Only a day late this week, so there’s progress! It’s definitely feeling very spring-like now, with decent temperatures, things starting to grow, and lighter evenings even before the state-mandated mass denial of the correct time of day began on Sunday.
I finally got fed up of being splashed while cooking – technical running tops in particular never seem to recover from spots of fat, and I have quite a few that bear the signs of quickly making some dinner before changing out of them – and ordered a cheap apron from a catering supply company (along with a few other bits and bobs). For some reason they also included one of those chef tops with the button-over front in the delivery, so if I ever feel particularly fancy I can make my dinner wearing that (I should have ordered a hat too!)
This month’s track session on Wednesday evening was another mile challenge. Once again I failed to get under 6 minutes, but at least I wasn’t any slower than the one we did in the Summer. As usual, a few of us headed to the clubhouse (aka The Cricketers) afterwards, for slightly more refreshment than originally planned.

On Thursday I got the train to Colchester to see Beans on Toast at the Arts Centre, with Matt Millership on piano and supported by Evy Frearson and William Crighton. The gig was good, but somewhat spoiled by an inincredibly annoying group of people right behind me talking at maximum volume for most of Beans’s set. As I was leaving I spotted some (possibly all four) of Pet Needs standing at the back.




After parkrun on Saturday I did a little bit of digging for the greenhouse base. I was planning to use my old laser pointer spirit level to find level points at each corner, but it turned out the batteries had leaked inside, and either the leakage or the amount of violence necessary to evict the batteries from their little tube has killed the laser, so now it’s just a normal short spirit level. I also filled both brown bins, having attached the stickers to prove that I’ve paid the new fee to have them empties, and made basically zero dent in the pile of garden waste. I just need to remember to put them out on Tuesday night now!
Slightly against my better judgement, I entered the Colchester (actually Langham) 15 again on Sunday. It’s a nice low-key little tinpot race, but surprisingly hilly! I ran round with Jason, who wasn’t going flat out because he has a marathon in a fortnight, which made for a more enjoyable time than last year when I was on my own with hardly another runner in sight for most of the second lap. Once we got home, those of us from Ipswich showered, transferred to bikes and headed back into town again for another afternoon in the clubhouse. I started with a curry and a pint for £7.45, which you really can’t complain about when the average non-Wetherspoons beer apparently now costs over two thirds of that!

Rather nicely, and completely without planning it, that brought my running mileage for the first quarter of this year (tomorrow will be a rest day) to exactly 500.0 miles. Cue the Proclaimers!