Rosedawn Ramblings

The St Thomas 7 ... another new race, another new location (Upper Tean, somewhere between Cheadle and Checkly) and actually my 13th race in the NSRRA calendar for 2013. This was my spare, with 12 races needed to be  included in the group competition.  A Mary Poppins Kind of Day! Since my hamstring troubles at Ipstones , I've been taking it relatively easy in terms of training and mileage, but life away from running has been busy so I wasn't perfectly prepared for this race, but unlike the Stone St Michaels 10k back in June when I had to rely on my inner Pollyanna to find some positives from the race, the St Thomas 7 turned out to be practically perfect in every way... much more of a Mary Poppins kind of day.  I liked the course - lovely scenery and quiet country lanes. Traffic wasn't a problem and it was easy to work out where I should be running. Even more appealing, there were no off-road sections, so I felt much more sure-footed especially on those downhills;

Race start! The Ipstones 5 was another new race for me this year and not just a new race but a new place too... I'm still getting to know the area around Stoke-on-Trent and the little village of Isptones on the edge of the Peak District National Park was an unfamiliar destination. I knew two things about the race... one, it is part of a fundraising day at the village fire station and two, it goes up! I've had a good few weeks of training since launching myself on the comeback trail , so I was hoping for good things. Race sign-up was efficient and I then completed a short warm up to prepare my legs for the hilly miles to come, especially the promised 1 mile up with which the race starts. The field seemed smaller than many of the NSRRA races I've completed, but there were still plenty of familiar faces as we lined up at 3.30pm outside the fire station to get underway. Downhill: #636 thanked me for waiting until after the photo before overtaking! It was a tough s