BQ or Bust is no more. It was a log I enjoyed writing, particularly during the ‘improver’ stage of my running arc: becoming a club member, training more extensively and (hopefully) more intelligently. I’ve been lucky enough to be quite resilient, rarely injured and therefore able to benefit from prolonged progression as I developed as a runner and experimented with more methods. I tried to experience all kinds of running – road, cross country, track, mountain – in at least some capacity. Doing more track events during 2017-19 helped keep the improvements coming as I improved at 800m and the mile. But that came to an end last year, and the plan for the next while is to get marathon specific again, starting with the next marathon major (No. 4), Chicago 2020.
The log title, for anyone wondering, comes from an old BBC comedy series (that I rarely actually watched, as I’m not a big fan of British sitcoms). A certain boards wag used it to describe a club M50 team picture I posted on facebook a couple of years ago. My response at the time was something like “There’s a few cases still left”, but as the next major age category change begins to loom, I can’t help recalling that phrase, with its implications of advancing age and impending decrepitude. I am focusing on the ‘summer’ part, however, as I’m convinced there are still gains to be made. No easy ones though, those days are definitely over.
That point is underlined by the first entry in the log. It begins, not in triumph, not in despair, and not even on the road. Somewhere in a forest, far from the madding crowd, and the reliable reach of the global positioning system. We speak, of course, of Donadea.
