I finished 12th at Blaise Castle today, and just perhaps it was the first real sign that I'm back on track towards fitness. The rain in the week had left the course very slippery, and I lost oodles of time on the slippery corners, but there were faster sections of the course (and the weather was about as good as it possibly can be in December) and all in all I was happy with the improvement - and Mike thought I was finally moving a little easier.

The start of the race was a little unusual, usually there's a sprint, but it felt as if nobody wanted to lead and Rob wandered off into the lead and Oli went with him - I can't remember Oli running a cross country race so well before, but he does a lot of stuff with the uni. It wasn't long before I was finding the going too slippy, but I didn't lose that many places, and I could see a group with Craig and Steve M. ahead for most of the race. I was particularly pleased that it took Nat well over a lap to get past me, much better than at Bath. I lost a place on the run in, but by that time I was happy that I'd got what I needed out of the race.

Sian is still having injury problems, so she took some photos, although I suspect AW won't be as interested this week. In the junior races the Speake family were running well, and the club now has a square sports tent to provide a presence in bad weather ... although taking the tent down could perhaps be made a bit easier for those days when it's raining and cold - Rick reckons an Ikea bag will do the trick.