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Post-race greetings to you all - sounds like GCR 2012 was a good 'un!!

Hearty congratulations to Seamus and Skinny for both posting sub 1:30 times and both beating your target times by some distance! Knowing that the course can prove to be challenging in parts, those are some impressive achievements!

And to Millster - running for 7 miles with pain from achilles tendonitis is no joke - what a great effort mate! I know that you will be disappointed with a time of 1:54 -but given that you ran for more than half the race in pain you certainly shouldn't beat yourself up over it! Or to put it another way - you ran 13.1 miles at an average pace of approx 8.75 min miles whilst carrying a significant injury for the majority of the course - and yet your time was still only 2 mins more than my lifetime best!! Puts a slightly different slant on it, don't you think? OK, so the halcyon days of you pegging round in 1:35 may not be so easily regained but it's still a good showing in my book mate!!

For my part, I've learned that a large glass of red is not the cure all panacea that I was hoping for and despite my best efforts, I've felt progressively worse over the past 3 days - not to the extent of staying off work poorly - but feeling tired, feverish & shivery and generally a bit crap! Probably a good job in the end that my circumstances did not permit me to make the journey north.

So this makes my tally 4 consecutive GCR's followed by 4 fallow years. Think it's about time I re-started the cycle, especially as 2013 sees me celebrate a "significant" birthday, it would be a nice way to mark a landmark year by coming back to the GCR!

On the plus side, at least I'm running again now for the first time in a few years and I've notched up my first HM in 4 years, so I'm in a much better place than I have been for some time. My goal should now be to maintain my momentum, to keep on running and to lose a bit more weight, and to ensure that my "significant milestone" year will see me able to pass many more milestones!

Happy running everyone - looking forward to next year!!

Skinny - the fortunate part of my oversleeping tale was that this was when I used to be relatively better organised - so I had pre-entered the race and I was staying at a Premier Inn only about a mile from the start - which was just as well really! I later found out that where I had stayed the night was actually on the course of the run -as I passed the scene of my oversleeping on the way back into town before we got to Carlisle Utd FC.

The latest on my participation in 2012 is that sadly - and I do mean sadly - I'm a non-participant!  I'm afraid that Mrs Boycs isn't feeling so clever so I'm in charge of the Boycs Jr's this weekend. In all honesty, it's probably no bad thing because I've been consuming copious amounts of vitamin c and popping lem sip max capsules for the past few days in an attempt to fend off the lurgy! Whilst this appears to have had some success in that to date I've not succumbed to it, in reality I'm probably a few degrees below par and not in the kind of rude health that you would ideally like to be in for such a stern test as running 13.1 miles presents!

So it is with more than a tinge of sadness and envy that I bid you all bon chance as you take your places for the 30th running of the GCR - I wish I was there with you but I'm afraid it's family first!!

Skinny - the strange thing is that the thing I did before I sat down to compose this message was to pour a large glass of red, which I'm about half way through! I'll know by morning whether or not it brings about miracle cures!!

I seem to recall that at the 25th running of the GCR, instead of receiving another medal at the end of the race, we received a rather nice engraved glass paper weight instead - it'd be nice to know if they do similar again for the 30th running.

I wish all of you a good run in fair conditions and hope there are plenty of PB's and positive anecdotes to peruse in the post race aftermath!

Millster - don't worry - I think there's a few oxygen tents at strategic places on route!

ENJOY!!!!

BTW - meant to say Millster - there's nowt much wrong with your memory is there?

It was all the way back in 2008 when I overslept  on the morning of the race and had to get a taxi from my b&b to as close as possible - then I had to run like hell to the Sheepmount and then run back to the Castle - just in time to take my place at the back of the field as everyone exited the castle - a position in which I proceeded to remain for the rest of the race!! After all my pre-race dashing about, I was k.n.ackered before I began!! Probably not one of my proudest days

And this is the exact flip side of being a "spontaneous" person - it actually gets you into more scrapes than is good for you - but at least life is rarely dull

Trust you to remember that Millster.......

According to BBC weather website, it looks as if the elements might just be kind to competitors, organisers and spectators alike!!

Forecast for Carlisle for this Sunday is for a cool start to the day. 10:00hrs - white cloud - 7 degrees - wind 7mph (ESE). 13:00 - white cloud - 11 degrees - wind 7mph (ESE). Locals will have to advise whether an ESE wind will be favourable or in your face? Wind is supposed to get stronger late afternoon and rain coming in during the evening - so with a bit of luck, the race might take place in fairly decent conditions and everyone get home before the rubbish weather rears itself!! One can only hope....

Likelihood of me making the journey north is touch and go at best I'm afraid! Or to put it another way...greetings from the sick house!  The lurgy is doing the rounds at the moment - my daughter was poorly and off from school last week, my son has been poorly and off from school this week, my wife has been under the weather for the past couple of days, and I'm currently feeling "a bit peculiar"...as if I'm trying to fend something off!!

For once, being a "spontaneous" person is working to my advantage - because I can hedge my bets for a while longer before deciding whether or not it'll be a go-er. I'd really like to take part, particularly in view of having missed the GCR for the past 3 years and especially with this being the 30th anniversary of the race, but I shall just have to wait and see how things pan out!

What makes you say that my little Cumbrian correspondent? Are you making that fatal mistake again of employing a common sense approach and applying logic, reason and established runners training regimes to your assumption....because as you well know, I tend to steer clear of any such trivialities and stick to my tried and tested way of doing things....i.e. winging it....usually much to my cost, it must be said!!

Are you over analysing me and thinking "he's just done a HM 2 weeks ago and has only done one run since...therefore he won't even be thinking of doing GCR 2012"

Unlike me, who will probably decide on Fri night after work whether I feel up to it or not, and if so try to book a b&b for Sat night and sort out my race entry on the morning of the event!

You musn't get the impression that I'm disorganised - heaven forbid - I just prefer to think of myself as being "spontaneous"

Let's see what the coming week brings......