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Yeah, that'd be good. I need to get my brain into gear at some point soon and start mapping out my long runs over the next 4 months and see if any match in with others. I certainly don't mind coming over to Walton-le-dale. It'll just help the long runs get done easier as come Sunday mornings sometimes last thing on my mind is a long run!

Pulled a hamstring after our first interclub race this year on 4th April and am only just getting back a few days ago after a forced two week abstinence, so gimme a coupla weeks and I'll do my summer plan and give you a link. Freckleton HM certainly needs to be on it. Not done that for a decade at least.

I'm thinking with the Guild Wheel now that the loop is fully connected up we could just meet at any agreed point on it then head out for 5 miles in any direction then turn back, then next time meet somewhere else then do 5.5 and back, etc, so that the overall run increases by a mile each time we tick one off.

If we start soon enough then there's just the right amount of weeks between now and early October to increase it by a mile each time and even do the full 21 mile loop a few times before tapering off. What do you think?

Perhaps we could do to be getting started with some long easy runs sooner or later. Maybe every 2nd or 3rd week starting at say 11 or 12 miles then upping it 1 mile each time between now and say early October.

Anybody up for any long easy Sunday runs at 9am along the Guild Wheel? Pace can be whatever's agreeable between us as it's a motivation and company thing more than anything, as my body sure as hell falls asleep after an hour's running.

Sean Gavin 2  I suppose I have to hold my hand up there, and admit that that's largely my fault from way back in Jan when I specifically joined on here to find out what the Guild course was going to be for us. Apologies for that.

However, I doubt that non Prestonians on here will even understand what a "Guild" means so most of what I've said will hopefully go over their heads. You see, to Prestonians, a Guild Year is something we've all grown up with every 20 years. It's a festival, a certain spirit of belonging, of community, and as a Prestonian born and bred myself, for some unknown reason I fully expected that to be brought out in our Guild Marathon event.

Non Prestonians won't understand what it would mean to them to run along New Hall Lane, where we as kids actually participated in processions way back in '72. Just like they wouldn't know what it would mean to run along our main streets like London Road, or Blackpool Road, or Garstang Road, or wherever. In fact, I doubt many would even know the names of Preston's main roads, so again, most likely what I said went over their heads, simply because the Guild's traditions are not something they've had in there lives.

Make no mistake though. There's not been any blame laid anywhere here. It's just been my sheer shock and surprise that this Guild Marathon has absolutely nothing to do with a Guild, and is just in fact an ordinary marathon, but then non Prestonian runners coming from outside of Preston will have seen it that way from the very outset anyway, for the reasons mentioned above, so nothing in fact has been lost at all.

If anything, any non Prestonians reading earlier posts may get to realise that the experience on the day will be different for actual Prestonians than it will be for them. 

I'm sure it will be a great one day in 20 years anyway, and many will love it. We've all just got to accept what's been managed for us (both Prestonian's and non Prestonians) and mentally prepare ourselves now for a rolling first 8 and last 4, with a flat to gently undulating middle 14 out on lonely countryside roads, and be truly thankful we've actually got a marathon in Preston at all, Guild year or not Guild year.

Yes, it's a massive 'once in 20 years' rare opportunity missed, but that's all water under the bridge now. No more can be done, and no more negativity has been said about the course for the past 4 weeks. It's been positivity all the way since mid-April. ...Bring on the 'Preston Marathon'.

The sad part here really is that out of the 700 open entrants for the Open 5k barely less than 20% of them will even be interested in doing the whole Guild Series, meaning that less than 150 Series Medals will even need to be made.

I would have liked to have seen a discount for entering the whole series in advance. That way they would have pre-known just how many Series Runners would be taking up places in next week's Open 5k, and then be able to allocate the remaining places up to the 700 limit to everyone else.

Yes, I know that each race is organised by a different organiser, but like I've erm, maybe hinted at before, the whole Preston Guild Theme for us runners seems to be completely lost somehow, and I can't get to the bottom of why. lol.

It's obvious now that the Guild Marathon has just become an ordinary marathon (as there's absolutely nothing Guild about it at all through our main town streets), and now the Guild Series Medal potential numbers have been severely restricted due to the fact that no system was set up to encourage Series entrants in the first place. Splitting monies gathered from pre-entered Guild Series runners would have been easy to redistribute back down to the relevant organiser too, so that wouldn't have been a problem.

I don't seem to be having a good Guild year so far do I! lol.  ...or shall I just treat is as 2012 and forget I'm a Prestoner born and bred. Hmm, maybe.

Guild 5K Update:

Have just emailed John Shepherd (the Events Officer at Red Rose) to see if the above is correct so we could get some clarification from the organisers.  Haven't got a reply yet, but John Rogerson (Membership Secretary) was fast to email me this:

  "Hi Pete,
   No.
   You can apply to the Junior race only if you are between the ages of 11 and 17.
   It is correct that the Open race is full.  Over 150 on waiting list so far.
   Kind regards
   John Rogerson
   Membership Secretary for Red Rose Road Runners"

John Shepherd may yet have something to add.