'That's Dawlish Baby'

pm: 1 hr easy on trails & grass
8.5mi

This morning I rocked up to Headingley Cricket Ground with the intention of getting the bulk of my assigned tasks done. I ended up getting a fair bit done and hob-nobbing with a few people who were here for interviews. I found out a bit of internal gossip on player and commercial activity which was cracking and then had a longish lunch to feed the bowling machine for someone in the indoor school. I had a bit of a bowl first and considered taking the sport back up and enrolling at my local cricket club such was the level of turn I was getting. I quickly let this temptation dissipate when I remembered we soon have the North v South cricket match at BUAC; a big enough stage to showcase my cricketing talents. The main thing I learnt at work today was just how fast 99mph bowling is. It is like a gun-shot and extremely frightening to face! I had to spend quite a while working out which T20 matches I can and cannot attend this summer and I also found out I can get discounted tickets which has got to be a bonus; then again I am working here for free after all. I fixed up a run with Danny and headed home. I spoke to Mikey Williams on the phone for a while about Lance Armstrong and THAT article in the Times and had a bit of a giggle about it as the mounting evidence is bordering on the ridiculous now! I caught the train to Woodlesford and as ever it was packed to the rafters. I was stood over a chavvy 17/18 year old girl, trying to decide if she was a goer. Sat on her right was a moderately attractive ‘emo’ type girl, a little older. I quickly formulated a list of pros and cons but was struggling for time as I’m the first stop on the Hallam Line so we are talking 7 minutes or so. Thankfully, the decision was taken out of my hands. Both delved into their bags, almost instantaneously, pulling out a marvel comic and an iPod. Remarkably, the ‘emo’ put some horrific dance music on full volume and the slutty little bird started reading what looked like some sort of variation on ‘Radio Active Man’ from the Simpsons. I was pretty unsettled by this latest turn of events as it was far too similar to the plot-line of the Jennifer Garner movie ‘In Her Shoes’ for me to draw any other conclusion than the most obvious; exactly the same had happened here. I was relieved to get off the train, free from the worry of being catapulted into the body of the obese ginger haired motorcyclist a few feet down the train who liked to pick his nose and wipe it on Robbie Paul on the ‘Northern Rail Cup’ advertisement. Back to reality, I got home, got changed and did an easy hour with Dan. I am now convinced it is better to run later in the afternoon on the day following a session. Last week I was borderline disabled for the first mile, today I was as fresh as a daisy. My calves and Achilles were still tight/sore (especially when running on hard ground) but I didn’t have tired legs. I ran very easily with Danny but it was a decent pace with little effort and a low HR. I hope my calves settle a bit tomorrow as they are quite sore just walking around. We had a bit of an event in the middle of the run which is worth including here. We came to a fence covered in barbed wire and obviously, the only option is to climb over it. Firstly I threw my dog over, not realising it was quite deep on the other side so he was not too happy. I then put my foot on the bottom of the fencing and it immediately snapped off. I now carefully had to step over the barbed wire and then step on the highest bit of wood. It took my weight ok, and then as if in stages it started to collapse in on itself until I felt the barbed wire on my buttocks at which point I sprung off into the ditch. Danny was in stitches and I almost literally needed some! The Kid likes to use the phrase ‘I nearly tore myself a new arse-hole’ when you get chaffing from shorts or do a huge shit. Well, I almost did tear myself a new arsehole so I won’t be using that phrase again in a hurry! I made a rhubarb crumble before dinner with the rhubarb generously picked from the farm by Dale. I was then looking forward to a pizza my Mum had bought from the supermarket and as I got ready for dinner she took it out of the oven and dropped it on the dirty kitchen floor. I nearly blew my top that she’d done it was quite ridiculous the way she tried to take it out. I decided it wasn’t worth it, picked up the phone and got some Dominos in; worse things have happened after all. After dinner and a cracking crumble, there was nothing at all on TV so I ended up just killing time until bed. I tried watching ‘Junior Apprentice’ but what a load of shit that turned out to be. The highlight of the evening was being alerted by an excited Alex Davy that for some reason Michael Salter had put this video blog on eightlane.com:

www.eightlane.com/generator.php?search=Video&id=1326

This is some of the best work yet from The Dawlish Boys of Birmingham and I enjoyed everything about it if I’m quite honest; he IS going well over the barriers after all.