Racing

We will be heading out on an 8-day trip through Scotland in a few days and wanted to drop in on Mark and Abigail before we headed out. Most of our 2 1/2 days with them was spent just playing with, caring for, and watching Jamie. Not a bad trip at all. Monday, we did do one big trip.

On Monday Mark ran in the Bannister Miles race. Specifically, he ran in the 1-mile steeple chase race. This event was held at the Iffley Roade Sports Complex in Oxford. He left early and road the train to Oxford and we followed after Jamie’s nap. We met up with Tom and Rachel and their 4-month-old son Jesse. Mark and Tom used to run together, and Mark was in Mark and Abigail’s wedding. It was so good to see them, and we had a great afternoon together catching up. It was so strange to just be in Oxford walking the streets and seeing the sites as we moved through to the sports complex. We have been here long enough and have been to Oxford enough to see things and think, “oh, yea, I have seen that before”. Such travel snobs we have become.

The race was a bit strange for Mark as most steeple chase races are 3,000 meters and this one is a mile. This is due to the fact that at this track the first sub-four-minute mile was run in the 1950’s. This is plastered everywhere and now they hold a bunch of races that are called the Bannister Miles. Mark did great and won the race. It was much harder than he expected, but this was the first real steeple chase of the season for him. Becky and I both really enjoyed getting to watch him race and to win. We all did what you always do after a hard race like that we went to Pizza Express for dinner. This was really due to the fact that it is a great place to take children.

The weather really changed while we were in Bassingbourn and the days here in Birmingham were much cooler, only in the 50’s. The sunshine is still very bright, just not the typical British rainy weather. We are very much enjoying it, and it means we can get Jamie out on walks and to the park. I really enjoyed one afternoon I got him alone in the park for a couple of hours.

After a couple of days of visiting and eating we packed up again and headed off on another wonderful train ride to Bassingbourn to begin our adventures in Scotland.