13th November 6 mins in three years is not bad


This morning whilst TOM settled down to read the Daily Mail from cover to cover, I headed out for a little jolly  to the beautiful Upper Derwent valley to take part in the Dambusters 10 mile run around Ladybower reservoir. 

The race , just in case any of you were wondering is named after the fact that the famous Lancaster bombers that used this location as an ideal training location to perfect their technique before embarking on the famous Dambuster raid in World war II . 

On the night of 16-17 May 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson led 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force on an audacious bombing raid to destroy three dams in the Ruhr valley, the industrial heartland of Germany, a mission Operation 'Chastise' but known to most people by its more colloquial name.

It was a lovely drive over on a mild November morning, with the sunlight just starting to filter though the spectacular autumn colours. I had done the race a little over three years ago,alongside almost 200 other runners, on what I remember was a blistering hot day. What I hadn't remembered what just how hard a race it was, not with regard its steepness, although the first half of the race does feel all up hill, but due to the fact tha it is run on a mix of road and then hard rock strewn tracks. But definitly not on lovely soft forest trails. 

And my finishing time, yes I did finish, was only 6 mins slower than my time three years ago, but now back at TOM's I can officially say that there isn't a part of me below the waist that isn't sore.  Just how I am going to get dressed in the morning is a problem greater than those faced at COP 26.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6th May Olbia

Image
  A chance to stretch our legs today with our first port of call; Olbia, Sardinia. And it was a quick stretch too due to it being only a five hour stay. Up bright and early, so early in fact that the hot food at the buffet wasn't even ready to be served. Still it gave us a chance to watch the ship glide into port past a host of oyster/mussel beds, before performing a 180 degree turn to reverse into it's berth. A couple of short bus rides later and we were in downtown Olbia. But there an hour or so before anything appeared to open, the disadvantage of being early birds and something we don't seem to learn! Not that Olbia had a great deal to see or maybe if we had done the slightest bit of planning beforehand there might have benn but we didn't. It was pleasant enough but that's about it. It was pleasant enough but nothing special, indeed we were back on the ship after just a couple of hours ashore and then managed to sleep away most of th...
Read more

7th May Naples

Image
 I'm sure I've heard the phrase 'see Naples and die' suggesting that it is perhaps not the nicest location in the Mediterranean but if it's good enough for Diego Maradona fir a few years then it's good enough for me for 10 hours. Although the millions of tax free pounds he was paid might have eased his stay. By the time we got up, washed, dressed and up to The Kitchens, the rest of the ship were already there. Compared to the Marie Celeste of yesterday it was absolutely packed, presumably with people having breakfast before heading out on 8am excursions, our excursion was simply going to be the city of Naples itself as possible trips to Vesuvius, Pompei or the Amalfi coast would have been too much / tired.  So on a day when the weather initially seemed uncertain, we jumped aboard route A for the Hop on Hop off bus and headed out into the mayhem that is the Napoli traffic where it was every van, car and scooter for the selves. I think it's bes...
Read more