All Is Well With The World

Doggo ate his breakfast, L made it to the pool. All is well with the world.

I’m the car, doing the shopping and then going to the match where Derby suffer a rare defeat 1-0 to Ipswich. They should have won but their opponents scored early and then sat on it all game. My Dad and I drown our sorrows in the Harrington afterwards.

Back home it’s a DIDS night. Dogs In Door Shut. I believe there was some opposition to that suggestion which got him locked out. All I’m hoping for is no dramatics from Doggo this week.

(Tuesday 28^th November)

Magic Dust

For the first time in about three years I'm actually looking forward to the match tonight but what a letdown it is, at least at first. Caretaker Darren Wassall picks the team and picks a side that is very light in central midfield. Ipswich quickly exploit this and Derby’s well known deficiency in dealing with set pieces enabling them to storm in to a 4-1 half time lead. Not good. Not good at all.

However, the second half is totally different. The team put in a performance full of passion and enthusiasm that gets the crowd going to an extent I’ve not seen in years. Derby storm back to clinch a 4-4 draw with the best 45 minutes of football we’ve seen in a long long time. Although I actual left feeling slightly gutted as I was convinced we were going to win.

Afterwards everyone is full of praise for Wassall’s half time team talk and substitutions. The substitutions in particular shocked us because we hadn't made a tactical change before the 70th minute in the last five years.

However Wassall drops his halo in his post-match interview and rather sheepishly admits that well, actually, Steve McClaren came into the dressing room and sprinkled some magic dust. Now that does bode well for the future, which is also known as Leeds on Saturday.

(Tuesday 1^st October)

A Proposition

Earlier in the week L hit me with a proposition, park run. Park runs are free 5k runs in local parks run by volunteers. They’re also hellishly competitive.

I opt out, I’m not risking my ankle just yet and 5k is short and painfully fast for me these days. I would sprint it and my muscles would explode. Although perhaps I might do one with MD sometime. Not that that would do anything to stop my muscles exploding.

Still, I chivalrously kick L out of bed for her own good. The dogs and I come to support, considering it’s a 9am start this is quite a sacrifice of almost dog show earliness.

It’s at the Forest Rec and is the first one to be held there, so records are there to be had and some recognisable faces from local races are there clearly intent to get their names on the first leader board. I kick the ball around for the dogs in the middle of it all.

Then there's the match, where Derby lose to Ipswich in injury time. Afterwards I meet L and drag her out of Quad before she can order a second glass of wine. 

Then we get the bus over to Burton which is harder than you think. The running of the direct X38 service is now being shared by two companies, Trent Barton and Arriva but we can’t use our Mango cards on the Arriva service so either have to pay extra or wait for the Trent. We wait. It's a well confusing system.

We head to the National Brewery Centre and have a pint in their bar. Their own White Shield 5.6% is excellent. Their guest beers are disappointing though. We also eat there and over order on the bread. Then it’s our usual haunt the Coopers Tavern before searching out the Old Cottage Brewery’s pub which has some promising stuff but we don’t stop long as we have a bus to catch, which we miss and end up back in the the Coopers until the next one is due.

(Saturday 6^th April)

Like The Red Sea

It's a miserable grey morning on the bike this morning, although quite warm. This isn’t going to last apparently with the likelihood of falling temperatures, rain and possibly snow (yeah right) later this week. Just as we head up to the Lakes, camping of course and a night run in Grizedale Forest.

L swims this morning when there was only one other person in the pool. I do mine this evening when it’s manic. Although oddly my lane briefly parts like the Red Sea and I get it to myself for about 10 lengths until it fills up again. At which point I decide it’s a good time to make my escape. Also to get out in plenty of time before the session ends at 7pm and everyone fights for elbow space in the changing room, as well as the one shower.

Derby win tonight at Ipswich due to a very late goal and former Derby manager Paul Jewell departs as their boss. He was talking about leaving before the game. I’m glad he decided to wait.

(Tuesday 23rd October)

A (Slight) Sting In The Tail

We head to Congleton via my parents house, to collect my Dad who does like a 7am start. We take him to all the glitzy places and today’s its Congleton’s turn.

Now I’ve had a bad knee all week, well longer actually, so I’m not at all sure how this is going to pan out. I intend to start slow and not build up to a faster pace.

As is now the norm, someone with an Olympic torch helps start the race. Then as we leave the start at the High School, we find the first few miles to be a bit hectic, very busy and we all end up crammed on a pavement next to a busy main road. It was a bit like the ark, two by two, as the field hadn't had chance to thin out by then. Although I suppose this did it. There was the grass verge but I didn’t want to get my trainers muddy and I think everyone else thought the same, so congested it stayed.

