"I'm raaacing in the rain..."

Ah, and a week has passed! It's not that there was nothing physical involved in Scotland; Lugging half a tonne of camping gear around the rail network will certainly give you a thorough workout, but it's not quite the same as the familiar ache that you get from stretching your legs for a few miles. So, how have I gotten back into the swing of things after a weeks break?

Well, the club run on Tuesday continued the trend of my workouts being chased by weather akin to the stuff that curses Glastonbury on a yearly basis; As soon as I've been setting out with shorts on the clouds have taken it upon themselves to provide me with nice refreshment halfway in to my runs, which has been very considerate of them. On one hand though, it does provide added incentive to charge around the course quicker when the lure of a hot shower is a strong one, but you do run into problems when you're leaping hurdles over puddles of Vicar of Dibley-esque proportions, most causing your shoes to get soaked and rub and your feet, well, disintegrate, which is never helpful. We all splashed through puddles for a good 5.5 miles though, which was probably enough considering the circumstances.

To make up for the slight shortfall in distance (And the fact that my car's decided to contract swine flu and splutter constantly) I ran to the meeting point with the club tonight, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but as my legs are happily reminding me at the moment, might have been pushing it a little. The run there added another 2.8 miles onto tonight's circuit, bringing the total distance upto about 10 miles which was put away in about 1.20 which feels good, although whether I can keep that up without the club's couple of rest-stops is another matter completely. It was good to do some decent distance again though, having forgotten what it felt like from not doing anything more than a 10k since the Marathon, and it was a good excuse to burn off some festival calories in the evening sun.

Speaking of 10ks though, I seem to have accidentally landed into doing another one, as you do. The Jane Tomlinson 10k in York is this Sunday, and one of our club runners at the Selby Striders has had to drop out, leaving a spare number and timing chip floating in the ether, meaning I'll be getting up at silly-o-clock for the 9am start, tanking around with about 10,000 other people doing exactly the same thing. Well, what else are you meant to be doing at that time on a Sunday morning?

Anyway, I'll report back in after the race with tales of glory/woe/hilarity and the obligatory running graphs. If you see a guy in a red Selby Striders shirt and a beard, heckling is mandatory and encouraged.

Good running!

Matt