Jesus Christ, a spot of weight training, embrace the puddles, 27 minutes and that's Week 7 Run 2 done.

[spoonierunning]

So the journey to today's run started last night with an early night, doing battle with a cat and Ferdinand to claim a tiny sliver of the bed that was mine. Roll on 6.30 am wake up and decide that really I'm just not up to getting up and it was raining last night and I'm all bunged up cause of hayfever and well I'd finally managed to wrestle control of a great proportion of the bed *bliss* and well I just didn't want to go out so ner.

8 am arrives and I think to myself, no stop being silly you know you enjoy it once out there so ummm breakfast and then going out after 9am when the kidlets are all off the street and safely caged away in their schools.

Good job while I was munching my toast I realised that I in fact needed to convince two giant bunnies into carriers and get them to the vets for a 9.30am check up with the nurse. To make sure I didn't duck out of running I put on running kit to head to the vets, but I did protect their sanity with a normal tshirt rather than full on wobble revealing running top.

So weight training done - Wooster weighing in at 10.5 lbs and Jeeves a little under 10 lbs - it was time for pre run drink and get the dog ready.

And we're off. Fiddle with phone trying to turn on gps and running app while not actually being able to see the screen.

'Oh what a cute dog, what's his name' ok I thought Ferd always atrracts attention so stop to be polite, thinking it would be no more than a few seconds interruption. Errrrr

'So have do you heard of the church of the later day saints?'

'Im a pagan'

'Do you believe in god'

'I believe in a god and goddess' thought it might confuse them more if I said many

'Would you be interested in learning more'

And I am thinking to myself, hello I am in full on Lycra wonder outfit, complete with armband and dog do I look like I'm out for a gentle stroll and want to talk about region kinda busy here

'Err kinda busy'

Stuff card they gave me into dicky bag (er it's a poop holder) and think to myself why did I stop. I must be the only person ever to have their warm up interrupted by Jesus Christ, or rather the message of!?

Right Ferd I think the app is up and running, stuff phone in bra, hear it mumble something at me, remove phone, turns out I'd managed to stop tracking, get it all set up again and pop iPod on - same play list as for successful w7r1.

And we're off.

Ferd I have to say gets gold stars today he was exceptionally well behaved, when we came up to a bit with a road, he listened to the 'with me' command and stayed at my side. He did some swimming but came back, though when he is swimming I do have to jog on the spot cause I don't want to get too far ahead of him.

Today I learnt to embrace puddles, I avoided one and rolled my ankle, don't think I've hurt it but decided rather than take the risk I would embrace them and run on through, like a runner instead of a girlie girl, it was liberating and refreshing.

We ran past fishermen and I wasn't (too) embarrassed and Ferd didn't steal any sandwiches.

And we were doing so well, but then we spotted a couple of fishermen who were blocking the towpath and had an angry ankle biter with them, so I had to stop running and walk past with Ferd on a short lead. But then running resumed. I didn't want to have to turn around and go past them again so I decided to head onto the road to get back home.

We ran past a man taking his man eating horse for a walk (I'm a little scared of horses) and then it started to get hard, it was a long drawn out gradual incline and then we spotted a steeper incline and by this point I just didn't think I could make it even with dog power so stopped.

Checked my phone to see how short of the 25 I was and realised that actually I'd done 27 minutes, so I think that makes up for the tiny bit I had to walk.

Cool down walk and I got my first stitch since I was a teenager, some deep controlled breathing soon sorted that out (note to self coffee not a good pre run drink).

And that's it week 7 run 2 done and dusted.

[Hidden]

Great work !

[spoonierunning Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you

[danzargo Graduate]

Well done you. Sounded like an obstacle course, but you made it in the end. Sorted!

[spoonierunning Graduate in reply to danzargo]

Thank you

[Hidden]

Oh Spoonie, I do love your posts. You have such a turn of phrase such as kidlets and cages (what an excellent idea). I'm pleased you had a reasonable run today despite the interruptions. With regard to the religious people - it does annoy me when people try to force their views on to others and do not respect your privacy. It's an intrusion! Sounds like a good run overall though so well done for getting out there. Good luck on your next run and hope it's without interruptions. Best wishes.

[spoonierunning Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thank you.

Though I wish I'd said I was Jedi. Even worse during the afternoon one knocked on the door we decided on the ignore them approach.

[Miles_Yonder Graduate]

Spoonie! That did make I laugh! I think you win the award for the most bizarre run interruption of the week (cue TV Burp-styleeee theme tune.....) for the interjection by the Jesus Christ folk! That's actually really cool; best I could manage so far this week was the drunken chop chop woman!

AND you go weight training by lifting gargantuan bunny rabbits before you run! How very cool indeed.

Do you know, I read just last night somewhere, (I forget where now; THINK it was in one of the magazines) that it's best to go for the centre of the puddle and not to try and avoid it, for reasons which you outlined here in your unfortunate experience of today. Hope your ankle is okay now after the rest!

Sounds like a good, fun -and Jesus Christedly absurd- run; well done!

[spoonierunning Graduate in reply to Miles_Yonder]

Thank you.

What got me is why would you stop someone in full running gear? Maybe I looked like I needed divine intervention as I was struggling with my phone!

Ankle is feeling fine, though I think I might have done something to my knee while navigating towpath hogging fishermen and avoiding their angry ankle biter, hopefully it will be ok after some rest