GOATS GALLOP 2009

Me and Brian worry about getting our shoes dirty.

Today was HELPs 24th running of the Goat's Gallop. I think this is the fourth time I've done this run and I always love it.

OK - I'll be honest. I love the thought of it before the race, and I love the feeling of achievement after it. But the bit in the middle? That bit between the start and crossing the finish line? Bloody awful.

Glad I did it (look forward to doing it again next year), but jeeze! If your lungs being forced up out of your chest and through your mouth is your idea of fun - or if coming across descents that look like cliff faces is your idea of fun - then this is the run for you!

It had been raining quite heavily through the night. So even although it was a beautiful sunny morning (though a tad chilly) it was always going to be wet and muddy underfoot. However, just before the start of the race it started to dull down. Now. I'd brought my "runners" sunglasses with me (expecting nice weather), but it soon became obvious I wouldn't need them - BUT because I only had a "nice" new pair of specs I didn't want to risk damaging them if I feel (a real risk in this run). I opted for the stupid approach - "I'll do the race without my specs"!

A bit of a staggered start to the race - with some of the slower runners heading off first.

I lined up with the other runners in the main group and we were off... And it was pretty obvious from very early on that Brian Marshall was out to reclaim his trophy. He was being chased mind by a young runner I've not seen before - Callum (apologies if the names wrong).

Anyway. I wasn't out there to "race" as such - just to have fun. Then I realised as we started the long climb up to the start of the main climb up Lammer Law that I was getting ahead of Ian. Thoughts rapidly shifted from "fun" towards "sod this, I'm going for it". The climb up to the cairn at the top was really tough. My face was a sodden mass of sweat, phlegm and snot by the time I started the race back down the hill. But I didn't care.. I was about ten seconds ahead of Ian.

Then the first of two tragedies befell me. I lost sight of the markers. The route was well marked out. Well marked out for normal people that is. Not for short sighted idiots who take on hill running without specs! I was standing there scanning the horizon, looking for those tell tale markers when Ian charged up to me and shouted "straight on"!.

I had lost about 8 seconds - but charged straight on until the second tragedy befell me. The tragedy being I forgot that I go down hills like a big nancy. Ian just dropped down like a stone, and Eddie shot past me and gained time, while I did my embarrassing hippty hop through the heather.

However, once we got down the worst of the slope and onto a track I just got my head down and dug deep....

Eddie, rather uncharitably to my mind, asked if I'd hurt something on the way down as I finally caught and passed him; then appeared a little disappointed when I said "no I hadn't".

Ian was in my sights and I new we had about four miles to go. I just ran myself as close to destruction as I could - but I just couldn't get there. At one point I was just about on his shoulder, but he always just seemed to find that little extra and draw away.

What a 5 second gap looks like

Ended up five seconds behind him in 1:00:34. Still. Whats five seconds over nine miles? Six seconds too much - that's what it is!

After the race we went off to Haddington to get showered and changed at the sports centre then away to the Tynneside Tavern for lunch.

Fantastic run.

Anne took the photos and there more at http://picasaweb.google.com/stu.hay/GoatsGallop2009?feat=directlink

LETS DROP TONY THE TIGER OVER THE MIDDLE EAST.

I’m an ovolactvegetarian (not that you’d know it to look at me). I’m vegetarian but I eat eggs and milk products (generally speaking you don’t have to kill the animal to get these products J ). Well. I say “milk”, but we get that UHT skimmed stuff in our house. That’s just basically white water.
Today the BBC had an article about so called “vegetarians” who also eat fish ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8341002.stm )– these people are simply called “wrong”. And I’m quite pleased to see that the Vegatarian Society thinks so too (http://www.vegsoc.org/fish/facts1.html ).
Anyway. I’ve been a vegetarian now for the best part of 25 years. It’s amazing to see in that time how many products now carry the wee “vegetarian” kite mark “V”. I often have a quick skim at products labels to find it rather than have to go through the list of ingredients to check.
Apparently ultra-orthodox vegetarians don’t drink malt whisky as it’s often matured in old sherry casks and there’s something in sherry manufacturing that’s a no-no!! Now. I’ve got to hold my hands up here and admit to drinking a small amount of malt at various points in those 25 years.


