My prophecy of the 'North West' road relays at Woodbank Park, 'Cheshire' is next weekend, apparently...was much as advertised. Glory leg my arse! Aside from the relative merit of my own performance compared to the North West's finest, I also had a bit of a pap run. I wasn't last, and neither was I slowest. And to all of that, it seems our team was a non counter...something to do with regulations of residency. So in fact there was no point to the exercise whatsoever...other than character building.
But mine took a bit of a battering. Not much more to add really, other than as an event over which I spectated, it was a fairly impressive sight to see real runners running well. And also to watch the handover as anxious team mates waiting impatiently for their runners to enter the track and get the call to the start line. By the time I was in the pen, it was all really rather casual. The top clubs had all but finished and the rest of us were stood their looking anxiously at our watches, wondering what could possibly have gone wrong.
Today was the antithesis of all that racy stuff. A short drive to the back entrance of Lyme Park and a run route I did with Pete once, when we nearly lost Georgie in the canal. I was early, first in the car park. The deer certainly seemed surprised to see me. There wasn't a breath of air, every now and then voices clearly heard as if they were next to you, but peering over the great stone walls, far in the distance, two figures about a mile away, Rob and Jim also enjoying the morning air in this great parkland.
Back at the car park, bumped in to Paul and Craig. Both had been on routes more ambitious than mine. Their talk of miles and hills, mine of the coffee and cake. And the things we had seen, the wildlife, the geese that flew low over me as I came off the ridge and our aspirations for future runs here. My drive home was trying to be patient with cyclists. Narrow lanes and a chatty bunch who knew how to confidently own the road. There was no passing...until they were ready. No running plans as such this week. Except to run!
