The weather is improving and there have been opportunities for sunny evening runs in the last few days. Both Pete and I are very busy with work, which is limiting those opportunities somewhat, but I have been managing three runs a week recently and he has considered riding his bike to work.

Trying to improve my speed at the moment because I’m thinking about the local half marathon for next year and I don’t want to be swept up at the 6 mile mark and bussed back to the start. And I might do this in a couple of weeks, as it’s reasonably local and looks pretty, and there’s a shorter option for the boys.

You can read about Tom’s grumpy half marathon here.

And a couple of weeks ago I took part in a 10k race. I don’t really think of these events as races, as my main goal is to finish without walking. A colleague of mine who is running the VLM this year for the second time was happy to run with me in order to deplete her legs slightly for the Reading Half the following day (this line of thinking still mostly mystifies me). She chatted all the way round, and I was mostly able to join in. I did notice that my face hurt from all the smiling; it was just so much fun. The run was at Eton Dorney where the Olympic rowing took place, and the course was two pancake-flat laps along the lake and back again. Everyone sped out ahead of us and I was uncomfortably aware of being right at the back for most of the race, but colleague didn’t seem to mind. We plodded out the first 5k and then decided to start passing people, so speeded up in bursts, resulting in a very satisfying negative split over the two 5ks. I had enough left in the tank for a sprint at the end, and my official time was 1:14:13, a four minute personal best against the only other time I have ever run that distance, and marred only by the fact that RunKeeper messed up and didn’t record it.

I had very little discomfort in my legs the next day, and suspect I could run faster. But how to make myself do that?