Juneathon Day 9 - 2011

Another 4 mile run early this morning at 7.45am as I was gardening at 9.30. Passing the Greene King Brewery my memory was drawn back to the recent Real Beer and Food festival in Bury St Edmunds. This was the 2nd year of this event and I really recommend it as an enjoyable morning or afternoon. This year there was the added attraction of live music and very good weather. There were many good products I sampled in the food & drink  tent. Two products that really stood out for me in terms of quality were both made in Suffolk by local producers which were:

a Smoked Fish Pate made by Pinneys of Orford Suffolk. After sampling I just had to buy and I am glad I did as this made a very enjoyable accompaniment with some cheese and biscuits and with salads. I haven't seen or heard of Pinneys before but they they have a website and from this I can see you can order on line or visit their restaurant in Orford. The fish pate I bought was a combination of mackerel,trout and salmon.

 I am not sure if you can buy this in a local shop or supermarket in Bury St Edmunds but will definitely buy again.

The 2nd Product I chose was a local Suffolk cheese from the Rodwell Farm Diary at Baylham Suffolk. I tried both of the cheeses they make and both are very good but decided to buy the Hawkston as I like crumbly cheeses. Their other cheese was also good with the memorable name Shipcord. Again they have a website where you can place orders.

Needless to say both the pate and the cheese has long since gone!

The recent dry weather which dates back at least to march continues. The River Linnett shown in this photo is currently dried up.

After 9 days of Juneathon I am doing OK with no injuries. I would have liked a few miles in the bag but 36.25 is good and gives me a fighting chance of beating my Janathon total.

 

My New Years Resoloution Is to go for a Streak

This morning I stepped out of the front door and went for a streak. I was largely unnoticed as half the country battles with morning after hangovers. Still there was the odd twitching of a curtain and I could feel eyes upon me.

What kind of nutter goes out for a streak on New Years Day especially when it is drizzling? I do and I wasn't alone as I know that another 150 or so folk around the World who are joined together by something called Janathon are also planning to streak.


To be fair to call it a streak would indicate that I have either taken my clothes off or I have run on consecutive days for a period of time. I cannot claim either at the moment. However my aim is to run every day and blog about it throughout January and this I think would qualify me for the latter of the two types of streak. However I guess the rules of Janathon don't mention any need for wearing clothes so as long as you run and you don't get caught I guess that would also count. Any Janathoners want to comment on this ? try it ? and if so don't forget the photos!

The reason for me talking about streaking was the realisation that I have probably never run for more than about 10 days in a row so to try and do 31 is a challenge that I will probably not achieve though I am going to have fun trying. Of course everything is comparable and some of you will know of Ron Hill who hasn't missed a days running since December 20th 1964. Yes 46 years and around 17,000 days of non stop running so how hard can 31 days be? Well hard enough I know.

There is even a United States Running Streak Association with many members having a running streak of up to 40 years. A quick look at their rules to qualify you need to run at least 1 mile every day and to be listed on their website you need to have completed a 1 year streak.

The first day is always the easiest and my 5 miles around Bury St Edmunds Suffolk were completed in around 45 minutes with out any problems. The photograph is an area of water meadows which are prone to flooding near the Greene King Brewery in Bury St Edmunds.

Stow on the Wold Gloucestershire

8.15am 7.2 miles in 59 mins 38 seconds

Week to date mileage 22 miles

Month to date mileage 106

Average weekly rate 29.8 miles

Average monthly rate 129

Year to date 885

Lifetime 10478

For our last 2 days of our holiday we moved on to a small market town in the Cotswolds called Stow on the Wold. Luckily when we booked this youth hostel we chose a town on a hill 800 feet above sea level which therefore hadn't suffered like many of its nearby neighbors from flooding. Another good youth hostel this being 17th century and situated on a pleasant Georgian square.

The youth hostel was once part of the next door White Hart Inn to which we of course had to visit. Whilst we were there having a nice beer called Summer Ale there was a flurry of activity with a large number of constant arrivals. Mostly men with shoulder bags and they started to talk about taking on other teams from other pubs with sticks. It all sounded as if we had arrived in a different country but it became clearer when they departed out of the back of the pub and started lobbing sticks at a ball set on a post a bit like a coconut shy. Very popular apparently in these parts is a game called Aunt Sally. From looking up Aunt Sally on Google it appears this game may have originated during the 17th century civil war and was played by soldiers and would explain its local popularity. Stow like many local places here can claim that Charles 1st stayed here. The Kings Arms apparently was used by the King during his battle at Naseby .

Being in the Cotswolds the houses are built with the mellow yellow stone. It also has he oldest inn in the country called the Royalist Hotel which has been an inn since 947 AD. It was noticeable that a number of the local pubs were now serving Greene king presumably due to their expansion plans buying smaller breweries and pubs in the midlands to get a foothold here.

