Owls Count

A couple of weekends ago, I went to the Berkshire Fetch Mile – these events are organised through the Fetcheveryone website. I had had vague thoughts about doing one of the local parkruns before but decided, instead, to have a welcome lie in. I travelled by train to Thatcham and then had a pleasant couple of miles walk up to the track. It was rather warm by this time of day.

I was off in the first race, but looking before the start at the others I knew that I would be orphaned off the back soon after the start and this meant that I made my primary aim to avoid being lapped. My fitness is currently down on last year and I knew that at my best I would just manage to go sub six minutes.

The first two laps were, I think, 91 and 92 seconds – roughly on plan. Then I struggled with the third lap, as is often the case. I think this was around 100 seconds. The final lap I managed to pick the pace up again and finished in 6:15. Slower than I would have liked, but not as slow as I feared it may be.

I borrowed dad’s camera during the second race and took a pile of photos.

For the third race I was pacing mum. We started a bit too fast, but managed to keep a good pace and finished exactly on the goal time of 9 minutes.

Then there was the question raised of who wanted to race 100m. Of course I instantly said yes – I never seem to remember how painful such a short race can be. I was happy with my time – I ran 14.5, which is roughly equal to my PB. All that remained after this was to eat some cake and there were plenty of tasty cakes to choose from!

I spent a good chunk of the rest of the weekend working on the garden. It has been sadly neglected for some time – the year I have lived in the property and, probably, for a few years before that. We cleared out nearly all of the ivy and took care of the weeds. Seven trips to the tip to get rid of the waste, though that is partly because of the car being small. It now looks much better and it is now possible to actually use the space to sit out and relax.