May 2026

 

        My body had been falling apart for months, it was time to see a Physio. I had been putting it off for way too long. I didn’t really want to spend the money on it. Many times a certain physio had been recommended to me by the name of James Kirkpatrick. “The Recovery room”, where he is based was very local to me too. I went there a bit sceptical of any improvement. I had been a runner for 15 years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about my body.

He was quick to reveal my body’s weaknesses and I was shocked, but also impressed. I was happy to have some new goals to achieve with the strength training he suggested and it gave me hope to heal and get back to fitness. I had been limping around disjointedly on my runs for some time now. Every part of me was in pain while running. That was about to change though..

 I did my physio rehab everyday and decided to marshal at Itchen Valley parkrun again on the 9^th of May with Clare. It was another lovely morning catching up with the volunteering crew and the locals. Afterwards we took Clare’s mum to Hillier’s arboretum. My first time there. It was definitely worth the visit. The coffee is terrible, so I’d go with the pot of tea. The Vegan sausage baguette is pretty good though.

         The following day was CC’s birthday. We went for a lovely walk from Rownhams to the Chilworth arms and back. I had booked a table for Sunday lunch and was sursprised how good the Vegan roast dinner was and a lovely dessert to follow. The staff were exceptional too and were very friendly and helpful. It was another great day and some quality time with Clare again.

         Two weeks after my initial visit, I was back at the physio to see James again. He was surprised to see how much progress that I had made in such a short time. I was feeling a lot happier and running pain free now. I couldn’t really pinpoint the actual injuries or niggles but it was mostly glute/hamstring stuff caused by poor cadence and overstriding. This time he got me on the treadmill (or Dreadmill) to see how I ran. I was pretty scared to be honest as I had only previously been on a treadmill once, back in 2018 when I lived in Plymouth. I ran a 5k then and had motion sickness for nearly two days! I was not looking forward to this.

Off I went running. It felt fast and I was only running 9 minute mile pace apparently. My cadence seemed to be fine on the treadmill. It felt so unnatural to me and I was scared of falling off the thing. I stopped after 3 minutes, I had had enough. No motion sickness this time around though, which meant I wouldn’t be suffering with nausea all day. Not a nice thing to get, which is why I had to give up gymnastics and trampolining.

         Exciting news!!! Friday the 15^th of May. Clare picked up the keys to our new house. We are now home owners, we have our own house together. I couldn’t quite believe how excited I was about this. Life has been so hectic since with all the moving of stuff and we’re still not there. More unpacking and moving to do but it’s pretty special. Clare has been awesome sorting out the delivery of white goods, sorting utilities and internet etc.. I am so lucky to have her. Xx

 Despite the new house move. I did a new parkrun with fellow Vegan runner, Matt Salisbury. He kindly picked me up and we went to Reading for the Green Park parkrun. It was only the 6^th event. I didn’t find the marshals very friendly they were quite militant and shouty. There were also no toilets. The course was quite nice but busy. There was a very tight turn that a marshal didn’t mention. I did pretty well for my current fitness. 19.10, P10 and 1^st V50. It was hard work though. Getting towards sub 19 again hopefully.

We then went for food at Reading’s only Vegan cafe. Vegivores. I had never heard of it but the food was so good. Some of the best I’d ever tasted. Up there with the Greenhouse in Fleet!

Then we went climbing at the Climbing hangar in Reading. We only lasted an hour as we were both quite tired by this point but it was such a good day and we had a great catch up.

 

A week later, Clare’s stuff was getting moved from her rental house to our new house. The next few days would be manic! I took the Friday off work as we unpacked stuff and moved furniture with a bit of D.I.Y and shopping thrown in. Bee Bee the cat wasn’t happy at all and was hiding for most of the time. It was very sad for us to see her like this. She wasn’t eating either. It was a bit worrying.

But here I am typing at 5.30am because Bee Bee is back to her normal self and running around the house with “the Zoomies”.  I must admit that I had never heard of the Zoomies before until Clare mentioned it. Formally called (FRAP’s) Frenetic Random Activity Periods. It really is quite odd behaviour but perfectly healthy.

         On Saturday the 23^rd of May, I had a good catch up with Kev, Toni and Josh. All good running friends from my former running club. We went to Poole parkrun. It got warm pretty quick, which I think affected my performance. I was hoping to run a sub 19 but not hard. Just creep under 19 minutes by running 2.5 miles at around 6.05 pace per mile.