Then across a busy roundabout heading into a supermarket before we finally quit the built up area. Thereafter it’s mainly country lanes, villages and plenty of room to run or hobble. Where I’m sure the view would have been really pleasant, if it wasn’t for some high hedges and a covering of low lying mist that didn’t lift. Actually perfect conditions for running, just not for sightseeing and despite a few undulations it seemed a fairly fast course. Not that dissimilar to Ipswich the other week, in fact that was probably hillier.

The race is chip timed and well marshalled. The drinks were in cups but for once I didn’t mind easing down to walk to drink from them, to give the knee a rest. All the drinks stations also advertised sponges, but they proved elusive, I never saw one. There was an extra drinks stop, set up outside the Black Swan and I eased up, just in case... but it was only soft drinks.

The race is called the 'Sting In The Tail' which is because, on the map at least, there was a huge dip, or may crevasse is a better word, at 12 miles, that you would think you’d need full climbing gear to get out of. Ahh, the wonders of map scales. The dip was not that severe. I didn't have to crawl.

L is racing too, she’s chosen the Quarter Marathon option, which I think is a first. At only £6 it’s bargain. Although she doesn’t get the t-shirt, which was a bit dull anyway, to be honest. Instead she gets a teddy bear and a much better goodie bag than me. There’s not much in mine at all.

I queue up for a massage but it’s not looking like a proper leg breaking sports massage, just two women playing patter cake on peoples’ legs. Which is always welcome but not worth queuing half an hour for, so I go to join L and my father in the cafe.

We head back to my parent’s place and collect my Mum before heading to the Canal Warehouse in Shardlow, where it turns out they serve a poor Sunday lunch but some excellent Hobgoblin.

After a bit of late afternoon R&R we decide to check out a beer festival that is happening at one of our local pubs, the Admiral Rodney. It’s nothing to get too excited about but they do have Otter Ale and that takes us back to many happy days spent in Devon. The pub are offering a discount for us Camra members and a loyalty card scheme, which is rather poor as you’re only allowed one stamp per day, rather than one per pint as is the norm with these things and it’s only valid for the fortnight of the festival as well. So not much of an incentive to revisit.

Back home, the knee is throbbing again and I rip open a sachet of jointeeze or something, which was one of the things in my goodie bag. L and the dogs immediately start choking from the aroma of the stuff and Doggo even momentarily gets off the bed. It’s all in a good cause guys, my dodgy knee, as is the Savlon for other areas that have taken a bit of chaffing.

(Sunday 7th October)

Something In Reserve

We slip away early from the dog show and head to the Race HQ only to find that the signs to the car parks, that I’m sure were there last night, seem to have disappeared. Eventually we are directed to where to park and we walk across to the start at Northgate Sports Centre.

The race is catchingly known as the Larking Gowen Ipswich Half Marathon. Larking Gowen I assumed were a firm of solicitors but it turns out they are actually chartered accountants. Whether this is an improvement or not I’m not sure.

Also involved in the 4th running of the event are the delightfully named Ipswich Jaffa Running Club. Who, yes, run in a delightful orange strip.

As part of the Olympic Legacy idea, the organisers have made today’s fun run free to enter. Quite why everybody doesn’t already do this, I’m not sure. I imagine that 95% of event income must come from the main race anyway.

It all starts a little early, at 9am, but this is perhaps no bad thing today with rain forecast for 1pm. We head out though a guard of honour of sorts formed by three Olympic Torchbearers.

The race itself is a little drab at first, through the local housing estates, but then heads into the rather nice and downhill Christchurch Park before taking a brief excursion along Ipswich’s High Street. After which it’s out into the countryside, which I enjoy, but you could really have been anywhere and it doesn’t showcase Ipswich. That said, there was encouraging support from spectators and marshals everywhere we went. The water stations were good too, plenty of them and all with bottles rather than cups.

Tumbling downhill through Christchurch Park was obviously a bad sign because the course had to climb back up and the route in fact proved quite undulating, as well as twisty, throughout. It was not as hilly as Ashbourne obviously but it was certainly not flat either.

As we run back into the grounds of the Sports Centre, a big crowd cheers up in through the gates, yet worryingly we still have three quarters of a mile to go. Which means they divert us for a loop around the pathways of the adjacent school, pathways that are devoid of spectators and therefore atmosphere. Which is quite a soul destroying way to end a decent event. Then finally it’s on to the squishy surface of the running track for the final 400m.

