Sorting out running awards

Every year, the Eryri Harriers award prizes for achievements across te whole year. We have the outstanding athlete award, and most improved male, and most spiffing female fell runner, et cetera. You can tell I'm paraphrasing a bit. And when I became the honorary secretary of the club, this became my business. As communication is my job, I have to communicate to last year's winners that they should give their award back, so they can be engraved again with the name of this year's winner.

One of the awards was very easy, as it had been won by Anna, who is still in the committee. She returned it as soon as we had a committee meeting. And I started chasing up the rest. Some of them were easier to get back than others. And by the next committee meeting I expected most of them. One was still in the pipeline. 

I got so many during that meeting that Nia, our chair, thought I shouldn't try to get them home on bicycle. She dropped them off by car at my place. She was quite impressed by my little cat’s good looks.

The next day I started putting post-its on them, with this year winners’ names, for the engraver. And I was confused. There was a shield among them that I didn't expect. It was for the road running champion. I wasn't aware that they had shields! So I put a message on WhatsApp. It was only one shield, so far only with female names on, but maybe only the overall winner was put on? And they had been female in the last two years?

Then an answer came back. No! This was only the shield for the female winner. There was a shield for the male winner as well. Why didn't I know that? What was worse is that I then got an email, from a reliable source, saying that not only the road champions, but also the fell and mountain champions, had shields. Shit! I started frantically contacting last year's winners.

Then another WhatsApp message came in. From another reliable source. Only the road champions had shields; the other shields didn't exist. Again, Shit! Now I had to contact all the winners again, saying "never mind, you never got a shield". Luckily, the one missing shield of the male road championship winner was quickly traced, and its keeper would bring it to the engraver.

On Friday afternoon I had all the shields and other awards that I expected, but then the engraver was closing. I decided to go on Saturday morning. And I found that this engraver is actually closed on Saturday. What? What shop does that? Luckily, I didn't have anything time-tabled on Monday morning, so I could have another go then. But this award malarkey was more faff than I had hoped for.

Awards ready for transport, With (redacted) names of 2025 winners

This is by far the coolest award and it weighs a tonne. This is the outstanding athlete award.

On Monday morning I finally dropped them all off, and as I was driving anyway, I also brought my old fridge to the tip. It was most likely that I wouldn't even have to pick the awards up after engraving, as some committee members are in Caernarfon, where the engraver is located, all the time. So I think for me, the work is now basically done. And I can just concentrate on work (and some running) until the actual presentation night! Bring it on! 

Invited to run for North Wales

Last week I got an email from one of the people who had run the NWRAC meeting. But it wasn't about this meeting! I suppose the title of this post gives it away. He asked if I was willing to represent North Wales in the Llandudno 10 mile. I was super chuffed. Of course I was! I had recently been dreaming to maybe represent something bigger than the club in a championship, but then only in the 50+ category. Or maybe later, when I am in an even older category. But he wanted me to run regardless of my age. I found that a big honour!

I had to buy a new vest for the purpose, but that was easily done. So at the end of this month, on the 29th, I will not be running in my Eryri Harriers top, but in a top that says North Wales. And I will be running against Staffordshire and Cheshire.

 

The last race I ran in which was part of this county championship (yes I know North Wales is not a county, but they call it that) was the Caernarfon 10k. I seem to remember that Staffordshire was very strong then. And looking at the results, I saw that indeed the Staffordshire men were a lot faster than the north Welsh men, but the women were a lot more evenly matched. Unfortunately, I think only the result of the entire team counts. So I will have to be mentally ready to eat their dust. But I will give it my best! 

Flogging the excess panel

I mentioned that when the work on the infrared panels was done, I was left with one of them that seemed utterly superfluous. It’s at the top of the stairs. It’s where all heat of the house naturally pools. And nobody will ever linger there. If you are on top of the stairs, you are either entering or leaving the office or the upstairs bedroom. So that panel was not going to be useful!

Jaco and Marjan have a project at home, and it could do with some sort of heating. I offered them the panel at a mate’s rate. And one day Marjan phoned me to discuss that. 

I was going to work in my car anyway, for reasons of bike repair, so I thought this was an excellent opportunity to lug that thing in. Jaco didn't agree; he thought it was too early in the development of their project. But I thought that was a strange argument. Surely you want to know what the panel is like before the project is finished? So I completely ignored him and lugged at that thing with fixings and all to the office.