However, bored as I was this morning, I was reduced to reading my Frosties box as I got my head (and the rolls) together for another fun filled day.
There nestled right next to the wee kite mark telling me that “Her Maj’” eats Frosties was the little reassuring “V”. But next to this were another two kite marks that I’ve never seen before… One telling me that Frosties are Kosher friendly and another telling me that they are Halal friendly. How good is that? I wonder if these kite marks will become more common in years to come.
Never fully understood the “ins” and “outs” and “what-not”s of Kosher and Halal diets, but anyone who starts the day with a bowl of Frosties is OK in my book.

LUNAR-TICS

Ever since Methuselah was a wee boy (or perhaps even before then) the running club has done the "Town Run" during the winter months. While, with recent developments to Dunbar, there have been some minor changes and "add-ons" the basic route of this route has remained unchanged.

So it came as a shock last night to have this comfortable tradition questioned and a radical alternative thrown into the ring.

Ian pointed out that it was really clear night - there was a full moon - why didn't we go over the A1 and head into the country.

And a few of us did..... and it was quite good to be honest. However, we would pick the very week where I had failed to pack my reflective bib, and had chosen to wear one of my darkest long sleeve tops. Ah well. At least the roads over there are fairly quiet.

It's a strange feeling running at night outwith the relative comfort of street lights (especially without a head torch). I found that fairly quickly, once out of lighted areas my eyes adapted quite well. But I do find that my perception of distance is a bit limited and I think that makes it very hard for me to judge pace and speed. Though the continual panting and pechin' led me to believe we were going at a fair pace. Indeed Ian GPS suggested one mile had been covered at about 6:10 pace (a bit brave/daft when you cant see the road surface that well).

One or two bits where we ran trough trees or beside high hedges got a bit too dark for my liking, and I think if I do that again I'll wear my head torch - just to turn on at the odd moment.

Made a nice change though.

MIND YOUR HEAD

Flooding today through in the Third World. Sadly, nothing of biblical proportions – just a little “localized” flooding.

Again, sadly, it was “localized” to a part of the *cough* “dear green place” that I run through.

The tide was high, added to all the rain they’ve had, meant the water was coming up over part of  the Clyde walkway – just under the arches of a bridge I have to go under. There was another runner ahead of me and I wondered why, upon coming up to the bridge, he’d stopped. About four inches of manky Clyde water sploshing about that’s why he’d stopped.

Soon though, we discovered, that if we crouched as low as possible, sort of leaning to the left, and forced ourselves off the path and into the extreme shallow part of the archway we could just get through and avoid most of the water. Well, I say “we” – he got through OK. I blootered my head of the top of the arch, stumbled and ended up with both feet sploshing about in water. Oh. And so much for solidarity among runners! I definitely heard laughing as I stumbled about cursing and holding my head!

Now the scar tissue from my little foray into DIY surgery hasn’t yet cleared up – so hopefully I won’t get an infection.

More immediate concern is that my shoes are now going to be sodden for tonight’s run

Don’t mind getting my feet wet once I start running, but I hate putting wet shoes on at the start of a run.

DIY

Running isn’t going too badly at the moment. I seem to have “fixed” my problem with my new ASICS 1140’s (i.e. I’ve re-laced them J ) though yesterday’s wind and torrential rain did turn my Sunday run into more of a chore than an enjoyable part of my weekend routine. I had planed at one point to go out a long run (20 miles), but after about half an hour of rain soaking through my clothes and down my back I decided “stuff this for a lark” and duly cut the run short to about 14 miles.

