I spent this past weekend in the Blue Mountains, which is quite a different place to run. Despite the fact it’s much hillier (hard to find much in the way of flat roads), it’s also at a moderately high altitude of around 1050 metres (3,200 feet). So, the combination of lots of hills and altitude training has probably increased my fitness somewhat, not that I have anything specific I’m training for at the moment.

Below are some nice photos of Illinois, where I was running at this time of year back in 2012. It was getting very hot at the time, with a cool day still reaching 40 C. There were times when it was so hot I just couldn’t handle wearing a top of any kind. It was such a pleasure to get into our motel room each night and experience the air conditioning.