Mike and I headed to Coatbridge today to run the Monklands Half Marathon, new one for me, Mike had ran this race before, many years ago. Course consists of 3 loops, one 3 mile loop and the two longer 5 mile loops. There are some nice enjoyable sections through Drumpellier Country Park (where the race started and finished), especially along the loch/lake. The course could best be described as undulating, not one for PB’s, but interesting none the less.

Apologies in advance, not good at writing these, but here we go.........

I've been waiting for just the right time to announce this.  To be honest I didn't really feel comfortable advertising a "spring" race in the rotten weather we'd been having up till now.  Trades Descriptions would have had a field day!  However, I saw people playing cricket on the Meadows the other day so that generally means that summer is round the corner and yesterday's long hours of sunshine and balmy highs of 15c confirmed it.

After a week off running and as I prepare to ease back into training I figured I'd put up a short report on the London Marathon. I don't normally write race reports but I always encourage others to do so so figured I should follow my own advice and write a report about the race as nobody else has done so yet and maybe others will add their own comments to my report.

Our club has been developing strongly and rapidly over the last few years (the BC effect?) and not just in our top end senior athletes. I think development in the junior squads has been just as striking. Being promoted two years in a row, which was our situation this time last year, was evidence for that. But Division One was tough, every race, jump, throw and official place must be filled for us to truly compete there. I believe we'll qualify for Division one again, and I would love for it to be by winning Division Two outright. Lets see what we're capable of this year.