Still improving & new job

At the weekend I ran in the Kilmarnock XC race, dragging my butt around in 40 something minutes. The time is pretty immaterial when it comes to XC, it's all about showing solidarity and freezing your arse off with everyone else from your club. ;-)

It's a good sticky & hilly course (one of the best local ones) and most importantly of all, didn't seem to bother my ankle & back. The ankle seems absolutely fine now and the back doesn't seem to affect my running too much.

Last night was our club's "hills" session. As I've probably mentioned before, the "hills" are actually just the bridges that cross the railway line in Troon - mostly no more than about 30 seconds sprinting each. Still, I love them to bits and I find it hard to understand anyone who *doesn't* love hill sprints.

What's not to like about that feeling of acceleration and speed, rising up on the toes, working your legs and arms faster and harder with every step until you reach the top of the hill? Of course it probably helps that I'm usually the first one to the top of the hill. ;-) I'm way too competitive for my own good sometime.

The new job is, I think, 90% definite. There was a feature in our local paper recently about the Coastguards looking for new volunteers. Well, I've always fancied guarding our coast and considering that no one has tried to attack it in all the time we've lived in Ayr, I reckon it must be a pretty cushy job. ;-)

I went along for an interviewette last week with about 25 other people and got a call at the weekend to say that I was one of the three people they were wanting. It seems there's another interview to go but given that they've shortlisted 3 people for three jobs it seems the last one must be a formality. Anyway, I'm going along tonight to get measured up for uniform & survival suit so I reckon it must be pretty certain.

The job is paid actually but as the Queen is only gracious enough to pay coastguards for 2 hours a month (for official training) + call outs, they don't make a big fuss over the pay. Just as well I'm not doing it for the money.

It seems that the major part of the job is conducting searches (missing persons, washed up ordinance etc.) with the very occasional cliff rescue thrown in for good measure. Apparently we don't get to keep the ordinance though. :-( A less attractive side of the job is recovering bodies from beaches & rivers.

Still, it'll get me out of the house more and combines my love of the seashore with a useful social service.

Really looking forward to my first run back on the WHW on the 30th. It seems like forever since I last ran on it and I'm just itching to get going. Lets just hope I can contain my enthusiasm/competitiveness enough to avoid another injury.