Worked from home today, and able to feast on a rare treat — a midweek run in the daylight. Got out at lunchtime for the standard 3.5 miles round the block. It’s getting easier.
Then I tempted fate by doing some more race planning.
Definites (insofar as I’ve entered them) are the Brighton 10K this Sunday and the Cliveden post-Christmas 6 miler.
Then the robust possibility of the Woodcote/Goring 10k in early January. It’s local, and we should support our local races.
Almeria at the end of January is looking more likely now. A few of us flew to Southern Spain in January this year to meet up with RC forumite Antonio, and run his home town half marathon. The weekend was good, and it was great to get a sliver of Spanish sun in the heart of a long, grey winter. It’s a big temptation, and no doubt post-Brighton 10K conversation over lunch will touch on it. I suspect that the combination of finisher’s euphoria and a couple of glasses of decent Chianti will make the prospect of Almeria as exciting as those last 5 minutes against Argentina on Saturday.
Februrary, and the Wokingham Half comes into view. It’s one of those many races that I mean to do each year, but never quite get to. Flat and fast, and local. Perhaps 2006 is the year for it. Another race in the same category is the Bramley 20 on February 19th, a week later. A tall order perhaps, but if I plan to do a marathon, I need to get 2 or 3 of those thankless 20 milers ticked off.
Yet another race that you read and hear a lot about, the Hastings Half, comes along on March 12. Then April 9th arrives, and with it, quite possibly, the Zurich Marathon.
You have to fill the winter months with these agonising spring fantasies to hang onto your sanity.
