Saturday was an absolutely delightful day, a bit fresh but glorious sunshine. A short drive to Poole saw Mich, Max and I running the Poole Parkrun (Max in the buggy by the way, not actually running, afterall he is not 3yo until November). A lovely park and a really friendly atmosphere.
I came 2nd, not in the entire race but out of the 5 running buggies that were being pushed round the course
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226084395
Incidentally, the three of us ran the Oxford parkrun the previous week. I came 3rd out of 3 buggies that time.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/224267369
We spent the rest of Saturday, pottering around the New Forest, going to a farmer's market having a pint of the local ale from the Ringwood brewery and generally enjoying the sunshine. We also saw the unofficial golden postbox in Lymington in honour of Ben Ainsle. Apparantly, a local chap (who was later arrested) painted it as Ben lives in Lymington. The official one is in Cornwall where Ben grew up.
When we got back to the tent, I unzipped the front of the tent as was about to start cooking dinner when I realised we had been burgled. We had been raided by a local criminal who is still at large and roaming free in the New Forest. The material of the larder had been chewed through, the culprit had quite a choice including Alpen bars & porridge, but it seems that Squirrels cannot resist Malt Loaf. I had bought a pack of 5 lunchbox slices. 4 empty wrappers were found a few metres from the tent.
Our neighbouring tent had also been raided and they had actually chewed through their tent to gain access to Doritos and a French stick!
Now, I had been keeping an eye on the weather all week and I knew that rain was forecast, but because the glorious sunshine hadn't been forecast, I was rather hoping that the rain might hold off. At 5am Sunday morning I was awoken by the pitter patter of raindrops on the tent and put it this way, as I type this at 8pm Sunday evening it is still raining!
So I got up at 7am and made myself some porridge (kindly left by the squirrels) and later ventured out into the rain to drive to New Milton. Mich sensibly decided to stay behind in the tent.
I managed to briefly meet up with a group of PWR's just before the off and then before we knew it the race had started. The race was enjoyable (once you are wet, you are wet) and a lot of locals made the effort to support the runners despite the weather. I thought it was ironic that we passed one pub both on the way out and on the way back, the name? 'The Rising Sun' There is a bit of a drag of a hill at 9 miles but there were loads of humerous signs on the way up to keep people's spirits up. My favourite was 'FACT, New Forest Half Marathoners have better legs than any other runners'. Also I have to say for the first time ever the mile markers were virtually in perfect synchronisation with my Garmin, never bring more than 0.01 different from when my watched beeped!
I managed a 1:48 and might have been a bit quicker, if I hadn't had to stop to do my shoe laces three times. The third time I finally worked out to do a double knot! I think water must have seeped in through my ears and affected my brain or maybe it was because I didn't get to eat any Malt Loaf before my run?
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/226084418
So then it was a case of collect my medal, space cape, make my way back to the car and back to the quagmire, I mean campsite.
Being the chivalrous chap that I am I said to Mich "There is no point of us both getting wet" So I packed the tent up in a monsoon on my own. To be honest it was actually quite enjoyable. I couldn't get any wetter and (despite being told it is virtually impossible to get a sodden tent in the bag) I managed it first time. By the way, I am talking about a 5 berth steel frame 7m x 3m tent here, not a 2 man dome tent!
So all in all a fun weekend. Hopefully the memories of today will have faded enough by next year when I ask Mich if she wants to go camping again :-)
TJH
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