TELLY, CAKES AND NORHAM..

Very little, in our house, is elevated to the level of "must-see TV". It's more a sort of, "if-Im-in-and-it's-on-I-might-watch-it-TV" sort of a house. The result is often that by the time a new series or whatever is of interest to us we end up buying it as a DVD box set ("West Wing", "Sopranos", "MadMen")!
Few indeed are the programs that are not to be missed. One of them that did make it onto that list was "The Great British Bake-Off" a sort of weekly "cake porn" for breedy gastadrs.
Got me inspired anyway, so it was on with the pinny again yesterday to make a batch of my (now) signature dish "chocolate and orange shortbread". A fatty, sugar filled, carbo rich, runners treat!
Bought the book last week (for Anne .... obviously), so I might try and progress to other things.

So carbo loaded as I was, I set off to do the Norham 10k today. It's a nice course, though a tad on the hilly side (not a course for a PB then).
Most of the "schemes", "plans", "training schedules" and what nots for marathon preparation all seem to think a 10k a week before a marathon is a good idea. It's a week till Loch Ness - so what the hell? Though given that I haven't been following a scheme, plan, or whatever, suddenly taking their advice a week before a mara' might be the actions of a desperate man.
Also, after a high mileage week last week (80+) I wasn't at all confident. I'd struggled to keep up the pace on Tuesday's club run (I got dropped at the first climb) and found Thursday's track session really tough going.
Anyway. I went. I was there...I was going to make the best of it.
Did quite a good warm up along with Ian and timed it quite well that we were not back and hanging about the start for too long.
I was a bit baffled as to why Les made everyone walk back from the start line and line up about twenty yards behind it. He also warned us before we started that part of the route was a bit "agricultural" going through the estate.
The race went well, mainly. Always a quick start, despite the fact that even the first half mile through the village in on a slight incline.
Just before the first mile or so you cross the border into Scotland and the foot of a fairly short, steep climb. There's a separate prize for the first runner up the climb and this helps to keep the pace up a bit.
Passed a couple of guys on the approach to the climb and the climb itself, and by the top I found myself in fourth place looking at the familiar blue and red vest of Moorfoots Wull Hynd ahead of me.
And that is how it stayed for the entire race, with the gap between us gradually increasing.
The "agricultural" section was just a bit of road outside some stables that are obviously used to house horses that are elderly and incontinent. Jeeze.... what a load of shit.
Mile five to six is a quick one taking you back down the hill and back over into England and the finish line at the village green.
It was with about 100 meters to go that some arse of a driver chose to pull out of their parking place and into the race route ...... right in front of me. The course then took a very sharp left which had been coned off. This idiot was so careful going round the coned off tight corner that I just about ran into the back of them, and ended up having to undertake them on a tight left hand bend!
Finished forth in 36:03 which I'm more than happy with. Also happy that it was enough to blag the first male "over 40" which came with the kind of voucher I like best (cash). Anne also had a good run and managed to blag the first female "of a certain age" trophy.

I shall take some of my shortbread to Inverness next Saturday for my pre-race preparation the following day.