Buntingford 10

I entered this race too late, and got telephoned by a nice person from Royston Runners to explain this and wish me better luck next year.  (It's not better luck I need, it's better organisation.)  But since quite a few NHRR members dropped out late on, both Lindsay and I were able to get hold of numbers.  Once we got to race HQ we were also able to get hold of chips, but the next conversation was a little like this:

where do we go to do a number transfer?
What do you mean?
We've taken over someone else's numbers, so we need to change the registrations.
That's OK, you don't need to do that.
But if we run as we are, we'll be running under the wrong names and mess up the results.
But you've got a number and it's paid for?
Yes.
Oh, well, don't worry about it.

Fortunately Karen spotted the Royston Runners chairperson, who directed us to The Man In The Van outside, who very quickly amended the database, so all was well.  (Although with no audit trail, so I think I prefer the way we do it at Standalone, where number transfers are done by filling in a form.)

For some reason, every year I do this run I forget how difficult it is.  The first three or four miles are quite hilly, and they always catch me out - and this year I had an aching leg to contend with.  And it's usually cold, of course.  But after getting thoroughly depressed for the first half of the race, and thinking that I was going to be extremely slow, the second half comes as a welcome relief, and things start improving.  OK, I was never going to get close to an hour, but I was quite pleased when I finished in 61:04.

Earlier in the week Statto had said that if I was slower than about 61 minutes, then when he published the updated list of 'fastest 10 mile times over the last year', then he would be on top, rather than I.  So I left the race thinking my time would be enough to keep me at the top of the list.  But oh no - when Statto says 'about 61 minutes' he means... well, he means 61 minutes, since Statto's impressive 61:01 is now top of the list.  So I'm going to have to be fit, fast and injury-free by the time of the Fred Hughes 10...

Training partners

A few times recently I've commented how much I'm looking forward to getting back to training with what looks to be a promising little training group.  By coincidence, I've trained with most of them individually over the last few weeks.

On a cold, wet, windy Saturday morning I met James, to go for an off-road slip-athon for an hour or so.  It was the sort of weather I never would have chosen to go out running in, so it was a good thing that we'd arranged to meet previously.  With leggings, long sleeves, hat and gloves, there was very little of me showing, and as I ran back home through Hitchin town centre, I saw shoppers struggling with huge Woolworths carrier bags and wondered who looked sillier.

The following week the training schedule said we were to do 800m reps at Sainsbury's... but on the night there was hardly anyone at the club.  But Ollie said he'd arranged to meet Sibbo at the 800m venue, so I went with him.  It was very strange doing a speedwork session with only the two of us there, but it was quite fun to do so.  Sibbo never showed up.

And a similar thing happened on the Tuesday before Christmas.  While half the runners who turned up on the night went on their 'bling run', Statto wanted to stick to what it said on the schedule, which was the 2 x 3 mile session down and up the A505.  Unfortunately a muscle in my leg started giving me trouble on the first of the runs, so I bailed out of the second.  (And as it happened, without the pleasure of my company Statto felt he couldn't go on either, so it was quite a short session in the end.)

Now if only we could all train at the same time...