Race Race Race

The races seem to be coming fast and furious at the moment. Luckily the races I like tend to be lower key races without all the hype and razamataz of the huge branded events. This means that I can afford to be casual/slack with my race entries and quite often leave entering them until very late or on the day.

In the last 3 weeks I've raced the Endurancelife Coastal Marathon, Burnham on Sea Aquathlon, NDTC In-Club Triathlon and yesterdays Arlington Court 10. Next weekend it's the Neolithic Marathon and then there's finally a weekend free (at the moment) where I'll be doubling up the long bike days in a last minute preperation bid for the Marazion 1/2 IM distance Triathlon the following week.

(Talking tactics)

Yesterdays race was the Arlington Court Canter, a tough 10k off road race in the grounds of (funnily enough) Arlington Court in North Devon, just 20mins drive away from home. After a tough old Saturday (2h20m bike, 1hr gym, 50min run) I sought out the race organiser Tom who's a clubmate of mine and asked if I could run around the course with the dog. This meant starting at the back and taking the early section nice and steady(ish) while keeping Rosie (the pup) in check as she tried to charge her way through the field at breakneck pace.

A couple of early doggy poo stops actually helped as it gave the field time to spread out a little before we started picking our way through the back markers and after a good solid effort we worked our way up to 56th place in just under 47mins.

After crossing the line some old fat boy in a blazer came up to us preaching about how Rosie shouldn't have been on the course, how she was dangerous and a hazard. There were lots of things I wanted to say to him, I was going to suggest he asked every runner crossing the line behind me if there was a problem with the dog. Instead I just explained to him that I'd asked the permission of the organiser before running and he'd given his consent so long as the dog was well behaved and kept on her lead when inside the main grounds. Then old blazer boy introduced himself as the race referee and started muttering on about how he could DQ me and how the organiser should have known better. Realising that this had the potential to get Race Organiser Tom into trouble with the running bigwigs I turned into Mr Pleasant and apologised for taking the pup round, promised not to do it again. I then hurried off to find Tom and warn him of the impending problem (he sorted it all out, he's good like that).

So that's it really. Another weekend, another race! Time to train for next weekends off road Marathon I guess.

PS - 2h20m on the bike Saturday - being back in the saddle hurt - Marazion Middle Distance Tri in 3 weeks time is going to be a world of pain!!!!!