most of why i stop running for long periods is that i hate the competitiveness of training - looking back on my first memories of cross-country, what i enjoyed most was the being alone (apart from at the beginning of races, the runners are usually very spread out). so recently i've been doing all my running on my own, and probably doing far more running than ever as a result, which makes me generally happier with the state of the world.

i've always prefered running a long way to 'sprints', and for some reason my mind has decided that 10k is my favourite distance, despite it probably not being the distance i'm best at. i think this idea seeded itself one summer's afternoon in 1995 or 1996. i was merrily going off to play some tennis with a few friends, but we had too many or too few players. for some reason i wondered off to the athletics track and started running round. as i was circulated, i started working out how many laps various distances were, and noticed that they all didn't seem very far when thought of in those terms :) anyway 25 laps seemed like as good a number as any, so that's what i did.

on latter occasions it occured to me that a marathon is only four times as far or 104 laps, but unfortunately that meant having a lot of contiguous spare time. i tried to get permission to do such a thing, but it was vetoed by the school nurse: spoilsport :) so far i haven't got round to doing a marathon, but i probably will some day - they involve rather too much planning and organisation for my liking.

anyway a couple of weeks ago i decided it was time to stop messing around with this 10k thing, and actually do some... i'm intending to do a 10k race each sunday until i decide to stop ;) ... so far i've done two and i'm trying to keep myself booked at least four ahead.

the point of this page (i finally get to the point) is to tell people which ones i'm doing, or have done, results and information of the races so they can join in if they wish... fat chance :) i'm choosing races which are within easy driving distance on the morning of the race, not entirely sure what limit that gives.

© 21/5/2001 the auroran sunset

anyway here's the list...

date	where	other details	my result	comments/excuses
13 may 2001	concorde - british airways athletics club	10:30 £4	36th 42:31	first one, nice race.. went 5m the wrong way when i got confused by a marshall :)
20 may 2001	oxford - town and gown	10:30 £5.50	40:47 186th	too many people at the start meant walking for the first 100m or so, and being generally held up for the first 500m, but twas fun. i had/have a very annoyed knee which was kinda painful - but doesn't seem to have slowed me down much :) randomly got a free tshirt at the end - must have been a few spare - which was a bonus.
27 may 2001	ropley, hampshire	11:30 £5,	40:12	hilly course, lots of fun :)
3rd june 2001	cranfield university, bedford	11:00 £3.50	39/329 39:35	slightly hilly.. gradually getting faster :)
10th june 2001	wargrave recreation ground	10:00 £6, details		i messed up... got the start time wrong by an hour, so missed the race. :(
17th june 2001	staines	09:30 £4 entry form	12th 37.25	wow! that's really an impressive improvement, and i know i can do more :)
24th june 2001	dunstable	10:30 £4.50 phone frank stafford on +44 1582 665376 for a form.	41:45	running with diarrhoea is not amusing :-/ 'twas going brilliantly for the first 3-4k... had to rather slow down though... does mean i doubt i'll have trouble going sub-35min next week... i might actually get good at this :)
1st july 2001	croydon	11:00 £5 phone race secretary on +44 208 4013400 for a form.	39:15 13th/~190	very hilly, hence so slow.
8th july 2001	prince's risborough	10:00 £5 phone d. steptoe on +44 1844 347509 for a form.	36:52 6th	that was fun :) did the first kilometer in just under 3mins, just need to keep it up.
15th july 2001	tadley, hants	11:00 £5 entry form	38:03 26th	i need to slow my starts down considerably... burnt out again.
22th july 2001	st. ives, cambridgeshire	10:30 £5 phone v. doggett on +44 1954 202887 for a form.		not well.. didn't run :(
29th july 2001	n/a			couldn't find anywhere close enough... tenby, harrogate and cornwall were the only choices :-(
5th august 2001	milland valley, hants	10:30 £6.50 entry form		have decided to stop doing so many race.. i'll probably cut it to once a month, or similar. basically i'm doing too much karate to be doing the running as well... i'll keep listing ones i might do, but they are much less definite.
14th october 2001	arborfield garrison	11:30 £8 relavent website	2nd 38:00??	a very slow race as evidenced by the fact i had a considerable lead for the first 6k or so. strange place: car checked for bombs, random groups of smiling cadets, a tank and a very pretty pond near the sport centre's entrance.
date	where	other details	my result	comments/excuses

i may be able to give people lifts to these things if they give me enough warning, and i don't think they are psychos :)