 Boy, was I in for a shock! I felt ok until halfway and then the pace dropped off and it became a slog. This was painful now. Kev who I was supposedly pacing as he was also coming back from injuries, had left me and surged on. I finished with 19.00 on my watch. It seemed like a long wait for my official time of 19.00 while we sat in the garden of the cafe enjoying the sunshine. Josh ran a 16.41! Only a second off of his pb. Amazing. Another wonderful parkrun experience.

         At all these parkruns, I’ve started pushing  a bit harder. Good training for the Romsey Beer race at the start of June. I know I am nowhere near PB shape but some fitness is returning at least and going in the right direction. I have been so tired lately though with the moving, unpacking and doing lots of overtime at work. I have a mortgage to pay now!

Recovery seems to be slow lately buy I’ll get there. The heat should help me lose some weight at least.

         My last parkrun of May, saw me catching the train to Winchester. Again, focused on more training for the Beer race next weekend. 

The aim was to run 6.20 pace per mile. 19.45 was the aim and would also be a course PB for me. It currently stood at 19.51. I still remember how hard it was for me to break sub 20 on this course, despite it being flat.

         Anyway, I did it. 19.21 was my time, p17 and 1^st V50 again. There were 470 runners here now. Parkruns sure are getting big nowadays. There were 105 runners here when I did Winchester back in 2013. Amazing really. Andy Costello was there with his lovely lab “Ripley”. Afterwards we went to the coffee shop “The waiting room”. It’s a lovely little coffee shop that also sells punk/alternative vinyl and cassettes. I was tempted to buy 2 or 3 records but thought better of it as we are still moving stuff.

            The 27^th of May marked our 3^rd anniversary together. CC and I,  got together 3 years ago at Itchen Valley parkrun. It has been a wonderful journey with her and I look forward to living with her and experiencing many more adventures once the chaos of moving is over and getting settled! Love you CC <3 Here’s to many more years and adventures together.

 Thanks for reading. One more physio session next week but I can definitely feel improvements in my strength already and running pain free. It is so worth the money! Have a lovely summer :) 

April 2026

         On the 3^rd of April I got up stupidly early and decided that I would run at my 110^th different parkrun location and I wanted a quick time. I caught a bus and then a train to arrive at Shoreham-by-sea for 8.21am. Plenty of time to walk to the start of the parkrun and do a quick warm up. It was a lovely surprise to bump into fellow Vegan running club members Cheryl and Telmo. They knew I was coming because I had mentioned it on one of our facebook pages. Cheryl and I couldn’t tell you which one though as we have quite a few different pages..lol.

It had just started to rain but the wind didn’t seem as bad as anticipated.

I wanted a low 18 minute time today. The course was a flat, out and back on a gravel path.

The run didn’t quite go to plan and I was struggling halfway and wheezing, my breathing was terrible. This was not my style at all. I was thinking it maybe related to covid or a virus I had a month or so back. My lungs were on fire. I didn’t even run under 19 minutes, so way off my target time. P7 with a time of 19.04. I’ll have to come back another time when my fitness returns. I am keen to do Worthing again for a quick time as well. It would also be nice to meet up with Cheryl and Tel at Seaford parkrun too at some point as they were telling me how lovely it is. We had a nice chat and coffees in the pub before I caught my train home. It was still a wonderful morning despite a disappointing time and another location ticked off.

         The day after, Clare and myself decided to do a nice walk from Lyndhurst to Brockenhurst. I had recently learnt a nicer route there and it was under 5 miles. It was a lovely day and so nice to spend some quality time with CC. We had a coffee in the garden of Esme’s tea rooms and caught the bus back to Lyndhurst for our favourite place.. the Greenwood tree cafe for some delicious vegan food.

        It was back to Itchen Valley on the 11^th of April as I wanted to get some more Volunteering duties in. My aim is at least 10 for the year and so far I had only done one. Even though I did marshalling, post event close down and token sorting, it only counts as one credit sadly. So I had 32 volunteering credits now but had voliunteered 44 times in total. Despite it being very cold, I always love marshalling and cheering the runners around. It’s a great way to start a Saturday morning.

