Phoenix Fridays - Fabulous Fridays, marathon, 18.08.2023
5am....that Friday feeling! Up, coffee, shower etc. Walk to bus - the weather is so misty, you can't see the tops of the skyscrapers in the city. The bus sets off into the mist, towards Waterloo. Hop on the train, front carriage of course. Meet Sarah! Get off at Walton-on-Thames and bump into Vanessa and Eddie, thank you for the lift to the start! As we start running, the sky starts raining. Raining, raining, raining! Very wet and humid, like a rainforest. Love it! Totally soaked by lap two. Nice to run along, catching up, and decompressing from the week. Much to chat about! Geese and ducks are doing yoga (g-oga and d-oga) very well, great balance. Several geese have abandoned the river, to take up personal puddles, and float around in the middle of the towpath. The rain stops at about lap 7, and everything starts steaming.
Thank you Rik and Team Phoenix for a fabulous Friday!
Off to the pub to the "tea and carbs table" afterwards, and to attempt to dry off. Walk back to station with Annabel and Sarah, and arrive 3 mins before a train...and the train is running!! Back to London, and I abandon my attempt to collect my last Morph on the Morph Art Trail due to feelings of hunger. So back to home, and address these feelings with pasta. I have also been craving peppermint slice since rediscovering it in Scotland, but you can't buy it here, so decide the only thing is to make it - so begin and complete steps 2 out of 3.
SVN Adventures in Middle Earth series - Hobbiton, marathon, 19.08.2023
An adventure to Gravesend! On the walk to King's Cross, the early morning along the canal is nice and peaceful, save for two moorhens who are having a big fight (in the canal, a chase down the towpath, and in the canal again). Arrive to King's Cross, where it is less peaceful. Meet Sarah and catch the high-speed train to Gravesend. Bump into Bushy at the station and walk (along the Road Of Doom) to the start together. Haven't been to SVN in a while - it was great to be back and to see so many people there! Today was Valérie's 100th marathon, so there were many people there to celebrate - congratulations Valérie! Also, it was the start of the Middle Earth 10 in 10 series today.
The day was spent catching up, laughing and smiling, and running, and was the best of fun all around the 8 laps of the lightening bolt route.
Also did Park Run as part of the marathon (as the first lap). By some miracle I found my Park run barcode last night. I have not done a Park Run in a long time, and I was pleased to 1) find my barcode, 2) discover it still works, and 3) to learn this was my 17th ever Park Run.
Spent lots of miles with James, Sarah's second favourite Northerner. James, you may take the cotton wool out of your ears now, and don't forget to check your shoe laces.
Fell over again, on the same knee that has, just about two days ago, completed healing up from the last time I fell over onto it. Plus sides, 1) discovering that being face down in the bushes doesn't interrupt chatting, 2) I didn't land in dog poo, and 3) I can now start on using all the first aid things I've just re-bought, to replace all the ones I've been using up over the last three weeks.
I love The Hobbit. It was one of the books that I read at primary school. I went to see an evening open air performance of it, in the Williamson Park in Lancaster, with my Dad and my sister during the term that we were reading it at school. It was wonderful, and one of my favourite memories! Each scene was in a different part of the park, so you walked around following the story, as it got dark. My favourite scene was Smaug's lair - but instead of being fearsome and yellowy-brown with fangs and devil eyes, Smaug was made of lots of iridescent blue and green foil, which was lit up, and I remember him being magical rather than scary.
Having twice attempted to read the Lord of the Rings, and having twice to abandon my quest, due to just getting too confused, my progress into the rest of Middle Earth is somewhat hindered, but I love all the medals for the series!
I felt better on the way home today, so detoured around Paddington to collect the missing Morph.
And later on competed stage 3 of 3 of the peppermint slice.
SVN Adventures in Middle Earth series - Rivendell, marathon, 20.08.2023
The first train out of London didn't leave until 8:20, and rather than spend about £100 a room in the Gravesend Travelodge the night before, Sarah and I decided it would just be better to be a few minutes late starting the race. We arrived at Gravesend station at 8:43 and ran the couple of miles over to the Cyclopark.
The route was 5 laps of 5 and a bit miles each, up and down the 177 bike route. One way was up, the other way was down. There was no shade, and it was by all accounts, HOT!
In order to make the time in the baking sun more bearable, Sarah and I imagined that we were on the way to the beach (you know, that long road leading to the beach on holiday, where everyone is walking up and down with towels, and cool bags). We never actually found the beach, despite going up and down the road five times, but we could hear the waves in the sea (AKA, the sound of the traffic on the A2). We spotted two upturned trollies (us - trollied on the beach). Tiny patches of shade became extremely exciting (warranting a dive across the whole path to reach it), as did the odd cloud drifting over the sun. We also went over the "un-bridge" (AKA the Cyclopark version of the Blue Bridge). Which lead to other "un" words that could apply to this lap. For example, unforgiving, unrelenting, etc etc. Spent a lap comparing scars. As you can see, the heat was getting to us, and our random chat became even more random than usual.
Another brilliant day catching up with so many people, and having so many hugs! Thanks Tills and Rachel and Team SVN for a brilliant couple of days. Good luck to all the TiTs, and see you Friday! Thank you Sarah for a brilliant running mini-break!
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