Glasgow East End 5K 2010

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Paul

Today Beanie & Biggles both notched up their third road race. The East End 5K is a particularly good one – it’s an easy, safe course starting and ending at Tollcross Park, and though it’s primarily for humans, doggies are welcome and can even get their own number and T-shirt.

It was raining pretty hard on the way through to Glasgow (a sure sign that summer has arrived!) and because of that we were expecting a low turnout, but we couldn’t have been more wrong:

The road outside the park is flooded with runners, though not all are enthusiastic about the warmup!

The rain slowed to a barely perceptible drizzle just as we arrived, creating perfect conditions for running; nice and cool for the dogs, but not too cool for us. The only problem when the race started was the sheer number of entrants – we’d almost reached the 1km marker before we had enough space to break into a jog, and we still had to dodge and weave past walkers almost up to the final kilometre! Despite that, we had a great time. There were drummers, dancers and pipers dotted along the course to spur everyone on, and nearly every time we passed a group of spectators we heard “awww look at the little doggies”.

As in the previous year I ran with the Bigglet and Susan ran with the Beanster. Unlike last year, Biggles thankfully decided against getting into a woofing match with the big Rottweiler in a walled garden along the route, and neither Beanie nor Biggles seemed particularly bothered by even the most enthusiastic drummers. The 5K passed very quickly, though not quite as quickly as this brief compilation of clips from the race:

I don’t think Biggles quite knew what to make of the Master of Ceremonies cheering him on as we approached the finish. The guy looked very suspicious and didn’t have any treats. If we hadn’t been running I think he might have been on the receiving end of a Bigglewoofing!

Once my boy and me had finished we collected our two medals (the officials insisted on giving me an extra one for the Bigglet – I didn’t even have to ask) and found a good vantage point to watch for Susan and Beanie. When they appeared, Beanie was trotting along like a dressage pony and gazing into her Mum’s eyes. She probably looked like the best behaved doggie in the world, but in reality she was of course just waiting for another handful of chicken from Susan’s pockets!

Susan and Beanie finish the race in style!

Back in the park we bumped into runners from Dog’s Trust and an appropriate fuss was made of our two, and then we spotted another couple of Beagles who’d completed the race. One of them was Brodie, one of Newlin Waffle’s pups and therefore related to Beanie. He was a great little guy – wiggly, full of life and keen to have a nibble at Beanie’s racing number!

As we left the park, we were both enthusing about how great our little Beagley running partners had been. This conversation was interrupted when Bigglet had a bit of a tantrum because he couldn’t quite reach a half-eaten chip lying on the grass. This was rather cheeky on his part given that he’d nicked a sizeable lump of chicken from the kitchen worktop before we’d even set off that morning. Still, racing champions get perks and a small step towards the chip quickly resolved the situation.

Wolf in goat’s clothing

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Paul

Goat Fell is the highest peak on the Isle of Arran. Despite this impressive claim to fame, it’s actually a “corbett“. This doesn’t mean that it’s somehow connected with Sooty & Sweep, it’s just that it falls 144 ft short of the magical 3000 required to join the munro club. To get to it you’ve got to use the ferry, so at about 6.20 on Thursday morning, our little car was in the queue to board the first ferry of the day from Ardrossan on the Scottish mainland to Brodick on Arran.

This was our first time on a ferry with dogs, and whatever the website recommended, there was no way were going to leave them stuck below decks in the car. As soon as we’d parked up, the four of us got out and headed upwards to the outdoor seating areas. Both Beanie and Biggles were a little overawed by the unfamiliar sights, smells and sounds of the ferry, and the stairs between the decks were a little too steep for Biggles so I had to carry him, but once we got up top they were both much happier. There were still a few sightings of the raised Paw Of Uncertainty for a while..

..but that disappeared once we’d taken them on a sniffing tour of the deck, to be replaced by an overwhelming desire to be nosy. The makers of the ship had clearly anticipated this as every gap in the railings was exactly the right width to allow a Beagle head through.

The ferry was very quiet so early in the morning, and though haze restricted visibility it was still a very scenic voyage.

In under an hour we were back in the car and driving into Brodick. Our path up Goat Fell was set to start in Brodick Country park which apparently wouldn’t open until a little later, so we took a stroll by the sea front to kill time.

Our ferry – already preparing to depart back to the mainland

Goat Fell viewed from the sea front in Brodick. It doesn’t look so bad…

A plaque marks the tragically short life of a young man named after the island

We got into the country park around 9.30 and parked up at the visitor center, which is closed on Thursdays at this time of year. No matter; we loaded up with water bottles and treats, and set off on the clearly marked trail to Goat Fell. It was already hot, and we soon started to have misgivings about doing the climb on such a sunny day. Still, the first part of the trail was shaded by forest so we decided to press on and re-assess when we hit the exposed part of the ascent. When we emerged from the trees it was really hot, but there were plenty of fresh running streams to keep Beanie & Biggles cool so we continued on a little further. The going was really very easy, and eventually we approached the ridge that marked the final ascent to the top. There were no more streams past this point, but there was a constant cooling breeze. It didn’t look like there was far to go; I figured maybe another hour of walking would get us to the top, and it was now pleasantly cool (though still bright and sunny) so we decided to keep going. The walk to join the ridge took a lot longer than I expected, and as it turned out that set the pattern for the rest of the climb. Whenever we looked up towards the summit it didn’t seem that far, but every time we estimated how long we’d take to reach a certain point, we were way off. The path was mostly obvious and in a good state of repair and there no scrambles, but we were constantly weaving around huge boulders and this slowed us down considerably. In fact there were so many boulders around, a certain episode of the original series of Star Trek kept popping into my head. I was half expecting to get attacked by a bloke in an outrageously unconvincing lizard suit. If only I could find a large bamboo-like tube, some sulphur, coal, diamonds..

