26th November Stylegate comes to the Baslow Bolt


Remember back in the summer when the nation became embroiled in Queuegate after Good Morning presenters Phil Willoughby and Holly Schofield decided that they didnt need to wait for upto 12 hours with everyone else to get a view of the Queen lying in state but would just simply use the press passes to bypass the waiting lines. 

The result an outraged nation indulging in mass virtue signalling and demanding their heads on spikes outside the Palace gates. I mean who in their right mind would have the barefaced cheek to jump a queue, especially let's say for example the queue all patiently waiting in line to negotiate the first style on the Baslow Bolt race earlier this morning. Imagine the shame to be booed by fellow runners for the flagrant breach of trail running etiquette. And yes that includes you Elizabeth!!

Right having got that off my chest, and I haven't even mentioned all the runners who stood on the start line without a shred of the recommended kit requested by the race organisers, back to the run itself. Slow, slippery and sodden would be my best description with my trail running shoes appearing to move between having soles clagged up with mud and feeling like diving boots or coated in teflon and not wanting to grip anything.

It was undulating with a capital U with sections that required power walking without too much of the power element being evident. Thankfully there were other pedestrian plodders present so I had company on my snail like sojourn under leaden but thankfully dry skies. The last downhill section was lovely and I finished in a time only 6 mins slower than when I last ran the race two years ago. 

Could I have gone quicker? Well maybe if I hadn't waited patiently in line to negotiate the first style I could have. Or maybe the weight of the shame might have slowed me down even more, who knows.

 

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