Compton 40

Hottest April day since 1949.
Mark writes - today was going to be tough for me: just avoiding dehydration and cramps was going to be a successful result; so even though I finished in 6:27 (about an hour slower than previous races here) I was fine with the time - although naturally I felt that I should have gone at least 7 mins faster to win V50. I didn't have any major collapse, but just was slow today; my only cramps were in the final mile, and about 2 mins walking seemed to help. A 2 minute lie down in Ginge Brook (at 33 miles) also helped refresh the legs.
Most of the race I was looking to stay cool - hunting for shade, and reducing pace to avoid overheating. I had 8 Nuuns and 7 salt sachets during the race, nibbled at food, but didn't eat a lot. Julian said he'd had a cup of tea at CP6.
Maybe the week in the Lakes had affected my performance? I will see in the Marlborough 33.

Lakes April

4 days in the Lakes with the junior juniors.
This year we had a bigger van so I had a seat to myself. Much better weather this year, and lots of lambs to study.
Slept in porch of tent with Eddie, both of us keeping watch over Mark, Tim and Nick inside. At 0430 each morning I crept outside the tent to study the sheep and their lambs in the next field.

On the last day we hired some canoes; the boys seemd to spend most of the time splashing each other and the girls; Mark and I shared a canoe, and I was barking at the paddle everytime it went in the water.

On Snowdon Sat 19th March

Good running this morning, though without Charlie, who'd stayed at home.
0630 start and normal route up from Llanberis up tourist path (1:21 to summit), then from summit to Carnedd Ugain (1:35); no visiblity at top so followed compass due west and met the Snowdon Ranger path spot on; Moel Cynghorion (2:10), then dropped down to path and fast back to the car (2:29), followed by breakfast at Pete's Eats. Collected Gran from Beaumaris at 1030 as planned.

Mark was beaten by another collie!

Mark did the Haworth Hobble yesterday; after the third checkpoint (approx 13 miles) he was overtaken by a collie with its human on a lead. Mark did his best to keep up with said collie, but lost contact after Stoodley Pike, and she (and human) finished about 5 mins ahead of him. She is about 3 1/2 years, just slightly older than me, so I'm not impressed at being left out of this race.
Mark, however, has entered me for a 13 mile Cani-X race in May, but he's told me that I can't stop at every tree and fence post.
He says that it is the law that only Border Collies are allowed in Yorkshire, but he did hear of a couple of spaniels who got in unobserved.

Sheep are as intelligent as humans

See here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/21/lamb_cutlets/
So that makes Border Collies the most intelligent creatures on the planet

Need a bath

Red flag on the Isis this morning, so no rowing on the river, and Mark decided to take the juniors up to Shotover. Glad to see that they'd all brought their cycling helmets. It took just under 35 minutes to get to the top, and I had to pull Mark up the last steep part of the hill - drat, 3 of the boys had already got there.
When all the girls had arrived, Mark said something about avoiding rabbit holes, and off they all charged. We had a good run around the yellow circuit, but I'm sorry to say that some of them didn't run the whole way. After I'd finished I found a deep muddy puddle to lie down in and drink from - generating a few sounds of disgust from the children, but it tasted good to me.
On the run back to the club, Mark mentioned something about me needing a good clean. Imagine my surprise when we approached the river, and he didn't stop, but ran up to the water edge and hurled me in. He then said something about cleaning the children as well, but they'd run away.
By the time I'd got home, we'd run about 15 miles.

County Cross Country Champs

Sunday morning, and no rowing. So instead I dragged Mark for an hour to Horspath (he measured it later as 6.5 miles), so he could do a cross country race . He left me tied up by the HRR tent - I was most indignant and yipped loudly as they all ran off - while he raced; but at least lots of people came up to me and stroked my tummy. Mark left me with a bowl of water and a bone, but I wasn't very interested in that. He came back very muddy, but seemed pleased with his result; we had to wait ages at the end for his Vet50 gold medal, and Vet team silver medal. There were quite a few other dogs there, and I tried to make friends with all of them.