I cant realistically say (and hope to be believed),

"heres a good half marathon result so obviously I would have ran 2:45 in London".

But I think I have salvaged something from my Winter/Spring of marathon training with 10th place in Keswick Half Marathon today.

Over the Easter weekend I jogged in the fells a bit, jogged in the local park a bit and also ran my 10 mile loop in 66 minutes. Two days after the 10 I ran it again, more or less as hard as I could. This took 61:08. It was a test run - I decided if I could run 10m at a decent old lick without any trouble from legs or getting that stitch return then I would enter the Keswick event.

The rest of the week was just more jogging and on Saturday I cycled for the first time in 9 months. Not far, just up to the top of Newlands Pass to take photos of a cycle event, but with a backpack containing 3 drinks bottles, 3 DSLR cameras, 2 sandwiches and other assorted paraphernalia it was a somewhat slow, bottom gear, then walking up the steepest part, ride out in the blazing sunshine.

Today I got up early so I could be finished eating 4 hours before the race started. The last thing I wanted was to have the stitch return again. A good couple of miles warm up also helped in this respect and I felt fairly confident I would not suffer the same trouble as two weeks earlier.

The field thinned out within a mile and I was running at a fair old lick and in the top 15. Lots of climbing throughout the first 3 miles was followed by a lengthy downhill at about 4. I felt a faint hint of abdominal trouble on this downhill and held back a little. So I was then pleased to be running uphill again soon after.

At 7 miles we had several minutes continuous downhill to the bridge at the top end of Derwentwater. This was a real time loser as I didnt feel confident to let myself  go with gravity because the additional load with every footfall was sure to bring back the old trouble.

Once onto the main Borrowdale road it was just a case of toughing out 4 miles of rolling undulations before the final half mile downhill into Keswick centre.  I was pretty wasted during the final 10 minute push, and the result of 1hr 22mins was not as quick as I thought I might have managed, but overall I'm happy enough.

That'll do for long road races now - at least until after the summer. I will be entering the usual various 10k races over the next few months, but still running the 13 mile loop in training. And hopefully plenty of long days over  tough fell terrain too. I reckon I might do the lakeland 50 again too - try to beat 10 hours thus finishing BEFORE dark

But for now....

Perhaps, after all I will be allowed just a little Salvation?

Please?