Ok it’s not til mid-September but I’ve just entered this The Yorkshireman Half Marathon organised by Keighley & Craven Athletic Club. It starts and finishes from Haworth, Bronte country. that’s an area of the country I know nothing about so why not spend a few days up there, knacker yourself, then eat cake and drink beer.

Took part in the Croydon Harriers’ Invitational yesterday. The mother of all hangovers made me struggle through the 10K. Another fantastic run from James Buchanan to win for Striders. James is quite scary. He trains super hard with all his core strength coming from his boxing training. He brought along Martin, his boxing coach from Dynamo Boxing - who seemed to enjoy the 10K. Well done to Kerry too who is coming back to form.

Lots of cakes, as per usual, to celebrate Suzy’s birthday – who swears she’s in her mid-twenties. I raised a glass of orange juice & lemonade, followed by a ginger beer. Nice

Ok so I’ve been bad at keeping this up-to-date. A lot’s happened since I last updated. I ran the Brighton 10K in mid-November in 40.21 – almost achieving my goal of breaking 40m. I WILL do this in 2008.

This year I’ve started with the 7.5m XC in Lloyd Park (heavy going), a speed session on Tuesday 8th and the third of the 4 Surrey League XC yesterday (12th Jan) in Richmond Park. Only 5 miles it was a breeze compared to Lloyd Park. Conditions underfoot, despite the rain, were surprisingly good. It was more of a road race to be honest. I finished 12th Strider. Two points to note Chris was the only vet in our 10 scoring positions – almost unheard of – and James finished a wonderful 8th. When he actually does some training I’m going to be very scared.

The point of this post is to highlight that the XC season isn’t just about running. We stopped at this establishment in Barnes afterwards for a few beers

12th Jan Halfway House
A good pint of Brakspears – followed by another one until I realised I had to get back to Croydon sharpish to scrub up and head out. A 5 min jog to Barnes station and with good connections at Clapham and EC I was home in Warlingham in under an hour. Not bad. I’ll try and add the other pubs that we’ve visited after the various XC races this season – as I remember what they’re called.

My lower leg stiffened right up the next day and didn’t ease up so I was glad I had the osteopath booked again. Again she managed to free the ankle so much that she even advised that I could run on it if I wanted to.  This time i decided to have a gentle jog on the wednesday which didn’t feel that bad.

By Saturday the leg felt fine so I joined Chris, John Ralf, Dave and Alan for the Reigate Priory relays of 6 x 2.5 miles -  enjoyed alongside the women’s team of Sarah, Susie and Kerry. Excellent home-made cake from Sarah to finish the day off – and a beer as we missed the 15:34 train…

I didn’t feel good on this day. I’d seen Annabelle, the osteopath, for the first time on Monday 22nd. I was very much out of alignment with a wonky pelvis, curved spine and neck. Not what a hypochondriac wants to hear. She also demonstrated how my right knee pointed inwards and that the muscles on the right side of my right leg had essentially locked up not allowing any freedom of movement in the ankle and forcing me to over-pronate

That was quite a lot to take in. She carried out a few manipulations and held the base of my right foot and hip, as well as getting me to lie  down and allow the coccyx to sink into her hand!

She advised not to run for 24 hours at least. I felt good enough to run the speed session the following night which went well. The Wednesday session was not so good – possibly too much overkill following the 10K, treatment and the Tuesday speedwork.  By Saturday I had a very stiff lower left leg so it was touch and go whether I’d do the XC.

Waking up with a stinking hangover following another contractor’s leaving do I thought I had to run and didn’t do too badly. I felt pretty grim afterwards though so didn’t go for a beer.

The first Surrey League cross country Division 2 fixture of the season took place at Richmond Park on the 13th October. Unluckily this coincided with Leeds at home to Orient which I had promised a mate I would go to. I’d also been telling all that I’d be running the XC this year so decided to be a good boy and ran the race. Good job as we should have lost the footie.
As usual I started off a little too strongly and had to dig in for the last mile or so. John came past halfway round the second lap and despite trying couldn’t stay with him and came home 12th Strider. Full results here from the Kingston & Poly website.