Thursday 21 July 2011

Busier than expected

It's been a fortnight since my last post, and in that time I've come to realise a couple of things.
1) This could have more people taking part than I first thought or ever expected.
2) The concept of further 'mile challenges' or even races in various places could have legs. That is a bad, unintended pun.

I have also made the now regulation Facebook event as promised at the end of my last post. Thanks to the wonders of being locked out of accessing Facebook at work I cannot post the link to it right now, but if you want to find it a search for 'Arethusa Mile' should give you the return you want. It's not the most common name for an event. Just thank your lucky stars I didn't call it the 'John Smith Mile'.
I invited my Facebook running friends to the event, and being an open event to all means others have seen it, which is just what I intended and I've been taken aback by the idea actually attracting friendly strangers with positive responses.

The logistics for this mile could become a little more complicated if the numbers wanting to turn up keep increasing, but I think the numbers will stay manageable if I'm sensible with my forecasting. No entry fee and no prizes means that people can do this on a whim, which means the numbers turning up could be anyone's guess - and to let you know how many people have responded to my request to e-mail me with their predicted time... not very many at all! Either they aren't reading my posts or just not bothering to contact me just yet.

What this does cause me to do is start to draw up the possibility of closing the event out to people who don't let me know they are wanting to come. The run is just under 3 weeks away so plenty of time to let me know. I'd personally like to be able to deliver a somewhat organised mile challenge rather than having to deal with people at the last minute who've turned up on the day. The more I think about it, the more sensible I believe this to be. I'll think over this further in the coming week.

I've tweeted about it via the Bushy parkrun Twitter account, Marathon Talk have now mentioned it twice on their latest podcasts, it's on Facebook as detailed and Paul Sinton-Hewitt (parkrun CEO) has posted it on the parkrun Facebook wall. What I have noticed is that Facebook as a medium for inviting people to these kind of events seems to be the most successful way of doing things - mostly because of it's saturation in our lives now and it's enormous use as a form of online diary for many.

I still need to run a test event, ideally the week before on Wednesday 3rd August at the same time (7:30pm) to see what the park is like at that time of the evening. I have a couple of offers for this, and if you'd also like to help pilot the run, please let me know at danny@parkrun.com.

Other ideas I've noted are the possibility of recording this event with various forms of media. Photographers are welcome of course. I'd like to record some audio to send to Marathon Talk if it is useable and anyone with a video camera would be well received too. A pipe dream would be a video recording of the runners going round the road being filmed by a moving camera alongside them. Akin to the Tour De France motorbikes or an athletics track with those 4 wheel buggies they have. Hopefully you get my gist.

Ultimately timing the run is my biggest concern. The fundamentals are that the runners want to know what time they run a mile in. They need a mile distance to cover and a means to time it - be it their own watch or a person responsible for doing so. This timing and recording of times responsibility I believe to be my central role to all this, alongside gathering runners together at the same time and place.
I've already gone to the lengths of getting a timing app for my smartphone - this gives multiple times immediately and on screen - very neat. This is one way of doing it, but I have additional/back up timing means as well. And of course if you are coming and have an iPhone or Android capable smartphone, I'd of course appreciate any offers of additional timekeepers armed with these devices with a stopwatch app loaded.

So far the times coming in from people who have let me know their estimates are relatively wide ranging. Certainly enough to have a couple of waves and to get the best condition and group for you to run your fastest mile in. All I can hope for is that this persistent rain we've been having decides to scarper come August 10th.

Thursday 7 July 2011

Further thoughts

Time to update the proceedings on this as it's been a week since the first post.

So far feedback has been positive, which is always reassuring when you are trying or wanting to start something. There is always the extreme thought in the back of your head that no one wants to get involved and that on the day, in a worse case scenario, I'm left standing in the middle of an empty park clutching an unused stopwatch waiting for no one to show up. Then I imagine some sombre music to play in the background as I slink off defeated, head drooping down, slumping off into the sunset, a lonely shadowy figure.

However, this isn't going to happen! Positive thinking kicks in and people have promised to be there. Hurray! A plan is coming together.

Before I start the main body of this post just a reminder that the registration page for the Marathon Talk Magic Mile Global Team Challenge can be found here alongside the entry list of names so far.

On with the update! This week my Garmin Forerunner has decided to die. It's served me well over the past 3 years. I'm not giving up on it just yet, I'm charging it again as I type, never losing hope that it's flatlining will turn into a regular beat. But soon someone will have to grab me by the shoulders and pull me away saying "It's over, she's gone". This means I will have to go out and buy a new Garmin, like a family buys a new puppy to replace the beloved old hound who just got put down after 15 years of love, slobber, poop and attention. It also means that my plotting out a suggested amendment to the course will have to be on hold for a few days.

Why a possible amendment? Well this is where you the reader come in, in regards your confirmation of participation.
I received a call from Tom Williams of Marathon Talk who asked if the route could encompass only one lap of the Fountain. The suggestion entailed that if everybody set off together on the proposed 2 lap course then people could be lapped, it could get confusing as to whom should turn off to the finish and overtaking could put people at risk if they are not aware that someone may come flying past them. All very valid points. However, this is dependent on how many runners want to take part.
For example: If we only have 10 runners all of whom run sub 6 minute miling then lapping won't be an issue. However, this is extremely unlikely. In fact I know this won't happen, but it's just a logistic.
If however we have 50 runners, some of whom can rub sub-4, and others a 10 minute mile then lapping does become an issue on a two lap course, especially on a road still open to cyclists.
Then of course 50 starters in a mile race also becomes too big a field. It is then wiser to divide the runs up into groups of runners with similar time goals if this action is called for. This is of course first-and-foremost a coming together at the same time and place of some runners to see how fast they can run a mile whilst having similar speed athletes there to push them harder than they would do if solo.

Personally I do prefer to have the two lap course, mostly because it makes the run compact and easily viewable at all times for anyone and everyone. But this will come down to the fact I need to know who is wanting to take part.

What this calls for is pre-entry notification. This will make my life easier if I know who to expect and roughly how many, rather than having to organise on the fly. This seems the most sensible decision to me.
So, if you are wanting to take part please e-mail me here - and I will put you on the 'entry' list. I simply need your name and estimated mile time. This list of course is not a binding contract to take part of course, and people can take part on the day, but I can make provisions for people based on how fast they expect to go and can then be grouped accordingly. I hope to hear from you soon.

P.S. If you are a Twitter user please use the hashtag #magicmile in relation to this Marathon Talk event.
Which reminds me, I need to make the now compulsory Facebook event and invite people.

Comments and suggestions welcome as always.