Not quite as planned

This beautiful cake was made by a lady in Freckleton to commemorate our 50th half marathon. The number 65 is the number of minutes it took Dr Ron Hill to complete the first race. On the other side, gold medals and the wording "50 years and still running"

I knew I didn't have a lot of training in my legs and I knew it would be warm for the race.

With number 50 on my vest I had to at least give it a go. I compensated by taking it easy.

The crowds lining the route as we left the village were bigger than ever.
I found it quite overwhelming.
By two miles that feeling was past and I was settling nicely.
at 2.5 miles I felt my Achilles tendon pulling.
At 4 miles I had to make a decision. Turn right and carry on and risk being a long way from the finish if it got worse.
Or stop and walk the mile or so back to the finish.
Reluctantly I decided on the latter.

Although I knew I'd made the right call I was still disappointed.

However, I've never seen the athletes finish so now I had the chance. I also had the opportunity to let the crowd know over the public address how brilliant they were in supporting all the athletes.

I was able to relax and enjoy the atmosphere before I did the presentation instead of rushing after I'd finished running.

It meant also, that I wasn't as tired for the drive to my next brilliant event.

So it was a great afternoon in the end and no regrets.

I then drove to Carlisle for a dinner.

The theme was "Season in the sun" to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Carlisle United being promoted to the top flight of English Football for the only time in their history.

There was archive footage of games and interviews with players from the era.

Good food, excellent company and a great night of memories of the time.

And a chance to catch up with a few people I haven't seen for a long time.

By the time I got home at around midnight the Achilles was feeling much better and although it wasn't quite as planned I wouldn't change any of today.

Have a great week.