I’ve been running. After months of triathlon training, I’ve come back to where it all started and been focussing on running. I ran 10 miles before work one morning, ran to or from work three times in week and run on both Saturday and Sunday. And it’s been a lot of fun.

In just under two weeks I’ll be doing SnowDublin and attempting to do two marathons in one weekend. So it’s a good job I’ve remembered where my running shoes are.

I’ve also remembered where my trail shoes are and dusted them off for the start of the cross country season on Saturday.

On Sunday it was the Great Eastern Run in Peterborough, the race where I did my first half marathon back in 2009 and which I’ve done every year since. It was also my brother-in-law’s birthday so after a few too many beers the night before I lined up thinking this might not have been the best way to spend a Sunday.

GER 2014

Before and after the half

I’d been drafted in as a pacer again by Phil, but luckily he’d drunk even more than me and his 1:50 goal became “Let’s just finish it”. But I knew he’d be disappointed with anything over 2 hours so in the last few miles I pushed ahead hoping he’d follow and we crossed the finish line together in 1:56.

It seems that running 13.1 miles can be a very unpleasant but effective hangover cure (don’t try this at home). That aside, it was a really fun race, yet again. I saw a lot of people I know of the way round, including my old geography teacher, Sue Dougan whose radio show I’ve been on a couple of times who ran with us for a couple of miles to chat about triathlons. I saw a lot of my family cheering and a couple of people who recognised me from here – thanks for saying hello!

I haven’t run a lot of miles in the past few months, but I’ve run frequently. Hopefully that will be enough to get me round Snowdonia and Dublin. And I’m looking forward to running many more miles on the other side because, as much as I’ve come to love cycling and swimming, there’s nothing quite like running.