Out with the dogs

Pat and Kev are looking after Flea until the end of the month. She is a lovely little border collie whose home is normally the b&b in Biert, just along the road from Massat. She has met Taff before and they got on well, so I took him back to meet her again today and to enjoy a bit of a run with P&K. Pat had a VTT route in mind that we could run and which should have been around 14km. It was a route that they had not done before so it was new territory. Usually there are little signs which act as waymarkers but we very quickly lost them, which suggested that they had been removed by somebody in the area for some reason. So we made up a circuit based on nothing but instinct. Fortunately, it is not the kind of area in which you can get too lost! It was a clear day and the sun was wonderfully warm. It was lovely to feel it on my face again after what seems like an age. Kev was experimenting with his walking poles. I have been considering learning to run with poles myself, as I believe they come into their own on steep ascents and descents when they assist enormously with your stability. I am planning on doing the Mont Calm marathon at the end of August 2009 which involves over 3000m of exactly that, so I had better start soon!

We soon arrived back at the car after covering just 11kms. Kev's achilles was playing up again and the dogs were pooped, so we called it a day and headed home for some lunch. On my way home, I had some tedious shopping to do but I returned home to find that Andy had put the top coat ofwhite paint on the stairs and landing wall and it looks so much cleaner. I can at last put up a couple of pictures :-)