On my run I certainly realised I was on a hill and my run took me up and down a three quarter mile hill. I also took in an off road path along the Gloucester shire way. My run also took in the nearby village of Maugersbury.

The Commitments at Bury St Edmunds Suffolk

I must say that over the years we have not had much success when we have chosen to attend the Bury Festival to watch live music in the Abbey Gardens. I think there has been 2 years of complete wash outs and 1 year when having bought 4 tickets we turned up the night after the performance.


We have had some successes when we managed to turn up on the right night for cover bands for the Blues Brothers,Madness and Abba.

Tonight the rain held off and we saw The Commitments. I first read the book some years ago along with a no of other Roddy Doyle stories such as the Van, The Snapper . More recently I have read the A Star called Henry and Play the Thing based on the adventures on one Henry Smart.

Some time ago I picked up the Commitments CD for £3 in an HMV Sale and more recently the dvd of the film. So going to watch the band completes the set although from the characters in the film only 2 were actually playing in the band namely the lead guitarist Ken McCluskey (the Meatman in the film) and the drummer Dick Massey (The Animal in the film). Some what odd all round really watching a band from a fictional book playing live!

The film was based on a bunch of Dublin teenagers trying to make it good by forming a soul band in Ireland playing Motown standards.

When we arrived there was a small space at the front of the stage but the rest of the spectator area was filled with chairs, picnics and tartan blankets. The Greene King tent was our first port of call with a pint of Speckled Hen until we realised the IPA was on special offer at £2 a pint.

There was a low key start to the Commitments as every body sat and watched and politely applauded In the Midnight Hour. It took abut 20 minutes before some dancing commenced and once the front of the stage was invaded with dancers the whole atmosphere and enjoyment of the evening was improved 10 fold.

At the interval I overheard 1-2 complaints from folk grimly keeping to their sits and bemoaning the audacity of people standing in front of them and dancing!

The band ran through a number of classic soul standards such as Take me to the River, Try a little Tenderness, Mustang Sally, Chain of Fools and Wrong End of the Street.

The second half needed little crowd encouragement for dancing singing and encores . A really good evening - Bury could really do with a large music venue. The Commitments could have done with a support act just to warm the crowd up.

Favourite Beer!

River Lark and Water Meadows Run

6pm 7.2 miles in 56.42 Year to date mileage 912

Month to date 106 miles Average miles per month 106

Average weekly rate 24.4

Weather bright and sunny.

Course:Head out through the water meadows and then turn left at Bury Rugby Club . Follow the path through No Mans Meadow which is at the back of the Abbey Gardens returning to Southgate Bridge and then returning over the meadows for a 2nd lap.

Return home up Southgate Street past the Police Station and through the Abbey Gardens graveyard then through town centre and home.Ran this course in a new pb time.


I was generally running this course in 1 hour back in June so I may have improved a little though it was warmer of course.

One of the great things about living in Bury is the smells of the Town. I suppose it brings back memories from childhood. Today they were definitely brewing at Greene King and the lovely malty smell of what I imagined to be Abbot Ale floated on the breeze giving all passers by an intoxicating whiff of one of the great beers of this country.

Send me an e-mail and let me know your favourite beer I would have to say my favourites are

• Abbot Ale Greene King
• Speckled Hen Greene King
• Adnams Broadside Adnams Brewery
• Guiness
• Sneck Lifter Jennings Brewery from Cockermouth Lake District

Moreton Hall , Flying Fortress and the Town Centre

7.45am 10 miles in Ihr 24 mins

Year to date mileage 743

Month to date 63 miles

Average miles per week this year 23.1

Average per month 100

Weather: Overcast & dry.

Course: Around the centre of town down Whiting Street past the Greene King Brewery then headed out towards Moreton Hall. Moreton Hall is the new Housing development which is stretching the boundary of Bury St Edmunds ever further out towards Thurston on the eastern boundary. You can get totally lost around the new housing on Moreton Hall which is springing up. I went as far as the pub known as the Flying Fortress where a new sign has appeared.

The new sign refers to the National Cycle Network and is known as the Millennium Milepost. It is one of many cycle signs going up around the country creating 10,000 miles of cycle routes. The section in Bury is part of the National Cycle Route 51, between Felixstowe and Cambridge.

Above you see a couple of pictures from the entrance of the Greene King Brewery. If you grow up in Bury St Edmunds one of the great smells of the Town is from the Greene King Brewery. If the wind is in the right direction you get a lovely seet bitter smell.

Greene King has been in the Town since 1799. In recent years it has been expanding acquiring Moreland Brewery and Ridleys.

Some of the great beers from Greene King include Abbot Ale . IPA, Old Speckled Hen and Ruddles County.

Abbot Ale is the company's flagship beer and has brewed in Bury since the 1950's.

You can take a guided tour of the brewery and see many of the art deco features from the mash tub room built in the 1930's.