Today was the Ricky Road run which is organised by my work so I really have to take part. It is the only race I have run every year of the two and a half years I have been running. This year was teh first one it didn't rain.

Think everything about this race is what makes good smallish (well 450 runners today) events so good - great organisation, not too busy, very cheap (£12 I think) goody bag (t shirt, mug, food) and great marshals. Also is an usual distance being 9 miles. The one, well its not really a drawback is that its undulating and seems to be uphill for about 7 of the nine miles. Does of course mean there a great downhill last mile when the legs need it. Profile below:

The climb from mile one to about 5 seemed to go on for ever and even after that the downs never went on long enough to make up for the ups. Good water and friendly marshalls helped but unfortunately I was pretty much all alone on the course as there was a guy 40-50 metres ahead who I just couldn't make up ground on (and he was going away from me) and pretty much the same behind (apart from I was going away from him).

Mile 7-8 was hell - really tough and my slowest of the 9 miles, could quite happily have walked at that point, it was only the thought of the nice long downhill that kept me going. And what a downhill it was - my fastest mile of the course!

So all in all a great race that I really enjoyed. We have been supporting a group of employees with a training program and some coaching over the last 6 months and it was great to see 20 odd of them finish as well. Some running by far the longest they have ever done.

As you may recall I was stiched up with the Number 1 for this race but as it will prob be the only time that happens that wasn't so bad. Was also the first from my Company's 40 odd (some very odd) runners home so retained the one and only running trophy I am ever likely to have:

Overall a tough race but very pleased with my time of 57:44 (6:25 pace I think) which is a PB by about 3 minutes (but only do one 9 mile race a year !) and came 13th out of the 450 runners. 4 PBs out of four races this autumn.

Arranged for wife to drop kids at swimming pool on way home (as its on my way back)so spent two and a half hours splashing around. That has to be about it for exercise for me today! Only bad news is that my Garmin appears to have died - worked fine in race but froze on way home and screen now blank. Still its in warranty and dont expect any problems getting it fixed/replaced as their customer services is pretty good.

Hope all is well in your worlds.

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