34 Days To Go And Much To Do

Team Roberts (pictured) comprising BFP and Daughter Number Two (DN2) did the City of Birmingham 10k yesterday and it proved a very useful wake-up-call as the Team enters the last five weeks of preparation for the Royal Parks Half Marathon. This was DN2's first organised race and my first for years. It was tough. The longish downhill drag at the start sent an enthusiastic five hundred runners charging off too fast, certainly for the liking of poor old BFP. Still we both finished and have our chunky medals to show for it - DN2 came in seven minutes ahead of her perspiring old man.

I had optimistically decided to use the 10k as part of a hard training week. I'd been out for three outings in the course of the week including one ninety minute stretch and then refereed a match at AOE on Saturday afternoon - my first officiating since March 2014. The accumulated miles certainly told as I struggled up the final hill on Sunday. The event also reminded me just how much nervous energy you can use up in the build-up to a race, worrying about just how much to eat (I elected abstinence and this proved a bad mistake), when/where to have pee, wondering how to respond when what seems like the entire field tears lemming-like down the first hill leaving our hero feeling that he was running alone at the back of the field. I wasn't literally at the back and certainly plenty of people paid for the early pace but it was difficult not to be disconcerted by it all. Hopefully the Royal Parks masses will include more people set on observing BFP's steady plod.

So what next? Some hastily convened experiments on pre-run eating and a series of steadily longer runs. Also there will be a proper taper before the big day. I won't be refereeing that week.

PS. I really enjoyed the refereeing. Sunnybank Avenue looked a picture and the players behaved themselves, as did, for the most part, the referee. All in all a tonic in what can seem a very gloomy world - I refer to the refugee crisis not to my own unimportant and passing moods. I had started a blog about the various pieces of hypocritical sanctimony spouting forth on this atrocious subject last week but binned it as inadequate to the subject matter. Just occasionally even I know my limits.