No running to report this week . .

 . . but last weekend was lovely, much of it spent in the town I grew up, Sutton Coldfield, and all of it spent with Di . .

 . . the focus of the weekend was a concert on Saturday night . . Ben Folds supported by Kate Miller-Heidke . . and it really was an excellent night out . .

  . . here are a couple of photos that Di took of Ben Folds from the balcony we were on . . as you can see, we had a great view . .

 . . and on Sunday we enjoyed a walk in Sutton Park . . and spent some time admiring the local wildlife . .

 

. . I won't be taking photos this weekend either . . we're visiting York to see 10CC on Saturday night . . although I've just packed a load of running kit which means that I'm almost certainly going to try to propel myself around East Park, in Saturday morning's Hull parkrun . . abd given that I haven't taken part in a parkrun . . nor any other sort of run for that matter . . since October 30th . . it's not going to be pretty . .

 . . next week I'll write about some 10k's I'll be taking photos at in the coming months . . all being well there'll be some exciting news so watch this space!!

Never mind the rain . .

 . . well I tried not to, but it did make Sunday difficult. Saturday had been a lovely day, Di and I enjoyed strolling around Stow on the Wold, and found some ideas for what to do with some of my photos . . Sunday lived up (or should I say down?) to the weather forecast and Wiltshire was Wet and Windy, and taking photos at the Wiltshire 10 was going to be challenging . .

It was lovely to catch up with some running friends from both Bath and Bitton who I'd not seen for several years, and it was a thrill to meet Ian Thompson, the winner of both the Commonwealth Games and the European Games' Marathons in 1974 . . he's the gentleman stood on the right of the group here waiting for the start of the Wiltshire 10 on Sunday . .

Once the race was under way I drove over to the half way point in Lacock, where I met up with Di, keeping nice and dry under her umbrella . . and I liked the look of this view down East Street, looking towards the Bakers' shop . .

When the runners reached Lacock it was hard work in the rain and the gloom. I managed to get some nice photos of many of the runners, including this one of the winning lady, Holly Rush of Team Bath . . but the photo below shows what I was up against in terms of the conditions . .

 

 

It only took a matter of 40 minutes for the Wiltshire 10 to pass through Lacock, and by 11.15 the village was once again in the care of its residents and visitors . . and as I made my way back to the car, and thence to Race HQ at Melksham, I enjoyed the first of this year's Spring flowers . .

You'll find these and many more photos from my morning at the Wiltshire 10 here . .

Good weekend coming up . .

Off to the Cotswolds tomorrow, to meet Di for lunch in a pretty village . . and then on Sunday to take photos in Lacock of the Wiltshire 10 road race.

This is a new race, starting and finishing in Melksham (and I'll be taking photos there too) and no doubt the organisers are proud to have sold out - the last of the 300 places was taken 5 days ago. Having seen the list of entrants there are several runners taking part who I used to run with 20 or more years ago - I'm looking forward to seeing them once again as you might imagine.

It'll be good to have Di to keep me company as I take photos in Lacock. The village belongs to the National Trust, as you may know, so I may need to find somewhere away from the grockles to find a good vantage point. But I'm hoping to get some shots with some of the half timbered buildings in the background.

Lacock is also home of the Fox Talbot Museum. Henry Fox Talbot was born, lived and died in the village, and 140 years ago he was taking photographs - one of the early British photographic pioneers.

A visit to the Fox Talbot Museum will have to wait for another time . . and on Sunday I'll be wondering what Mr Talbot would have made of it all . .

Cheerful and Chilly at Charnwood . .

Sunday was dry, which hadn't been expected, but windy which had been. The wind made it hard work walking at times . . and I don't suppose it was any easier running!

 One of the first things I did was, of course, check the cake, and it certainly lived up to expectations when compared to what had been available last year! Above is just a very small sample . .

 

 . . and then when the runners were off on their was across the Charnwood Hills, I followed them across the fields and paths and admired the lovely views as I did . .

. . I walked a little further around the course this year . . and took photos of the runners coming back down from the hills to a point where they had to cross a stream . . from where I stood it looked like a reasonably straight trail but as we can see, it can't have been . .

 . . perhaps next year (and I've already been invited back, which is great) I'll walk up to the top of this trail and get shots of everyone coming down off the hills . .

 . . the trouble with that of course is that it gives me further to walk back to Race HQ . . but I timed it right this year and the last few runners passed me by on their way to the finish . .

 . . when it was great to see that even at this stage, after almost 14 miles and nearly 3 hours of running, the competitive spirit was still there . .

. . and having reached the finish, and got indoors, a nice lady gave me a cup of coffee . . and said the words "cake" and "help yourself" in the same sentence! I was restrained, of course, and had just one slice of flapjack . . which brings us neatly back to the first photo . .

 . . and you can see all my photos from the Charnwood Hills Race here . .

and where did that week just go?

 . . it doesn't seem like almost a week since I was in lovely East Park in Hull in the sunshine but it says so on the calendar so I guess it must be . .

 . . it was the fourth time I'd visited Hull parkrun, but the first with my camera and the park, as most parks are, is very photogenic. Last Saturday it was crisply cold, bright and sunny, frosty and frozen . .

 

. . which just made the Park more lovely than ever . . and I especially liked the way the sun was reflecting off different aspects of the bridge over Ferens Lake . .

 . . and I remembered to look down, as well as up . . which was just as well because you never know what you might find . . 

 

. . the following morning I returned to Cottingham and Skidby, where I took the photo that's currently the first thing you see when you open this blog last year. Unfortunately the weather for this year's Ferriby 10 mile road race was damp and gloomy . . 

 

. . and many of the runners were wrapped up almost as much as I was! Once again Skidby Windmill proved irresitible . .

 

. . whilst the racing was hard and determined . . reinforcing my contention that nobody runs a 10 mile race for fun!