I’m now fixed, finally, after my fall in Sicily, and back to running again. My first event since recovering was the Bushy Park Trail Challenge that SLOW, my orienteering club, organises every year. It’s roughly a 10K run. I didn’t feel particularly fast out there – although I did sprint for the line at the end. My quads were screaming for about two days afterwards – to the point that I was holding onto bannisters walking down stairs. It’s amazing what a couple of months off does to your fitness – I was still cycling every day so thought I had a good base fitness, but I guess not.
Anyway, this summer is looking like:
- London Park Race series. Generally Tuesday evenings in June and Thursday evenings in July. I’m doing the website again so will be quite involved, although I think I’ve managed to offload the publicity this year. The Park Race events are generally quite short (5K) and finish in a pub, which is good.
- parkrun. I’ve done 47 of these over the last four years, and really want to do three more soon, to get a highly coveted (and very red) parkrun 50 technical shirt. As seems to happen often in the summer, it’s going to be a while before I can run those three Saturday 9am 5Ks – 2 July, 9 July (slowly) and 13 August are the next three free days.
- Ripon and York urban double – 29/30 May.
- Nottingham urban race – 5 June
- Lossie/Culbin double weekend – 11/12 June. A long way to travel but should be great.
- Great Wilderness munroing – 13-16 June. Might as well as I’m up there.
- North Downs Way Relay – 25 June. Don’t think I’ll be fit enough to break the record for the leg I’m on – this year at least.
- Saxons Trail Challenge Half Marathon – 10 July. Knole Park near Sevenoaks, and along to the east. Should be lovely.
- Scottish 6 Days – 31 July – 6 August. Really looking forward to this, I have ambitiously entered elite, so really need to step up my training.