By now it’s already dawned on me that I’m well up on schedule. I had hoped to break 1:40 today but now a very smug 1:38 was looking likely. In fact, even 1:37 looked possible but I shied away from that thought and anyway it’s best to leave something in reserve (a good excuse, to ease up) to be chipped off in the coming weeks. At last, I feel like I’m getting back to where I want to be.

At the end, having bagged 1:38:32, I am handed a better than average medal and a t-shirt. Although I got the size of t-shirt I wanted, this wasn’t the case for many. The later finishers, many being women who wanted Small or Medium, were faced with a choice of Large or Extra Large.

The goody bag was good. A drink, a cereal bar, chocolate and not too much in the way of pointless leaflets.

As I lie on the floor trying to collect my wits, I hear the announcer telling everyone that free massages are available. So I scrape myself off the floor and go in search. When I got there, there was no queue. The reason for which was apparent later when I saw a child wearing the sign which said 'massage this way'. It was a decent long painful massage, just what the doctor ordered before a three hour drive home, for which I now feel fine.

I head back to collect the boys and to meet L, who is running this one as well. She does good, very good, particularly considering she hasn’t really being training for this distance.

In all there were just over a 1000 runners. The race would need alterations if they wished to grow it as an event but perhaps they have no wish to.

The forecasted rain arrives bang on time as we head back to Trinity Park and get the tent down in time, just. Then it rains all the way home. We stop off to pick up lunch, a coffee and Old Peculiar (as you do) for later from a petrol station. Then it’s home to the indulgence of among other things the OP and a Takeaway curry.

(Sunday 23rd September)

A ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ Moment

With us being in Ipswich, this enables us to receive a visit from Doggo’s twin brother’s owner, who visits the dog show to see us.

MD promptly fluffs the one run he gets to do in front of her. Although it actually wasn’t that bad. It started really well and it was actually me that fluffed it. Sorry.

He did get a rosette for 12th for an earlier run. As he was only 1.8 seconds off the winner, it was a surprising 12th. Last week we were 1.5 seconds off the winner and came 2nd.

Doggo is clear in his Vets but outside the rosettes.

Later we head off to pick up our race numbers from Half Marathon HQ and then search out even bigger desserts and pasta for tea. We head down to the harbour front and find a pleasant traditional pub, the Lord Nelson. Stumbling upon Adnams’ Ghost Ship is an unexpected distraction and produces a ‘to be or not to be’ AF moment.

'Not to be' is the answer. Hopefully everything will be counteracted by the Lemon Sponge dessert.

(Saturday 22nd September)

Under The Weight Of Eton Mess

Today is a day off work so that we can head down to Ipswich for the weekend. Then I discover that we can’t get on the campsite until 4pm. So there’s no point leaving before lunch and it’s nice to get a lie in.

As we reached the outskirts of Ipswich it’s relatively easy to find the Half Marathon HQ, which is well signed. Not so the dog show that makes up the other half of the weekend but eventually we find Trinity Park where it is being held.

Agility competitors always complain when they end up being camped too far from the competition area. I don’t understand this, as I prefer the peace and quiet of being as far away as possible.

Today we find ourselves a nice secluded spot on the edge of the show, then once settled we seek out the local pub, the Dog and Shepherd. Which is about 200 yards as the crow flies but by foot requires a perilous half mile or so trek down a dual carriageway with no pavement with two dogs. Nice.

The pub is ok, serves a decent meal and has Camra discount. Not that any of the staff know this, despite there being a foot high sign on the bar. It’s only Greene King IPA anyway, so we soon end up on the wine.

It’s a shame the race isn’t tomorrow because the carbo-loading potential of the desserts is huge. Once I’ve dispatched my Apple Pie, I have to rescue L from under the weight of her huge Eton Mess.

(Friday 21st September)

Tour Of Britain

It really has been a great summer of cycling. The Tour de France followed by the Olympics and then as well as the Paracycling there was la Vuelta A España which was also covered by ITV4. This seamlessly links into their coverage of the Tour Of Britain which started yesterday in Ipswich.

Today stage 2 starts outside Nottingham Castle. I haven’t kept enough holiday back to attend but L is there at the start, as it's not far from where she works.

Instead I follow it on Radio Nottingham, where it sounds well lively. I sort of wish I’d gone down.

The start is just a ceremonial roll out, which then takes them on a pleasant amble through Wollaton Park before the real, rolling start takes place on the road to Trowell.

Tonight I take the boys on the park for a ball session and to top up Doggo’s limp. Sadly Monday’s dog training is now no more. Although we are trying to setup a replacement at a different venue.

(Monday 10th September)