Us writery (writey?) types try to avoid cliches but you could have knocked me down with a feather. Steve Runner is the granddaddy of running podcasters with Phedippidations having been going for something like seven years. He has about a zillion listeners but he still makes a big effort to make his broadcast near enough a one-to-one as is possible.

Well, first I had a Twitter ‘follow’ from @phedippidations (huh?) then a couple of referrals to this blog from http://www.steverunner.blogspot.com Curious, I clicked into Steve’s blog and there, in the show notes for his latest podcast Fdip 302 is a link to this blog. Intrigued I listened in and there, from about the 40-minute mark, is a shout-out for this blog and in particular my running novel Barry. Which all goes to show it is indeed a small world and it is sometimes impossible to hide 🙂

So, click across to Steve’s website and treat yourself to an hour’s quality entertainment. It’s aimed at fellow runners but it is much more than that. Steve Runner, legend. (He’d hate that tag with a passion).

And all of that gives me renewed heart for my recently-formed Jersey Joggers group. The other evening we had no fewer than 28 runners complete a 5k run to round off a nine-week Couch to 5k programme. We have 70+ on the mailing list many of whom dip in and out. It’s not for everyone and I certainly don’t mind if people come and go. We are getting new enquiries all the time and I’ve now got a balancing act to do between the new beginners and those more competent/confident that are now flying and aiming for a 10k run next month. On Saturday morning in the spring sunshine I took part in the most enjoyable run I’ve had in ages, an easy 4.4 mile loop that reinforced how good running can be.

Now we can only hope that the better weather asserts itself – it’s been a long winter.