After today’s race a couple of the guys were talking about how the endorphin rush from this week’s constant running was giving them such a buzz they were finding it hard to sleep. I can barely find the energy to lift my fingers above the keyboard to type these words. Worse still it’s bin night round here and guess whose job that is in my house?

Anyway, I digress. You can tell by the opening that I didn’t win, otherwise we’d be having a repeat of last night’s blog post. Sean won comfortably by a good 20 seconds or so tonight which leaves the overall result as a bit of a foregone conclusion although I suspect we’ll still compete as hard as we can tomorrow whatever happens.

With one race left we should take time tonight to congratulate all the marshals and organisers of the races. Our club chairperson, Sue Ward, is doing a great job and has a good team around her of family and club members helping out. For those who don’t know the back story to the races they were the idea of her late husband John Ward who planned all the routes. Credit to him then for planning such scenic routes in the middle of a busy city. We’ve barely ran on any urban pavements (tomorrow’s 5k will be the exception) and credit too for the diversity of the courses. Tonight’s run on the grass of Manor Farm Park (4 miles) was testing but the soft grass comes at the right time of the week to ease sore calf muscles and niggling knees.

Of course if you ran last year’s tour event you’ll also recall that John had described Tuesday’s hill race as 5 miles in his notes only for us to wonder why it seemed to go on and on and on. Even though we now know it’s 7 miles I think a fitting tribute would be to continue describing it as 5 miles – it would be amuse me no end to see the look on newcomer’s faces as they wonder if their Garmin has gone haywire.

We should take a moment too to focus on Sally Gray, leading female runner but who is also powering ahead of most of the men. Results from tonight aren’t in but the results so far show how close she is to Andy Workman, a mere 20 seconds to pull back to gain 5th place overall. Her nearest woman competitor is quite a way behind (where there’s a really good battle developing) but Sally is not only looking relaxed and strong for each race but making sure the men remain competitive.

Given how tired we all are everyone seemed up for it tonight and everyone is still doing that whole sprint finish thing. Tomorrow’s another story though as we reach the end of our week of torture. It’s a 5k course around Bournville that’s familiar to us all with a slightly uphill finish. I’m ‘working from home’ tomorrow which should help me prepare a little presuming I don’t go crazy on the allotment.