Trick or Treat - a Halloween run in Tottenham

I'm trying to get to Sheffield. So far it's taken 4.5 hours, and I'm not even running there, although I'm starting to suspect that might have been quicker than trying to travel by train during a day of 'adverse weather'. It's the UK for crying out loud, when is the weather NOT adverse??? It's only a bit of wind and rain. Anyway, I'm now on train number 4, I've finished my book, had breakfast, coffee, morning snacks, done my admin, and as I'm highly caffeinated and in a confined space, I thought I should expend some energy writing a blog.

I went to White Hart Lane this week. Not to watch football (no comment there as to if this is a good thing or not, as I will hurt the feelings of some of my friends whichever way I go about that), but for work for a conference. During the stadium tour we went on, I learnt that the stadium cost £1 billion pounds to make. So whatever you think about that fact, you can't deny it is a step up from the basement office in Holloway Road I usually rock up to at 09:00 every morning, next to the recycling centre (tip), before heading out, usually in the rain, pulling a heavy bag of scales with a broken wheel, to catch a number of buses, usually just to miss the first one, and then of course the rest of them, to the far flung corners of Haringey/ Islington. It was much, much, more glamorous than that.

Anyway, I've got distracted. This is meant to be about running. 

So, the conference was for work, and was called Caring For Those Who Care, a conference for Allied Health Professionals and looking after ourselves, which is a new direction to the usual approach of the NHS of driving it's staff into the ground with an excess of work, and a lack of time and resources, I must say. I could say a number of things about that, that it's not actually the NHSs fault etc etc.... but I've got distracted again, and it's Saturday, I'm not meant to be thinking of work.

Running.

Yes.

The reason I mentioned the conference was becuase it had a mindfullness session in it. During this, I learnt a technique to bring you back to the moment, like if you're starting to feel very stressed or anxious by something, and your mind is running away, it can help to bring you back to the moment and break your thought cycle, and feel a bit calmer. Maybe. You start by counting 5 sights you can see. Then listen to 4 sounds you can hear. Then 3 things you touch. 2 scents you can smell. And then 1 flavour you can taste. So in a normal day at work, I'm going to be spending all day counting back from 5. 

Anyway. I thought I'd try it when I was running. Since I started marathons, I have made at least some progress in that I don't really panic now if I feel terrible during a run. When I did my first one, I thought that if I started feeling bad at mile 8, that would be it for the rest of the run, and it was a total disaster and I might as well go e up. But I've learnt that that doesn't usually happen. You will probably have waves of good bits, and bad bits, and then good bits, and bad bits..... So I'm often feeling quite calm in a marathon, but the mindfullness lady said you should practice in a situation you are quite relaxed in, to get used to a technique, so it comes naturally when you're feeling less good and you actually need it.

So I decided to run home from the conference, through Tottenham, on Halloween. This was an error, as running through Tottenham at any time, never mind on Halloween night, is not a relaxing experience. The first 3 miles were along the A10, which at least had plenty of material for number 2 of the technique (but it disturbed me that I was breathing in too many fumes, so I tried not to breath too much, which turned out not to be a brilliant idea for running 3 miles). Slightly hyperventilating, I recognised the gates of Abbey Park cemetery (how appropriate for today!), and remembered the route back home via the back roads I used to run....

How did I make it this far, through such adversity, I hear you ask. Well, maybe you didn't, but I'll tell you anyway. I was practicing my new technique, of course....

5 sights I can see: a vampire, a zombie, someone in fancy dress, a bus, and another bus with the same number (why are there loads of buses when you don't need one)

4 sounds I can hear: a witch cackling, an angry horn blaring, a crow skwarking as it pulls apart an old takeaway box, a creepy guy shouting 'awrihht luv' (yes, fine, thanks for asking) 

3 things I can touch: my bag (it hasn't been stolen), the pelican crossing button which I've pressed 5 times but the lights are still not changing 2 minutes later (like I don't have anything better to do than stand next to the A10 on Halloween), my head (haven't lost it yet, not quite)

2 scents I can smell: only 2? OK. Fumes, obviously. Fried chicken. Mmmmm.

1 flavour I can taste: erm, water, is that a flavour? No? Ha, I found a mint. Mint!

Gosh, I feel so calm. I guess if you can be mindful here, you can do it anywhere. Plus it had a point. I would have normally hated a run like that, but it does make you pay attention to what's going on right now, and even if it wasn't a very beautiful run, and I didn't like a lot of the things I observed in my activity, it was kind of interesting, which was better than hating it. It wasn't really a treat, but I did learn a trick!

Happy Halloween!