I ran the Stafford Half Marathon for the second year in a row on Sunday. I was pleased to find out today that my chip time was in fact 1h53m15s, more than a six minute improvement on last year’s 1h59m50s. Considering, I’d only run once between November and this race, I was pretty pleased with this performance, even if I was beaten by a man dressed as dalek.

Stafford Council put on a good show. The locals turn out in large number, are friendly and supportive. The town is pleasant, with a lovely park area near the river. There are some wonderful properties on the countryside section of the route. Re-entering town you go through a housing estate where a man dressed in a bear suit offers ‘Strongbow station’ to passing runners. Not many runners take up the offer, but I was tempted.

I am fully aware that I look like a constipated speedwalking pigeon in the above photo. For your further amusement, there are more photos of my looking terrible in different ways here.

Running is not really my sport. Although I am getting better at the mental side of things (being in a race is good for interesting things to look at) I don’t think I will ever have the physique to be competitive at distance, whatever training I undertook. I run not because I love running, but because I love being outside, exercising on sunny days, and seeing what I can do. I don’t think I will ever run a marathon, but doing more than one Half each year is a possibility. I am thinking of the New Forest Half in September.