I can’t recall an occasion when I’ve crossed a finish line and wanted to find a dark corner, slump myself down and have a little cry. That would have been a tad dramatic though, so instead I gratefully took my water from the delightful Jacqueline and wandered around to tell the other runners how little I enjoyed the previous 100 minutes.

It’s a favourite race of mine. One I’ve conquered in the past including a 4th place finish (my highest ever) a few years earlier. That was never a possibility this time around with a stronger field gathered and my recent Covid symptoms lingering, combined with a terrible nights sleep.

The race started well and along the Nature reserve I found myself in a group of 6 or 7 other runners, all moving at a fairly steady pace. At that point the effort level was low, despite the south westerly wind making conditions much more difficult than predicted.

It was when we ventured up onto that stupid sea wall. The one where you can’t decide whether to run along the energy sapping, narrow grass path or the uneven pebbles. Both equally annoying as the other. Our small group separated and I found myself alone, forced to remove my hat for the fear of it blowing away down the steep bank, the bank I disturbingly imagined myself tumbling down from a sudden gust of wind.

Never before have I been so grateful to run up a hill as we took refuge from the wind and the climb began. It was at this point I was able to count myself lucky as poor George Marshall was in a bad state having swallowed a bee. When asked later about his experience he said he could still hear it buzzing away in his throat.

Those who have completed this race will know what came next. Hills, hills and more hills. I’m proud of myself that I didn’t stop once, apart from going down the few steps. I dug deep and kept running.

Upon reaching Barley Lane I inquired as to how far those in front were, but was disappointed to hear a response of 3 minutes. That did lead me to hold back a little as I sped down the hill and had Simon Trevana not had the insight to glance back and speed up, I may well have caught him before the finish line.

16th place and 7 minutes slower than last year. All this just a month after running my best race ever. What’s happened in between has mostly been out of my control so all I can do is look forward.

I have this burning desire to continue to improve my running and I’ve isolated where the biggest room for improvement is. You might be surprised that it’s my strength, or lack of it, where I can make the biggest gains (I know right, who’d have thought).

I’ve been lazy with my strength and conditioning so have now changed my training plan to include daily workouts breaking down the sessions into upper body, core and legs in an attempt to build up my somewhat feeble muscle mass.

I’m hoping to increase my weekly mileage a little with the plan of running my 3rd marathon in the Spring. It’s a distance I still feel I have plenty of room for improvement and the long runs are the ones I enjoy the most.

I’m really excited about the progress with Team Orange right now with several new additions in the past week. I’ll add a separate blog post to keep you up to date with all the latest news.

Thanks for reading. Sometimes running is hard, but we should always try and take the positives and use those to move forward.