Haven’t You Forgotten Something?

L does the Crossdale 10k, which is what we usually do on this weekend of the year, whilst I opt to continue MD’s education in the dog agility world.

I pick a good Crossdale to miss. Bizarrely there are no t-shirts this year. They have run this race for 10 years with a t-shirt and last year they had a special 10th anniversary one. Then in year 11 they drop the t-shirt. That’s not going to be popular.

L does a good time on the tricky cross-country course with that notorious hill to finish but she isn’t pleased. She sounds so like me. I’m very proud of her displeasure; it must be her competitive side coming out.

At the dog show, MD frustratingly has one pole down in each of his three runs. On the last of those, he celebrates the 100th competitive run of his short career by flattening the jump three from home on what would have been decent clear round. So close. That said all his events today were pitched at grades 3-5, whereas last week they were for grades 1-3 and were consequently that bit harder for the 'Pocket Rocket'. He’s done well really.

So 100 runs, of which only 12 have been clear rounds and a fair few have been eliminations but we’re getting there, as last week showed.

Meanwhile on the 545th run of his career, as you can see I keep count, Doggo and I are having disagreements about his contact points again. He nonchalantly skips one of them but carries on regardless, hurdles the long jump and is heading for the finish line when I call him back. Err, excuse me, haven’t you forgotten something? To his embarrassment I make him do the last three obstacles again, correctly.

We have a similar disagreement on his next course but this time when I shout loudly at him, he stops, in the correct place, and the old man achieves the first of his two clears today but unfortunately there are no rosettes to be picked up today.

Once home, L and I celebrate our respective successes and failures by heading off out to find the Dunkirk Inn. Once we find it and discover that we can get its Nottingham beers at our local, we adjourn for a pleasant evening at the Johnson’s instead.

(Sunday 26th September)

For The Seriously Mad

Show report - day two. Doggo is not hitting the contacts at the moment, probably due to lack of training. So that cost us two runs today. He's booked in for a refresher course from September. He was clear in his jumping though. It was a good run but again no rosette.

I missed one of MD’s runs completely as I was too busy working. The two runs he got included a truly awful one and a good one, where he was clear up to obstacle 12 but then didn't even see the weaves and went for a hurdle instead. So we picked up faults for that. I’ve not had much time to concentrate on running them this weekend due to ring managing both days. I’m hoping for better tomorrow when I don't have to work on the rings.

At lunch time I nip over to Burton, a few miles away, and collect L, who has managed to use public transport to get that far. Then when the agility has finish we move to a different part of Catton Park where the Thunder Run is taking place. It’s a 24 hour running race where the aim is to do as many laps of the 10k cross country course in the time allowed. It starts a 2pm today and finishes at the same time tomorrow. There is an individual competition for the seriously mad but also a team event for five or more people. L is secretly hoping someone will be injured and that someone will beg her to run.

I need to start persuading a few people, we must do this next year.



(Saturday 31st July)

A Test Of Endurance

Now here's a first. Well for me anyway. L's an old hand at these but I best not use a phrase like that in front of her. Today is my first half marathon and unfortunately I can’t say it’ll also be my last because I’ve got another one next week. It’s supposed to be just a training run for the bigger picture, that being the Kilomathon, which is even longer and is now only two weeks away.

We've driven all the way over to the back of the beyond, well Sleaford, at the back end of the coldest February for centuries (or so some of the papers would have you believe) and to top it all it's raining.

Oh well, this is what you get for trying to arrange a low key entry into the world of distance running. I say low key because I'm expecting there to only be about 30 entries but L disagrees. She says this race will be on everybody’s London training plan. London being that populist marathon thing they do down south. She's right. I'm wrong. There are hundreds here.

Another problem is it's not at all dog friendly. The start is within the grounds of RAF Cranwell and dogs aren’t even allowed on the RAF's sports field. There are all sorts of dire military style threats posted up on signs. To make it worse they then take the run in and out of the far side of the base, not the side where we have been forced to park the car. This makes even taking the dogs a walk to watch L run the last mile out on the road impossible.

The start is on grass, not a preferred option of mine. I stand well back from the idiots at the front but still I find that the pace seems quite quick. 7.07 for the first mile confirms it, I was looking for an 8.00. In fact, it’s so quick that two chaps near me stop dead in protest. I ease off too. One mile done, twelve and a bit to go, how hard can it be?

The early promised hill is just a slight incline. So far so good but then there’s a stretch of around two miles that takes you across cross country. This unsettles me and aggravates the ankles but at least it slows my pace. Then when that’s over and we’re on to Viking Way, a Roman road which is now part of a cycle trail, I settle into a good 7.30 pace.

The six mile point arrives; this is where I usually stop. Today I can’t.

I slot in behind two lads who seem to be going at about the right pace and this has the added bonus that they shelter me from the wind. Then we take a sharp left onto a busy road, where we have to run in single file. Somehow at this point, the two of them manoeuvre me to the front and now I'm pace setting for them. How did that happen? When I slow slightly on a small incline one of them even has the nerve to criticize me for slowing down.

I'm sure he then lifts the pace and sure enough the next mile, mile 10, is done in 6.50. Ouch. I tell him off. We slow to 7.15s. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that at around this point my right knee starts to go, a mile later the left one’s comes out in sympathy.

There are three drinks stations and I have a small drink at each, I’ve never done that before. Though I can't drink and run, I have to slow to a walk, causing one of the chaps who has been stalking me to almost run into the back of me. Serves him right. There’s also a jelly baby stop, never done that before either. It's a day of firsts. Very welcome, although chewing and breathing is something else I need to practice.

At mile 11, my new friend the stalker and I, hear music and rustling... an ipod wearing guy in full waterproofs, gloves and a bobble hat catches us... and passes us. Oh the shame.

At 12 miles I feel surprisingly good and I go for home, outwitting Mr Stalker. I lose him and pass a few others as well. I come home in 1 hour 38 minutes which is 2 minutes under budget. Success.

L had already warned me that she'd be a while... so I grab a free massage, get changed, exercise the dogs (briefly) and grab a coffee... then I go back to see her finish.

In the evening, having not seen the kids for a week, we take them out for a meal. Well Son has a prior engagement, so we bung him the money for a takeaway and take Daughter for a Chinese. I thought perhaps the hardest test of the day was the half marathon, I was wrong. The sheer size of the Chinese meal we order tests my powers of endurance to far greater levels.