         The following week, I had decided that I was going to eat healthier. Every now and then I would buy a little pack of vegetables to cook at work. I was wasting money on those little bags really. I decided to buy an organic brocolli, a bag of carrots, some mange tout and baby sweetcorn. I would chop these up and cook them at work. This would produce at least 3 days of meals in a row. Then I would swap ingredients. So the following week, I got Green beans instead of Mange tout and a Red cabbage instead of Broccoli etc.. A much cheaper and healtier way of eating and I feel so much better for it. I would add in Green lentils, Black beans or Tuno for the protein. I would still sneak in the crisps and chocolate sometimes in the evenings though (Oh dear!).

         I had to come to terms that I am indeed carrying an injury at the moment, so have cut back on the mileage and I am running slower than normal. I get a lot of Glute, Hamstring and IT band pain all in my left leg. I have finally made a physio appointment. It had been put off as I didn’t really want to part with the money. It looks like the injuries are going nowhere in a hurry though. This has however, given me a chance to revisit some of my old trail routes around the area. I have spent so much time running on fast country lanes and around the track. It certainly has made a nice change.

             On the 18^th of April, John Pelligrini says “Do you fancy doing Horsham parkrun with me?”. I said “Yes please John”.

We were to pick up John’s friend (Christine) from Southampton parkway but her train was cancelled from Poole. Plans had changed as we didn’t have the time to get all the way to Horsham now. We had decided on Sandhurst Memorial as it was a long term Nendy of mine and Christine hadn’t done it either. Anyway, after following John’s Satnav, we ended up at Bracknell. John must have chosen the wrong parkrun on the app but it didn’t matter as neither Christine or I had done Bracknell either. John had recognised his mistake as he parked up though. I thought he was joking and wasn’t convinced until we walked across the field and saw the blue parkrun sign. It was to be my 111^th different location. I was still running slower because of the gimpy leg. It was a lovely but quite technical trail route through the woods and around a footy pitch. There were a few short, sharp hills too. It was a lovely sunny day and I managed to get a photo with the incredibly enthusiastic event director. The volunteers were so good and some high fives on the way round too.

        We went to the Greenhouse cafe in Fleet, another favourite of ours for the Vegan food. So good there, you must visit!

            The week after saw me do my 400^th parkrun. I chose Itchen valley where I now know a lot of people due to volunteering. I jogged a nice slow one again, running the first half with my old Lordshill buddy Jeff Scarle. It was a lovely run and I knew most of the volunteers including my beautiful CC. I also did Token sorting and post event closedown to get volunteering credit number 33 and my 46^th volunteer. Afterwards we did CPR and Defibrillator training with Meon Valley heartstart. The training was free and many of the regular volunteers took part. Such a great thing to do and to have the knowledge of potentially saving a life.

         Not much else to report as I didn’t do any races in April and I have none for May either. Romsey beer race in June but I doubt I’ll be in great shape for that one. My target will now be a fast time at Worchester half marathon on my birthday weekend in September. I had a soft qualifying time to run for Wales in the half marathon and got a rejection letter but hopefully I can run around 82 minutes for the half with some solid mileage and training later in the summer but we’ll see!

        Over all, it has been a stressful month really. Injuries, trying to buy a house etc.. A big thanks to Clare and all the amazing time and work she has done. Hopefully we have a house in a couple of weeks! Thanks for reading, much love. xx

March 2026

 

        Spring had arrived and along came more daylight and less rain. The head torch, put back in the cupboard. I’d even done a few runs without my jacket, hat and gloves! My mood was improving too. It felt like a long, hard winter despite it not really being a cold one. Way too many wet dark mornings and nights.

I did a slow Southampton parkrun on the 7^th of March, due to the Solent half the following day. Solent half had been moved to March but was usually in October. Because of all the rainfall, the field we had to run on was very wet and quite boggy. I didn’t care too much as I knew I wasn’t really PB fit and that today would be a hard effort but more controlled hopefully. Basically I didn’t want to spend too much time in the “Hurt Locker”.

 

        I managed to get a lift with Toni and Kev. It was really nice to see so many friendly faces, including my friend Helen who had already run 10 miles to the race! This will probably be my last Hampshire league race for a while and probably my last for Lordshill Road Runners as I have no intention of renewing my membership. I will be repping the Vegan Running Club vest full time :)

         I would have been happy to run a sub 90 for the half. The field wasn’t too bad at the start, I just had to be cautious as to not fall over. I started quite slow but settled in after the first couple of miles. My hamstrings were a bit tight after only 4 miles. It didn’t bother me too much though. What did bother me, that there was an annoying noise coming from my shoe. I had snapped a carbon rod on one of my Adidas Pro 4’s. There was now a clicking sound that would last for the rest of the race. The shoes were old and I had them when they were first released, so I had no problem throwing them away afterwards. I still had two unworn pairs at home as well. I am a bit of a hoarder of shoes.

