Where Larks and Swifts Splash

Having survived the short course, I have a lot of respect for NLN's completion of the full WEF route. The short course wasn't especially demanding as a route, but at 18 miles with water splashing up from the ground, gurgling down the streams and falling from the heavens (guess that's lower case for the pleural) to take on the extra 8 miles into the high ground deserves a lot of credit, well done!

TF and I splashed along and had a great time. My number was 69, so it didn't matter whether I was on my a**e or my elbow and the two alternated more than once or twice. Towards the end we were to-ing and fro-ing with a trio of sporty ladies who seemed to have the edge on us speed-wise, but TF's (almost) perfect navigating kept us in contention, and they fell by the wayside with a mile or two to go, and we were eating our quiche and salad (hardly the food for heroes) when they finally landed. An excellent long morning out.

Haven't yet seen the results for the Rufford 10k thingy (was Matt's reference to the Ruffold 10k just a mistake, a Freudian slip, or a clever reference to it being a contest between two rough old men?), but despite Saturday's exertions and a couple or more beers in the evening, I managed to get back to a sub 50 minutes finish (it was a very flat course). T'Yorkshireman beat me by over 2 minutes, well done Gordon. Matt was a few minutes behind me, but no doubt was further up his age group than I was in mine.

Matt bemoaned his lack of speed, blaming it on not being able to do the Tuesday track sessions, but we are investigating the possibility of organising our own session at the Arena on Wednesdays ~ all welcome.