Boy Blog,
What a difference a day makes … as they say, ‘here today, gone tomorrow’! So what dear Blog, you ask, am I wittering on about? You may well ask… well I am glad you did. I am tin boxing again, this time for the National Cross Country Championships in Sunderland. After a journey up here from Coventry via a diversion to see my dear sister in God’s Own County, we went to sleep last night with the prospect of a chilly day to follow and got up this morning to find a white all over fest. Two inches (5 centimetres to you Blog) of snow covering the camp site!!! Now, because there was no parking at the National Cross Country course site at Herrington Country Park or surrounds, I had planned to park up at the back on a local industrial estate and walk the 400 yards (400 metres to you Blog) to the course to save the hassle of the Park and Ride journey from the Stadium of Light in Sunderland to the course, but because of the fall of the white stuff, that plan went out of the window and Plan ‘C’ was adopted, i.e. the Park and Ride from the Stadium of Light to the course. Plan ‘B’ had been to catch a couple of local buses and be dropped at the course, but because of the fall of the white stuff during the night, standing around waiting for local transport did not appeal. So it was the tin box to Sunderland and away the lads!
I must say the whole day was most interesting.
1. When I was at the Pink Panther University, my post graduate year was spent learning to be a sums teacher which involved a whole term, from January to Easter doing teaching practice at Sunderland Boys Grammar School. For the National Cross Country Championships, we travelled in the Tin Box to the Park and Ride mostly along the road I used to run to and from school. This was before the days of 140 miles a week (to you Blog, I haven’t a clue … get out your calculator and work it out yourself!!). The sign post said 13 miles (ditto Blog) from Durham to Sunderland .. so five days teaching practice stuck a few miles in the training diary which gave me the whole of the weekend for some serious mileage!!
2. Oh yes, I should add that my dinner time session from school was to scoot up to the Penshaw Monument and back for an afternoon of sums to the little Wearside lads … it is a bit scary actually Blog, because one of my pupils is now a well over 60s master!!!! And this said monument overlooked the National Cross Country Course to which I had come from Coventry via God’s Own County. So after I had watched my younger daughter complete her race in the senior ladies competition, I decided, for old times’ sake, to scoot up to the afore mentioned Penshaw Monument and take a picture of the start of the men’s race. It looks a long way from the course to the folly but the folly, in the style of the Parthenon, is much closer that would appear … so my daughter finishes and off I trudge, soon realising that too much kit was the order of the day. Up I climbed in the snow to the Monument. Out poured the sweat on my way up to the Monument. Arriving at the monument soaked in sweat fearing the onset of a serious heart stoppage problem, I turned to view the start of the men’s race expecting to take a dramatic shot as the field streamed along below me. I focussed my teleteletelephoto lens … the men’s field was already half a mile (800 metres to you Blog) into the event!!!! What happened to all this five minute warning gun business??? And the boom of the starting gun???? What boom???? So my climb was in vain!!!!!!!!!! A sweaty heart pumping vein!!!!!!!!! I feel I should add that when I went for my dinner time session to the folly, the view I had from the top was not the Herrington Country Park but all the paraphernalia of a coal mine, pit head winding gear, slag heap and all!!!
3. At least I had the pleasure of meeting two old Godiva members who came over to the club tent to make themselves known. Excellent .. another few lines in my ‘History of Coventry Godiva and Other City Clubs’. I shall be contacting them for any photos and information etc.. Nice to see that their grandchildren were running, one of the lads finishing 7th in his event. Brilliant!!!
4. What a pleasant surprise … one of the club tents pitched very close to the Godiva tent was the Highgate Harriers’. And what was so special … I’ll tell you what was so special Blog. They had a loud sound system rigged up. Brilliant!!!! Music all afternoon … I thanked them and hoped that their tent would be near ours for the National Road Relays at Sutton Park in April. Bet the officials there will kick up a stink …. Watch this space in April Blog!!
An d so to bed in the tin box Colin
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