The Poisoned Baton

On Saturday we don’t Parkrun as L is still feeling injured although she does go to Pilates. I go to the match in the afternoon.

We stay in later because I have the Notts Christmas multi-looped Half Marathon at Holme Pierrepont on Sunday. Shoot me now. It’s as dull as ditch water but necessary dullness training-wise. L was booked into do it too but she has now passed that particular poisoned baton over to Daughter.

Daughter seems keen (perhaps not quite the right word) to do it, but she says she'll be crap but then she does say that about a lot of things. Instead L runs there, which is a decent stretch. I offered her the Lad’s services but she declined.

The race doesn’t start until 11:30, and I would normally be a fan of such leisurely starts but I’ve got to get a move on afterwards before the dog club’s AGM at 3pm.

The race goes astonishingly well for me in a 'I didn’t know I could do that any more' sort of way. I start off way too fast and then get faster. I start off doing 7:50 miles before accelerating to almost 7:30 miles. This is largely the fault of the two girls who overtake me early on, chatting away as they pass as if it was no effort at all. Naturally I undertake to catch and then pass them again. I am egged on in this venture by my new friend who I shall called ‘Steve’ because that is what it says on the front of his number. This may not be his name because Daughter is running with L's number and therefore under her name. 

‘Steve’ is also trying to catch the girls, most probably for different reasons to me as they are all in their 20s unlike the old codger that is me. Anyhow we pass them and then hope to drop them, well I do but I suspect Steve would like to run with them, but as it turns out dropping them seems impossible anyway as they're just too damn fast.

So aided by a flat course, the novelty of no wind at Holme Pierrepont, lots of nagging from ‘Steve’ and the two ‘passed but not dropped ’ girls constantly breathing down our necks we sprint over the line in 1:41:42. Extraordinary. I ran 1:47:47 here last year. It’s my fastest time since a 1:40:38 at Peterborough in October 2017.

The two girls finish about 30 seconds back and Steve goes off to chat them up while I collapse in an uncivilised heap.

Meanwhile Daughter who got injured the last time she ran at Holme Pierrepont repeats the trick again with her knee stopping her completing it. At least it all means that I’m in plenty of time for my AGM, which goes very well.

L and I head into town later and after four pints in Drafthouse Victoria we go to the Noor Jahan for a curry. We’ve not been here for a while and they’ve done away with the cheap three course menu they used to have. So it’s not as cheap as it was but it’s still a decently priced meal and with an excellent starter’s platter.

(Sunday 1^st December)