Notts 5

A bit of light relief to start off two weeks of holiday comes in the shape of the Notts 5 Mile race on the Victoria Embankment.

My injured knee flares up during my warm-up but that seems to get the pain out of the way for the race which goes ok, at least on that front. My pace however does feel rather slow and laborious but looking at my times after the event, I was up on last year’s time all the way to mile 4. Then I slowed over the last mile and hobbled home about 40 seconds down on last year.Not bad I suppose, on no training.

Notfast 10k

We have been attempting to do the Notfast 10k near Newark for a number of years but one of my vital dog qualifiers always clashed. This year there was no clash, so here we are at Newark Rugby Club. We have left the boys at home as it’s hot.

The race can best be described as no frills. It’s cheap and cheerful but not the most exciting of courses with a section down a busy main road. It’s well marshalled though with distance markers, three water stations and sponges. I do love a good sponge. There is just one hill at just over halfway but not a particularly bad one.

The run goes alright, although I’m slow as I suffer first with my dodgy knee then with my dodgy fitness. I come in in just under 49 minutes, shoot me now. L comes in 62 something, for which she’ll be doing cartwheels.