Make Mine a Triple

The bank holiday weekend with the extra day off while a prince got married was a great treat. As it turned out, Jim was away for three days, so I found three runs to keep me out of trouble. I'd never done a triple before (apart from within the 10in10) and it was a rather hot weekend to choose for such shenanigans.

On the Friday I headed to Berkshire for the Royal Berkshire track marathon, excellently organised by Ian Berry. There were loads of the usual faces there, including some TiTs I hadn't seen since last year, as well as some of this year's contenders. So, 105 and a half laps, which passed by pretty smoothly. Either I or my lap counter miscounted, so that when I thought I was easily on for a sub-4 (which would be my first this year), I was surprised to hear I still had 5 laps to do (I thought it was only 4) in under 10 minutes to make that time. 8-minute-miling might not sound fast, but I was feeling a bit poorly on the day and it took a big effort to pick up the pace. It felt good to do it, but I was really knackered afterwards. Oh, and I placed third female so I won a bottle of beer!

On the Saturday was the Oxon 40, based around Henley. This is a lovely LDWA event so I felt perfectly justified in taking it at a very relaxed pace. Mucho walking and some beautiful views, including many woods carpeted with bluebells.

I stayed overnight in Amesbury then wandered over to Stonehenge in the morning to catch the bus to the start of the Neolithic Marathon. This feels like an old favourite (I've now done it 5 times) and it was yet again a great day out.

Since then there was the delightful Halstead marathon on the 8th (around the country lanes in Essex, always a much better event than I expect it to be) and then Richmond Park marathon on the weekend just gone, which took in 3 and a half laps of the park, with the fantastic scenery and wildlife show that entails. I've been struggling to run with a cold and dodgy breathing for weeks now, so it was kind of a relief to find out I actually have a chest infection (again - the third time this year!) and I'm hoping the antibiotics will sort me out soon.

Morning runs have been very pleasant recently, as the sun gets up around the same time as I head out. Summer is good like that.