Back down to earth
I survived the Three Peaks Challenge, only falling over on Ben Nevis four times and Scafell Pike six times but I’ll blog about that some other time, and today I get up bright and early to go for my long run as I’ve got a half marathon in five weeks and I’ve only done about five minutes training, oops, and after I get up bright and early I go back to bed and get up about 9ish and get out the door about 10ish and I have to go and investigate the new cows that I’ve seen from the train, three smaller black ones, although I’ve gone off cows a bit now and sheep are the new cows, especially pretty Cumbrian ones
which, sorry Mr Sorelimbs, are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay prettier than your Welsh sheep, although Welsh sheep are prettier than the ugly Kent sheep although the Kent sheep don’t mind their photos being taken, unlike the camera shy Welsh sheep and I go over the boardwalk and there’s a cyclist cycling towards me and he hasn’t dismounted like he’s supposed to and I think well, I’m not getting out of your way, I’m allowed to run along here and he’s started to wobble and I think ha ha, hope you fall off but he doesn’t fall off and he frowns as he wobbles past me and I go and see the new black cows
and now there’s eight cows over the marshes which is two more than last year and last year had two more than the year before that so maybe there’ll be ten cows next year, hurrah.
And I’m going through the filterbeds and stopping to walk as I’m a lightweight even if I did just walk up and down three mountains and Sleeper comes on my iPod and I think hurrah 90s indie, my favourite and I start to run again and after it’s finished I start to walk again and I look behind me and there’s a fat man with a walking stick behind me and I stop to take a photo of the river which appears to consist only of green sludge
and Fat Man with Walking Stick says something and I take my headphones out and he says he’s never seen the river so dirty and I say no, me neither, I was wondering if the duck was standing on a log or just on the green sludge and he says it was standing on a leaf and I say oh and he says do you run every day? and I say no, not every day and he says you should, I walk every day and I say um, I run three times a week, and I’m wondering why I feel the need to justify myself to a Fat Man with a Walking Stick and I’m thinking well I just went up and down three mountains and I bet you haven’t and he says he comes here every year and I say to Hackney? and he says no, he lives in Spain and I put my headphones back and and say bye and run off and go round the football field and I get to the path in the foresty bit and one of the footballers comes over and sits on the path to do his laces up and I think I don’t want anyone joining me in the foresty bit and I’m trying to decide whether to be scared or not and I’m wondering why he chose the path to do his laces up, he could have done that on the field and I’m wondering if he can run in studs and if he’s going to run after me and murder me and I decide he probably isn’t and he’s probably just doing his laces up and I carry on and then I’m walking again and then Sleeper comes on again and I think hurrah, 90s indie, my favourite and I run again and I get to the steep bit and because I’m hardcore and can walk up and down mountains, I run up the steep bit and then I get home after running for the first time in nearly three weeks.
Stats
Distance: 6.53 miles
Time: 1:23:09
Pace: 12:44
Calories: 561
New cows: 3
Total cows: 8
Frowning cyclists wobbling on the boardwalk: 1
Fat men with walking sticks: 1
Rivers made of green sludge: 1
Mountains climbed: 3
Music:
Jimi Hendrix
Hole
The Gossip
Buzzcocks
Cardiacs
Mark Ronson
Sonic Youth
Stereo Total
Franz Ferdinand
Foo Fighters
Sleeper
Blondie
Woo-hoo! Well done on your successful Three Peaks Challenge, congratulations! I’ve not been to see the cows yet, but will try and get down there this week if the rain holds off.
Hey well done with the 3 Peaks – I’ve wanted to do that one for aaages.
Well done on the three peaks. Now all your runs are going to seem very flat