Four Villages - Cancelled

(c) Run Helsby

Thanks to the rather inclement weather, the organisers of the Four Villages Half sadly had to cancel the race yesterday - which was a shame (if understandable given the amount of snow on the course) and in some ways a relief as I didn't have to make a decision about whether to run it with my chest in a bit of a state.  

However, Grandad and I decided to go out for a run anyway, and did one of his regular running club loops around Manchester airport - we did actually bump into a good number of runners from his club (and another local club) who were out having also missed out on the Half Marathon.  It's quite a nice route taking in some bridle paths and footpaths, but mostly on nicely maintained ones (and with the ice it wasn't too muddy).  Couple of the hills made me a little wary of the cough - but that was more because I was taking them at Grandad speed and not my own! Stats from GRG here.

Despite the weather, the ground underfoot wasn't too bad: there was the odd icy patch/wobbly bit but mostly it was easier to keep running rather than walk.  I can't say it would have been much fun had a thousand other runners been over the snow before me though.  My chest is definitely improving although I did have a bit of a shock getting into the (relatively) warm car and wheezed a few times - but a nice cup of horlicks is calming it down quite nicely and sugar was replenished by sharing my emergency fun-sized mars bar before we drove back to the house.

I think my legs would have been up to the Half Marathon; they certainly don't feel too worn out after a 5 1/2 mile run. But I'm not CERTAIN my chest would have lasted another couple of hours out in the cold - although I do have to admit that the breeze was almost warm this morning as opposed to the icy blast you normally get in Edinburgh.

Grandad is on the organising committee for the Wilmslow Half - so is trying to get me a sneaky place on that for my training purposes for VLM - if not I'll try and get in to the Inverness (although that of course doesn't come with the free accommodation).

Grandad looking at planes