 

The pace felt ok. Even after 10 miles when I am usually suffering on this course, it wasn’t as bad as times past. Saying that, I wasn’t on for a course PB either of 84 minutes. The final field (same as the start) was very boggy and I tried to navigate the best way to the finish line but seemed to pick out the deepest pools of mud and water to the amusement of two spectators. I was happy enough with my time of 87.15 with my current fitness. I knew I wasn’t in the best shape, so couldn’t really expect much more. It was a great day over all and I really enjoyed racing.

         Almost a week later, I was getting another lift with Toni and Kev. This time to Fordingbridge rec parkrun. It was the only Hampshire parkrun I hadn’t completed. I was hoping for nearer 18.30 as part of my 10k training but ended up scrapping a sub 19 with 18.54. Maybe not the quickest course but I was expecting a quicker time all the same. P10 for me. It was nice to see Neil Sexton from the Vegan running club too who ran an 18.20.

P1 who ran sub 17 was also a Vegan, so I gave him one of my Vegan running club cards. Hopefully he’ll join us ;)

I actually found the course quite mentally challenging for a 3 lapper. It was not inspiring to me all at. I found the course quite dull despite people saying it was a nice course. The marshals were brilliant and very encouraging though. Thank you :)

         I finished the parkrun with a tight hamstring/glute and had acquired a limp now. I was hoping to jog it off as Toni and Kev dropped be off at Woodlands, near Ashurst. I jogged a lovely 10k back but there was a pain in my glute still which was a bit uncomfortable. This glute and hamstring pain would go on to trouble me for the remainder of the month. It seems to restrict my natural running form and flow. It feels more like Sciatic nerve pain but we’ll see what happens. I may take a couple of weeks off running in April.

         I’ve been clearing out some stuff in my room and preparing to move house. I sent some of my favourite books to my friend Kerry in Wales who runs an Airbnb called “The reading Room”. You should check it out. It looks stunning. I’ve been meaning to stay there but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I did try cycling there once but got as far as Pontypridd after 3 days and decided to turn back as the heatwave and tempetures were zapping all my energy. Excuses eh? Oh yeah, it is Vegan too <3

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/1175967895367698301?source_impression_id=p3_1774426981_P3744o7hFgyjE66_

         I only had two Wednesdays left (free) before I go back to work full-time. I have really been enjoying a year of 4 day weeks but I will need more money to pay the mortgage I suppose. Adult stuff!

It was a good chance to catch up with my old mate Damo.

He suggested we do a circular walk from Brockenhurst. I met him at the train station just before 9am, where we got the train to Brockenhurst. We then discovered that we had downloaded two different maps. Mine was a 10k loop, his was a 10 mile loop. I was pretty pleased that I managed download a gpx file to my watch but nevermind. The loop went circular to Lyndhurst and back. We went clockwise and the route was quite easy to navigate. We saw plenty of New Forest Ponies and Brimstones.  We had lunch at the Greenwood tree cafe where I am pretty regular. I love their “Scrambled chickpeas” but they told me that their supplier had folded and were having a hard time sourcing anymore. They have tried to replicate it but said that they couldn’t quite get it right. Such a shame. They still had enough for my Vegan breakfast that day though :)

        While we were there, we bumped into my old friend Rich. Now Rich is slightly crazy but there isn’t much, if anything that he doesn’t know about the New Forest. I believe he was once on a T.V program being questioned by Bill Bailey. He asked us if we wanted to see some Adders. We said yes and after eating, off we went. We walked past Bolton’s bench and back into the inclosure. It wasn’t too long before he pointed out a Black Adder to us. I tried to take a photo but somehow messed it up as I couldn’t see what I was photographing with the bright sunshine beaming down on my phone. Anyway, he also showed us a route that we didn’t know and along the way found two song thrush nests and a long tailed-tit nest. There were more Brimstones and we also saw a few Peacocks and a Comma. The butterflies were loving the sunshine. I still had my coat on though as it still felt cold in the wind.

We didn’t see many people but those we did, Rich seemed to know and he would say “Show em the picture of the eggs”. This happened about 4 times..lol.

