[Originally posted on Bristol Running Resource, 15/07/11]

It’s happened again. After last year’s experience I promised I’d get organised earlier and build up over a longer period. But, exactly like last year, I’ve only managed to enter the Bristol Half in the second week in July. So I’ve got eight weeks to get my long run from 3.5miles to 13.1miles. It can certainly be done (Well, I managed it last year!). But it’s hardly ideal.

In my defence, there are reasons. After running last month’s Towpath 10k I ended up with colossal blisters. I couldn’t walk properly for days. I couldn’t run for a fortnight. Just when I was ready to hit the road again I picked up a bug. It forced me off work for a couple of days and left me with no energy for another fortnight. Running was out of the question.

And that brings us to this week. My first clear run was on Wednesday. It felt great. But I’m conscious I’ve now lost a month. And I’m back at precisely the point I was last year when I started training for the Half pretty much from scratch.

I contemplated giving it a miss this year rather than pushing on with it again. But that would be to admit defeat too easily. So I went online and paid my money instead. I guess in this case doing things by halves isn’t such a bad thing. It’s getting the show back on the road.