Yorkshireman Off Road Marathon

“You gotta beat the clock, you gotta beat the clock” 

That was the plan; to get around the course before my GPS watch conked out. Failing that, anything sub 6 hours was the aim. 

At the Hidden Howgills marathon in May, my watch stopped at 23.93 miles with 5h:49m:03s on the clock with an official finishing time of 6h:20m:05s. 

So how did I get on this time? 

Well, my watch decided to give up the ghost a bit earlier this time and stopped at 24 miles dead with 5h:24m:49s on the clock. My official finishing time was 5h:55m:28s. 

I didn’t beat the clock but I did get my sub 6 hour finish and knocked 25 minutes off my overall finish time. 

Very pleased with that.

One of those days

Well what a palaver! The bus driver forgot to come and collect Biggest Girl this morning. It's a good job I was around to sort it out. Managed to get hold of the bus company and, luckily, they were able to divert another bus and collect her. Hopefully, it's just a one off.

Note: this is a bus stop in Threlkeld with some nice yarn bombing.  Our bus stop is not as pretty!

A work knitting buddy is leaving on Friday for pastures completely new. Can't say I blame them. Times are uncertain in local government these days. It certainly pays to have more than one string to your bow. Much better than being a one-trick pony.

Wednesday Wittering

Ach! I was vexed this morning on my way to work.  Vexed I tell you! It’s a little thing but one that really annoys me and it is this; why, oh why, oh why do numpty drivers on the motorway always persist in squeezing/barging into the gap in front of me when there is ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY NOTHING behind me?  This means I have to slow down to avoid ramming them up the jacksy just because they are too impatient to hang fire for about 10 seconds until I have passed them. Grr! This should not nark me as much as it does seeing as it’s a fairly regular occurrence, only it does; it really, really does.  Makes me all grumpy for quite some time afterwards. 

On a lighter note, I did spot a peloton of cyclists on the A6 from the motorway flyover.  Wonder what was going on?  There was probably around 40 of them and no support vehicles in sight so probably not a race or anything.  Strange time for a club outing though at 9.15 on a Wednesday morning.

Grumpy demeanour was smoothed out somewhat after lunchtime Pilates session. It’s always a great way to relax although one of the leg exercises almost made my thighs explode today! Haven’t been to a session since before the summer holidays so I’m not as bendy as I was then. Maybe that explains the difficulty. Mind you, I’m not the only one ready for the knacker’s yard; there were quite a few creaking and cracking joints to be heard today.

Today is a rest day from running.  I was out Monday and Tuesday night.  Both took a lot longer time than the distance achieved really merited.  That’s the thing with running with a group; there is always a certain amount of fannying about; stops for photos, twisted ankles, calls of nature, road crossings, instructions, cows etc. etc. Next run is Thursday with the club ladies so I will be huffing and puffing at the back of the pack then.  As the year goes on, and the darker nights begin to close in, I wonder how the runs will go.  I think the Monday group run reverts to drills on the track when they relocate for winter training and everyone else takes to the roads rather than off road.  I’m not sure what to do.  I quite like running in the dark with a head torch so hopefully there may be some others that do as well. We shall see.

Race-wise, it’s the Yorkshireman Off-Road Marathon on Sunday.  I’m looking forward to it.  The last off road marathon I did was the Hidden Howgills back in May.  There was a lot more climbing on that one and it took me 6 hours and 20 minutes.  My watch ran out at 23.90 miles after 5 hours and 49 minutes.  So my aim this time is to finish the race before my watch conks out! That would be great.  Fingers crossed.

Yorkshire Off Road Marathon - course markers

Knitting wise.  I am on with some gloves for Biggest Girl.  I started them earlier in the year for myself and only finished one glove. She likes them and, now that she is catching the bus to school every day, she wants to keep her hands cosy. Fine by me.  I dug out the relevant bag containing the project in and almost had a heart attack when I found the most enormous spider hiding in there as well…shudder! It was a whopper! I managed to release it into the wild (by into the wild, I mean I shook it out of the bag and it charged off behind the coal scuttle). 

There has been some other stuff as well.  A second Animeko cat has been finished, a funky hat made for Littlest Girl (that was originally meant for me, but looked so much better on the girls that I gave it up!) and some chunky socks finished for himself. I have also managed to add another row of granny squares to the king size blanket I am making for my bed. This blanket is taking quite a while but I’m optimistic that it might be put to use this winter!