The half marathon . It doesn’t even have its own name, it’s the diminutive relative of the marathon , not as trendy as it’s big brother nor as popular as the 10k, it sits in the middle ground and is often neglected.

First I have to say how sorry I am that for both the Humberside and Northern Cross-country Champs I was the only EHH female runner competing. This sad as we used to field at least two female and two male teams in both of these and they are important events. At one time you could not run in the Nationals if you had not run in the Northerns but things change, I know, so here we go with more epic adventures on the part of Mad Mary.

The first race of the year, I love this race, I feel like a kid on Christmas day the morning of the race – excited, nervous and this year I was anxious as hell because I ran a shocker there in 2019, I felt some form of internal pressure to deliver.

The decision was made shortly after recovering from York last year to skip a spring marathon this year, focus on a fast half, revise my times for other distances and basically give mind and body a break from repeated heavy cycles of training in preparation for next autumns efforts.

After drinking about 50 beers and a bottle of Jàgermeister, as well as eating like a pig for a week in the build up, I had zero expectations for the Boxing day 10k.