Another Frustrating Run

Today we head off to do the Alsager 5 mile race. L remembers that the last time we did it in 2013, I asked her to check the ditches for me in case I'd collapsed. So I must have been injured that year as well. I think perhaps she best do the same again this time.

We've been posted numbers but we have to collect our timing chips on the day, which seems a bit of a waste of postage but there you go. They also hand out the race t-shirt before we start, which is helpful if you don’t reach the finish because you’re in a ditch.

The race is full and there’s nearly 900 here, an impressive turn out. Conditions are cold and I wrap up warm, with running tights in case I have to crawl out of the aforementioned ditch and walk back.

I recall that in 2013 I had to overtake L because she had started up front with the elites. I think this was because the race set off in the opposite direction to what we were expecting. We don’t make the same mistake today.

 

It starts ok and I do the first mile in 07:52, not blinding by any means but adequate. Then the tight calves kick in and I have to stop every half a mile to stretch them out. Oddly my finishing time of 43:25 is three whole minutes quicker than in 2013. I must have been really badly injured that year.

More worryingly is that I bounced back from that poor time in 2013 and ran 38:02 for five miles only a fortnight later. That’s not going to happen this time.

We head home and later spend the evening in my new favourite pub, the Crafty Crow where we also have their sharing platter between us.

 (Sunday 1^st February)

This Is More Like It

Today I have to register for the half a***d and attend a race briefing, of which there are four sprinkled throughout the day and I aim for the 12:30 one. I take the dogs with me whilst L runs there.

As we wait for her we watch the Nottingham Triathlon that is going on all day. This is merely a sprint distance event 750m swim/20k bike/5k run but the buoys in the rowing lake look well spaced out to me... and that is only 750m! It’s going to be 1900m tomorrow. Gulp.

I go to registration and get my race numbers, timing chip, swim hat, tattoos etc. Yes I did say tattoos, this year they are using ITU style tattoo numbers that you stick onto your skin.

Then they hand me a pint of beer as I head into the briefing. This is more like it. Sadly it turns out to be non-alcoholic.

The briefing is more or less what is in the published race guide, only with added humour and photographs that you can’t actually see because it’s too light in the tent where they’re holding it. No matter, we’re all hyped up now. Although I feel some of my fellow ‘athletes’ are contemplating not coming back tomorrow.

Then I go for a pre-race massage in the capable hands of the former landlord of one of our local pubs. I kid you not. It’s a small world as they say.

Back home, L says she was once told that you should drink alcohol the night before a race because it helps you sleep. So I have a beer, a real one, to go with my pasta and the athletic looking Bakewell Tart that is lurking threateningly in the fridge.

(Saturday 31^st May)

Hung Out To Dry

On the bike today and as I record today’s mileage in my cycling log, I discover one bit of good news. At 1656 miles cycled so far this year, I have already exceeded 2012’s appalling total of 1628 miles. I’ve still some way to go to get up to previous years' totals but there is still four months of the year left to go.

L gets some foreign currency for this weekend’s trip to Budapest. Most vital is the 1000 HUF (Florin) note for the deposit on the timing chip. 1000 HUF is the princely of sum of approximately £2.85. They charge you about £15 for a chip over here, so it's almost worth keeping them to put on ebay.

We need two of these but it was hardly worth going for just £6 worth of currency and L comes back with 16,000 HUFs. She expresses gratitude she’s not Hungarian, imagining how many thousands she could be overdrawn.

Back on the bike, I have a bit of a race home with someone from Beeston CC which is always nice. I got hung out to dry obviously, but you have to give it a go. Now all I’ve got to do is recover in time for tennis.

During which I was enjoying my impending 6-1 6-1 defeat until repeated attempts to lose by such a score line came to nothing as I went from 4-1 down to 5-5 in the second set amidst the gathering gloom. Unfortunately getting a full game in while starting at 7pm is going to get increasing difficult as the nights draw in.

It was only when we changed ends that I realised how my opponent had gifted me the last two games. Near zero light at the far end of the court apart from a bit of dazzle from the lights on the floodlit courts. This resulted in the ball being largely invisible until it reached the back of the court. Suspiciously my opponent hit everything short and completed the win 7-5.

(Thursday 29^th August)