Good to be back . .

I enjoyed being back in Bristol at the weekend, catching up with old friends . . and at Sunday's Riverbank Rollick seeing and having a chat with former clubmates from way back . . I really couldn't remember the last time I spoke to some of the Bitton Road Runners who were there, and it's 2 or 3 years since I saw friends from Hogweed Trotters . .

The race seemed to go well - it was good weather for running and reasonable weather (given the month we're in) for photography too, and the rain held off until the last runners had finished . .

The Riverside Rollick is held by Thornbury Running Club, in South Gloucestershire. Starting near St Mary's Church, you leave the town and head west, mostly across country . .

 . . as far as you can go until you reach the Severn Estuary, where you run along the bank for about a mile, heading south and into the prevailing wind, with the two bridges into Wales in the distance and never seeming to get any closer . .

 . . and after a mile or so of windy running, you turn left again and head east, over the hills and the golf course, to the finish in Munday playing fields, where the cruel twist that means the course follows an ice cold stream for a few yards does give the runners the opportunity to clean their running shoes . .

. . and I know all this because having taken part in the Rollick in 2008 I've had first hand experience!