In the last two weeks I've not been running. The most I've done is laps of the block around Run when trying on new shoes, but I've yet to take those new shoes out for a proper test. For the last fortnight I've been lazily resting.

One reason for not running has been the long bank holiday weekend, which I spent at the Shambala Festival. I did actually go for a run last year at Festival at the Edge but it wasn't an experience worth repeating. I've been off work since Wednesday and decided to take a break from running too. The other reason for resting is recovering from a successful run in the Morecambe Cross-Bay Half Marathon.

The race goes from Flookburgh to Hess Bank directly across the sands of Morecambe Bay at low tide. Morecambe Bay is a truly impressive place to run. Flat and barren, there is no shelter and few landmarks, the wind sweeping in relentlessly from the North Sea. It was an amazing experience but a somewhat bleak one.

The first couple of miles were run with the wind and I put on a good pace. We forded the river Kent, which was up to my thighs, about 4-5 miles in. This slowed the pace down to 2 mph, but allowed me to catch my breath. After that came several miles running into the wind.

While the wind wasn't as bad as last year it was still hard and unrelenting. I had to force myself to slow down, giving up the good time I'd made at the start of the race. There was no point fighting the wind.

My spirits lifted at the final water station, when the route went with the wind for a while. I stopped for a drink then set off on the final stage. The last couple of miles were into the wind again and I ended up going as fast as I could, just wanting to get the race over with. I was shattered by the time I reached the finish line, but delighted to have completed the race.

Overall, despite the wind and water, I made a good time, coming in 111th out of 239 with an offical time of 1 hour 50 minutes and 57 seconds. While this is promising, the race distance according to my GPS was about 12.15 miles rather than the full 13.1 mile half marathon distance. Still, it's encouraging to know I can keep going under difficult conditions.

I gave myself a week to recover from the race, which then merged into my summer festival break. The fun ends today, with a three month dash along the seafront. I'm looking forward to resuming the training.