If There’s Fun To Be Had...

We drive up to Monsal Head and take part in a ten mile run which has been organised by L’s running club. It’s not a race, it’s just for fun, which may be an oxymoron depending on your point of view. MD’s point of view is that if there’s fun to be had he’s going to be central to it and goes off to upset a field full of cows. Luckily there’s a fence between them and us which prevents them exacting their revenge.

Obviously pleased with this success, as an encore he upsets an old lady and her elderly golden retriever. Then after we’ve dragged him away he goes back for another go. A certain part of his anatomy is now on borrowed time and he spends most of the rest of the run tethered to me.

Our run was also disrupted by a van trying to run us down as it drove along the narrow river bank. As we squeezed ourselves into the hedge to let it pass, the driver stopped to ask us to keep our dogs under control as it was a conservation area... of course we immediately complied, whilst at the same time pondering on the amount of damage his van was causing to the area.

Despite the disruptions and L hobbling around most of it, her old war wound has flared up again; it was a good run, a bit muddy in places and very unrunnably hilly in others but still good.

We get back in enough time for L to drop me off at the bike shop. I finally get to take my new bike out for a test drive. It immediately develops an annoying creaking noise. Not good. Not to worry the chap says and fetches a hacksaw out the back of his shop. He then proceeds to lop a chuck off the end of the seat post. It’s not pleasant to hear him sawing away at my new bike but the mutilation isn’t visible and the creak has now gone.

Now the fun part, I get to ride it home. The ride of around eight miles goes well at first as I cycle along the actually rather good cycle path down Hucknall Road. Then just as I was concocting a letter of praise to our not very cycling aware City Council, I avoid the ring road by cutting across town and then run into a problem on Radford Road. I mentally ripped that letter up, as I end up marooned by the tram tracks.

At first it was ok and I cycled quite happily alongside the tracks but then the curb suddenly came out to meet thems and I had to either stop or cycle across them. Cycling across them seemed a bad very idea, I’d end up on the floor I’m sure. So I dismounted and then remounted in the middle of them. This meant I then held the traffic up because no one could get past me until I found a safe place to cross back over them.

On arriving home safely, we head into town to celebrate.