When Will Spring Be Here?

I'm really looking forward to the arrival of Spring and better running weather. Along with the pressures of work, it's any excuse in this weather to not go out running!

Mind you, with a gale and hail at the same time, is it really a safe day to go out for a run?

I never thought of myself as a summer runner - but I seem to be turning into one. Then it will be too hot to run!

Helsby Half Marathon - It's Done & Dusted!

Well, that's another Helsby half out of the way. 4 times in the last 5 years I've complete there and as always it's a nice medal to stand on the shelf.

The weather was kind to us. Rained until just before the start. Cleared up, slight drizzle towards the end and then a heavy shower when I was back in the club house, but other people out on the course seemed to miss that (there's a bit of a walk back to the club house from the finish).

Car parking was well organised. They put on a shuttle bus service from the local motorway services. The hills didn't seem as bad as last year - probably because knowing I had missed training through illness and still wasn't 100% I slowed down straight from the start. Finished in just under 1:34, according to my watch. Loads longer than my PB and last year's time, but I was aiming for 1:35 so that's good.

The school fields was muddy at the end, even with boards down to walk across. Fell sorry for the caretaker tomorrow...

Good race, well worth doing and no doubt I'll be back next year. Now to decide what's next...

Great Manchester Run

I accidentally found out today that the Great Manchester Run is accepting entries. Given that this has filled up quickly in previous years this was rather fortuitous. Being a member of the Great Run Club, I did think that I would be given priority entry and told a couple of days before the race opened, like in past years. Maybe this year that priviledge is no longer included, or maybe the mailing list was created before this year's entries were included.

I also noticed at the same time that the Great North Run will be accepting 52,000 entrants this year! That's going to be one busy run that day. I'm sure my first Great North Run only had 36,000 entries, or there abouts.

Well, that's 3 future races entered now. I suppose training had better step up!

Final London Marathon Chance

My wife showed me a competition in this week's TV Times. The prize was something like one of 5 places to run with the TV Times team in the London Marathon. Only 2 questions - (1) why do you deserve a place and (2) how much can you raise & how (looks like 3 questions...).

It would appear that it's a competition for Gold Bond places. Doesn't say whether it's out of the hat, most deserving answers or the 5 people promising to raise the most.

It is the team I've ran for in the last 3 Great North Runs and you do get good support. Not sure who I will run for next time - fancy something other than a bright yellow t-shirt.

It's Hard To Be Inspired...

I'm finding it very hard to get inspired for running, which isn't good when I'm supposed to be ready for next week's Helsby Half Marathon. Nothing about the race - just the weather and illness bringing be down.

I think this is going to be my slowest Helsby race yet - I'm wondering if I won't even break the 90 minute mark! The same thing happened last year, but after the Helsby race. One of the reasons I started this blog was to help me to maintain focus, but that seems to have drifted off anyway. Or maybe I'm turning into a summer runner!

Quiet Start To 2008

With the Helsby Half Marathon only 2 weeks away, I really must get down to serious training this week and make sure my eating and more importantly my drinking is correct. That was brought home to me this week.

Because of the end of the school holidays my running has been thrown around a bit and I ended up not running Wednesday, but Thursday then Friday.

Thursday's run was really good - strong and fast. In the evening I felt a little dehydrated and was still dehydrated by Friday lunch when I went out for my run (one of those days when for 2 hours I'm saying 'going in 5 minutes'...). And that run was really hard work!

Over Christmas a few runs have suffered the same way. I really must concentrate on getting that water down me to help my running!