Let me see what you got..
Not a lot actually. I have pretty much written off the last 2 weeks training due to being rubbish.
I do however have 1 10 mile run to report, my leg of the endurance life real relay. This is the unofficial relay following the Olympic torch but, all on foot and 24 hours a day. Basically you look on the website as legs get added and you sign up for a free one and donate £10 to Chicks charity. When I looked in June the nearest one to me that I could reasonably get to was from Colchester to tiptree. Still 60 miles from me but what the hell. I signed up anyway.
The deal is you navigate yourself, so I did a google maps and it looked like a straight line, cool, I thought, even I can do that! :-D
So after a weekend of resting because I didn't feel that well I set off early to catch the train to somewhere I had never been with my phone, a bottle of drink, some maps and 2 mini mars bars. I know how to travel.
Anyway the first panic was at Shenfield when I discovered my train was one of those sodding things that splits. Why a train can't just go all in one piece to the same place is beyond me. I stressed a bit and kept walking down the train until I was convinced I was on the right half and was delighted to actually arrive in Colchester only slightly wound up.
I then needed to find Colchester castle. I looked at my map, and struck out towards it. It was about a mile later when I discovered I was walking in completely the wrong direction :-/
I may have had a strop at this point. I may have said on the phone I was going fucking home and sod this fucking relay..... Nah....that's not me is it! Of course not!
I went back to the station and asked someone, who said if you are good at directions you can walk there or if you are not you could get a cab.
I got a cab.
Then I sat outside the castle for about an hour waiting for the runner before me. He duly turned up accompanied by a woman on a lay down bike thing. They said they would help me find the B1022 which I needed to take. Which was nice of them but because they knew the area they gave me a better route...... So I only got a bit lost :-/
I did find the correct road though and then all I had to do was follow it, carrying the 3 foot long baton with a GPS thing taped to one end and a union jack flag on the other :-D
At one point I had to go round a mini roundabout and go right off it, I knew this was right, but I spotted a sign pointing in exactly the opposite direction saying tiptree. Fuck.
I was sure I hadn't gone wrong but maybe I had turned round and forgotten I had??? Seriously stranger things have happened to me....
So I did what I always do, I stopped in a gateway, threw all my stuff on the floor and went into meltdown mode. Just as I was about to do this a guy walked out of the gate and said 'are you a runner doing the real relay? Can I shake your hand?' Really, that happened :)
I said I was but that I was really confused by the sign. He assured me that I was right and that the sign was for the sustrans cycle network.....see just another example of life trying to fool me. Not right, not fair but I have to deal with it :-D
So I set off again happier, and basically spent the next 5 or 6 miles jumping in and out of the hedge to avoid being run over. I'll admit I still wasn't feeling that well so I was slow anyway and about a mile from Tiptree I was walking when a car pulled up on opposite side and a woman leaned out and told me she was a journalist covering the relay for the local paper, would I like a lift?
Bloody no I wouldn't! That wasn't really the idea of a relay on foot.
Anyway soon enough I finished, handed over and posed for some pictures. And then walked about 3 miles to the nearest station..... I was it appeared in the middle of nowhere.
Glad I did it though. It feels good to have been a part of something and challenge myself a bit too.
I haven't been well since, but I reckon I have picked up a virus somewhere and hopefully I am seeing the back of it now. I haven't had the slightest desire to exercise and I know that's not me. I'm also seeing the dr for anaemia related stuff so I'm really hoping that very soon I will have all my enthusiasm and energy back.
I did get some energy back last night at the Bruce Springsteen gig in Hyde Park, supplied to me by LAGER. It seems a long time since I ran around and danced like that, it was ace. We were completely Knackered by the end of it so I'll assume that's why Mr H fainted on the tube on the way home. Bloody lightweight. :-D
Hoping to run tomorrow, and decide whether to do the Elvis race on Wednesday.
See ya.
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