SogJog

After sleeping the best sleep I’ve had for months, I get up and wonder if a bottle and a half of wine was the best pre-run fuel I could have chosen but I feel remarkably ok and I’m looking forward to going out for 7 miles as per my schedule although it’s getting late and I’m not very good at running later in the day and it’s pissing down but I remind myself that I like running in the rain and my iPod eventually updates and it’s chosen some great tunes for me and I go outside and wait for my Garmin to get a signal and it’s taking ages and ages and ages and I go and stand on the other side of the road and it’s still taking ages and ages and ages and I’m getting soaked and freezing and after about ten minutes I think fuck it, I’m going home, I can’t run without my Garmin, and I cross the road to go home and it springs into action and I think oh I’ve got no excuse now but there’s a bunch of hoodies under the bridge and I wonder if they’re just sheltering from the rain or waiting for someone to murder but as I was waiting for my Garmin to get a signal a couple of people had come through the bridge without getting murdered so I decide to be brave and run under the bridge and through the hoodies and they let me go through without murdering me which is handy as getting murdered would fuck up my training a bit.

I get to the marshes and to the marina and I remember I need to check up on the cows as I haven’t seen them from the train this week and I hope they’re not gone because they’re usually there until January and I get over my favourite bridge and HOORAY the cows are there, they’ve just been moved and that’s why I couldn’t see them from the train and I wonder why they’ve been moved and they’re not fenced in in their new location and there’s a man in with them

and I wonder if cows are friendly because my knowledge of cows is very limited what with me being a townie and that but I don’t think they’re as friendly as horses and they might not appreciate me going and stroking them and I stand there and decide whether to go over to the cows but I decide to be chicken and carry on running down to where the cows used to live and just past there they’re building something

and I think what the fuck are they building on my marshes? and there’s a van with Arena Structures on it and I think an arena? maybe some bands will play here, that’ll be cool, maybe Bobby or Cardiacs will play and just a mile away from my house too, yay.

And I get past the ice rink and to the pub by the river and Bear had emailed me and  requested some chips from the pub but the pub is shut so I text him to tell him he can’t have any chips and a three legged dog comes past and I go over the bridge and it’s still raining and there’s loads of puddles on the path and I decide not to run by the river in case I fall in as the path is narrow so I take a detour and then I haven’t a clue where I am but I follow the path round and I eventually find myself back on familiar territory and a runner comes past and obviously as only finely tuned athletes run when it’s pissing down, he recognises me as a fellow finely tuned athlete and gives me a wave and after four miles I get some feeling back in my hands which have just about warmed up and I think next time I’ll take my gloves and then another runner also recognises me as a fellow finely tuned athlete and smiles at me and I think other runners are friendlier when it’s raining, and then I’m under the bridge and out of Hackney Marshes and I run up the steep bit for the first time ever and pass the stables and over the footbridge and then I’m back out on the road and when I get through the bread factories I’ve done 10k and I need to do another mile and I go up to the sports field but there’s about a million people in there playing football so I go round the edge and into the park and half a lap of the park later I’ve done 7 miles and am back to where I was in my schedule before I got injured, hurrah.

Today’s route

Stats
Distance: 7.05 miles
Time: 1:18:27
Pace: 11.07
Calories: 637
Weather: pissing down
Cows moved: 6
Building works over marshes: 1
Three legged dogs: 1
Runners being friendly: 2
Music
Faith No More
The Cure
Belle and Sebastian
Devo
Polyphonic Spree
Jamiroquai
Rollins Band
Rolling Stones
Stereo Total
Hole
Marc Almond
Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Daisy Chainsaw
Ween