Sticking With The Confectionery

Today we head over to Birmingham for a dog show and then liven it up by doing a 10k run in the middle of it.

It was L’s fault. She happened to mention that she fancied the run, which she found via the internet. After all she is marathon training now, and once mentioned, it is my job to make sure she doesn’t back out of these things.

So I do Doggo’s first run at the show, which is clear until he misses his dog walk contact. Hmmm, I’ll have words later about that but there’s no time right now as we jump in the car and drive the couple of miles to Sutton Park.

It’s a fairly low key race but it seems to have pulled a decent sized entry. I was hoping for an easy run but early on, a chap and I team up to pace each other round. Unfortunately he’s a bit too quick for me and after the half way point I drop back.

I get picked up by two runners behind. At first I think they’re going to go straight past me but I manage to hang on to them and let them drag me along for a kilometre or so. I find myself running with another chap who's doing his first 10k for four years and a lass who's a Bourneville Harrier. I assume she's leading the women’s race. I figure L would want me to keep a close eye on anything associated with confectionery and this spurs me on to stay with them.

Then I feel a bit stronger and take on a bit of the pace making myself. The chap annoyingly keeps muttering to us, ‘we can do this’, ‘come on let break 42’. He’s clearly after a good time, so why doesn’t he just get on with it and leave us to our own agony.

Breaking 42 is no easy matter; it’s a hilly course with plenty of twists and turns in it. A lot of the course is on tarmac but some of it was off road and muddy in places. I also don’t reckon we’re on pace to do it but still he insists ‘we can do it’. The girl warms us that the last stretch is uphill and she's not kidding. Still he’s still muttering ‘we can do this’. We? Hmmm. I manage to find a bit of strength and drop them both, which I think it terribly bad form in sight of the finish but he was annoying me. I think that’s the end of it but then he finds some more energy from somewhere and comes past me. Oh well. At least I got the better of the Bourneville.

Later I stumble across the Bourneville Harrier’s website looking for the results and find the lass has written a review of the race where she credits the other chap and myself for unknowingly dragging her round. Actually I thought she was dragging me along but I’m happy to take the credit. She also comments on how nice the run was, as I’ve said before, that must be a girl thing. L reckons she would have beaten me had she not been mentally taking in the view for her write up. She also didn't mention that she won her race and I'm sure she did. Surely she's just being modest, I can't believe the view was more important to her than winning.

I think I was 12th and we were well inside 42, so at least the chap was pleased. So pleased in fact that he invites me to do a race with him next week. No thanks and goodbye, I have a dog show to get back to.

Back at the show, unfortunately I’ve missed walking my next course, a very tricky European Open qualifier. There's no risk of us qualifying which is just as well because Doggo’s not vaccinated to hit Europe anyway. It’s our sort of course really and we go well until disaster strikes and I fall over. I have forgotten to change my footwear and I still have my running shoes on which don’t have as much grip. Doggo completely ignores my antics and carries on as if nothing has happened, in fact I think he’s pretending that he’s not with me. I make an impressive recovery and then have to run to catch up with him. We are clear but we incur time faults.

We also do a clear in our last run as well but sadly no rosettes today.

All in all an interesting day out!