Gone To The Dogs

Up early to go to Crufts but L tempts me in to sex, and I'm weak willed when it comes to that sort of temptation, so I’m not as early as I intended. I pick up my parents and luckily we have a good drive there, much quicker than when we went there last year.

We have a good day watching the interesting stuff, the agility and the flyball not the poncy show dogs which is all the TV seems bothered about.

One of my trainers gets second in the main agility event of the day but the amazing Toni Dawkins wins again. She has a blue merle collie just as we do. Although hers, which is called Kite, is a damn sight quicker than ours.

In the evening it's first versus second in the football as Derby play at Birmingham. I though this was a game we might win. All we have to do is defend as stubbornly as we usually do, wait until the crowd gets on Steve Bruce's back, e.g. 10 mins in, then pick em off. We owe them one for beating us at Derby with a ridiculous three times deflected goal. Unfortunately it doesn't work out quite like that and Derby lose 1-0. They slip back to second in the table.

There's hundreds in the Duathlon tomorrow. The longer distance starts ten minutes before we do, which means we'll get ahead of them only for them to have to come past us again. They'll end up having to overtake us in transition or on the bike course. It could well be carnage.

I’ve mapped the bike course with my mapping software and it’s NOT FLAT, it’s undulating with a couple of short sharp climbs like my ‘favourite’ in Risley but nothing too serious.

L is reassured that we get our t-shirts before we start. She's not very confident about the event. She's not sure that she can stand on the start-line without being attached to a collie. In my opinion, she wouldn’t want to be attached to a collie at the start line, he’d be so excited, quivering, and he’d go off like a rocket!

L accuses me of taking the event very seriously just because I've bought new kit for it. I’ve only bought new kit because I didn’t have anything suitable to wear. I often buy new kit, cycle shorts for the Nottinghamshire bike, new trainers for the Etwall Triathlon last year.

I'm tempted to do a spot of race prep in the Victoria but in the end stay AF. Am really creased so we have an early night. To sleep. Then I struggle to get to sleep.