Reading The Red Bucket’s blog today prompted me to think about the joys of a running commute and to share my happy ponderings with the rest of the world.
But I couldn’t think of any.
You get up in the morning with the best of intentions and pack your running gear. This is an exercise in endurance in itself. What do you take? What don’t you take? I have had to learn how to travel light and also how not to mind freezing on the platform while I’m waiting for my train because I’ve had to leave my parka at home. I fail miserably at not minding freezing.
You get to work and your workmates look at you in admiration (at least, I think that’s what it is. It could of course, and possibly more likely, be looks of bewilderment) when you say you’re running home and you smugly think to yourself yay, I am fit and healthy and you are a lazy bastard. Then it gets to the afternoon and you think fuck, I’m knackered and now I’ve got to run for over an hour instead of sitting on a train for 15 minutes. In fact, by the time your Garmin has got a signal, you could have been home with your feet up watching the early evening news (or Hollyoaks).
You have to dodge slow people walking and talking on their mobiles; you have to dodge slow people looking at maps; you have to dodge slow people stopping to light cigarettes and you have to dodge people who are just slow. The only good thing about this is that they are so wrapped up in their own little slow world that they don’t hear you when you swear at them under your breath.
Then you have to stop every four yards to cross the road. Or alternatively you can just get run over every four yards by cars driven by fuckwits who don’t bother to indicate. And don’t forget to look out for cyclists going through red lights. And cyclists on the pavements. And, erm, cyclists in general really.
And of course, it’s dinnertime and the smells from even the greasiest fast food places are enough to make a health-conscious vegetarian’s mouth water. Almost. Although that’s nothing compared to the lager envy you get when you commute in the summer and run past all the people enjoying a cold beer in the evening sun.
When you eventually get home, it is of course late o’clock and by the time you’ve showered and had your dinner there is fuck all else time to do anything else.
Er, yeah, a running commute. I definitely recommend it.
Stats
Distance: 6.06 miles
Time: 1:11:11
Pace: 11:45 m/m
Calories: 586
Slow people: lots
Cars nearly running me over: lots
Cyclists going through red lights: lots
Music
Bobby Conn
The Levellers
Madonna
Radiohead
Baby Teeth
Devo
Janis Joplin
Scissor Sisters
Rolling Stones
THE 100 MILE CHALLENGE
Miles completed so far
12.55 out of 100 / 28 days left
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