Mayhem

It seems that, since Thursday, I haven't had time to turn around.
I had a big technology day on the Thursday and got home very late, meeting on Friday... back home very late.
Getting up at 6am to run on Saturday was just pure torture. It's definitely not my best time of day for a run. Trying to swallow two crumpets at 6.05am is not a pleasant experience. I have to say I felt extremely nervous about this 18 miler, which is strange because I got through last weeks 17.5 miles relatively unscathed.

The route I picked is notorious for being very open and windy and the weather was true to form (although both previous attempts at this route in the past have been full on hail and sleet or sideways rain). The first few miles were very comfortable and I don't think I walked for the first time until I got close to 8 miles. At this point I was on the sea front and someone was burning a tyre (well... it IS Hartlepool!) I couldn't breathe with the fumes. Although the next few miles were run/walked, it was fairly comfortable until I had about 6 or 7 miles to go. The wind hit me right in the face and stayed with me for the duration of the run. Igot back home disappointed to have ran 3 minutes and 40 seconds slower than I had planned to (although pace wise it was quicker by 6 seconds a mile than last week which had been an easier route). Looking back to my previous attempts, I found I'd ran it 19 minutes quicker than ever before, so I was pleased with that result.

We went through to pick Lincoln up after that, and I instantly fell in love with him. He's absolutely gorgeous. He was very well behaved when our visitors arrived, and was even good when we went out for a meal and left him for the first time. As we were going to the spa, my mam said she would have him for the day which I was pleased about, and it turns out he had been fantastic for the whole day. It wasn't until it was time for bed that he really started to kick off. He cried, howled, barked, scratched, bit at his bedding, knocked his water bowl over, ate the newsaper he was supposed to wee on.... it goes on!
To cut a very long night short, Graeme and I had hardly any sleep. Apparently this goes on for a few nights... anything up to 2 weeks. Lord help me! However, with a face like this, you can't get too annoyed can you?