Tourists Trail

Today's run started yesterday morning when I woke to find a text from Dave: "In Harpenden tomorrow for a rugby tournament. Want to meet for a run?"

Now Dave hasn't had a blog mention for many a month now. And there's a good reason for this: a year ago he quit the City for the far, far tougher career of teaching. I've only seen him the once since then and so was more than happy to swap Saturday's tempo with Sunday’s easy in order to meet-up.

Further texts were exchanged and agreement was quickly reached on 9:30 start (excellent – lie in territory) for a seven to eight mile run. The distance worked particularly well for me as my schedule had me down for 12 miles and it's just over two miles either way to the rugby club.

I hummed and harred a bit regarding route but finally decided to go for a loop round Harpenden taking in the pleasantries of West and East Common, the High Street (wow so many estate agents and building societies), The Avenues and the Nickey Line. Well Harpenden is nice so why not show it off?

The rain kept off as I filled Dave in with all the coming and goings (mainly goings) at work. And he gave me an update and what it's like being a bone-idle teacher-training student!

Seven and a half miles covered at a relaxed easy pace got us back to the rugby club in time to catch Dave’s daughter in action (did I mention it was a girls' rugby tournament?) and then it started to rain.

Two and a quarter miles home gave me a total of 12.04 for the day. Spot on. Couldn't have planned it better myself.

Hot and Bothered (Hare and Hounds)

Today may well have been the hottest day of the year so far. If it wasn't then it certainly felt like it. So perhaps not the best day for a lunchtime race.

And given my performance today perhaps I shouldn't have bothered. But bothered I did.

I went off too fast, blew up horribly 3 miles in, and limped the final two miles to the finish horribly slowly.

Back at the office I consoled myself by drinking a gallon of chocolate milk... It didn't help.

End of.

Next...

Sore Arm Running

Following the Barbwire And Bloodied Knees incident with Simon I realised my tetanus jab is past its sell-by date and I need a top-up poke in the arm. Evening appointments are as scarce as rocking horse poo at my local surgery so I was booked in at 9:30 this morning for a rendezvous with a large pointy needle thing. Not expecting to get into the office until close on 11 meant a lunchtime run was off the agenda while an early morning jaunt was very much on.

So 6:25 saw me out of the door and heading off in the direction of my new stomping ground: Kimptom Bottom and Peters Green. But first it was up the hill to Sauncey Wood and, hold on, there's a path going through the woods! Well that's an opportunity not to be missed. And what a fine path it was. Wide and not too rutted. Must remember to incorporate it into a Sunday run.

And then it was onto the footpath down to the Blue Cross animal rescue centre on Kimpton Bottom across the road and off in the general direction of Peters Green. Kimpton Road is a bit busy for my liking but I didn't have time to detour (although if you zoom in on the map you can see I did initially turn right and think about it).

For once, time was on my side, so I was able to take it easy and averaged only 8:48 across the whole run. Which is a full minute per mile slower than the similar but longer Black Socks and Ankle Deep Mud run at the start of the month (again with Simon). So if there's one thing we can conclude from today (other than I'm scared of needles) is that left to my own devices I'm a lazy runner.