Well that went surprisingly well

Well that was a bloody good - and I must say, much needed - confidence booster. What a great race the Clevedon Boxing Day 4 Mile Race is. Well organised and well supported.

I honestly felt I had no hope of running quickly today. I've not been training properly for a few months and haven't done much really hard effort speed or interval work. It's unfair to say I haven't done any but somehow I've been lacking the fire in my belly to really push myself. Yes, I've done few tough session and a couple in the last week but is it possible to turn things around that quickly? I don't know, but either way not only did I get close to last years time, I actually managed to knock a massive three seconds off - yes, you did read that correctly - three of our earth seconds. Or to put it another way, 3000 milliseconds - whoo, hoo. I finished in 38th place this year, up from 53rd last year (in a field of 800+ finishers). Suffice to say I am pretty satisfied in a good days work. My time for the record, was 23:13.

Well done to Sean - my apprentice has learnt well from the master, to finish in 16th place overall, in a time of 21:55. And well done too, to Rob W for an impressive 22:52 in 32nd place - I had him in my sights but 100m is a long, long way in this game. And bad luck to Nick, who had a piece of misfortune in the race but I know he's tough enough to come back quicker, stronger and fitter. And well done to Helen for a top two finish in the women's race. And well done to Rick for beating me - the swine - but not unexpected. And nice try Mike T but I couldn't let you beat me three times in a row, could I? And I'd like to thank my mum and dad for conceiving me, 36 years, nine months and three days ago. Special thanks to my dead cat, spike, who sadly passed on twenty three years, one hundred and thirty six days ago, without whose whimsical chasing of inanimate objects none of this would be possible. Thanks to birds for singing, the bees buzzing, the fields that are green - the fields that are not green, the sky and lastly and most importantly, oxygen for making all this possible - I think I might be lacking some at the moment. (By the way, I made up the bit about the cat, thought it would add an emotional nuance to the proceedings).

And on a final note, I managed to get myself a big cheer for being the 2nd woman home - but that's a story for time and another day...

Thought for the day: A true friend is someone who is there for you when they would rather be someplace else