Ward Green 6

What better way to spend Boxing Day morning than a 6 mile race near Barnsley? It was exceptionally mild today at +2 degrees C, and the showers afterwards were a similar temperature. Feels good now :)

(more later...)

Edit:
I have been slacking on running lately, for the first time since I started almost 6 years ago. I had never exercised in my life before, at least not outside school, and had been led to believe by school teachers (and not challenged by anyone else around me) that I had no sporting or athletic ability at all. Messers Hill, Taylor and Bishop, you know who you are (You know the PE teacher in the film Kes? you get the idea). And now I realise how much time was wasted, how much fitter I could have been, how much more fun could have been had, as 6 years ago just after new year, I made, not a new year resolution, but a life resolution. The latter is much easier and better because you are not doing it out of guilt, because of pressure to do something better, or for a short time until you think that you have done whatever it was long enough to offset the guilt, but because you want to do it for yourself and to do it forever. And this is what I resolved 6 years ago, and I very
slowly and steadily got a little better, and i think I have gone further and faster each year, despite the cruel aging effects of nature. Don't get me wrong I am still rubbish compared to most people i compete against. Shortly after starting running I took up orienteering as well. I am rubbish at that too, but I get a lot more fun from it than some people who are good at it. Orienteering has a great meditative effect as normally the concentration required is such that there simply isn't time to think about anything else, even about how tired you feel. The benefits for me have been immense and the last year would have been even harder without it - natural endorphins are my drug of choice. So, I am writing this now in part to remind myself of why I started this and why i don't want to stop. I have been finding too many excuses lately and I hope after the race today I can be more confident that I will not let slip what I have worked so hard for.