It was a lovely adventure but I was shattered after walking about 14 miles. My body isn’t used to it! My calf muscles were screaming and bulging with veins. I could quite happy run 14 miles but the walking kills me. I sure went back to work tired. It was such a nice catch up with Damo though <3

        On the morning of the 21^st of March, I couldn’t decide what parkrun to do. I finally decided on Netley as I hadn’t been there for over a year. The parkrun app told me that it would be my 20^th time, but it didn’t state that it would be my 17^th run as I had volunteered there 3 times before.

I got a bus into town and ran a 10k there to warm up my crappy glutes and hamstrings. It was a nice morning and lovely to be back at Netley. I didn’t recognise many people but had a nice chat with regular tailwalker and old Lordshill companion Aurelio.

        Again, I was hoping for a sub 19. The first mile went well and I was in P4 but the guys in front looked so relaxed. I think they were even chatting! Mile 2 was run in about 6.20. I’d be lucky to get sub 20 at this rate. I was struggling and finding the hills tough, especially being 3 laps. I don’t remember the course being so tough. I may have been just having another off day of course. I managed to get into P3 position but the guy I overtook looked like he was just out for a jog anyway. The first two runners were nowhere to be seen. We were now overtaking people. The numbers were pretty low with 277, so it wasn’t too bad really. My last mile was even slower. I got P3 with a time of 19.34 on my watch. My course pb was 19.34, so I was hoping the official result would be under. Nobody really wants to equal their course PB do they?

         I spoke to a few random runners and then jogged a 5k back to Woolston for coffee at Coffee.Woolston. I knew they did some Vegan treats too. All the cakes and pastries were Vegan. I chose the Oreo Doughnut but when I saw the Pain Au Raisin, I kind of regretted my decision. Should I ask to swap it? I ate the doughnut and it was delicious. I had made the right decision. The staff were very friendly. They also sell books and Vinyl and were playing some great music :)

 

                        (Samba the missing Capybara was spotted at work apparently!)

        Doughnuts for breakfast though? I need to sort out my eating habits. Something I have been trying to do for ages but just haven’t got that discipline. I’ll keep trying though and have been quite good the last couple of weeks really. I really could do with losing a few kgs, especially from the tummy!

Anyway, I got the bus into town to get some of my favourite soap from Waitrose that they didn’t have but found another great Vegan one instead, then my official parkrun time came through of 19.33. I had a new course PB and when I checked later that day, I also was top on the Age grading at the event despite in only being 76.04%.

 

The day after, Clare and myself got up early and did a nice loop of Romsey. It was a lovely circular loop and we discovered a few new paths, but had to break out of “World of Water” which is now a derelict site. We had to clamber over some rocks and walk on a sketchy fallen fence to cross a river but we survived and headed to Hillier’s garden centre for breakfast, which wasn’t too bad at all. £6.50 for a Vegan sausage bloomer and a weak coffee. Clare wisely chose the pot of tea, which she managed to squeeze 3 cups out of.  

        I was supposed to go Skateboarding on my last Wednesday off. Steve from work was going to pick me up and we were going over to my mate’s Greg’s ramp. He has his own ramps and was once on the Paul O’Grady show. I also saw him skate on a T.V program called “Not for girls” once on Channel 5, where he pretty much fell off on his first trick. Poor guy. He is a legend in the skateboarding world though and a really good friend.

Anyway, it was windy and crap outside and I felt crap, so just decided on a total chill day and would take a couple of days off running as my body was feeling battered and broken. I think it takes me a while to realise what I have been putting it through.  

The rest days did me wonders. I felt so much better for it.

                                       (Quite enjoyed this book along with many of his others)

         On the last Sunday of March I was to run the Yeovil 10k. The day before I thought I would do a slow parkrun but didn’t want to run too many miles. I decided on Bartley park as I preferred it over Ganger farm and it had been raining, so Bartley would probably be a bit drier. I walked a mile to Millbrook roundabout and caught the bus to Rushington roundabout. I did a 2 mile warm up and was then needing the toilet. There were 4 cubicles. The Men’s was locked and out of order, the disabled, was also locked. There was a urinal but I needed a poo!!!

 A lovely marshal came over and could see my predicament. “Just use the ladies” he said kindly. I went in and tried to hurry it. There was a pull on the door from the outside not long after. Now I could picture a queue of woman outside waiting for me to finish. I wasn’t too long in there but the next problem I had, was that the toilet wouldn’t flush. I tried it about 8 times. What now? I paused for a bit and then tried again and finally it flushed. There were only 2 woman waiting for the toilet. Panic over.

