Easy as ABC... and sometimes D!

Having legged it round the Leeds Abbey Dash 10k this morning in a close to pb 37:51 (H also ran a 'close to pb' time with 41:45) then chilled out over a celebratory coffee with some great friends and training partners we popped home for a quick change into our Sunday best in time to sit down for the annual Yorkshire Road (cycling) Club (YRC) Christmas luncheon at 12:30. As last year we had a great time in great company, our friend Carl Saint was guest of honour having won the World Tricycle Time Trial Championships earlier this year (well done mate) and we spent a few hours surrounded by amazing history and heritage... today's photo was first awarded in 1899 (yes, that's 110 years ago) for winning the YRC 12 hour time trial champs with a distance of 192 miles!

That finished at around 4.30 and with our running club's equivalent event due to kick off at 5.30 this evening at our favourite Indian restaurant in Leeds we've nipped home to grab a couple of things and I thought I'd take ten minutes to start the week's blog ;)

Time's up.... back in a couple of hours...

Wow, what an amazing evening! In total we had 29 runners competing in the Abbey Dash this morning and 40 dressed up smart at the Aagrah tonight. We're only a little running club but what we lack in size we more than make up for in commitment, enthusiasm and laughter. It's something I've been involved in since moving to Leeds in 2001 and despite the best efforts of our hosts to stick the proverbial spanner in we've gone from strength to strength over the years and with 2010 just round the corner are looking forward to exciting times.

I was planning to waffle on about something boring like how I classify my races into A, B, C and D categories and what each of those means (hence today's title) but having spent the entire day in the company of more inspirational people than I ever knew existed I'll save that for another day...

For now I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who motivates me every single day, most of whom probably never realise it. I'm fortunate enough be involved with quite a few different groups of people, who are interested in two things... 1) achieving exciting things and 2) helping others to achieve exciting things. It's got to the stage where I seem to know quite a few people with this same positive outlook on life and it seemed that all of them were either running the Abbey Dash this morning or standing at the side of Kirkstall Road as we all went by. Running the 5k back into town from Kirkstall Abbey there seemed to be a constant shout of 'go on Tom' and with every one of those I found the strength to turn it up just that little bit. I was really going for it today and got myself in a bit of a zone but believe me I heard every single shout and they absolutely made the difference.

Most of the people I hang out with now didn't know me when I was in my twenties but believe me when I say that parkrun, Run Club, LBT, this blog and even the exciting new #winterswim have changed my life more than you could possibly imagine... and if you've been part of any of those great adventures in even the smallest way then I owe YOU a massive THANKS.

See you next week,

T