This morning, I completed my third Shenstone Fun Run. I last ran in this event in 1991/2, you could say that I left it a while!

This was a great event. I left home at 10:00, caught the 10:34 train and was in Shenstone by 10:38. I dumped my bag behind the registration desk, went and stood out in the rain and waited for the 11:00 start.

My only gripe…. why start at the front of a running event if you are going to walk as soon as you cross the line? The first km was pretty congested but once I settled into a decent pace, I became aware that I was feeling pretty good.

My memories of the race are puddles in the road, people suddenly stopping running in front of me and finally. an idiot driver who felt he could justify nearly mowing down roughly 500 runners.

Oh yes, it also rained throughout the majority of the run and was pretty windy in places, especially near the Toll Road.

It was a nice enough course but impossible to see that much due to giant hedges!

Oh yes, my other major gripe. This event was advertised as a 10 km in some places, it was more like 10.5 km.

According to my Garmin I went through 10 km in 57:48 i.e. well under my 60-minutes target.

Looking at the official results I just managed to sneak in under 60-minutes with a chip time of 59:54 (gun time of 1:00:24, now I realise I started too far back).

I finished 229th out of 515 competitors.

Finally, the biggest bonus of the day. I looked at my watch after I finished, saw that it was 12:02, realised that my train was due at 12:10, grabbed my bag and managed to make the train. With trains only running every 30 minutes on a Sunday this was brilliant.

I even had time to take a soggy, post-race selfie.

I  think I managed to capture my red face and soaking wet running top quite well.

So all in all, a great race for me and my first 10 km without sneaky walking breaks in ages.

I have to get my ecological drought chapter completed by Friday so I will be busy.