Tuesday, 20th April – 5 days to go

Run club with VARR in the evening. Groups 4 and 5 combine and there are nine of us. Michael has dropped into group 3 to save his legs; he must be mad, they work harder than we do. We run something that Rick refers to as the Bramley 10k. This sounded somewhat daunting as I know Bramley is further away than that. We run away from the city and go past the Abbey and on towards Horsforth. We drop down Newlay Lane and cross the river and canal – on bridges I hasten to add. After that we run up Pollard Lane. “Up” is the operative word we climb either three or four hills or possibly just one very long hill with some slightly flatter bits. Either way I’m knackered by the time we reach the top. We don’t get as far as Bramley (phew). We head back towards Leeds on Bradford old Road before crossing the canal again near BHS/Allders. Apparently it’s exactly 10k from bus stop to bus stop just up from the gym. Seemed further.

Russ is very chipper – seems to be suffering no ill effects from Paris. He’s confident he can find the three and a bit minutes needed to make good for age. A couple of the areas for improvement are specific Paris ones I’ve read from others – spectators converging onto the course causing bottlenecks, difficulties with overtaking wheelchair athletes (their helpers more than the athletes themselves). He also reckons there’s about 4 miles of cobbles which my knees don’t fancy at all. Tips I can take away though are taking water and gels regularly along the way and not stopping for a pee, though that one may be a little more difficult.

Chatting with the group has put me into a more positive frame of mind and it should be good to meet up with familiar faces before, during and after the race. It’s been a good session and done at a challenging (for me) pace. It’s far more cheerful to be running in a group and it’s most welcome to be returning to base in the light. Those dark winter days are now behind us and the ice and snow a distant memory. Bring on a summer of running.