Saturday was ‘Tree o’clock‘ day, a world record attempt to plant the largest number of trees in the UK in a 1 hr period. My friends at work, Jenny and Gemma had organised the planting of 50 free trees provided by the council. So, on Saturday between the hours of 11 and noon, 13 of us planted the 50 trees, which ended with tea and biscuits!
From tree planting we socialised with Sarah, my sister, she had come to watch the planting and browse in the shop at work.
After lunch with Sarah, we made our way to Ilkeston to meet up with some of my old running club friends. We arrived at Catherine and Tony’s house, pre-pub crawl, and were told that they were going out dressed in “school uniforms”! Within about 5 minutes we were kitted out similarly. As we walked to the first of 5 pubs, we realised that the whole dressing up thing was just something that Tony had decided that morning and that nobody else would be dressed up! Some of our friends appeared to notice, but most just took it in there stride. The point of the pub crawl I think was to drink real ale … I haven’t liked this stuff previously because it’s too bitter, but actually the stuff I had was nice…
At about 6.30, Tony disappeared to put dinner in the oven and after another pub, Richard, Catherine and I made our way home. It was raining, we were all wearing trainers and we had drunk a fair amount, so we ran back to Catherine’s (probably a couple of miles), which was the perfect end to an amusing pub crawl (but probably only something that we would do). Tony had a lovely roast dinner ready on our arrival. 🙂
Sunday was the second Dark and White Mini Mountain Marathon – a 3 hr score (I guess you know what this means by now) from Hayfield. It was raining when we started and during parts of the event, but the views were stunning. We hadn’t been in this area very many times and hence it was interesting to see Kinder from the opposite side. Kinder Downfall looked awesome from the bottom with masses of water flowing over it. I scored equal points to the first lady, although as my time was 4 minutes longer (2hr58 vs. 2hr54), I think I probably came second. Richard was first M40 and 2nd overall. The final race is in January, so 1st place will be my target, as for Richard … he’s still deciding whether to be in the M40 or open class! We retired to the pub and then home. An early night I think.
Thanks to Jen for the pics – sorry we were a bit slack with the camera for the rest of the weekend.
Series - Dark & White '09
- A day for sitting by the fire
- Tree planting, a pub crawl, dinner with friends and a mountain marathon
- Dark and White – Event 3 of 3
I expect you would have both got “proper” firsts if you had not done the pub crawl?
Please don’t keep us in suspense, what varieties of tree did you plant ❓
Field maple, hazel, mountain ash I think
Damn, I’d heard about the Tree o’clock day, but then promptly forgot about it. 🙁
I’m a bit of tree hugger too; years ago I helped plant 100s of trees on top of an old dump near Port Meadow in Oxfordshire, supporting BTCV. I’ve even still got the certificate somewhere. 🙂 Sorry Colin, no idea what varieties they were, just that they were (obviously) all native species. 💡 I should go back and see what they are like now really, the trees I planted must be quite mature…
Anyway, another great result in the running Rach! :star:
Are you on target for a overall series win with the final Dark & White?
Well there are three events, I won the first one and have come second in the second one, so the third one is in contention. Although, the winners of this event, were a team (2 women) and so I think perhaps this means that they would have to run as a team in event 3 as well….