On the final section now, not long to go…

One more steep climb, not long to go…

Surely this is the final bit ???

OK, this really is the last bit though, right?

The view over my shoulder’s already shaping up nicely though..

Eventually we made it to summit, and I sat down for a breather while Beanie & Biggles conducted as thorough a sniffing as their canicross leads would allow. At one point they chose to sniff in opposite directions and when they tried to swap they found that there was only enough room for a single Beagle to pass at a time. Instead of using their brains, they just stood there pushing at each other desperately until eventually Beanie climbed onto Biggles’ head and walked along his back to the other side. I still think Beagles are smart dogs, but clearly they have an issue with narrow openings.

Anyway, time for some pics of the extremely rugged scenery at the top:

OK so we’re up a mountain, but it’s still OK to be nosy

This diagram on the summit shows you what you can see in every direction

And it makes a great platform for a self-timer piccie!

We were dreading the walk back down. The final ascent had been pretty steep and it looked even worse from the top, but in practice it was about the easiest descent we’ve had to date. However, just like the walk up, it took a surprisingly long time to get back to the car. To sum up, Goat Fell is at the same time rather easier, but a lot longer, than it first appears, but well worth the effort.

Once back in Brodick center we had time for fish & chips, ice creams and a nap before the return ferry. Going back over the walk, one thing that stuck in my mind (besides the unseen danger of a guy in a lizard suit) was how well behaved our two Beaglets had been. We’d had a few baying outbursts, but they’d been very short-lived. Part of this is no doubt due to the complete absence of sheep around Goat Fell (no goats either, come to think of it), but I do think our two – Biggles in particular – are getting better at self control.

Wasps & a near death experience

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Paul

For the last week or so Beanie’s become increasingly obsessed with catching insects, or more specifically, wasps. Sooner or later she was going to get stung, so we kept trying to shoo her away from her favorite wasp hunting location on our deck. Then it dawned on us that there did seem to be a lot of wasp activity around the house – far more than in the garden as a whole. Susan sat and watched the wasps for a few minutes and saw them disappearing into, then re-emerging from, the ventilation holes in our walls and our patio doors. The area around the patio doors was covered in tiny white PVC shavings, and on closer examination it became apparent that the wasps were actually going inside the door frames. A quick google session indicated that they were probably establishing nests inside our walls and the doors, and for the sake of our dogs we had to do something about it. The most commonly suggested course of action was to get some ant powder and cover the wasp’s preferred entry/exit points with it. The idea is that the workers get covered in the stuff as they go about their nest-building activities and eventually transfer some of the powder to the queen. Once she dies, it’s all over.

We gave it a go, and it worked astonishingly well. We kept the pups away from the treated areas for 24 hours or so; the powder is supposed to be child/pet safe but what’s betting Beanie would’ve been snorting it like cocaine if we’d let her near it! By the end of that period all visible wasp activity had stopped – problem solved!

So much for the wasps, now for the Near Death Experience. After this morning’s walk we put the pups in their beds and headed out on our bikes. We had intended to just go up one of the nearby cycle tracks for half an hour then head back, but we ended up up doing pretty much the whole “New Town Trail” around Irvine, stopping off at Eglinton Park for a coffee.

We’d had a break from cycling over the winter months but my recently acquired riding ability hadn’t deteriorated at all – in fact on today’s ride I accomplished a number of highly demanding manoeuvers:

wiping the sweat from my brow
prolonged nose scratching with either hand
extracting a Kleenex from my pocket and blowing my nose whilst still turning the pedals

I was especially proud of the nose blowing. I’ve occasionally watched footage of the Tour de France and I’ve never once seen any of those so-called expert cyclists whipping a snot rag from their shorts and purging their nasal orifices. Admittedly they do go a bit faster than me but still…

Anyway, it turns out the old adage about pride coming before a fall is true. My fall happened as we approached an uphill bit in Eglinton Park and I tried to switch gear. Somehow I messed it up and parted company with my bike. My life didn’t exactly flash before me but during the fall everything slowed down – just like “bullet time” in The Matrix. When I recovered my wits I realized that I had severed my left arm at the shoulder, but being such a hardy mountain biker I just pulled the laces out of my trainers and sewed it back on. OK, that last part is a slight exaggeration, but my injuries were truly horrific – just look:

That graze on my little finger is the worst. It could cause me considerable discomfort if I try to access the lower 30% of a packet of salt & vinegar crisps (“potato chips” to our US friends). It’s going to be hard going, but I figure I’ll make a full recovery eventually.