18th October Awesomely Autumn


So with just over 5 weeks or so to go before the BIG Benidorm event, today was a chance to gatecrash another run round Carsington event as part of my 'training' Having not run since last Saturdays almost 10 mile effort due to a mixture of apathy and just couldnt be bothered, I left TOM reading Boris Johnson's Unleashed and got ready to hit the trails on an overcast but lovely autumn day.

As on previous occasions the aim was to plan my run  to coincide with having completed half a loop of the reservoir ( low water levels) just in time to catch the start of the 10km run which began on its opposite bank. And then to see how long I could keep ahead of the 235 half marathon runners, who had sent off running in the opposite direction to where I had started 30 minutes earlier before switching back and chasing down all the 274 people who had entered the 10km event.

With my phone tucked securely in my backpack pocket I was able to provide some banging and not so banging tunes to anyone running alongside me on the second half of my loop in awesome autumn splendour, the golden canopy overhead and the crunch of fallen fruit and leaves beneath my feet. 

I dont think there were as many people running today as on previous occasions and I certainly got further round the course before the first of the half marathon runners came flying past. 

In fact I was a full 4 minutes quicker than my time last year which was a pleasant surprise, even if certain parts of the course seemed to have elongated in length since I last ran here exactly a year ago.  So I was back at TOM's in time to sign up for the Baslow Bolt race, one of my favourite local runs at the end of November. 

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