Love it or hate it.... it's the Stafford 20. I'm intrigued that a small number of folk really don't favor this race, yet there is just something about it that I like.

Reasons I've been given for disliking it:
It's road
It's laps
There's traffic
It's soul destroying!

Reasons I like it:
I know when the water point is coming
I know exactly where I can put an effort in and when to ease off because it's laps
It's not completely flat (arguably)
It's confidence boosting to lap folk.

So, it gets the thumbs up from me, and I've had a great day out on it too. The weather was cold with flurries of snow today (when do we get some sun..tsk), great for running nonetheless. My freezing hands kicked in about mile 4 and warmed up when I got home. Everything else went great for me. I managed to take 11 mins off last years time, indicating that my training is going well. I am enjoying these mixed bag of training sessions. Importantly, for what feels like the first time ever, I was racing in close proximity with other ladies. We dragged, pulled and pushed each other around and it felt good. Thanks Louise Blizzard and Sharron Johnstone.