Cats in a record shop

Was sent these by email and they made me giggle.

Cat listening to bluegrass:

Cat listening to rap:

Cat listening to AC/DC:

Cat listening to Techno:

Golf Ball Fell Race 2007

It’s not unusual for Fell Races to have odd names… ‘The Trunce’, ‘The Trog’, ‘Old County Tops’, etc. The Golf Ball race is so names because of the strange huge golf ball like communications tower new Loveclough on the northern tip of Rossendale. It has noting to do with golf, but as with most fell races, it takes a bit of balls at times.

The route itself looks uninspiring when you think of the topography round here; it’s not the Lake District of the Peaks, and to be honest, there’s no massive summits, but it’s a classic Pennine short fell race, with 1228 feet of climbing over the 5.5 miles.

This is the third time I’ve run the Golf Ball race; last time was in 2005 when I was 8th. I finished 13th last night, 45 seconds slower in 41:23. Very slightly disappointed but not too much – it’s reminded me that no matter how much I run I need to race more to be good at racing.

What amazed me though was it’s the first running race I’ve done since I got my new Garmin 305 GPS and Heart Rate Monitor. Just glancing down at my heart rate throughout the race made me ralise how I seem to run bang on the limit all the time. The result is that accelleration, or indeed any kind of pacing strategy is unachievable… I’m literally recovering and just getting by all the way through. (see image left – the Heart Rate is red on the graph – the green is the terrain (Heart rate hardly drops at all whether climb or descent).

The Google Earth KMZ file front he Garmin is here for anyone who wants to look at the course.

Mmmmm. Giants.

I know it’s cheap and schoolboy-like, I know it’s a pure out and out publicity stunt, but I can’t help laughing at this.

Dave and Jane’s house for the weekend

The last time Katie and I woke up in a bed at Dave and Jane Bancroft’s house, it was the morning after the millennium celebrations in the Millennium Dome. This time, when I looked at my watch on Saturday morning, it was 07:07 on 07 07 2007. How flipping wierd’s that ?

We went to stay (long overdue) with our lovely mates on the occasion of the Tour de France visiting London. The spectacle of it all just surpassed any superlatives I can come up with. Immense crowds, an incredibly friendly atmosphere, and brilliant weather.

The race itself went so well (we watched the prologue in Hyde Park), and it built to a great crescendo, with two of the British time trial specialists going off towards the end of the three hour event. In the end, it was great to see utter domination from woprld time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. It’s somehow right that a world champion should win the ‘world prologue championships’ (as Chris Boardman used to call the Tour de France prologue).

We had such a great time at Dave and Jane’s. My recent switch in jobs (to doing web development work at Reverse Delta) could have meant an erosion of my relationship with my Dave becoming my colleague and inevitably my boss, but it’s been a really positive move. Nice wine, lovely food, good weather; good times.

One breadth to Five Metres: Swimming certificates a generation on.

Lily’s swimming under her own buoyancy and skill now, and she very proudly brought home her five metres certificate yesterday. I thought it was time to compare the certificates that she and I brought home after our respective swimming breakthroughs.