Steady

The glorious weather continues. Legs felt a bit heavy and mindful of the Assembly League race on Thursday decided to downgrade the usual tempo run round St James Park with a steady plod over the same route.

Dave ran with me out to the start under the Wobbly Bridge and kept company for the first mile which we covered in 7:10. I continued on at around the same pace while Dave eased off a bit. Tourist density was medium although that didn’t prevent me being clobbered on the arm by a tour bus tout. Was on the way out on Victoria Embankment down near Waterloo Bridge; pavement was as usual completely blocked by a combination of people waiting to join a pleasure cruise and tour bus touts harassing all and sundry. The only way through was to take to the kerb – normally a safe enough route as long as you don’t fall into the road (and get squashed by aforementioned bus tout’s open-top bus) but as I squeezed through bus tout simultaneously took a step backwards and swung her arm back with great gusto (presumably in celebration of bagging another gullible). I had nowhere to go and took a hard hit to my upper arm. Ouch! I took it like a man and continued on despite bleeding profusely (OK – how about aching slightly).

The path near Buckingham Palace was predictably congested but as I wasn’t on a tempo loosing a few seconds here and there didn’t really matter. Gave Horse Guards Parade a miss in favour of Westminster on the way out (Victoria Embankment to busy to cross) and Trafalgar Square on the way back (fewer aimlessly loitering tourists). Heading home along Victoria Embankment stayed on the opposite side of the road from tour bus tout as wasn’t feeling quite ready for round two. Arrived back at the Wobbly Bridge to find Dave already there having taken a more scenic (and probably less congested) short cut through St. James Park.