Thursday UTUP - Under New Management

Reference to my training diary that covered that period, tells me that I first ran on a Thursday with JtE on 19th January 1989, so it is something of a co-incidence that I will begin my first break from that routine, exactly 23 years later, when I start a series of short courses with the aim of finally learning how to swim the crawl. During those years I have missed the odd outing due to injury, illness, holidays, working away, races, even the occasional domestic call of duty, but there has been no break for any other reason.

The make up of the group has gradually changed. With us on my first outing was Gary Harold; John and he had been running together for some time before I joined them. Steve Bottrill joined soon after, and a Chris ran for a period before emigrating to Australia. Folk came and went, John finally opting for a daytime run, after retiring from work several years ago.  TLOB came along for a while before moving south and T'Yorkshireman has long been an occasional participant. More recently NLN, SN, TF, Matt and the Galloping Major have all turned out when available. Last and very definitely not least, Dan, my Border Collie ran for most of that period on all the summer evenings, overlapping for several years with Steve's Tilly, until he finally retired to that great dog kennel in the sky.

Over the years I've assumed the mantle of continuity man, so I have felt obliged to find a replacement to cover the period up to Easter, after which I plan to return. Anthony (the Galloping Major) Turner has kindly agreed to fill this role, and rather than via postings on the blog, he will keep in touch via email. Please try and turn out on a Thursday if you can, it would be a shame if this routine of nearly a quarter of a century were to lapse. Expect an email from the GM soon.

Remember, if you turn up and there's no-one else there, you can always join Steve Pearson's hill reps session. As Stanley Unwin used to say "Deep joy!"

In the meantime, I'm UTUPing on the 12th.

For anyone not familiar with the Thursday UTUP, the Usual Time is 6:30 pm and the Usual Place is adjacent to the stocks on Chorley Old Road, Horwich GR SD 646 115.