That ability to lace up your running shoes and head out onto the roads and into the hills is a gift, one we should cherish. Imagine being a trail runner in Ukraine, wanting to head out into the hills beyond Kiev for your regular dose of fresh air, a normality that is more important now than ever but a normality that just isn't available. You might not have felt it in the last mile of Snake Lane yesterday but we are the lucky ones.
Our issues pail into insignificance by comparison. My Garmin broke last week inducing a mild panic. Thankfully, Garmin's customer service was first class and I now have a replacement on my wrist and need to remind myself that it's my legs that run, not my watch. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
I overhead a resident at Snake Lane yesterday, moaning to a poor volunteer about the fact that the roads were closed to allow 1000+ people to get some exercise. He didn't have a problem really. Not in comparison.
Perspective.
Remember that as you go about your runs this week. A pedestrian gets in your way and makes you slow down on the pavement. A car doesn't let you across the road. The rain is too rainy. The wind is too windy. None of it matters. Just get out there, enjoy it and smile.
Perspective.
Our weekend of getting out there and enjoying it started on Friday evening at the York 5K Series around the Heslington cycle track. Plenty of pace was on display with the first 9 all under 17 mins. Our very own Mel Ellwood stormed to a new PB in 20.29 and got herself a place on the podium as 3rd lady and 33rd overall. https://racebest.com/results/h6f93
Fantastic running Mel and I hope you enjoy the moment.
Sunday saw the 30th Snake Lane 10 mile race take place in and around Pocklington. 1301 runners made the most of the beautiful weather and we had plenty to shout about as well.
Up front we had Jordan Howe who nestled into 4th place early on and remained there until the finish in an impressive 53.12. Dom Carter continued to demonstrate his form with a 22nd place finish in his age category in 62.20 that I'm guessing is a PB for Dom?
Jim may not be the fastest runner in his house anymore but he's flying and chalked up an impressive 9th place finish in his age category with a time of 64.47. Note these are all gun and not chip times due to an error with the timing mat at the start so your Strava will have you going a bit quicker but I'm not scrolling through Strava seeking the evidence!
We had more fabulous age category performances to cheer on. Si Partridge was 19th, Andy Heather 29th and Jess Hayward a superb 16th in the open category with Lou Mamalis 33rd in the same category.
A gentleman never mentions a lady's age so I'm leaving any further age related comments out of it other than to say we had a trio of stunning results from Amanda Clark, Di Campbell and Amy Johnson who finished 13th, 14th and 28th in their respective categories.
Last but by no means least, well done to Laura Robson who earned herself a new 10 mile PB. Something is clearly working well Laura, keep going!
Apologies if some (or all) of the photos are a bit blurry. I never said I was a photographer and you're all clearly running too fast to get a good image!
Jess demonstrating that she's running that well she can do it with her eyes closed.
Lou also adopted Jess' tactic of running blind.
Enough! Dom's at it as well and it's clearly spread to City of Hull.
Sorry Laura, you'd shot past by the time I took my gloves off and unlocked my phone. I know, excuses excuses...
Meanwhile, Jo Barrett & Dee Bouderba were once again proving that when the sun shines, the North York Moors is a tough place to beat. They were taking part in the 10 mile trail race known as Lilla's Revenge up above Robin Hood's Bay. It's one of a growing number of events organised by SilverBack Trails, check them out on Facebook.
Nice to see Jo modelling her 110 finishers t-shirt.
A busy weekend with some outstanding performances and more PB's than I can keep up with. That just leaves Saturday's parkrun roundup where this writer got a course PB around Dalby and the Heather / Carter / Davis tourist bus checked out the new event at North Yorkshire Water Park in Wykeham. My puppy almost went sub 30 for the first time at Dalby as well, next time Billy!
Conyngham Hall
82nd Karen Travis 36.13
Dalby Forest
3rd Simon Middleton 18.41
97th Lucy Turner with Billy (our puppy not our membership secretary) 30.21
Apologies but if I get to do all this writing you get to see my face ever now and again.
Dewsbury
19th Jamie Butler 22.50
Faskally Forest
13th Sophie Cole 26.59
14th Elliot Cole 27.01
Heslington
30th Ian Smithson 19.55
243rd Jason Platten 27.37
Millfield
13th Patrick Hough 21.38
North Yorkshire Water Park - how long before our resident tourists turn up somewhere and claim 1st, 2nd and 3rd?
2nd Dom Carter 18.14
4th Alex Davis 18.40
7th Jim Carter 19.12
19th Andy Heather 21.53
What a week. It's been a pleasure to write all this up, well done to everyone taking part whether you're fast or faster it matters not. It's all about perspective.