Picture in the paper, XC, parkrun and future plans.

Last week was a return to Lloyd Park for cross country.  At least half the course was snow bound which made things more interesting but wasn't too treacherous.  I didn't run that great a time but it was a good fun race slipping and sliding in the snow and mud; generally overtaking people on the down hills and being passed on the ups on the other side.  At the start of the second lap I was in the midst of a crowd of Collingwood runners and ended up in a picture in Sutton's premier local paper relating to an article on their xc promotion.  I love the local paper so pleased as punch to have my picture on the sport pages!

This morning I headed down to Nonsuch Parkrun for a windy park run (19:45, 7th place).  I ran it pretty evenly and passed 3 or 4 folk on the second lap which makes a change from heading off too fast.  I'll have to remember this next week at the National Cross Country race at Parliament Hill.  I'm looking forward to this race from what I've heard of it (fast field, big hills, mud, chaos at the start); however am very conscious there's a real risk I could come last.

Finally, I've decided on some plans for the rest of the year.  First up in May I'm entered in for the Surrey Hills trail race- organised by SLOW who organised the Box Hill fell race, it's a self navigating 30k across the Leith Hill area.  Looks excellent- I aim to brush up on my navigation skills before the event (and maybe do a few reccie runs).  Then in June, a couple of days after my 30th birthday it's going to be Trail Marathon Wales.  I'm super excited about this- 26.2 miles all on trail in the Coed y Brenin Forest Park in Snowdonia.  Once I've got the xc season over next week it'll be time to start increasing the mileage and hitting the trails and hills- this is my target race for the year; bring-it-on!