Sunday 29 January 2012

Midland Cross Country Championships, Wollaton Park, Nottingham. January 28th 2012

BLOG.
£25 … I just can’t believe it.
Here’s a training tip for you Blog (number ten, me thinks) ….. I believe we can learn a great deal to help our trudging by listening to our bodies and observing nature. A simple example; how often have we been plagued by blisters and cuts on the heel which inhibits quality training because of the pain? Never mind your complicated solutions, chemists, juju men, plasters …. If you watch an injured animal with a cut, a dog, a cat, a lion … not that we have had too many lions around where we live now lately. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen one since the last time I saw one. What do they do? They lick the wound! So. What do we do with a cut to help the healing process? The suggestion is, dear Blog, that you use spit (saliva if you are posh, blog). No don’t lick it!! Put the gob of spit on using your fingers, you silly billy. Let it dry before you cover the wound. Re spit as often as possible. It does work, it really does! Let the body heal itself as some bloke once said.
£25 … I just can’t believe it.
Saturday was the Midland Counties Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park in Nottingham. Interesting when we arrived and parked up … it must have been 40 years, yes 40 years, four zero years, f-o-r-t-y plus years since I won my first championship medal there!!! In those far off days we ran out around the lake and back through the top end of the park trying not to stampede the deer in the process; now, charging deer is scary with like a capital ‘S’. Unlike Saturday, when the senior men did four small poncey laps next to the school! In all seriousness, Blog, poor James Walsh who won the race for the sixth(?) time, had to spend 30% of the race weaving in and out of the lapped runners, some of whom were far from being considerate in allowing him a decent free run. With mega acres of land to utilise, it would have been just as simple for the organisers to have had three larger laps, thereby avoiding many of the problems caused by the slower runners getting in the way of the faster finishers. It would have taken not much longer to stake out. The few members of the public who were enjoying the Wollaton Park would not have been inconvenienced. No more marshals would have been required to police the race. It could so easily have cost James his Championship because it was a close competition for much of the race. Thankfully it didn’t and he won in fine style. Godiva’s senior men’s team finished in the bronze medal position and the Godiva senior women’s team missed repeating the men’s success by a SINGLE POINT!! Can you believe that Blog. One lousy rotten point! One point and the bronze medal goes floating off down the Swanee. That is the same as a spit and a cough. Not the same spit you used on the cut, Blog, I hasten to add. But one point.
£25 … I just can’t believe it.
Oh, and one more thing Blog, while I remember. I have been racing in Wollaton Park for forty years. 40 years. Four zero years. F-o-r-t-y plus years. I have been driving for forty years. 40 years. Four zero years. F-o-r-t-y plus years and I have never received a speeding fine. I have been driving for forty years. 40 years. Four zero years. F-o-r-t-y plus years and I have never received a parking ticket.
£25 … I just can’t believe it.
Until YESTERDAY.
£25 … I just can’t believe it.
Don’t ask me why. Old age? For some reason I never thought to get a parking ticket when I arrived at the Park. Never entered my head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And when I got back to the car after the racing had finished, There it was. Bright yellow. Stuck to my windscreen. A parking ticket. The shame of it. £25 … I just can’t believe it.
I shall be organising a sponsored trudge in the very near future Blog. I do hope you will find it in yourself to sponsor me. Dig deep in your pocket for quids. It will be to raise funds for a good cause. All quids raised will go towards paying my £25  … I just can’t believe it.
                                         Colin

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