The British 10K

I've now signed up for the Asics British 10K on 6 July - See! That Tattie Run's again!!!!

Well, obviously not right now - it's a bank holiday weekend and as usual I'm sitting in my pants smoking fags, but soon I'll start back into training. I'm wondering what two years will have done in terms of affecting my time, especially given that I'm now on the wrong side of 30 - which seems to be widely accepted as the age where everythig starts to break down irreparably. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that, even given the current state of Irish rugby, I might never play for the national side. Obviously I need to get into training again and try to remember the rules - I'm sure what they're lacking is an 11 stone, slow running, tactically inept player who hasn't so much as kicked a ball in anger since 1996.

But that is for next season - at the moment all my focus is on getting into shape for July. I have almost four months so hopefully I will be able to better my first time. Despite the furore that surrounded the original attempt, I didn't really train a huge amount - maybe twice a week, and I was smoking fags and drinking beer up until the day before the race. The whole focus was just getting round, but now I'd quite like to get under 50 minutes (i.e. a whole 1 minute improvement on my last time). The whole thing looks a bit shambolic if the registration process and web site is anything to go by, plus it looks like everyone leaves at the same time - so it'll probably take me 20 minutes to cross the starting line. I don't think they have anything as fancy as the chip in your shoe that Nike had to accurately measure each runners time.

What they do have is an obsession with all things British (well, it is the British 10K I suppose) - from the red, white and blue race shirt that we all receive, to the massive union jacks fluttering around the course, to the bands around the route playing rousing classics such as "Rule Britannia" and, erm, "True Colours".... Not sure I like all this "proud to be British" thing, so I'm gonna pretend to be proper Irish for the day I think.

I'm gonna buy a new phone over the weekend with a camera, so you'll be treated to lots of lovely pics of me looking sweaty - or sitting in the pub lamenting how badly my training is going.

Bring it on.