an eventful day

well saturday did prove to be an eventful day with the cotswold relay and a concert at gatcome park in the evening. i found the pub where i was supposed to be sarting relatively easily and that was about the easiest thing about the race. i spent most of it not knowing where i was or where i was going about 2/3rds of it up hill. the oppressive combination of extreme heat and the terrain meant that by the end of the third hill i and many others were reduced to wlking parts of the climbs in order to get up there in one piece. after approximately an hour of running we were in formed by the attendant at the water station 'its all down hill from here mate'. imagine my joy at hearing this. and imagine my horror when i found out it wasn't. due to national trust concerns the last mile or so of my leg deviates from the official cotswold way and goes along a towpath instead. now i had an image in my head of being able to enjoy the last mile or so some thing that many people get which often proves to be a false dawn. instead with the temperatures rising it proved to be a slogand by the time i reached the finish line near ebley mill i was just about ready to die. thoroughly dehydrated, the last 30 seconds or so of the race are just a blur, and it was a good half an hour before i was ready to move again. the muscles could have taken more but the lack of fluids in me just wouldn't have allowed it.

so then it was off for lunch in sainsburys car park where i quickly woolfed down some pasta and whatever else i could get my hands on. i managed to get find an open air swimming pool in stroud and it worked wonders for my legs in the cold water, helping them to recover far quicker than they usually would of. with so many kids messing about though it was only a matter of time before i lost my patience so i did the minimum amount of time i could get away with before i made myself scarce.

and then it was on to gatcome park where i was due to watch mezza soprano katherine jenkins in action and that was an amazing experience. to give you city dwellers an idea of how big a place gatcome park actually is it's 720 acres. i walked about half a mile from where i parked my car and the house where princess anne lives was no where near bing in sight. she has a reputation for being very down to earth and she thoroughly lived up to that reputation by the way she engaged the audience during the performance. the support act all angels lived up to their emerging reputation and they will one day be as big a star as she is. even getting lost on the way back (old country roadsigns don't show up in the dark) and the hour wait to get out of the car park all contributed to making the day worthwhile.