit Croxteth Hall.

10,000 Steps a Day, Revisited

Back in October I blogged about walking 10,000 steps a day. I mentioned that I had never managed it 30 days in a row. Well, since then, I have made a concerted effort to walk more, as well as keeping an eye on my daily steps total.

A couple of days ago I completed the Garmin 10,000 steps a day 30 day challenge for the fifth time. Go me!

I have to say that I feel better for walking more. My monthly steps totals are larger than they have ever been. I’m also running more. I have an idea for a charity event soon, and I need to increase my mileage. Hopefully, all will be revealed soon.

Anyway, I am now on day three of another 30 day challenge.

500 Wordle

Wordle 712 5/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

This morning I completed my 500th Wordle. What better way than to banish overnight brain fog than with a quick word puzzle.

I am addicted. Today’s word was tough. For a moment I thought they had done it to celebrate 500 puzzles, but then realised that I hadn’t started with Wordle until it was a “thing”.

Anyway, here’s to the next 500.