         The Crumpler’s were there. They are a lovely Vegan family and you will probably know of them if you do Bartley parkrun. Amy is RD a lot of the time. Mike (her husband) asked me if I’d run and pace little Corey, one of their sons. Corey is only 10 years old and is getting pretty speedy already! “What time does he want?” I asked. “22 minutes” Mike replied. Corey quietly whispered “21 minutes”.

Ok, I’ll run around 7.05 pace for each mile I thought. Mike then says, Corey does his own thing so just stick with him. Obviously he can’t run on his own being under 11.

Off we went. It was so inspiring to see his little legs turning over like that. It is 4 laps, so quite tough mentally. He was doing ok. I told him to try and slow his breathing a bit by taking in a couple of slow deep breaths through his nose. Hopefully it worked. I said “Well done Corey” a lot and kept trying to encourage him. Glancing at my watch, we seemed to be slowing a bit. I also realised that I didn’t save my warm up so had started my watch from there. I wouldn’t know our time until the results came through. We weren’t on for sub 22 though, so I felt I was failing Corey and the Crumpler gang. Just when I thought he was getting tired, he would put in a burst again. His resilience is incredible. We finished with a good time though. Not that I knew what it was at that point.

 I ran back to Totton for a coffee, but got the bus back to Millbrook roundabout. 6.5 miles was plenty before race day.

I results came through and I discovered that Corey got a course pb of 22.34. Pretty happy with that as his overall pb is 22.16 at Southampton. He’s definitely in pb shape and probably needs to go back to a faster course :) Well done Corey.

        Later that day, Clare and I went to my friend Darren’s 60^th birthday party at a church hall in Romsey. It was lovely with John Pellegrini making all the vegan food. I love the quiche soooo much. I also took 4 more sausage rolls for the train to Yeovil.

The food was all Vegan and totally amazing from John as always and he caters for a lot of Weddings and other events. Check him out: www.hampshirevegancatering.co.uk

         I stayed at Mike Harper’s place in Yeovil and off we jogged to the start of the Yeovil half and 10k. The race was described as “fast and flat” but Mike and I were skeptical. This was Yeovil after all. We met up with fellow Vegan running club member Kevin Doherty and got to the start line of the 10k. I didn’t really know where my fitness was, so I nestled in between the 38 and 40 minute pacer. I knew I wasn’t in shape to run sub 38 yet. That didn’t stop me from haring off ahead of the 38 minute pacer though. There was a nice downhill start. He caught me up after a kilometre though. The first mile went well and I was happy with my pace. Although hitting the 2^nd mile, I knew the pace was off. It was a nice undulating route. I caught up with some of the slower half marathon runners as the half started at 9am and the 10k started at 9.30am. It was lovely to see Vegan running club member Carla in the country park. She was full of energy, jumping up and down and cheering me on. This sure gave me a lift in spirits. Thank you Carla.

         It was busy with half marathon runners after this. I had to weave in and out of them for a bit. I knew I was struggling by mile 3 and ran through the 5k in around 19.38 I think. Now I would be trying to hang on to a sub 40 time. It was hard, but I battled on. There weren’t many 10k runners around as the half and 10k routes split. I then noticed that I was on the otherside of the road with the half marathoners as the 10k route was about to turn right. I crossed back over and tried to keep the runner ahead in sight. He was quite far ahead. More hills and a housing estate followed. I got to 5 miles and started to feel an improvement in my mental state. Only 2k to go! I think there was more downhill now. I passed a couple of runners and nagivated a winding subway. The support at the finish was great, which made me put in a burst at the end. I just about got the sub 40 with a time of 39.53 (39.51 chip time).

This was also fast enough to make me first V50. My third 10k in somerset and my 3^rd V50 win. Kev calls me a “County Hopper” as I’m not fast enough to get any V50 wins in Hampshire..lol. (with the exception of Totton 10k but they didn’t have age cat awards on the first year of it running to my disappointment).

I was 16^th out of 480 runners. Not too bad.

I shook hands with the mayor of Yeovil and collected a nice printed slate and a bottle of cider that I gave to Mike (The cider, not the slate). It was a lovely day and I was happy to get first V50 despite not really being a quick time.

Hopefully I will get fitter and faster but we’ll see as I still have a few niggles with the glutes and hamstrings.

        Thanks for reading. Stay rad. xx