Last weekend saw me complete my last weekend ‘double’ fixture, racing at Battersea Park on Saturday and in Croydon just over 24 hours later.

I’d run the Battersea course before. It was an early start of 8am and although I definitely hadn’t woken up by the time the gun went, it was a nice, smug feeling to be up so early when half the city was still trying to sleep through hangovers. The course there is entirely flat, helping runners achieve better times, and came as a welcome relief to the run of hilly events that have defined the second half of 2010. It is also made up of four loops, which, in comparison to the ‘out and back’ format of other races, seem to vex and delight runners in equal measure. Battersea Park of course provides a very pleasant backdrop, but by the second time round you can miss the novelty of new scenery found elsewhere. It’s also good to be able to track your progress more regularly, but this can be demoralising if you ‘check in’ with yourself too frequently, as progress can as a result seem slow. All in all, though, the morning was a success. While I was short of my 50 minute target, I managed to knock almost five minutes off my previous time, coming in at 52.37.

Sunday’s race was lovely, with one of the best pre-race atmosphere’s I’ve experienced this year at the start and finish lines. Croydon is, as I had been told, very much like Watford, the biggest town near where I grew up, except with the inconvenience of more hills; Watford’s relative flatness being one of the few aspects of the town I would have enjoyed on my way round. It was a largely residential setting but I tired far later than I had expected and, although the results are yet to be published, think I managed a decent time.

I should have run in Bristol on Sunday, but was again frustrated by the lack of race-day registration so have had to find an extra race later on to meet my target of 24 this year. Still, only 5 to go now, and although looking forward to finishing, am already in a way starting to miss it and the shape that competing lends my week. I never thought I’d hear myself say that.