Send For The Military

On Saturday we parkrun at Alvaston, which may be boring but it’s about the best surface (all tarmac) if it's wet and it’s been exceedingly wet recently.

It is Daughter’s 80^th Parkrun. It would have been my 86^th if I hadn’t forgotten my barcode or even my 87^th if they hadn't done me out of my first ever one at Conkers for reasons I was never made aware of.
 

Afterwards I am at the match while my two fellow parkrunners get the train down to L’s sisters where they will both be running the Standalone 10k tomorrow. I’m not going as I’m on Glastonbury ticket duty. Having seen a sneak preview of the Standalone t-shirt, which is bright pink, perhaps it's a good one to miss. 

Then the boys and I have a night on our own. We order out for pizza.

The next day we’re all up early to apply for Glastonbury tickets or rather to just look at the holding screen for half an hour.

My colleague from work gets in (again) but then he’s part of a large syndicate who all apply for each other every year. Consequently they have been for the last nine years. This is what it’s come to. You need either huge luck or a military operation to get tickets. As L says I’ve blocked off my entire weekend for nothing. Apparently there will be a ballot for 50 pairs of tickets but I’m not holding my breath.

After that my day consists of mainly ball throwing and cutting the lawn, which bizarrely it’s dry enough to do.

Later we’re all by the gate waiting to welcome L home in our own individual ways but I'm the only one she invites to the pub later. I drown my Glastonbury sorrows in the Organ Grinder and the Borlase.while she celebrates her run.

(Sunday 6^th October)

80th

I complete my 80^th parkrun at Alvaston. It is Daughter’s first at Alvaston and therefore MD’s first there as well. L doesn’t run as she’s still having problems with her hip. She hopes resting it might mean she is ok for the Burton 10k tomorrow.

Parkrun try to get me to celebrate my 80^th by purchasing one of their apricot coloured shirts which come personalised with your home parkrun event. They say this makes a great conversation starter. It does indeed, if your eyesight is as bad as mine squinting at other folk’s chests certainly does get people talking.

Today would have been Doggo’s birthday, so we toast him with a glass of something. This blog isn’t quite the same without him although the Lad has certainly taken up the baton of giving me something to write about.

There’s a match at 3pm and then afterwards I spend some time sorting out my Dad’s car insurance as it seems he’s been scammed by a fake accident without realising it.

(Saturday 10^th August)

Retirement Reminder

We have a bit of a manic day on Saturday. Heading over to Alvaston to Parkrun before rushing back to Nottingham to see L’s sister run on Wollaton Park in the 10k. It was not a race that L or my ankles fancied.

Then we head over to Bramcote Hills for our second Orienteering session in only a few weeks. Unlike the one at Wollaton Park, that I found quite straightforward, this one reminds me why I retired from Orienteering. Mainly that they will find the most obscure places to hide the controls even when it’s supposed to be a beginner’s event like today's. Then they give you a map that was too small for my eyesight 15 years ago let alone now.

In the evening we pub crawl Beeston or at least try to. Many of the pubs are so full that we can’t get in the door.

Sunday is Father’s Day. L visits her Dad in hospital while I visit mine at home before my brother takes him off to Driving Range.

In the evening I go for a track session at the Velodrome for the first time in four months. My legs confirm that it certainly feels like four months, so I best not leave it so long next time.

(Sunday 16^th June)

Swan Song

Today it’s the Ramathon, L’s 13.1 swan song. I’ve failed a late fitness test and won’t be competing. Actually it’s wasn’t that late, I’ve been hobbling all week. It was never looking likely.

So L sets off from Elvaston Castle for the first running of this event since 1996. It’s a hot morning, which won’t help the runners.

The route is very different to the old one and is centred around Elvaston, Shardlow, Ambaston but reaches almost to Alvaston. Hopefully the organisers intend to widen its reach as it becomes more established and take it into Derby itself.

Organisation is excellent, although perhaps a few more drinks stations might have helped in the heat. I could have done with one myself as I hobbled up to Ambaston Lane to cheer L though. The dogs were with me giving extra vocal support.

Then we hobbled back again and I went to the finish to see if I could pick up a race t-shirt. As I stood there, fully clothed, flashing my race number while the first few finishers lay gasping on the grass they were clearly impressed and asked how quickly I had ran. At this point I had to fess up and show off my limp. Got the t-shirt though.

The race t-shirt will be a bit too patriotic for most as it sports far too many references to Derby County. Sadly the many runners who have travelled from around the country (and from Nottingham) to be here won’t wear it become of that. So a marketing own goal there.

L isn’t as quick as she had hoped but has clearly left it all out on the road, as you should. Her post race treat, at her request, is Sunday Lunch at the New Inn in Shardlow which she then feels too faint to eat a lot of. The dogs and I assist.

She’s recovered by later though, after copious amounts of cheese on toast, and is knocking back the beer and wine as we head into Stapleford to the Horse and Jockey to celebrate the swan song.

(Sunday 8^th June)