Running

A redway

Running. Until this winter, I’d barely run since school and in recent years had dismissed running as the preserve of strange sinewy obsessives who wanted to collapse prematurely from a heart attack/have to have a hip replacement at 50. The fact that several keen runners I have known always seemed to be nursing injuries didn’t help. However, this January I threw previous reservations to the wind and joined a beginners' running course run by Milton Keynes-based club Redway Runners, an impressively well-organised outfit of over 2000 members. The name of the club refers to the mixed-use recreational dark red-tarmacked paths that criss-cross MK.

The motivation was a desire to improve my cardio fitness, prompted partly by the struggle I’d had getting up Snowdon last June. While I do walk regularly, and walking is great, there’s only so much I can do to stretch myself sufficiently several times a week as Milton Keynes is relatively flat. As I don’t like gyms and can never really seem to get going with cycling, and as a number of people at work had recommended the Redway Runners, I decided to give them a go, so signed up for the 6pm Tuesday course starting the second week in January.

Although I didn't manage to attend every session, I attended most of them and found the group leads very encouraging, particularly Lisa C who was often responsible for the 'tail' and assured me that the coolest place to be was at the back (just as well). The club operates a great system for beginners runs – as well as somebody leading, there’s always a tail runner to ensure no one is left behind, and faster runners have to ‘loop back’ if the group gets too spread out to allow the group to bunch back together.

Redway Runners January 2019 beginners 'graduation' - me circled

The 10-week ‘course’ ended with the group – as well as all the other beginners groups; there were 6 or 7 – doing the Milton Keynes 5K parkrun on Saturday 30th at Willen Lake. Hai had kindly offered a while back to run with me, which worked quite well though I suspect she might have liked to go faster at certain points. My priority, however, was maintaining a constant slow speed with the intention of avoiding having to walk – albeit that the group leaders had assured us beforehand that it didn’t matter if we did have to walk bits. In the event, I managed to get the whole way round without walking, which I was very pleased about.

My time – I’m not proud – was 45 minutes. Never come 840th in anything before. I was cheered to learn that there were evidently 63 people who came AFTER me, though realise some of them may have been walking the route.

A number of photos were taken, most of the ones I've located highly unflattering. Here's one such.

Very taken with the parkrun idea. The Milton Keynes parkrun is a pleasant single-lap route taking in the canal broadwalk, passing the Peace Pagoda and then doing a circuit of Willen Lake. Planning to have a go at the Reading parkrun this coming weekend.

Redway Runners have a whole load of group runs every week, aimed at runners of varying speeds. There are 'step up' runs several times a week for newly-graduated beginners, plus 'gentle step ups' for those of a particularly sedate speed (40+ minutes parkrun time). I've already been out on a couple of the latter and quite enjoyed them. The club seems to have runners of a whole range of ages, sizes and speeds, which is really encouraging. I had some reservations about taking up running at 50 but so far all seems good, and I am mindful of not rushing into it headlong and overdoing it (frankly that's not all that likely; I have no problem in adopting a 'moderation' approach to exercise, unlike to, say, chocolate biscuits). My boss Judith started running only around 10 years ago and is now a keen triathlete who has won her age category at the Ironman Wales for the past two years. I’ve no intention of doing triathlons, but it’s certainly encouraging to know that you can safely take up running at any age.

Walk in Maidenhead, about 5 miles

Sunday 10 March

Another walk with Ray. We'd actually planned a while back to do the route of the Maidenhead Boundary Walk, a circular walk of about 14 miles, but wimped out of that. We also had to make an early diversion to Ray's employer's property to remove some branches from the road after a tree had fallen in the heavy winds. After that we went over to Norden Farm for a cup of tea and a sit down - I'm sure I remember there being a much better cake selection the last time we were there, but on this occasion had to content myself with a Stroopwafel.

After refreshments, we parked on Bridle Road and turned down Harrow Road past Furze Platt station (a stop on the branch line between Maidenhead and Marlow) and what was the Farmers Boy pub, now closed. Came out onto Cookham Road almost opposite the parade of shops that used to contain a Ritz Video, where Ray and I rented a LOT of Star Trek Deep Space Nine episodes at one point in the past. Turned right onto Garretts Lane, which soon becomes a footpath leading onto North Town Moor. We followed footpaths for a while before coming out onto Ray Mill Road West.

This part of Maidenhead has a whole heap of roads with ‘Ray’ in the title: Ray Mill Roads West and East; Ray Park Avenue, Ray Lea Road, Ray Drive, Ray Street; the charmingly-named In The Ray. There’s a biggish house Ray Lodge, now converted into flats. I lived briefly (before falling out with the other tenants) at Ray Lodge Mews in the early 1990s. A brief bit of digging suggests that ‘Ray’ was the surname of a once-prominent local family.

We walked to Boulter's Lock and crossed over onto Ray Mill Island (there the Rays are again). I didn’t know, but there’s been quite a bit of development here on this stretch between the Thames and the new(ish) Jubilee River – there’s a new footbridge and a shedload of new houses and flats ('Taplow Riverside'). As well as all the housing there are also some nice new pedestrian walkways. We spent quite a while mooching around here.

The new footbridge

Walkway and the Jubilee River

Housing at Taplow Riverside

We walked past what used to be Skindles and is now posh new housing and a posh-looking restaurant called ‘Roux at Skindles’. When I lived in Maidenhead in the early 1990s it housed the Studio Valbonne nightclub, where I clubbed a few times in the days when I did such things. The club’s heyday was way before my time; this source has some interesting snippets about its glamorous history. The new Roux restaurant's Skindles History page notes that ‘in the 1990s, Skindles became a rundown venue hosting discos’ which sounds about right from my memory. It closed in the mid-1990s and the building stood empty for 20 years before being bought up for redevelopment.

We walked into the town centre via Guards Club Park. Access to the island is closed at this time of year because of nesting birds. We had lunch at Funkywood.

The footbridge leading to Guards Club Island

Our route shown in red. It doesn't show as circular because I stopped the tracker when we stopped for lunch.

But here's the rest of it. After leaving the restaurant we walked through Maidenhead's uninspiring town centre (though it's not as bad as Bedford's), across Kidwells Park and along roads back to Ray's car.