Sunday 3 October 2010

Shame - a strong motivator...

I got up this morning to see the same sort of rain that has battered Celtic Manor this weekend and caused the Ryder Cup to be rescheduled.  And it went on and on.  And on and on.  And as I type it's still going on and on...

K took M&L to the shops to buy lots of stuff Maisie probably doesn't need for her forthcoming trip to Bewerley Park, so I was left at home on my own, generally tossing it off and reading Runners' World forums.  I spend a fair bit of time on the "sub-3:15" marathon thread and have made some good (virtual) chums on there, so I was impressed to see how many of them had got their arses out today.

I'd decided not to bother, see, as I thought my 14 yesterday qualified me for a day on the bike if not a complete rest.  However the roads are awash which means no cycling - so having seen that other people had got out I felt almost oblioged not to waste a day off.  Added to that the diary looks a bit nuts this week so running's going to be intermittent at best - pay rises and new jobs are lovely but I do look back to 18 months ago when we could be out pretty much any lunchtime or by 5 any night.  This week I'm in Harrogate tomorrow with no time to run, so my best bet could be either early Tuesday or maybe a trip down t'Harriers on Tuesday night assuming we get finished in Harrogate on time.  Then bike to work Wednesday, probably Newcastle Thursday and hopefully a run home or a longish canal run Friday.

Today's run was my Halton East 5 miler in absolutely torrential rain - the road's flooded in a couple of places and I not only ran in a jacket I also kept my hood up!  I took it pretty steady until the last couple of m iles, which I ran at 7:15 pace - which bodes well (eventually) for MP runs of 6:50 or so in a few months as it felt very easy.

I've also picked out a few races for the build up - I already have Abbey Dash in the diary, and I've entered the Ribble Valley 10k at Christmas.  I'll be doing Kildwick Duathlon and Auld Lang Syne I expect too.  As well as that I'm thinking Brass Monkey, St Annes 10m in March and possibly Coniston 14 the weekend before London.  I won't be racing Coniston if I do it at all, but it's such a lovely race it'd be a good one to have as my last LR before the big day.

Finally just a word about the rugby league last night - Wigan won the Grand Final after 12 barren years which was great - but what I was also struck by was the number of good natured messages of congratulations from supporters of other clubs, including arch-rival St Helens - why can't football be like that?  Answers on a postcard...

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