Kicking Against The Establishment

It’s a bit cold today. Frosty, almost icy, almost winter. I wimp out of cycling and get the bus again.

Day 24... Ironically now that we have a posh new shower and almost a new bathroom we are being prevented from using said new shower for longer than a few seconds at a time due to a blocked drain. Our builder says he’ll have a go at unblocking it for us.

I have been looking for a race for Sunday 20^th November but I feel this day is trying to tell me something. The Tatton Park Half is full, so is the Clowne Half. The Heanor Ch****mas Pudding run is also full and the Loughborough 10k has been cancelled. What’s the world coming to?

L is googling and suggesting races, clearly enthused. There are spaces in the Mo Run on Wollaton Park but they are limits, I think. Am I that desperate yet?

Pub lunch today and I clock up dark beer 101.

Sadly the evening’s post-dogging pint in the Masons is still Wainwrights. So I kick against the establishment (sort of) and risk a Pedigree. I regret it. Marston's Pedigree used to be distinctive once now it just tastes like Doom Bar.

Back at home we now have a working bathroom sink for the first time in nearly four weeks. Dare I whisper it quietly that it's looking almost finished. Perhaps just another week then.

(Wednesday 2^nd November)

Four Legged Encumbrance

If I stay injured L may have accumulate the Christmas puddings on her own, usually we acquire them together through races.

Next week’s Heanor Christmas Pudding run surely hands out one but hopefully this weeks Stilton Stumble doesn’t. Surely it’s got to be a block of cheese.

The second running of the event starts at Cropwell Bishop Memorial Hall and there is a 10k race and a rather intriguing 24k one. Now that would have been right up my street had I been fit.

The two races start ten minutes apart and each have a couple of girls with the start banner who have to jump out of the way and avoid the onrushing runners as well as a yapping dog whose owner needs to get him under better control. It’s not that easy when my other four legged encumbrance attempts to join in with both races.

Overall it’s an enjoyable event and I can vouch for the bacon butties and the hot drinks being sold in the hall. Very good.

In the evening we head to Falcon and try one of their Sunday lunches, which are well worth the trip and the Tuck is on. We also have a beer in the Borlase and two in the Hand & Heart.

(Sunday 16^th November)

The Illogical Rules Of Combat

The local bus war intensifies as the YourBus army moves into Heanor. Oh good the locals think, a long last an improvement on the one bus an hour. Ha ha, if only. Yes you now have two buses an hour but both at the same time. Welcome to the illogical rules of combat.

I can’t see how YourBus hope to make any money with such negative tactics, I mean it hasn’t worked for Derby County. They also won’t make any money if they refuse to punch my ticket on the CityLink, even when I try to insist. Oh well, I’ll just have to use it again then.

L complains of hearing voices and clearly thinks she’s going nuts. Until she finds out she’s left her ipod on... hilarious. What’s worse is she’s now lost her place in her audiobook.

I run from work. I think I’ve now hiked the distance up to about 9.5 miles. I keep adding bus stops to the distance each time I run before hopping on one.

One more day at work and then it’s off to Coll and Tiree for a week, incorporating the Coll Half Marathon and the Loch Lomond swim en route. Just a typical trip away.

(Tuesday 13^th August)

The People’s Choice

It’s not particularly cold, although there is snow on the hills, but the winds are not as low as they could have been and the tent does take a seriously romantic battering from the elements. Still, we’re snug and dry inside it.

By mid morning things have calmed down and the weather turns out dry with little wind, just in time for the Great Langdale Christmas Pudding 10k which kicks off at noon. This is the self styled ‘people’s choice 10K winter run’, hmm maybe. L’s only here for the mileage, I’m only here for the beer but it has become a bit of a tradition.

There are as usual two races over two days with the Saturday proving more popular than the Sunday. Race organisers who run practically everything on a Sunday take note. Just under 300 today but nearly 430 yesterday.

They encourage entrants to dress in festive costumes and as I recall I got defeated by a green elf last time, although I was just coming back from injury. That’s my excuse. There’s no repeat today, as far as I know. There are plenty of Santas and even the odd pudding but I think they’re all behind me.

L looks very fetchingly festive in her red top, Santa hat and Christmassy ear rings. Something is missing though. Those little red skirts with the fur trim have a certain something... Perhaps I’ll get her one for Bolsover next week.

The course is the usual out and back along the valley road starting and finishing at the Sticklebarn pub. It’s not the greatest of runs for me, terrible actually. I was supposed to be taking it steady but not that steady. My time of over 44 minutes is two minutes slower than on this course in April but depressingly also slightly slower than two years ago when I was injured and ‘allowed’ to take to easy. I’m a massive four minutes off what I did in 2008, when I was a youngster obviously but we won’t talk about that. Good job half marathons are where it’s now at. I hope.

Every finisher gets a Christmas pudding, this year from Mathew Walker which is a big step up from the usual Asda/Tesco ones. It’s still a bit odd though, us coming up to Cumbria to collect a pudding made in Derbyshire, near from whence we came. I’m sure they could source some Cumbrian ones if they really wanted to.

L is slower too but at least she’s got the excuse of coughing and spluttering her way around.

The queue for refreshments is a bit huge at the Sticklebarn, so we head to Chapel Stile and the Wainwrights instead to sample a new Hawkshead dark beer which is disappointing and the hot lamb cobs, which aren’t.

The problem with camping is we don’t have a hot bath to rest our weary legs in post-race and have to chill out in the tent instead.

We have tomorrow off work so that we can toast our disappointing times this evening, which we do in the Old Dungeon Ghyll, which is surprisingly busy for a Sunday night in mid December.

So which is better Snecklifter or Old Peculiar? L and I can never agree, so we have to go through the rigmarole of sampling both, again. This happens every time. It’s still inconclusive. L says OP, I say Snecklifter. So we’ll just have to do it all over again at New Year.

(Sunday 11th December)