I think I made the right call. They could try out the panel anywhere in the house to see how they liked it, and discuss with anyone involved in their project on how to incorporate it. And they decided that it was what they wanted, and they decided to keep it.

Now I'm left with a wall with an unnecessarily high number of holes in it. The panel was clearly put up by someone very clumsy. But given that I am in the process of making my ceilings presentable again, after damage having been done to them, I can just add this wall to the list. And when the wall looks good again, and the panel has found a much better home, everybody will be happy!

No panel; just a damaged wall now (I don't seem to have taken a picture of the panel there)

Scales for the cat

The cat has been on a diet for many weeks now. She looks a lot slimmer! And I can tell that she doesn't enjoy her diet at all. She isn't aggressive about it, but I can tell that would really like more food. And I was wondering if I could already give her a bit more. Would she have lost enough?

The way to find out is weigh her. But my own scales don't really care much about 1 kg more or less, so I can't use these. I decided to buy scales especially for her. They go up to 20 kg.

They have arrived! So it was time to try to get on it. She doesn't like being picked up, so I tried to bribe her onto it with dreamies. The problem is a bit that she can generally get to the dreamies without putting all her four paws on the scales.

After a while I managed to get her on it anyway. And she's only lost 200g! She has to lose four times that! So she is not coming off that diet. Sorry little cat! It will be a hungry spring…

Cat not on it

Finally: bike maintenance

I tend to bring my bike in for maintenance quite often. I do many miles on it! This time I was a bit hesitant, as Neil had said he can actually do everything my bike repair man can. But would he actually want to do it when push came to shove? Or would he prefer to go on a hike? So I discussed it, and we agreed that probably I should just have it done professionally. So I phoned the repair shop.

The first time I did that they didn't answer. The second time, same thing. Oh dear! Was something be amiss? The third time he answered. And he explained that he was temporarily closed, for building reasons. Oh dear. I had already left it a bit late! But he booked it in for when the work was supposed to be finished.

Then I got a text. The work took longer than expected. He would have to postpone the booking. That happened twice. Two more weeks! But then I could finally bring it in.

James, the repair man, explained that the work actually hadn’t even been done. I wasn't sure why he had been closed then, but there must've been a reason for it. He said he was going to close again in August, hoping to get it done then. But at least I could give him my bike, and I was going to get it back with new brake pads, and possibly new cables, and probably a new chain, and all the things that tend to get done when I bring my bike in.

I got it back quicker than I thought. It looked impeccable again! And he hadn't even needed to do too much. I was wondering soon if he might have underestimated how much wrong with it; the gearing was a bit awful when I got back. Maybe the derailer should've been replaced after all? But at least it braked again like a new bike. And I'll probably have to bring it back before he closes in summer, as he didn't think the chain would last that long. And I'm not a bike snob, but the bike needs to be reasonably good to get me to work in an efficient way, and back!

As new!

Spring!

It's meteorological spring! And it has been feeling like spring. I was quite happy running in only my shorts and vest on the first day of March. And you can see it all around as well. Daffodils and snowdrops everywhere! And the plants and the trees are getting leaves. And the days are getting longer.

Spring isn’t actually my favourite season. I quite like bare trees and dramatic skies. But I do enjoy the perks of spring! And I’ll get mentally ready for the gardening season to start again… 

I know we can still get a cold spell, but at the moment, that is difficult to imagine. It feels like winter is over! 

Bridge not tidal anymore - for now

I had to bring my bike to the bicycle repair shop, so I drove. In the olden days, I would have biked in, and hitched a ride back with Susan, but given that she has moved house, I can't do that anymore. With Martin also having moved house and Chris having changed job, I have to rely on myself now! And that was ok, because it was a Tuesday, and then I have track training. I must admit I sometimes find it hard to bike all the way home after a full day of work and then track training, lugging not only my normal work luggage with me up the hill, but also my running gear.

What does all of this have to do with the bridge? Well! The track is on the mainland, so I have to cross a bridge to get there. I assumed the old bridge would still be tidal, but just to be on the safe side drove past it on my way to the new bridge. Lo and behold, I could just cross! The bridge was a two-way thing again! It meant I was a bit early at the track, but that is ok. And the next day, back on my bike, I could go over the road again, and didn't have to go over the footpath.

Two way bridge! 

I did notice in the local media, though, that this was only temporary relief. The week after, the bridge would go back to tidal. I don't think we are out of the woods anytime soon. But what can we do? We'll have to put up with it!