I can't really claim that around 26.45 for 5 miles is a great athletic achievement, but it was a great relief to get 2010 off to a winning start. Most of the field seemed to be either vets or juniors, and I don't think I could have run 5 miles when I was a junior as well as some of the youngsters did today.

..so perhaps it wasn't surprising that I wasn't the fastest off the line, and had a very small lead after the first mile. Logically there would only be one result from there, but I'm not very confident at the moment, and with the odd bit of ice still on the ground to keep my mind unsettled, I reached half way just under 13.30, with a comfortable lead, but with plenty of work left to do. Terry's time check was enough for me to decide that I'd been a little too cautious and needed to get a move on.

On the way back I knew where the ice was, and found a little more confidence as I approached the last mile. I ended up with a negative split, which is not really the way I run races, so I was reasonably happy.

...and afterwards we had lunch with Dave and Helen, the Pilot Inn is a nice Pub to have lunch in, and it must be scenic by the canal on a summer evening. I guess if I was fitter I would want to go down to Weston on New Year's day, but for this year Hardwicke is easy to get to, and it's good to have lunch with D&H.

It's been a difficult Christmas break. I tried running (in Taunton) on Boxing Day and almost slipped over, so I gave Stoke St Gregory a miss. I had already missed any 'fast' running for days, as the cycle track (in Bristol) had frozen over in places following the snow. The pavements in Fishponds weren't much better, and it's only been the last few days when I've been able to get out twice a day.

The coming few months already look a struggle, the Midlands are at Stafford, we won't have any warm weather training before Bath, and I can't see that it's really worth making the journey to the national. I really need to be getting over to Combe Dingle each week, but that involves driving - unless I can work out some bike/train combination. I'm beginning to think it would be better to think of Cross Country 'running' rather than 'racing', and prepare for some faster (shorter) warm weather training just before Easter.