A Challenging Environment

I'm back now from something called Hare n Hounds which was a dog show in a muddy field near Barnard Castle. Actually it wasn't that muddy, it rained on Friday but Saturday was sunny and Sunday was a near heatwave. That's not quite as L and Daughter saw it but it was definitely t-shirt weather, for me at least. We camped in the same field that the show was being held in and the facilities can best be described as basic. When they arrived that is, the shower block was only delivered the day after we arrived and even then it took them all day to get it plumbed in. MD continually told them to get a move on but they didn’t take any notice of him. Who does? When they were finally operational we found we were next door to the generator for them, so they were very handy. The noise wasn’t really noticeable, what with all the dogs barking. Oddly everyone had a dog and at least one.

Daughter loved the whole weekend, she does love a challenging environment that she can flex her well honed opinions on and of course, we love listening to her views. It’s interesting to note though how her standards have risen over the years. We take full credit for this, having treated her to muddy campsite after muddy campsite across the length and breadth of the UK for the last fifteen years, or perhaps we've just scarred her for life.

I did three days of dogging to keep myself amused, whilst L kept Daughter entertained. They even went sightseeing and shopping in the cultural hot bed of Darlington, from where Daughter came back loaded with bags and L didn't but I imagine it was L’s plastic that was being flexed. As L would says ‘that’s what daughters are for’.

Doggo did very well, ten clears out of twelve runs over three days and only two bad incidents with the weave poles. No rosettes though, 8th was our best and that day the rosettes stopped at 7th. It's tough in our grade. Looking at the results, if we hadn't got our upgrading we'd have come home with quite a few rosettes and possibly a trophy or two as well. MD of course, reckons he could have done a lot better. By this time next year we should see if it's all talk from him or not.

When we got home Doggo refused to get out of the car. Perhaps he was enjoying himself that much he didn't want to come home, even L hasn't refused to get out of the car at the end of a holiday and she hates coming home from holidays. Hope he hasn’t given her ideas.

Then this morning, after four days of no training but plenty of eating and drinking we have a race and both of us do the Wollaton Park Easter 10k. I see it as preparation for the Hellathon and intend to run it at the slightly slower pace that I intend to use there.

That works out ok until that girl sort of thing happens. I can hear her panting in my ear and that ruins my intended pace by making me run quicker. This takes me past another chap and so she gets to pant in his ear for a bit. This naturally kicks him on and he goes back past me. I decide that this is stupid, so I let them both go on ahead and revert to my sensible pace. It is only a training run after all. My thoughts are on the theoretical 40k bike ride up some of Carsington's finest hills that is to come next. Then with half a lap to go she isn't that far ahead and I decide to have her after all. Thing is she wins the ladies race and I'm ahead of her, so not a bad result really. That said it wasn't a great time, 42 minutes to win the Ladies race but it’ll do ok for me.

I even enjoyed the race, a lot more than I thought I would. Running where you train can be dull but Wollaton Park is far from flat and that makes it a lot more interesting than a typical road race.

L runs three minutes quicker than she did last year despite last nights prep of spam curry with beer/wine. She didn't reckon that preparation worked for her but it went ok for me, I'm thinking of requesting the same before Derby next weekend.

I head over to Derby for the match. Derby put in a great showing and out play league leaders Wolves for most of the game. We’re 2-1 up with around fifteen minutes to play when the schoolboy defending kicks in. Our awful defence has the final say and they turn it around for a 3-2 win.

Back home, Doggo seems more cheerful and both the boys manage a park session, although they both look a tad tired. Not that MD’s got any excuse, it's not as if he's done any competing.