The weekend was a good mix of birthday celebrations and running.

Bethan was 9 and got a new bike  – here she is cruising the park.

Not wishing to miss out, her sister spent the time perfecting her skating tricks

Meanwhile the little boy had sneaked off to rescue a damsel in distress and stomp in some muddy somewhere…

[sorry, no photo, he sneaked off]

The weekend runs were awesome

a happy pre-dawn 10 miles at a steady pace

And on Saturday Andy and I ran an 18 mile loop at a comfortable / slow pace

The sunrise was fantastic, it makes getting up and running at that time of the day worth it

Part of our route took us through somewhere I now refer to as “the Stoke Valley Basin”, named as an act of homage to Death Valley. The Stoke Valley Basin shares nothing remotely in common with Death Valley. It is however very low altitude (!), and as such is prone to flooding.

The flood markers made a welcome sight on Sunday, mostly because they were still visible despite the recent rain.

So, winter training is going well, and I am looking forward to an easier week as part of my current training cycle (last week’s run stats were 45 miles ran with an average pace range of 7:04/mile and 8:53/mile)

And, don’t forget – there is hope please consider sponsoring me to run for 24 hours