I couldn't sleep last night, so I had plenty of time to consider the questions that had been puzzling me yesterday. I figured the bus changed direction, because the chicken was crossing the road in front of it. The chicken was crossing the road, because she needed to go to her friends house to use the shower, as there was a spider in her shower (yes, chickens shower). And as for why the spider was in the shower, and not anywhere else, I couldn't answer that one, because I'm not sure what the actual point of spiders is, anyway. I even fell out of bed at some point, which I haven't done since I was a kid, which must have been because I was thinking so hard. So, as you can imagine, I was pretty tired this morning after worrying about it all.
But at least I could rest today. Oh wait no, today was the Vanguard Way Marathon.
Oh.
The bus I was meant to catch had broken down, so the bus was late, but thanks to my late night philosophising, I understood why this might be, and so managed to maintain a (sort of) state of calm whilst almost missing my train, and prayed that all chickens had crossed roads safely.
I still wasn't feeling 100% my usual self today really, but at least I made it around a full marathon without crying once, which is an improvement on yesterday, and was really thanks to running with Craig and Richard, which was fun - thanks you guys for today!
The Vanguard Way Marathon is along......The Vanguard Way. The Vanguard Way is a footpath that goes for 107 km from Croydon on the outskirts of London, to Newhaven on the coast. I didn't know much about it, but the idea seems (like many of the best ideas) to have begun in a pub, at a meeting of The Vanguards Rambling Club in the 1960s, who came up with the idea, after I imagine several pints (the person who came up with the idea of all the hills must definitely have downed a few, to think they were a good idea), and then made it a reality.
The Vanguard Way Marathon is put on by 1m2go events, and it starts in Croydon, and goes for 13.1 miles in one direction along the VGW, and 13.1 miles back. The last time I did it I got really lost. It's mostly marked with tape and arrows, which is fine if you pay attention to the tape and arrows, but not fine if you don't. To be fair to us, we made it to quite close to the end before becoming lost. So close in fact, that we had disregarded a pub stop, in favour of pushing on, as we were almost back, and we had been doing really well with finding our way. But then, of course, we reached a golf course, which it is a guaranteed place to be lost (especially if you aren't actually meant to be running through a golf course at all), so we got some extra free bonus miles and an extra hill. Which was lucky, as we'd done HARDLY ANY hills all day.
Ha! The Vanguard Way is SO hilly. It's got some crackers. But hills give you views, and there were some great views. I especially like running along the bit where you can see the M25, and everyone stuck in traffic, while you're running along up above on a nice trail.
We finished in 5:50 something or other. It was a pretty hard and hot day, but in a different way to yesterday. A nice crowd out, and good to be out on the trails again; the VGW is a nice route.
It felt like a really hard double this weekend, and I'm not sure why it felt so hard. But sometimes stuff just is, I suppose. Hey ho and all that. Some questions are not so easy to answer as why chickens cross roads. But it's good to know that things can still be fun, even if they are hard, if you have good people around you - thanks everyone for this weekend! 💜
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