Sunday, April 27, 2008

Another decent run

Had a thoroughly great time over the weekend watching the World Long Distance Mountain Championship - or something like that. This year the Yorkshire Three Peaks Race was chosen to stage the event and it was put on really well - Bristol Half Marathon go take some notes.

I managed to get my run in - my first solo run with Brown Dog. I guess, technically that makes it not solo but all the same, I really enjoyed it.

I watched the race get underway before heading out on my modified route. In a way I ran the three peaks race myself - except for the fact I only ran up one of the peaks and I only covered about 14 miles verses the full race distance of 24 - so in reality I guess you could say my run was actually naff all like the three peaks - fair enough.

Coming past the 15k point I was in the lead - or so a few of the crowd thought - that was a bit embarrassing really, as I sheepishly explained I was only supporting - good to lead the race for a few metres though [grins to camera]. It was at that point that Brown Dog raided a small child's pack lunch - oops - I was so embarrassed and apologised profusely. Suffice to say, I made sure there were no more such incidents.

Anyway, after a bit more cheering and supporting I set off on the climb up to the final peak - my only peak - and some might say I didn't even do that [frowns to camera] because I stopped a few feet short of the summit but I did that purely on the grounds that it was really busy up there and I didn't want to get in the way - honest. With a few minutes to wait before the lead runners came through, I picked a good spot to watch the action unfold and sat down to wait. After thirty or forty minutes of support it was off down to the finish.

As Helen came past in the last few miles Brown Dog decided I was a bit rubbish and dumped me for her - didn't really think that one through properly. I then had to leg it to catch up and wrestle BD to the ground - well maybe not quite wrestle. Anyway, I managed to get her on the lead so Helen could carry on with her race while I jogged on down to the end.

All in all it was a great weekend - even though I am now completely knackered and only want to curl up and sleep. Well done to Helen for her 8th place - in the world long distance mountain thingy, which also gave her another second place in the English Championship as both events were combined. She and her club mates were robbed of the team prize though, as it was given to Russia. How can a club team compete with a national team? - but they damn nearly did anyway - foul, I call for a penalty...

Thought for the day: Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.

No comments:

Post a Comment