The birds sang their hearts out and I arose at 6am. Sophie the cat meeowed "Where's my breakfast?!" So once she was fed and I'd swallowed my mini bowl of porridge with honey, I set off for my run. I had decided on a new strategy this morning. Having read a few blogs on here about post grad runs (that sounds like a Delhi Belly complaint?) and what we are now supposed to do without the support and regimentation of Laura, I thought I'd take the alarmingly radical step of NOT activating ENDOMONDO WOMAN. I've found that when I hear my stats, I tend to put myself under pressure to better each kilometre. So this morning I was going to run purely for my own pleasure and at whatever pace I bloody well liked!
Plugged my headphones in and turned on my playlist and off I went. I know my route of 5 kilomtetres so I paced myself at my usual pace. Passed a few joggers along the way and tried my beaming smile attack, but all to no avail. The swines.
At one stage I was tired and I thought "Sod this! I'm going to reward myself with a 30 sec walk!" WHICH I DID and it was fantaaaaaaastic! I thought "I'll walk to that tree then I'll start running again". Oddly, it felt like the C25K program - with a run and a walk, and in that 30 secs my mind was catapulted back to Laura. We were on a beach. It was hot. She was wearing.........SORRY! I'm rambling.....On with section 2 of my run.
All was going well. The A316 was busy but there were no pedestrians or bikes on the pavement in front of me. Until I got to Twickenham Bridge. In the distance I saw a rotund gentleman, balding quite alarmingly with a bag slung across his body. "Bloomin' heck" I thought "He's out early". I got closer. And closer. Suddenly I was 8 - 10 feet away when I ran into his aftershave cloud! I coughed as I passed him but the strength of his aftershave was stronger in his wake. It was so strong I half thought of jumping over Twickenham Bridge into the Thames, JUST to get away from it. There was only one thing for it - pick up the pace to escape these deadly fumes. I bloody legged it for 50 metres and reached clean air which I gulped into my lungs. I can almost hear Aftershave Man saying to his wife that morning "Run us a bath babe, and put two bottles of "THRUST" in will ya?"
Having made it home and not knowing my stats, I felt absolutely brilliant. The run hadn't left me breathless at all. In fact I had to ask myself "Was that really 5K I just ran?" because it felt......easy?
So the moral of this story is : Post Grad running for me, should be enjoyable and not a competition. And bring a peg next time, just in case I encounter....AFTERSHAVE MAN!
I shall watch out for aftershave man. May you enjoy many more such happy postgrad runs. Enjoyment is often very much underrated by runners!
Lidl turns me into Spider-Man 
Fat man in lycra graduates!!!!
Fat and red and huffing and puffing, the man in Pasadena goes joffling
Week 7 and the shock of being overtaken by a man in a suit
Sorted some Gremlins... Happy man..
