W9R1 this morning.
Gone was the Hill of Hell. Today there would be no plodding up the Lane of Pain to the turnaround point of the village signpost. This week I am in London on business.
The hotel I had chosen is close to some of the parks so I pulled on my Minion running outfit and set off.
The park is literally 30 meters from the hotel and it was full of other runners and dog walkers and people walking to work.
There were runners all lithe and muscular striding past with a length per step that would be about 10 of my shuffles.
But I didn’t care. Not one bit. I wasn’t there for them.
And to be honest, they would have been encouraging anyway.
MJ did his usual ear splitting welcome and it was time to start moving.
The change of scenery was great. So much to look at.
And I had never seen so many runners in one place!
It was interesting now to see how people run. I had never looked before. To see the different styles. The bouncy springboks, the hip swinging bum shufflers, the side to side arm swingers, the pointy finger 90 degree elbow people. It was great.
With everything going on I struggled for the first running minute to find my pace but despite the song coming in through my earphones I mentally played the opening sequence of my ‘pace’ song and I settled into it.
The sun through the huge trees in the early morning sunshine was beautiful. I joined the throngs of people and just moved along.
Crossing roads was fun as I had to run towards a light and hope it would be green when I got there otherwise I had to run to the next light.
Out of Green Park, past Buck House (morning ma’am) and onto Hyde Park.
Through Hyde Park and I was already at the 20 minute marker. Up to Horseguards Parade and around the square and back down onto the Mall. A few other runners even gave me a cheery ‘morning!’ (Surely they cant say it to every runner?)
And then MJ told me it was the last 60 seconds.
Last week when it was 28 minutes I pushed it a bit and went for 30. Today I wanted to push it a bit as well so when he told me to slow down and walk I carried on.
At the start of the 9 weeks I had my workout set to ‘fitness walking’ as that was pretty much what it was. Then when I had it set to running I just used to hit start even though I was doing the warm up 5 mins. Now I only have been hitting start as I start the run. 30 mins has been taking me to 3.5km so I have wanted to get to 4km so today I did.
Rest day tomorrow which is great because there are certain things you miss when you are not living in the UK.
Normally I would have 2 boiled eggs after running and a banana. The hotel has a full English available and I’ve already found a good little Indian restaurant close to the hotel.
And....seeing as how I’m in London, I may as well pop into Brooks now that it looks like I may keep on doing this running malarkey.
How times change
WK9 R1, one of those rare perfect ones!
1st Park run today - running in company for a change
I've done it! I've graduated!
W6R1 was easy?
