The post Easter blog – it’s been a busy time, with Good Friday up at the Bunny Hop in Shapwick. Nice run and ran OK for 6 miles – unfortunately the race was 7.5 miles, and the last mile and a half was very hard, not least because it was uphill. Wearing the studs for the last time was a mistake, as good on the fields but too much road and track, but worth everything to see Pete J lift his magnificent trophy! No otters at the Decoy, but a good short cut found to the hide so not all lost.

Saturday saw a recce run of the Easter Bunny, with howling wind and rain in the back straight – sure that wouldn’t have bothered had it been like that at the start – and an Easter Egg hunt in muddy Lytes Cary on Easter Sunday.

 There were more eggs on show at Yeovilton on Easter Monday for the Bunny, which all went smoothly, and nearly 370 finishers – to the extent that there no Eggs left for the organisers! Having started at 7am out there (worry that the alarm at Yeovilton was going and no-one came to it and the guardroom didn’t know it was going!), getting away at 2pm and finally finishing farting about with results and press releases at 9.30pm, had really had enough by the end of the day!

 Tuesday night’s Club run was quite good, introducing a group of beginners to my way of “following a map” as the 4.5 miles ended up at over 5, but at least kept both shoes on this time (several had been present as one lost in the mud the previous Tuesday), and Thursday was a Nick Brooke special out and round PenSelwood from the Hunter’s Lodge – sure there was more uphill than down.

 Week ended with the Johnny Kipps race out at Wynford Eagle, where the importance of pre-race preparation was emphasised. Up at 8am to do a load of shrub sawing at Lynda’s behest, down to the tip with Dad and his trailer, getting back at 10.15, all the time conscious of need to be at Wynford Eagle for 11am. Left about 10.40 only to encounter car boot traffic (who queues for a car boot sale that doesn’t start for another 2 hours?!) and other traffic all annoyingly observing the speed limits. Arrive at Wynford Eagle at 11.04 ever hopeful that Maiden Newton time is the same as Chaffey time but seemingly not – last runners were heading up the hill! No time for a warm up, no time for the pre-race “rouse” (go the Hawk Conservancy for a definition!) and headed straight on to the course, with the timekeeper shouting that I was 5 minutes behind them – caught up the back markers within a mile and a half, but by that time the start from cold had done its damage; bottom of left calf had started to hurt and tighten, with grumbles from the right calf in sympathy, and the gentle inclines of the first half of the course weren’t helping. Rounded the turn at the water stop and tempted to ask Jackie England for a lift but pressed on – past Eggerdon Hill fort and turn right, with sightings of other runners in the distance to spur me on. Reckoning at that stage to be about 4 minutes behind by rough timings as I ran past a distinctive piece of fence and I might have had them had issues of pre-race breakfast threatening a reappearance prompted a quick stop and the chance was gone – would perhaps have tried harder had I realised it was Andy Staples ahead of me! Steep downhill finish to the massed hordes waiting on the bridge, making up the 22^nd of 24 finishers – 25 if you count the dream team of Brian Mount and Joy Row!

One from the last time I ran Johnny Kipps - a man with an eagle on his head!