Red Side Story is the second novel in Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey series and follows directly on from it. It’s a great sequel. Sometimes sequels are a bit slow moving, especially the second in a trilogy. But this one has some serious plot. And continues Fforde’s captivating ability to create such cool alternative histories. Well worth a read.
Family outing to East Holmes Field parkrun in Ilkley. It is four laps of the park by the river. All grass and dirt path with plenty of tree roots and nice views. Also ran into Aron and it was lovely to catch up. East was the last point I needed to complete the compass club challenge! Joining Newcastle West, North Yorkshire Water Park and Darlington South.
Bishopton Triathlon is a UPrevail event held at the North East Wake Park near Stockton. They do a variety of distances and it was a club championship race for Hyde Park Harriers. I was taking on the sprint. It was an eye-watering early start: up at 4am to get there for 6am.
Despite it still being August, it was freezing when I got there! Luckily, the water was still a balmy 19 degrees. Classically, by the end of the race it was glorious sunshine and I had to go find my suncream.
The swim was fine. I felt reasonably confident the whole way around (as in, wasn’t panicking I was about to drown). It was super-shallow at the edges and I could have stood up in a lot of it. The cycle route was a lovely tour of the countryside and had plenty of flat to get aero while having a few short punchy hills for variety. The run was two laps of the field which was tough in road shoes.
My overall finish time was:
1:34:57
And my splits were:
| Stage | Time |
|---|---|
| Swim | 18:13 |
| T1 | 4:33 |
| Cycle | 46:47 |
| T2 | 1:40 |
| Run | 23:42 |
I was around three minutes faster on the swim than in Ripon. T1 was slow, though, as it was cool enough to put my gloves on and I fumbled them quite badly with my wet hands.
It was a really friendly race and I would do it again. Congratulations to fellow Harrier Jamie who completed his first Olympic distance triathlon at the race.
Endcliffe parkrun is located in Sheffield and is one of the busier ones, regularly attracting 700+ people. I had a meeting shortly after so I turned up the walk it. It is a two-lap course.
The start was well organised and there was a comprehensive first timers’ briefing. Unfortunately, at the main briefing, there were two dogs constantly barking each other so I couldn’t hear anything despite the speaker system. Once we were going, it was predictably crowded, especially as it starts with a little out-and-back section.
At around 1.5km there was a single-file bridge that we had to queue for several minutes to cross. By this point, the fastest runners were already coming around to lap us, and they seem to be able to skip the queue, which slows things down even more. The same thing happens when the path narrows around 500m further down. You also have fast runners whizzing past you as that part of the track is barely wide enough for two people with a wall on one side and a stream on the other.
Thankfully, by the second lap it has thinned out a bit and I nearly lost my way at one of the series of turns. Those who are not directionally challenged will no doubt remember it from the first loop, though. As you come into the finish, you have to dodge around the crowds of those who have already finished walking out of the park.
Thank you to all of the volunteers who were well organised and friendly.
This ticked off another E for me, which allowed me to finish the spell your name challenge (including my title, full name and middle name) and the Old MacDonald challenge. Edwin Carolan, Illaunmanagh, Endcliffe, Isabel Trail and Oakwell Hall.
Shades of Grey is a dystopian novel Jasper Fforde. The story revolves around a society that has largely abandoned technology and now lives in a strict hierarchy where your class is determined by your colour perception, which most people have lost.
It is the third Fforde novel I have read, and it is once again excellent. I don’t know if I love it quite as much as Early Riser, but that quickly rocketed up to one of my favourite fiction books, so tough competition. This one is part of a series and I’m going straight on to part two.
We’ve just rolled out a redesign of the Leeds Autism Practice website. It has my face everywhere. I wasn’t sure about the idea but multiple people have tried to sell me on it being a good idea.
We also now have a parents’ consultation option for child assessments.
It’s IRONMAN Leeds day! And what a day to behold. This was the second staging of the race since it moved over from Bolton in 2025. If you’re unfamiliar with IRONMAN, its a long-format triathlon race which means you swim 3.8km, cycle 180km, and then run a marathon. In under 17 hours or you’re out.
Except there was no swim this year. The levels of blue green algae in Waterloo Lake were significantly above threshold. There was a great deal of anger about this in the community, much of it directed at IRONMAN as an organisation. I like to bash IRONMAN as much as the next person, but this isn’t their fault. Water pollution is a massive problem in the UK and is compounded by climate breakdown. Until we, as a society, choose to tackle these issues, more swims will be cancelled.
Personally, it meant I could have a lie in as there as no swim to watch. I turned up just after lunch and had an explore of the event village with plenty of time to get comfortable before Adam Baker and Anna Lawson break the tape. Lawson ran a 2:59:22 marathon to take the win. Because it was a rolling TT start, it wasn’t clear for a long time who had actually won the race. In the end, Toby Nisbet pipped Baker by two minutes.
I took a short break for tea and then rejoined the event as it was getting dark to watch the final 50 or so athletes come in. David Neal (M70-74) was the last athlete across the line, but significantly quicker than some of the other athletes due to the TT start. It rained quite heavily for the last hour or so but it didn’t stop the party.
Today is the 4th anniversary of when I completed IRONMAN Copenhagen and so I’ve decided it is finally time to take my wristband off. It’s been me good luck charm throughout my doctorate but as that is long over now as well, it’s time for a change.
As a bonus, I managed to get it off my wrist in one piece using the plastic bag method.
We went down to the Blue Lagoon for the solar eclipse. I had a lovely swim. The eclipse itself wasn’t very exciting, though. It did definitely get a bit darker, but without eclipse glasses it just looked like the regular sun from the quick snap I took with my camera.
