On June 26th i had to do the 4th English Championships counter- Loughrigg and Silverhowe (8.5m/2500′), which i was dreading only 8 days after the world long distance race. Although my legs were very heavy, i was still buzzing.. so managed to dispute the lead for much of the race, before pulling out a 400m advantage on the final descent. As the men and women were racing separately, i was out on my own.. and, inexplicably, in a stunning blonde moment, i managed to turn off a perfectly good path to the final checkpoint and run off into the wilderness. By the time i rejoined the race i had thrown away almost certain victory to finish 4th, handing the title to my arch-rival on a plate. Brilliant.. there’s always next year.

2 weeks later it was the second British counter, Ras yr Aran (10m/3000′) in North Wales. Alas, i managed to mess this up too.. the combined effects of night shifts, being too tired to eat a proper meal the night before, and loss of mojo did for me. I trotted round in 5th, just making sure i stayed on my feet to get a team score in. Not a good advert for vegans there i’m afraid.. although you don’t need to eat animals to do well at running, but you do need to eat something!

Better days at the Brecon Fans race weekend (16th/17th July).. managed to win both Pen y Fan (3.5m/1900′) and Fan y Big (10m/2200′) in the Vegan Runners vest. Not too good a run in the former.. but rediscovered my mojo on the second one to knock a good chunk off the course record.

Next stop the 5th English Champs counter, Whittle Pike, on 30th July. I can’t win the overall, but i’ll be trying to restore some pride by winning the race.