Localized flooding

After the semi-success of the East Wales championships, I  had a few weeks on my hands to try to get 'proper fit like', so it was back across the road to the trusty training ground (er, Field) for some more speed endurance. At first these sessions ended prematurely with me tripping over the undergrowth or being jumped on by a bear toting a fridge resulting in hyperventilation and near fatal coronaries. Dog walkers were now avoiding the area due to that mad bloke in tights who frightened the animals making loud rasping noises. Recoveries took the form of several pain killers and medicinal dosages of Scotland's finest and the Dalwhinnie started to run low, the Penderyn ran out completely (Technically not one of Scotland's as its Welsh!) But some progress was at least made without the intervention of the NHS.

I'd already squandered several chances for a decent vault at a number of venues around the rain soaked slopes of South Wales this year, but now it was June, and flaming or not I was running my little legs off trying to get fit for the approaching championships, but the vaulting stubbornly remained neglected.

Part 1 of the Welsh Masters Championships was held at Brecon with the Welsh Senior league, so I hashed a plot to do the vault in the league during the morning and the Masters 200m and Long Jump in the afternoon. Seemed like a good plan as my vaulting needed the practice (needed a miracle really). As usual things did not go anywhere near close to plan. I arrived early to get one of the 4 parking spaces available in Powys, only to find the rain had got there well before me.

The pole gradually dissolving in the Brecon car park

As the sea receded to Ref made the only sensible call and  abandoned ship the vault. Perhaps I'd have better luck with the long jump, it was a following gale and by the afternoon things were looking up weather wise. I know, I should really have worked it out by now, the wind totaled my run up, hitting the plastercine was easier than hitting the board. Despite attempts to move it back into the next county I still ended up with 3 no jumps - nil points. Should have done better than that! So feeling extremely p*ss*d off with the day so far, I turned my attention to the 200m, what was going to go wrong here then? False start? Pulled hamstring? Out of lane? Such was the paranoia that my concentration somewhat wandered and when the gun actually went I had to quickly Google what came next - ahh yes RUN, darn it where'd they go? I shouldn't complain really, it was a season's best although the drastically slow start took the edge off the Silver Medal. Celebration when I got back home was predictably Dalwhinnie orientated, so much so that this silky smooth smokey citrus malt almost completely emptied itself into my glass. Many thanks to my wife for reminding me I was supposed to be in work the next day and that this wasn't helping.

There was supposed to be a mid-week masters league match again at Brecon with a vault, but the forecast was not looking good. Come Wednesday it was hoofing it down in Cardiff so I expected the vault to go the way of so many others this year, consequently, I didn't make a lot of effort to go and eventually got tied up with work so didn't even get home until after the meeting had started. As it's over an hour away, I opened my bottle of Cardu Gold Reserve and decided to enjoy the oily smokeyness of this classic Speyside instead of driving through the partially flooded roads of South Wales and the Brecon Beacons. It's a bit more toffeeish than the standard 12 year old but still possesses that smooth oily texture that is Cardu, if you like smokey ones rather than a peated malt, then this one is well worth the trip to the supermarket. Thankfully its best savoured slowly so I didn't have too many before retiring. I woke the next day, feeling slightly muzzy, and discovered the vault had taken place in my absence - typical, you just can't rely on the rain in Wales to be consistent.

Anyway, I was due to compete in the Welsh Masters Championships Part 2 on the following weekend which was shared with the 100th Welsh Senior Champs. The vault was actually Friday evening, with the 100m on Saturday, and this was all punctuated by a celebration of the past champions like Lyn Davies, Steve Jones and Jamie Baulch etc. To add interest, I was to be presented with a Meritorious Award for services to Welsh Athletics, personally it felt more like a congratulations on lasting this long you old git.

So Friday, yes, arrived early to discover the indoor raised runway was in place and the bed was in front of the main stand, a gap of about 3m, very intimate. The organisers went the whole hog, seemingly thinking this was the Diamond League and one of us might be French. So we were lined up and introduced to the crowd individually after the warmup. I should point out that there were 3 of us and the 'crowd' was about 20 strong in a 2000 seat stadium. After that I could only vault well, which I thankfully did, 2.80m will do nicely on this springy runway. The commentary throughout was interesting, thank you James Thie, and it was nice to receive the medal on a proper rostrum in front of the 'cheering crowd' instead of just picking it up at the desk.

The Meritorious award with the two medals from the Vault and 100m.

Saturday saw me arrive early for this presentation thingy, which was as well due to the lack of parking. I prepared meticulously for the 100m by eating myself silly at the reception buffet, wandering round making myself a nuisance to any poor soul I recognised (Sorry Jason Gardener, but you were talking to my mate Jamie Baulch who is from my club). After this I had to make my way to presentation in order to receive my award with a couple of others, Jenny Cook - a life long official and Bernie Plain - a class distance runner, both of whom I knew well. It was a nice moment being presented to the now much bigger crowd and having my athletic CV read out in front of some of GB's legendary competitors. I could feel a single malt coming on already.

By the afternoon the weather had turned cold and breezy so they turned the races round and made us run the 100m as far from the stadium as we could without actually being in the retail park opposite. Not sure if this affected me, but it was a half decent start for once and a reasonable pick up, shame about the lack of speed as the rest disappeared down the track. I did take 1st place in the M55's in a season's best though, so the Cardu Gold Reserve had better look out, Sunday is going to be hangover day.