Ah, just like old times. A sporting double header.
I've managed 20 odd miles of steady jogging this week. It culminated in the Ashington Park Run, a 2 lapper all set within a reclaimed wooded colliery heap which I ran in my Salomons. I nearly went sub-22 on a mild and dry morning. I could have sworn I was going faster than 7:15's, but apparently not.
Sunday saw us hot foot it down to South Shields again for the cyclo-cross league. The haar was down and the drizzle was coming in off the sea. An easterly breeze gave matters a wind chill that was neither wanted nor welcoming.
The course had been extended from our previous visit and I was hopeful that the additional ground offered some sanctuary, but it was not to be.
I got off to a poor start and it took a good 15 minutes before I garnered the confidence to begin to motor. As I wandered around the course on the warm up lap, the smell of fried food wafting across the dunes from the various cafes along the seafront, I had visions of impaling myself on one of the many fence pegs, the short plastic affairs whose design appears not to have considered the likely effect of the impact of soft flesh on rigid polypropylene. Apart from that, I had concluded that it would be difficult to injure yourself in the sport that takes place predominantly on grass. However, when you lose the front wheel on a near vertical hump early into the first lap with 4 eager crustys behind you, it turns out that you can indeed be run-over, and so it was, as I brought down a good handful of old boys who cursed merrily as they crumpled. It would have been a great photo. I now have the welts and chain marks as a souvenir, but nothing that a hot bath and a blob of Savlon couldn't sort out.
Later I entertained myself with some home made lentil dahl and a slice of Brack. Its back to the gym and salads this week. The knee has been behaving itself of late and that's a cause for optimism.
