The Soccerettes

One to try to cheer up the guys after tonight's defeat against Uruguay. These two young women were handing out flyers for one of the local pubs who seem to put on quite a show for the big matches. I think this serves well as today's blip in lieu of the celebrations I was hoping to capture.

I missed the first half hour of the game because I cycled over to Addingham for the Beamsley Beacon Fell Race. This is an event that I've won in the past - quite a few years ago now. I discovered it was on tonight and decided to have a run around for old time's sake. I made the conscious decision not to take the camera with me, which felt strange because I basically always have my camera with me, but that put me into a different frame of mind. I found myself racing as opposed to running with a view to taking pictures!

It was slightly odd being in the back half of the field when I've previously been used to fighting it out up at the front, but soon you just find yourself thinking about the runners ahead and trying to push the pace a bit to move up a few places. It's really no different wherever you are in the field. It's about using other people to get the best out of yourself - and finishing with a feeling that you took yourself to your limit. I love that experience of post-race exhaustion. I'd kind of forgotten what it feels like.

It seems that I need the adrenaline of a race to wake my legs up. The heaviness I've been feeling of late was gone tonight, as well as the general achiness in the knees. I maintained a steady running pace all the way to the summit, overtaking a handful of people on the way, then took a fairly steady descent back, pretty much losing the same places back. But that didn't matter. I really enjoyed myself - although I know I'm going to be in a whole world of pain tomorrow.