Boscombe 5k and this Past Weekend
This past weekend I travelled down to Dorset again. The main reason was to meet my nephew, who is nine days old today. However, while down I decided that I would make it to the Poole Runners’ Boscombe 5k. My preparation was not great for this race – I finished my old job on Friday and the whole week had been busy, with me dealing with the hand-over and then giving a presentation on the final day.
On arriving at seafront there was a cold wind. The course is an out-and-back, so we were going to be running half the course into the wind. Then, with about fifteen minutes until race start, it became colder and started to snow. I did wonder why I was there at this point! Fortunately, it stopped snowing a few minutes before we started and the wind also lessened up shortly after we started running.
My legs were not as fresh as when I ran a PB last month. I completed the first half only marginally slower, but I was not able to maintain the pace on the way back. I finished in 20:25, which equals my second best 5k time. Not bad at all. 
On Saturday I joined the SWJS – the south west junior orienteering squad – for a track session and 3k time trial. We did an good range of running drills and the group of us that had run the night before then paced laps for the others doing the time trial. It took a couple of practise laps to get the 90 second pacing correct.
Sunday started early. I wanted to fit a twenty mile run in and had to finish before my nephew, and his mummy and daddy, arrived for lunch. I ran a route through the villages close to where my parents live. A really good run and it is so nice to run out on quiet roads. Then there was time to have a quick bath before meeting my nephew!
