Finale of The Festival of Running

And so, the Magathon's Weekend Festival of Running saw closure today in the form of the Leeds Abbey Dash. A 10k race and the first of the 2011-2012 club championship races. As a special extra twist, it was also the second of my Countyathon* races; and a very good race it was too.

The fact that it ended up as a 'good'- one might even be as bold as to use the word 'enjoyable' - race is interesting as when I woke up this morning, the last thing I was wanted to do was run. Warming up in Leeds, the last thing I wanted to do was run. Standing at the start line.. Yep, you've got it! But... And it's a big, huge but of a BUT, just 1 mile into the race, I was having a whale of a time. At 5k, I was feeling strong, despite feeling like I wanted to die at the exact same distance yesterday. And, with 2 miles to go, I realised I was definitely going to achieve my 10k pb of 2011!

Now, whilst most people don't court yearly personal best times, preferring to see them as cumulative across a running 'career', those of you who've been following my Magathon antics since the beginning, will be aware of my record of declining times this year; in fact, the last 10k race I ran was the Great Manchester Run which took me the grand old time of 1 hour and 2 minutes! Follow this with a summer of injury and no running and I'm not silly enough to be thinking I can chase previous bests of sub 50 minutes! No. Today was about running and finishing.

So, when I ran a time of 58.11, I was incredibly chuffed! In fact, I think it's fair to say, I still am! So chuffed that the festival of running was rounded off with a yummy - and moderately 'Diet for Crimbo Because Oh My Word Nothing Fits' friendly - skinny muffin in Starbucks! Mmmmmmm...


*Countyathon... The name given to my ongoing challenge where I aim to run a race in every county in England.