I made it! I’m skiving today and then back in training again tomorrow.

The Sheffield course is challenging for wheelchairs (I saw only one other) because fully the first half is an absolutely relentless hill. That’s not in itself a problem, I could have kept going all day, but I was… not fast. There’s a mechanical limit when I’m fighting both gravity and momentum. I need to work on that.

But then the second half is back down the hill again and the only challenge was not causing mayhem by mowing people down en masse. In fact, I got a friction burn from my pushrim trying to slow myself down. That part was brilliant fun. Well, not the burn part, the weaving around people at unsafe speed part.

It was good, I enjoyed it and I wasn’t particularly stiff or tired the next day, somehow.

Because the course is atypical, I didn’t learn as much as I’d have liked about how to do wheelchair half marathons. The next one – Leeds in May – is a bit more representative. I’ll have a better idea then about what sorts of time/injury I can expect in the future.

I did learn quite a lot about racing on roads, though. I’ll write something about that soon.

Thanks so much to everyone who donated, the current total stands at £1360!

The cause is such a good one and I know that money will be well spent. There’s still time to donate in the coming days, but soon I’ll be switching to a more long-term donation page which is not tied to any particular event. News about that soon. Thanks again, everyone! I’ll be begging again soon enough.