Karate world championships.

My absence on Saturday was, as most of you know, due to my distraction by Sally’s appearance in the world Karate championships at Manchester Velodrome, an event far removed from fell running but worth a mention as Sally has actually run on the fells.

Saturday’s events were devoted to katas ( non-combative movements reflecting blocking and attacking moves) in which competitors performed set moves in pairs before judges. Sally got no further than the first round in the individual competition nor in the team katas, a sort of synchronised mayhem for teams of three.

Sunday, which we did not see, having returned home, produced better results, Sally winning a bronze medal in the team fighting (there were only three teams in her category) but her major success came in the individual fighting where she came fourth out of nine, suffering no worse than a blow on the nose with not even any blood to show for it.

In all there were 600 competitors from many countries around the world and a lot of scary people wandering about.



Future training plans


As usual at this time of year the emphasis for some of us turns briefly to road running in preparation for the Snowdonia marathon at the end of October. With this in mind my Saturday morning training runs will take me round the old Bolton 40 course with variations and loops added on to increase distance where necessary. One lap is 13+ miles with the two Belmont triangles taking it up to 16 miles. Hopefully by the beginning of October the runs will have stretched to two laps. This hilly course is ideal training for the very hilly Snowdonia. If I can entice any of the squad away from the fells for all or any of this time I shall be grateful of the company as solo running does not have the same appeal as the social element provided by our normal Saturdays outings.