Almost halfway and time for a break!

Wow, this challenge is going really well, so far I am week 17 and have done 19 races so well on track to manage 40 races in 52 weeks (injury permitting of course). It's time for my summer holidays and maybe also time to reflect on the past few months.

So, how has it been? It's been great and I've been really enjoying it. There have a been a few races where I would have wimped out if it wasn't for this daft challenge so it has, for the most part, been a positive thing. It's also been great to take the mini-Cooks out on a regular basis to play in a field, wood or park and watch people running. I'd like to think this will make them think that this is normal behaviour and, when they are old enough, want to take up running or at least enjoy the great outdoors as much as I do. And Gary has done some parkruns when I have been doing other stuff so it's good he is getting back into running a bit too.

At the almost halfway point I've managed just under 107 miles of racing including 1 marathon, 1 half marathon, 11 5 km races, 4 10km races and 2 random distances. Coming up are some more 5kms, some cross country races and maybe something a bit different...

	Date	Race	Time
1	28/03/2015	Panshanger parkrun	30:46
2	04/04/2015	FSOTM 5km	32:13
3	11/04/2015	Wimpole Estate parkrun	31:56
4	18/04/2015	Luton Wardown parkrun	29:48
5	26/04/2015	London Marathon	5:27:44
6	09/05/2015	Panshanger parkrun	30:07
7	13/05/2015	Luton Wardown parkrun	29:47
8	23/05/2015	Panshanger parkrun	30:57
9	04/06/2015	MWL St Albans	1:02:02
10	06/06/2015	FSOTM 5km	30:34
11	07/06/2015	Hitchin Relay Race
12	13/06/2015	Pretty Muddy 5km	33:00
13	18/06/2015	MWL Royston	1:02:29
14	20/06/2015	FSOTM 5km	31:45
15	28/06/2015	Hitchin Half Marathon	2:28:48
16	02/07/2015	MWL Trent Park/Barnet	54:13
17	04/07/2015	FSOTM 5km	32:37
18	12/07/2015	British 10km	1:00:01
19	16/07/2015	MWL Mobmatch WGC	1:02:22

Week 16, Race 19: Welwyn Garden City Midweek League

The final race of the Midweek League season was the mob match in Welwyn Garden City. I've done this 2 lap course loads of times and I always find it hard (especially as the current version of the course has us running past the old finish line which I find mentally challenging!). I had had a tough complicated day and wasn't expecting much of myself in the race. Amazingly I felt ok although my time of 1:02:22 was nothing to write home about.
Time for a little holiday from this challenge...see you again in August!

Week 16, race 18: British 10k London Run

This week's run was the Britsh 10k London Run, a 10km run based in central London. I hadn't planned on doing this but Julie B donated her unwanted number to me so I thought I may as well give it a go.
I had to get a train at 7:30 (and typically my beloved children chose today to have their yearly lie in so I didn't get to appreciate it), destination Picadilly Circus. There were around 20,000 entrants so understandably it took a while to get out of the tube station (15 mins!) and to walk down to the bag drop.
There was a HUGE toilet queue so I decded to follow the signs to the start instead of waiting. Turned out to be a good plan as there were more toilets with much shorter queues.
The start was quite a long walk away, it was a slightly weird experience as we were ushered along london roads, past the ritz, green park and further along Picadilly towards Wellington Arch. Turned out the pen system at the start was more of a first come first served system so if you arrived early you'd be in pen 1 and if you arrived late you'd be in pen 6. I am glad I wasn't too late to the start :-)

Took me 12 mins to get over the start line (and at this point there were at least as many people behind me yet to start). I spent a lot of the first few km weaving in and out of people walking (some in the first km!) while faster people weaved in out of the rest of us. It calmed down after a while so there was less dodging and plenty of room to run. The race route was up down and round various streets in central London including running past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben
The finish was on Whitehall near Downing St and I finished in 59:59 (my watch) or 1:00:01 (official chip time). I was really pleased with this, my best time all year (and probably for a good couple of years!).
I very much enjoyed the race, thanks Julie!
Almost halfway in the 40/40 challenge...amd I've just hit the 100 mile mark in miles raced!

Week 15, race 17: First Saturday in the Month 5km

Race 17 saw me back at the First Saturday in the Month 5km on Norton Common in Letchworth. The previous night there had been a mightily impressive thunder storm during the night and it rained a lot and on the way to the race there was evidence of there having been large puddles on the road and it was very humid indeed.
This all meant it was heavy underfoot and heavy the air so I finished in a slow 32:37.


More importantly my poor supporters were let down with a flooded park! I almost had a mutiny on my hands...



Oh no, look at the park!

Only 23 runs to go and loads of time to do them in!!! 

Week 14, race 16: Trent Park Midweek League

A gorgeous evening to be out running even it was a bit warm (luckily not as warm as earlier on this week!). This 2 lap course was around 8.5 km around Trent Park (just inside the M25). It was mainly off road and had plenty of hills to keep it 'interesting'. I've run this course quite a few times before and always enjoy it. I had an ok run finishing in 54:13 and as always it was lovely to catch up with the NHRR crowd.
I seem to be really getting through the races in my 40/40 challenge at the moment...good job as I will be in France for 2 weeks at the end of July and I have no races planned for that time (although I will have a look just in case!).