No doubt you will be desperate to know how I got on last weekend running the Crick cross country race up in Rugby. Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed with myself if the truth be told. I was a bit cocky about it I suppose and got a little carried away on Saturday night – during what was meant to be a quiet evening at home in front of the fire - tucking into the most delicious bottle of Clos des Quatre Vents 2004 which would have been fine if it hadn’t been preceded by several Stellas during the worst rugby match I have ever watched and an Italian white. And the run would have been challenging enough even if I hadn’t had to carry a throbbing headache around with me. Multiple ( how I hate the way that word has crept into common parlance ) stiles, boggy fields, steep railway embankments, endless uphill roads and a stiff wind which seemed to blow straight into one all the way round. Needless to say, I failed to beat my targeted time, and indeed only managed to get anywhere approaching respectability thanks to the fact that I rashly and, I admit, somewhat arrogantly but it wasn’t like that at the time, offered to double the sum I pledged to some schoolboy I had breezed past early on in the race, who told me he was running to raise money for a school in Kenya, if he beat me. This guy, who had seemed to me to be down and out, turned out to be the Headboy no less and made of sterner stuff than I. A mile further down the road he drew up alongside me and the race was on! Actually he was a god-send and we lumbered along together, even managing the occasional, chat much to the subsequent embarrassment of Hen.
Talking of being chatted up, a couple of years ago, shortly after I joined a golf club near home, I had a mildly disconcerting experience when the then Captain, an elderly retired Naval Commander, seemed to take something of a shine to me and on only the second occasion we met invited me to come sailing with him in the Swedish fjords. I have entered the club match play competition recently and the first round is to be played this weekend. Guess who I have been drawn against?! Yeee ha! Wish me luck.
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