Running is always the answer (and I don't care what the question is)

[Celerysalt]

After a couple of days of decision fatigue (should we put the plumber off till another day when he's 3 hours late? Should I go for a run in the rain? Can I be bothered to repaint various rooms?), my husband made a terrible split-second decision: he needed new jeans. And so I drove us to my worst nightmare: sell-your-soul shopping city, commercial hell, otherwise known as the Trafford Centre. (Granted, my significant other has been driving a lot to gigs this week, so it was only fair that I should do this journey. I can only apologise to the several drivers who were put out by my inabiltiy to follow satnav instructions.)

Jeans purchased with relative ease, the rest of the day's decision-making ought to have been simple: what to eat, when to run in relation to what I'd eaten, and how far to run pending food eaten/the weather... Until disaster struck: my Bluetooth headphones decided to go on the blink (probably due to water ingress following too many foolhardy decisions to run in the rain with non-waterproof headphones). I hate shopping centres, but nor am I among those virtuous nature-loving types who like to run to the sounds of birdsong, the wind rustling in the trees and so forth. So I opted for some spare wired headphones. Problem: new watch only works with Bluetooth headphones... Should I take my phone in the rain? I decided to risk it.

As luck - in a manner of speaking - would have it, I'd made a playlist on Spotify last night (I'm a teacher, which may explain why I have too much time on my hands at present - to make decisions, visit places I hate, create playlists etc.). This was to be a 'feel good marking playlist', to speed me gleefully through piles of students' work. (Unbelievably, I couldn't find one ready-made on Spotify!) Too many decisions having already been made today, I opted for my new, shiny playlist, old headphones and new watch...

With no facility to skip tracks with the wired headphones, I'd had Pure Imagination (Gene Wilder, and of course), some Aztec Camera, The Shires, Busted (seriously) and something from Sister Act: The Musical before I'd managed 3.5k... And the lack of deciding between tracks was very refreshing, in fact (admittedly, I have no taste in music but I knew that already).

10k and several earworms later, having been mauled by soggy dogs and waited for what felt like forever at kissing gates and overgrown sections of path for fellow river path-users, my first new fitness tracker/smartwatch record of a 10k done. Not my fastest time, mind. But then I took 3 months to choose the watch...

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

Well done you and glad you like your new watch . I think I'm obsessed with mine 😂

[Celerysalt in reply to Buddy34]

Thanks! I know: all the data...! Mine is currently drying out and in need of a clean, courtesy of the dogs. They were just crazy today...! I really like dogs, and I absolutely love it when they run alongside me, go in for a snuggle (erm, or a sniff), but they don't usually get in the way of me running with so much persistence -- I don't know if it was the weather?? I feel a little bit guilty about the watch, but it is supposed to be waterproof (fingers crossed)!