Still being plagued by the old “flappy-foot-syndrome” however. This only affects me when I try to push it a bit (not that I was doing that yesterday). This flappy-foot malarkey has resulted in a big blister under the big toe nail. Obviously as this swells it pushes the toe nail up and causes a fair bit of pain. This in turn cause me to run funny and this in turn causes all manor of problems.

A remedy had to be found. A wee bit of D.I.Y remedial surgery was in order.

This perhaps sounds more alarming than it really is…….

1.      Remove shoe.

2.      Remove sock.

3.      Push old, safety pin under nail into big blister.

4.      Sit back and sigh in relief as the pressure immediately subsides.

5.      Oh…. Hobble to works kitchen area to get paper towels to mop up desk now awash with “blister juice”.

6.      Ignore comments from disgusted co-workers J

SHORES, LAGOONS AND ISLANDS....

Yesterday saw me get into Edinburgh with a whole twenty minutes to spare before my train back to Dunbar.

Time then, just, for a quick dash up to the Oxfam shop on the Royal Mile. And mighty glad I did as well.For there tucked away among the discarded “Spice Girls” CDs and the [quite rightly] unwanted Peter Andre offerings of yesteryear there lay a couple of little jazz numbers quite new to me, but at such a descent price I was happy to take a leap of faith…

And happy that I did. For they provided some pleasant surprises for this weeks coffee, cake and jazz.

First to catch my beady little eye was The Theo Travis Quartet “Passion Dance – Live at Ronnie’s [Scott]”.And what a wonderful album it is.

Theo Travis plays Tenor sax on all but one of the tracks (he switches to flute for “Off The Wagon” by Tubby Hayes). Ten tracks and six of them self penned. Including one called “Shore Thing” a beautiful, slow, mournful ballad - I might be wrong here... but I think it just might pay homage to another tune about a shore by a certain Mr Bilk. It's certainly got that sort of calm, rolling feel to it. Like waves on ... eh... a "shore".

I’m tempted to track down more of his work – but from what I’ve read about him, this is one of the few “mainstream” jazz albums he’s done – a few of his later offerings cross over into free style jazz (not really my cuppa of choice). I think I’d have to sample before I committed (sadly few charity shops have "listening booths"). However, this CD is pretty much mainstream jazz (the covers are by Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Tubby Hayes and Cole Porter). He reminds me here of Michael Brecker.

The other CD I found was “Another Shade Of Browne” By Tom Browne. Trumpet player Tom Browne is, apparently, more better known for his work on “funk” records. This album then is “Another Shade” as this is, for him, an out of context foray into more mainstream jazz.

It’s pretty much a bop offering with fiery, ear-piercing tunes by the likes of Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard among others – with one notable exception. The CD has the tune “A Sleepy Lagoon” by Eric Coates.

Never heard of it? Yes you have .. it’s the theme tune to Desert Island Discs. Only this version, by jazz quintet (complete with, I think, muted trumpet) turns it into a slow, bluesy ballad. A real wee gem that really stands out.

I think the Theo Travis CD will get regular visits. The Tom Browne, I think, will be one of those CDs that goes onto the MP3 player. Then every now and then when a track pops up on “random shuffle” it might remind me to revisit it in CD format. I’ll try and listen to it a few times this weekend though.

NOTHING LIKE A NICE SHOWER AFTER A RUN...

What’s worse than a crap run at lunchtime?

A crap run at lunchtime – only to get back to the office and find out that the shower isn’t working (again)!

Oooh – I feel all mingy L

 

Anyway. Why was the run crap? I don’t know is the honest answer, but I just didn’t feel good or comfortable at all. Probably didn’t help that I’d been in a meeting all morning. Don’t think I was stressed about it or anything, but it had been playing on my mind.

Lucky it wasn’t an afternoon meeting! Stuck in a stuffy meeting room with six others – after a six mile run and no shower J That would have cut the time down I expect.

 

Anyway. Interval session tonight. I’ll try that and see how I get on.