Had a great pre-guilt run this morning !
Headphones ran out of juice but luckily Runkeeper played out loud so at least I had a clue !!
Chilly to start with but once into my stride just drove myself on.
The pre-guilt bit is because I am off to the Amex Stadium to watch Samoa v USA so beer will be involved then onto the fanzone in Madeira Drive in Brighton to watch the second game.
Two more runs to go - nearly there !!
Well done you! I haven't run without headphones as yet... I need he distraction- great that you managed to keep going somehow ... And how fantastic to be going to see some of the rugby World Cup- love it! 😀
Well done and have a great time!
well done richard , enjoy the game and the beers 
Well done Richard ! Enjoy the game , I am jealous , I love Rugby !
One down , two to go ! xxx
After yesterday evening, I've realised that rugby is actually boring, and I think I'll spend the weekend sulking instead. Enjoy the beers. Just skip breakfast to accommodate their nutritional richness, and you'll be fine. (If everybody always did this, immoderacy would become impossible, hey?)
Commiserations Gary xxxx I don't think anyone could've forecast that result xxx
In spite of the sad outcome for us, it was a brilliant game. There have been few like it in the entire history of the game. The Japanese did better than just well, and it's hard not to admire this.
I'm proud of our fans who went to watch. Apparently when the train came in to Victoria station after the match, the SA supporters formed a kind of guard of honour for the Japanese fans, and waited for them to go up the escalators first, cheering them as they went. (Of course that was just one of the trains. On all the others they were sitting there scowling and talking about how useless the new coach is, how the ball was fixed, how someone must have slipped something into the Boks breakfast, etc.)
Yes I agree Gary, it was a truly magnificent result for the Japanese, you have got to admire them for that like you say .
That's was very sporting of the SA fans to do that, on one of the trains at least !
Theres always the next game ! xxx
It might even be exactly what they need to light a fire under their backsides. There are some politicians here trying to score cheap points out of the racial composition of the team (rugby board is working very hard on fixing that The Right Way, BTW), so poor performance offers an excuse to interfere (whereas success is hard to argue with). There are more pressures than simply trying to win the cup.
Just on that point, if you watch any matches, and for some unsporting reason observe the black guys in the team, you'll quickly discover that they've earned their places there. Some of them are candidates for "best wing (etc) on Earth" at the moment - top practitioners of rugby at the positions they play. Don't get in the way of Beast, for instance. In this situation, all honour goes to them. They become genuine heroes.
Now if the politicians get their hands on this, if you see a black guy on the team you're always going to have legitimate doubts about him. Instead of being what every little prop in the country wants to become (or wing - etc), you kind of know that he's the President's friend's friend, and that's possibly all. Poor guy. He's now just the recipient of a favour, keeping the best player out of that place. And of course the politicians Know you can't fix something like this "top down" - that you have to start from the roots, up - but they're not interested in fixing anything are they? I suppose they're just like politicians everywhere. Everything but everything is subordinate to the one purpose of their accumulation of more and more and more power.
Anyway, enough of that! It's just the context in which "the old men" (who presumably therefore need to retire) play. And it had nothing to do with their defeat by Japan. They were defeated by Japan, because on the day Japan were truly awesome (in the full sense).
You raise some very interesting points there , Gary. Thanks for sharing xxx
Gary, commiserations on the result, but have to agree Japan fully deserved the result. The politics around the Springboks are always going to be difficult. Even without that kind of backdrop, no country's media is ever going to be positive, that's not what sells papers / generates clicks.
Was lucky enough to have tickets for England / Fiji and All Blacks / Argentina and in London throughout the weekend. Great atmosphere amongst fans of many countries (except of course for the deflation amongst the Saffers).
I actually enjoyed the match. If it had been eg the All Blacks ("fellow giants") that beat us like this, I suppose I would have gone in for common or garden deflation (like I'm sure a lot of the Bok fans have), but because I was constantly aware of what a wonderful game the Japanese were having, the game was a better version of exciting, and the end result was almost pleasing, in spite of it being a defeat.
Maybe I'm unpatriotic or something (quite possibly - I certainly wouldn't even consider dying for my country - call me Flashman II - when my country needs me, and there are bullets flying about the place, I'll run like hell - sauve qui peut!).
Those who want to drag their jaws along the ground over this are welcome to it. I'm with the many others who can also enjoy something like Japan's victory. (That said, I didn't phone up the grog shop to see if they perhaps had some real French champagne to celebrate with. There are limits to this.)
Well done - no need for guilt - you'll be able to run it off!
well done richard!! Enjoy your rugby and those beers
Thank you all.
Had a great time at the rugby, good hard game.
I ended up having to run most of the way to the station too as I was late !!
Just got the train in time but because I didn't warm down properly after my official run, today I am walking like an old man !!
Yes we have all done the John Wayne/ Frankensteins Monster Walk at some point ! Ha ha ! xxx
W9 R1 done ✅ 
W9 R1/1a/2/3 All done!
W9 R1 in the bag...
W9 R1 - Now I know
W9 Done: Bring out the Chocolate Roulade!!
