Andrew had running club tonight but instead of their usual Thursday suffer-fest, they did a fairly moderate run - this is because many including Andrew are running in the Man vs horse race on Saturday. I should stress this is man in the generic sense - Andrew is running in a team with two women, and in fact the majority of runners in the club are female, many of whom tackle mountain marathons, cross country and similar with great aplomb. He recently received all the info with pages of safety warnings and disclaimers - quite impressive to see. What made us both smile is that equine competitors are very well served with vets and water stations at all sorts of points along the way, but considerably less fuss made of the humans. Andrew is taking this one quite seriously and has even given up alcohol this week; I realise this makes him sound like an alcoholic putting it like that, but he does occasionally enjoy a glass of gin, or a bottle of cider in the week and of course we both enjoy wine drinking at the weekend. Our main concern now is the weather. It'll be tough if it's blazing hot, but hard going if it's pouring with rain. The ideal would be a cool, cloudy day - fingers and toes crossed! Link to the official website for the race here:- http://www.green-events.co.uk/index.php

Today I travelled down to Margam Park for a meeting to look at an event to be held next year that GRW might be getting involved in. This initial meeting was with the park authorities to discuss the broad outlines, such as dates, availability, parking etc.. My role was pretty minor, basically to listen and learn, but I always find these interesting. The journey down and back was lovely - via the Heads of the Valleys Road which was looking spectacularly beautiful. Because we've had so much rain, everything is so green. Shaggy hedges, lovely pastures and rolling moors covered in whin berries - should be a good crop this year. At the park, we were inside part of the Gothic Victorian buildings where the park staff have their offices - what a lovely place to come to work. The estate was lived in by the Fox-Talbot family - one of their members was one of the earliest pioneers of photography. Nearby is Margam Abbey, interestingly a daughter abbey of Strata Florida where we were last week. Regular readers will also recall the park as a venue for one of Andrew's 10K races. This was the longest time I have left the dogs alone for some time and they were squeaking with excitement when I came back home. Dear little Murgy kept coming up to me and putting her head on my chest as if to say "Is it really you? I'm so glad you're back" - yes, I know I am probably anthropomorphosing hopelessly but sometimes you just need to feel the love.

After we had eaten our couscous earlier, Murgy hopped up on the sofa and snuggled up with me under my quilt - all very cosy. Unfortunately, the second home offer is looking less likely but they may be coming back to the charity if their work circumstances change. So, for the moment, she remains with us, very happily for all concerned. She often now likes to come on the bed during the night and this morning I woke up with a familiar cosy shape nestling against my legs. She and Booty seem to have established some sort of rota for this - if I wake up in the night and want to check which hound is lying on my feet or has stolen my duvet, the quickest way is to feel their collars, as Booty's is textured fabric, while Murgy still wears leather. This morning, we had the excitement at 5.30 of Andy (most unusually) suddenly launching into a tirade of barking - you'd swear a boatload of marauding Vikings were swimming up the Irfon. Andrew launched into an equally exciting tirade of swear words, when after a thorough inspection, no Vikings could be found and the guilty party was lying on the rug, rolling his eyes and looking sheepish. Don't believe anyone who tells you greyhounds are quiet dogs.