Keir and the World Championships

Woke up this morning to find lots of snow all around - I guess it must have been 10cm or so, everywhere.  I know that isn't particularly deep but for this part of the world, near the end of March, it's lots.

Apparently there are only two places in the whole country with so much snow at the moment - Yorkshire and Northern Ireland and the consequences are that Leeds Bradford Airport and Belfast City Airport were both closed.  They are open now ... but only just and with many flights cancelled or delayed.

Keir is coming home from university today for the Easter holiday.  He is at Ulster University and is flying from Belfast City to Leeds Bradford.  There are three flights today ... he's on the third but the first two have been cancelled.  I think it's fair to say we're a bit worried at the moment.

Apart from that, news has recently appeared from British Athletics [new name for UK Athletics ... not sure why] about the team for the World 24 hr Championships in Steenbergen in May.  On the men's team is John Pares, Pat Robbins, Matt Moroz, Robbie Britton and Steve Holyoak.  If John is fit he should do very well - he's is capable of a top 5 placing at his best.  Pat and Steve are both capable of over 240 km and I don't know too much about Robbie and Matt except that perhaps they prefer the trails.  I really do hope everyone has an outstanding race though.

The women are represented by Lizzy Hawker, Emily Gelder, Debbie Martin-Consani, Sharon Law and Karen Hathaway.  Lizzy broke the world 24 hr road record in her last race of this type (Llandudno - Sep 2010), Emily finished third in the last world championships and Debbie is the Scottish record holder.  An excellent team and, again, I wish them all every success.

My recovery seems to be going well at the moment too.  On Wednesday I had to forego my strength training and cycling though as I had to do some emergency DIY repairs in the bathroom.  Without going into great detail I had to replace the light fitting, pull cord and part of the ceiling.  Managed 20 minutes through the snow this morning with the same tomorrow and all in all everything seems OK.

my brain is fine thanks ...

You may remember that about three or four days after my Run To London I was doing some DIY at home and it all went horribly wrong.  At the time Fay vowed that she would never let me do anything around the house for at least a fortnight after a long ultra.

Apparently these long ultras not only wear out my legs, feet, digestive system and endocrine system but they also severely impair my brain function and coordination.

Some people say I'm mad to run 24 hr races ... now I know that it's the races making me mad !!!

Anyway, Fay has obviously relented because I've just spent about four or five hours putting up new bathroom cabinets, shelves, mirrors, etc ... and everything went perfectly well.  Much like last weekend's race really.

Which reminds me ... my report should be available in a week or so (hopefully less) but in the meantime there's a great one on Fiona Rennie's blog.

I haven't run a step since that race - I couldn't even wear socks until Friday because of my painful toes - but now is the time to take up my running shoes again.  Carefully for the first week though.

I've also been looking long and hard at race diaries for the next 12 to 15 months and the one thing that is as certain as can be is the World Championships in Brugg, Switzerland next June.  UKA permitting.  I'm still looking for other races though and have one or two ideas in mind.  I'd like to race three long ultras in 2011 - which other two though?