Today's run was one which I had actually planned, and involved some actual co-ordination. I have been trying on recent runs to visit as many of the DNA sculptures on the Cancer Research Crick DNA Trail as I can, as they are relevant to my quest, and because I like lists of things to tick off. As was going to happen one day, I suppose, I have now exhausted all those within a 10 mile round run of my house. So it's time to head further afield.
Caught the tube to South Kensington, met my good friend Rebecca for coffee and swiftly put the world to rights. On my continuing quest for self betterment, I then visited not one, but TWO museums. Which isn't as impressive as it sounds. I visited the V&A purely to look at one (my favourite ever) exhibit of 183 gem stone rings arranged in a giant Catherine wheel arrangement (which I could stare at for hours, such is it's sparkly wonderment), and to get changed into my running gear in the loos, which the bathroom attendant took umbrage at, as there was queue, which I made worse by taking ages. Actually, just for the record, I got changed in 3 minutes, in a very small cubical, and managed not to touch the floor AT ALL with my feet out of my shoes, which actually I think is quite a pleasing achievement, although apparently I was alone in thinking this.
Walking past the queue now trailing out the door, I began the navigational challenge of finding some sculptures. I have a small map on my phone with the location of the sculptures. Unfortunately, the map appears to have been drawn by a 3 year old, with no sense of direction, a paltry knowledge of London's street names, and whom was clearly distracted at several (crucial) points of map drawing. Actually, that's perhaps a tad unfair, as my inadequate sense of direction probably (or, definitely) also has some part to play in my inability to find any of these sculptures with no trouble. .
Despite this, I collected a record haul of five (FIVE!) sculptures today!
Colours Through Speed - Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar
Untitled 1 - Ai Weiwei
Growing Stem - Orla Kiely
Double Helix Noir - Thierry Noir
The Journey - Guy Portelli
Running round the posh part of town today. Felt like I stood out slightly in my holey trainers (although I wore purple socks especially to hide the hole), and holey leggings from the last time I fell over, and my inadequate sewing skills didn't quite manage to hide. Everyone else is wearing so may labels that it makes moving around tricky, and so my progress along the Kings Road is hampered by this, plus dodging cups of organic-free-range-super-wonder-cappufrapulattechinos large enough to sink ships in, and small dogs who have escaped handbags but who have difficulty walking on their tiny pedicured feet.
Made a navigational error on reaching Hyde Park. Mistakes in Hyde Park are always costly, as it is the size of a small country. I confidently turned left, and then ran for 4 miles to get to where I would have got in approx. 2.5 seconds had I turned right.
This had a silver lining though, as I ran past a bench outside Kensington Palace, a man shouted "Go on champ!" and veritably beamed like the sun as I ran past. The effect of a friendly human being on the pysch should never be underestimated, and I completed the last 7000 miles around the edge of the park feeling much buoyed, and much like I imagine actual champs feel.
On the way home I narrowly escaped becoming lost forever underground at Monument Tube Station, as I tried to take a shortcut to avoid the traffic above. Monument Tube Station has at least 47 exits, all of which bring you up in completely different parts of London, miles from each other, and however carefully you choose your exit, it will inevitably not be the one you wanted, and you will spend several hours walking amongst the skyscrapers of the city trying to work out where on earth (or at least, in London) you are.
Ran 10.3 miles, and on arriving home had some water to celebrate, which was way more exciting than it sounds, as having reflected deeply on how I ran out of water on last weeks ultra excursion, and ended up like a crisp, I learnt from my mistakes. So today I didn't take enough water either.
Cheers.
Stats
Total days: 74 days
Total miles: 778 miles
Roll on day 80 and a well deserved rest, albeit briefly, to promote your 100 days, 1000 miles plus, and the Clatterbridge Cancer Charity and appear on Radio Clatterbridge with presenter Steve Evans. See you very soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve! Very excited to be on Radio Clatterbridge next Wednesday to talk about 100 Days! Thanks for inviting me on the show - see you then!
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