Monday morning, it’s grey, not so cold and according to the weather the chances of rain increase substantially in the afternoon. Therefore a good time to get out and do a recce run for my upcoming cultural adventure, of going with my ‘nearly’ god daughter M, her mum G, and friends C & M to see the Nutcracker. G has booked a restaurant up west and I wanted to know exactly where it was as my skills as getting lost are quite legendary. It’s a right and left problem for me. When we were all hunter gatherers, I most definitely would have been eaten by a man-eating beast of some description. Oh the shame and thank goodness for GPRS.
I started out in the City and made my way up West and it was all going rather nice and gentle. I had on my new trainers, but had over-layered on top, with 2 base layers and a rain jacket just in case. At the 1km stage I was beetroot red and the sweat was pouring off me. Quick adjustments and one rain jacket tied around my waist, so I started up again. Aarggh, still too warm, off comes the second layer – and added onto the waistline. At this point I was looking like the ‘coat hanger’ friend at a funfair – you know the type – everyone is on the dodgers/rollercoaster/log flume and there’s the coat hanger friend, cheering everyone on under a mountain of coats.
Okay JCR this is not so great, slow the pace down, to keep the heat down and find the restaurant. It was easy peasy to find, just not exactly where I thought it was. A mental note made and I was on my way. The weather app had obviously failed to spot a huge great lump of rain that dropped like a water bomb. I was already sweaty on the inside and now was getting wet from the outside. Clambering back into the layers, I’d discarded earlier, I decided to cut short the run and aim for home, the quickest way through Long Acre.
At this point Mistress Fate stepped in, the rain was really chucking it down, and I saw my salvation – a Lululemon store. Well I was wearing their running tights and their running jacket, so it would have been a shame not to go in. And it would also have been a shame not to have a look around, and an even greater shame not to have used the credit card I had cunningly packed ‘just in case’. To my shame, I managed to spend an obscene amount of money in the 12 minutes the rainstorm took to pass over. Then instead of my usual fish running adventures, I proceeded to run through Covent Garden, Inns of Court and the City, all the way back home, with a heavily packed Lululemon bag tucked under my arm. It did hamper the last 3.5kms timing, but I liked the stuff I’d bought, so I justified the slower running pace by mentally claiming I’d been carrying weights. Utterly self delusional!!
Any chance of me finding Bev’s mojo in that weather, were somewhat reduced as I was distracted by the kitbag. But I did get just over 9kms done, so it was a good contribution to my running total – that’s a salvation of a sort.
The cheery, but out of season cherry tree, was seen the following on day, on my return trip up West to return two out of the four items bought in the rain! So my shopping frenzy shame, was saved by my inability to guess my own leg size – I think they’ve shortened with all this running;)
Playlist
Going back to Razouski’s list
Baggy Trousers -Madness
Be My Number Two – Joe Jackson
Beat It – Michael Jackson
Blasphemous Rumours – Depeche Mode
Can You Feel It – The Jacksons
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? – Culture Club
Dreaming of Me – Depeche Mode
Get Dancin’ Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes
Go Wild In The Country – Bow Wow Wow
I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me – Nik Kershaw
The Look of Love – ABC
Love’s Unkind – Donna Summer
Lose Yourself – Eminem
Night Fever – Bee Gees
Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello and The Attractions
Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode
Planet Earth – Duran Duran
Purple Rain – His Purple Highness
Rasputin – Boney M
She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
Somewhere In My Heart – Aztec Camera
Vienna, All Stood Still- Ultravox
Stats
Distance 9.27km
Time 1:08:48
Average Pace 7:23
Elevation Gain 39 metres
Alzheimer’s Challenge
Kms Run 1942.75
Kms To Run 75.25
