I was always going to struggle to fit my planned 8 miler today. For a start I was still wandering the streets in search of a kebab at 2am last night, which can only mean that the mother of all hangovers was going to greet me at running o’clock this morning.
It did.
So I delayed all exercise and commenced carb loading instead. I started to feel a little more human apres lunchtime but the weather was still too shockingly hot for running and I retired to bed for the afternoon.
I finally hit the streets running by what I thought was 7.30pm but must have been closer to 8.45pm. This is important as I felt I had a good 2 hours of daylight left to light the way on my loop of Richmond Park. Unfortunately the night launched a surprise attack and engulfed me as I reached Kingston Gate. At this point I was struggling to spot the roots and rubble on the trail and thought it would be sensible to turn back along the road rather than continue through the wooded section to Roehampton.
The return journey was both terrifying and invigorating, as the people deserted the park all the little creatures started coming out to play. I saw 2 herons, multiple gambolling bunnies, 2 bats, a whole load of deer and I nearly tripped over a fox that was stood in my path. As I topped Sawyers Hill, the view was an absolute treat, to my left I had the rapidly decaying sunset, in front I had the flashing beacon at Canary Wharf and to the right I had a fantastic fireworks display.
If it wasn’t for my Infarction inducing terror at being alone (or more worringly – not alone) in a deserted wood/park in the pitch dark I reckon I would be doing this run every night. I might insist on removing that Terracotta Pie song from music list first though, the bloody tune increases my anxiety levels at the best of times, its not what you want to hear when desperately running from the rising panic that seems to be chasing you.
Weekly summary:
Mon: 42 km bike
Tue: 11.71 km run
Wed: 42 km bike
Thur: 3.21 km run
Fri: 42 km bike
Sat: 32 km bike
Sun: 13.67 km run
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Alright, I get it, my music taste sucks. You can leave it alone now, okay?! Sheesh.
Sounds like it was a great run and I’m glad that it was only bunnies, bats, foxes, and… what’s a heron? with you on the trail. I love it when a run surprises you like that. It looks like your training’s coming along nicely. You’ll get to 13.1 miles easily.
It’s just that I’m too idle to update the playlist on my phone, I was convinced I’d removed it, but no, it keeps reappearing like a bad penny. It’ll be stuck with me for months now.
Aah, I’m jealous of all the wildlife you see, although I did see a heron over the marshes. And of course, we have cows here
Are you using your N95 for music? I used mine on Saturday and the battery ran out after about an hour and it had been charging all night.
This is a full on training schedule Angela. More power to you for taking it on. You’ve only got the swimming left to conquer and you’ll be tri’ing before you know it !
I am listening to either music or the radio on the N95 but it is definitely not going to get me through the Great North Run. A little web surfing during the day and then a run home with music results in it conking out on my last 500m. Not so great I suppose.
Gambolling bunnies? Is this part of the new Super Casino thing?
I really liked this post and loved your description of running through a park in the dark. We have a similar problem with the wildlife giving us the spooks here in the dark, although it is a kangaroo or two that causes problems. We also have our issues with foxes and bunnies but don’t see too many deer in our part of the world. Well done on this post. Really enjoyed it.
You asked about the word “Tuggeranong” on my blog. It comes from the name given to the valley (Tuggeranong Valley) that covers a large part of the southern suburbs of the city of Canberra where I live.
As an aside, I have a very close running buddy who is also a Brit. After being in Oz for two and a half years, she’s just come back from 6 weeks in the UK, full of stories of the great places she reconnected to (I caught up with her in London during my recent trip there). She was a tad understated in the way she described it all, but to me, an Australian, it all sounded like an absolute delight. I’ve been to Britain three times without ever getting out of London. The day will come when I will see a lot more of the place and I will be a happy man for doing so.