Thank you noel and ba-ba

Good to know about the walking bit - that's helpful and reassuring. I found the previous race times and I've been looking at my map and think I can spot a likely route for the race up to Nab Hill, it looks quite steep in places. I walk up ~160m almost every day up an even steeper hill just to get back home from town though, so I should be fine. Even in the few weeks I have been training I have noticed that my walks up the hill have been getting easier.

I've been asking around and it would seem there are more runners in my social circle than I expected. What seems to be the limiting factor in finding someone to run with is finding folk who actually want to go up, so many run along the canal, which is fair enough but not my bag at all.

Of course I'll still turn up and run even if I don't find anyone to go with; there's plenty of time yet though - thanks again