Sunday 15th May:
#39 done 😃

Chester Half course is undulating and challenging but not gruelling, very balanced with a good number of climbs, a few long downhills and nasty hill on the last km just before the short flat straight to the finish line not far from the Clock in the city centre.

I ran this race three times before and finished at 1:39′ every time so my aim was to beat that and I knew I could, but secretly I was hoping for a sub 1:30′ even though I knew it wasn’t a fast course, but I was ahead of the pacer for the first 6 miles and had to give up then and just follow him from a short distance. 

My official finish time is 1:31′ 16″ and position in the top 300 runners which makes it my second fastest half, not bad the day after my second fastest parkrun 😃
I arrived with plenty of time to spare, was lucky to find a parking spot very close to The Racecourse where the race started and not too far from the centre where it finished, was a bit pricey but for the sake of an extra quid it was worth it because it meant I could avoid traffic and arrive and leave without stress.

Weather was cool to start with and got warmer as the day went on.

Race was brilliantly organised and marshalled, support was incredible all the way around, a few bands playing live music, plenty of loos at the start, lots of water stations and nice views of an amazing old city.

Just past the halfway along a climb that I think they call ” mountain bridge”, there was a few signs with motivational quotes like: ” there’s time to cry later” and “run like the pub is closing” 😃

On km 12 a runner went past me and said that he saw me in February at the Wrexham Village Bakery Half, and asked me on which number I was 😃

On km 15 a man was standing outside his house with a hose pipe, spraying willing runners and I certainly needed cooling down by then !
Saw lots of familiar faces, at the start, during and at the finish.

Most of them were Shropshire Shufflers : Emma, Steve, Matthew, Phil, Gary, Ian R., Chris, Ian F., Helen, Clare, Dave, Sheridan, Glenn (apologies if I forgot to mention anyone)
Goody bag was full of little surprises ( mainly sweets), a nice technical top and a beautiful (very heavy and solid) medal made it all worth the effort.
Numbers are slowly getting smaller, 61 runs to go and 799 miles left and #40 will be on Wednesday 😃
I’m Ps : my mileage for this year, including parkruns and training runs has gone past 1000km !!!

Wednesday 18th May
#40 done and it wasn’t easy!

I always struggle on my run a few days after a race, partly because I push really hard on race day but I think it’s mainly because It’s really hard to get motivated running by yourself after a nice organized event running alongside thousands of runners.

I set off at midday, the rain had stopped and it got very warm.

Once again I made up the route as I went along, I ran up the Wyle Cop hill, just because it’s part of Shrewsbury Half and that’s in a month time, a little practice won’t hurt 🙂

Only one toot to mention, that was Peter Hughes on km 3 on Smithfield Rd.

After a random route around the Quarry and over the Kingsland Bridge I came back to Coton Hill and Berwick Rd towards Baschurch and back and that was tough.

It started to rain on my last mile but I didn’t mind as I felt very hot.

I stopped a few times for selfies, with Charles Darwin, a couple of ducks, a red phone box, the Band Stand in the Quarry, a 40 speed sign.

524 miles (844km) of my challenge done (40%) and 786 miles (1266km) to go 🙂

I will try and run an extra one next week, so my next few runs will be at a much slower pace.

Will hopefully run Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday again!! 

That’s the plan anyway 😀

Time to say my thankyous : 

1. to all who encourage me and wish me good luck, like and share my social media posts
2. to all who sponsored me so far : £521 plus gift aid raised so far 
3. to Gareth from Purity Lifestyle Studio in Wellington for free massage on my calves
4. Joe Williams from UKRunChat for free entry at Shrewsbury Half Marathon 
5. Up& Running shop in Shrewsbury for big discount on new Running Shoes
6. Susan Bowes for selling her extra M.Drayton 10k entry and donating the money to Cancer Research uk
7. My Family for patience and support and for listening all day to my numbers and stats
8. My brother at La Lanterna restaurant for putting a poster up to raise a bit more 
9. To Joe Brocklehurst for looking after my legs for a discounted rate and offering me a free treatment next week.
10 To Sandra ( my mother in law) for helping me raise from family and friends 

RRR (beep beep)

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