it were 'ot in 'ull

Oh my god... the best part of a month has passed and I haven't applied my fingers to the fcuking, blogging keyboard - not once! Ah well, I've managed a June post after all,and such is the heavy price I must pay for getting back to 'normality' and having to earn a crust through this thing they call full-time work. More on this later, I suspect...

I haven't been completely idle, though, and there are a lot of semi-indecipherable scribbles in my notebook which might - or might not - find their way onto the digital page on some future occasion. For now, though, I'll content myself with a rather simple update on the third of my quartet of races this year - the Humber Bridge Half Marathon.

Like Stockholm last year, it was way too hot for serious running. There were also some nasty and prolonged hills. This took me somewhat by surprise as I had opted for this 'half' under the misguided impression that the banks of the Humber Estuary couldn't be anything other than pancake-flat. The unremitting bastard of an incline which showed itself around the 9-mile mark was to prove me very wrong.

These unforeseen challenges notwithstanding, I was destined to prevail with nothing more than a bulbous red blood-blister to remind me of the suffering I endured. My legs were fine, my morale unsapped... though the heat and the hills took their toll on my body generally, and that evening (plus the following day back at work) was marked by sheer exhaustion. I had targeted a 1 hour 40 minute finish, but - between me, you and cyberspace - I'd been hoping to crack one-hour-thirty. I was nowhere near in the end, of course, but I did better my previous 'best' for a half-marathon by a full eight seconds, crossing the line in 1 hour, 38 minutes and not a single second more.

The day was made all the more bearable through making the unexpected acquaintance of a lovely blonde vulcanologist from San Luis Obispo. I ended up giving her a lift to and from the race (for various complicated an unimportant reasons) and the resulting lessons on the world of volcanoes were certainly an added bonus. Maybe I'll cobble together a post on the subject at some point in the future?... it would certainly make a suitably random topic for inclusion.

Anyway, that's 'Orrible 'Ull done and dusted, with - I have to say - the minimum of fuss. All that remains now is the long, hard slog of training (I love it really) in readiness for the challenges of the Loch Ness biggie in October. I can't say I'm looking forward to it just yet, but I'm confident I'll be fit and ready when the time comes to break for the border. No doubt I'll be pining for the unexpectedly scorching conditions of the Humber Estuary as I line up among the tartan-clad locals outside Inverness. The autumn rain will doubtless be hammering the glens and those gusty northerlies will be lashing around my flimsy running shorts. But I'll be ready for those jocks - bring it on!