Original Mountain Marathon

As someone who is a bit of a runner, I am watching tonight's events in Cumbria at the OMM with some concern.

The BBC's earlier reporting claimed that this race was a "charity run". It is nothing of the sort, everything I have seen and heard suggests it is an extremely well organised race full of experienced and very, very fit runnners - you have to be to take part in something as testing as this. Hopefully that fitness will see everyone accounted for safely.

This is also another shining example of the great work our mountain rescuers do.

So fingers-crossed, everyone is OK.

UPDATE: Before anyone joins in the media frenzy about this, please read this fantastic article from Sleepmonsters which puts the events of yesterday and last night into some perspective.

I am pleased everyone is safe.

Great Eastern Run

Yesterday I had the privilege of taking part in the Great Eastern Run, a now annual Half Marathon run around the streets of Peterborough.

Because the route is through the streets It’s not the most scenic of courses, but benefits from being really, really flat. Running through the streets also means it gets excellent support from the locals. The number of people who were sat at their gates or the bottom of their roads clapping and cheering runners was amazing. As were the number of people giving out Jelly Babies (runners’ fuel) and water. I also “High-Fived” hundreds of kids who were having fun spectating.

The race is really well organised and the finish on the embankment is amazing. The people of Peterborough really do themselves proud and the organisers take a lot of credit. I look forward to it growing.

Just for interest, despite quite warm weather, I finished (according to my stopwatch) in 1h55m, which is my 2nd best ˝ marathon time.