Lazy Eye

If I took the time to explain every time a huge gap appeared in the timeframe of my blog, I’d be writing more excuses than what I actually want to write about.  Not only is that not fun for me, I know from experience that it’s also not that fun to read, so the less time dwelt on it, the better.  Now, three major things of note have cropped up since the last time I posted.  First of which being the Cartmel trail race.  I was taking part in it for two reasons: I wanted to see if I could do it, and everyone who finished got some of Cartmel’s famous sticky toffee pudding.  Now to weave the tale…

The drive down through the Lakes that morning was stunning.  There was barely a cloud in the sky, and the mountain tops were clear.  A good day for a run, even though it was only 3° C (37° F).  When we got to Cartmel, we had some time before the race started, so we went for a wander round the town.  I know quaint English country village is a cliché, but that’s really what the place was.  Little cottages and terrace houses, a huge church, and a racecourse just outside the town itself where the race was starting from.  At the starting line, all sorts of people lined up.  Old, young, chubby, thin.  It was actually impossible to feel out of place.  We set off to the music of Franz Ferdinand playing through a set of loudspeakers nearby.  Whoever thought that was a good idea, I don’t know, but it was played at the start of the last race I took part in as well.  The race would be 16km (10 miles), so I set off at a steady pace, barely taking note of how fast others were going.  I managed to keep up with my dad and sister for the first kilometre, but then I was hampered by a stitch, which unfortunately became a theme for the next 7 kilometres (I’d prefer to measure in miles, but this is how the race was split up).  It having warmed up to 5° when we left the car, I was surprised when, just a short way into the race, the heat of the sun started blazing down.  I’d started the race in a t-shirt, fleece and windproof jacket, but I was soon down to just my t-shirt.  I’d decided not to carry any water with me as well, so when the first water station came up half-way through the race, it was a huge relief.  I was getting into my stride at that point as well, my stitches had gone, and the bulk of the uphill was over as well.

In races, you find yourself running in and around the same group of people throughout.  I was honestly quite surprised at the group I found myself with.  One person had absolutely no breathing pattern and seemed to wheeze a lot.  Another was clearly overweight, and a third person, only just within earshot behind me sounded like he was retching every two-hundred yards or so.  On the downhill sections, I was able to overtake the group, but found myself running level with them on the flats and uphills of the race.  I know I’m not especially quick, and I haven’t been training that long, but their speed surprised me.

The second water station at around 13 km was another huge relief.  I’d been feeling a bit dizzy before that, and my pace had slowed, but a drink of water and several jelly beans later, I was running back at my usual pace.  I actually had enough, if you’ll excuse the car metaphor, left in the tank to manage a sprint finish.  Results published later showed I ran the race in 2 hours 13 minutes, beating my aim of 2½ hours.  It was also revealed after the race that they had in fact measured it incorrectly.  16km became 18km.  Which was nice.

Event number two is the job interview I had, which is the furthest any application I’ve sent off since Christmas has been.  I didn’t get the job, but the interview itself was a positive thing.

Finally, the third event of note – Cockermouth Company of Archers Easter Egg Shoot.  I surprised myself (again) by coming second in the senior archers’ head-to-head competition.  For those of you who don’t know how archery scoring works, this is a really good achievement.  For those who do know how it works, know that I was helped massively by my handicap of 35 (the person who won had a handicap of 44).  After that came the fun bit.  Some of the junior archers (I assume) had made large Easter egg targets, onto which were stuck balloons, and, later, teddy bears.  Suffice to say, aiming for those was extremely tempting.  So, in the spirit of Lent, I gave into that temptation.  I pierced two balloons and a teddy bear, the latter of which I still have, though I removed the arrow from it.  As the saying goes – all fun and games!