Day 5 of 10 days, and half way there!
I've been going back home in between runs for the last couple of days, which although is quite a long journey, has been quite nice to break things up and have a change of routine. Bus to Waterloo, coffee, front carriage of the train to meet Sarah, and a nice walk from Walton-on-Thames station for a couple of miles to the start.
The sky was lovely this morning.
Today I felt better compared to yesterday, which was a nice feeling to feel.
We were running on the west bound route today. The weather was quite nice, not as sunny as yesterday, but by the end the sun made it out, so the last few miles were nice and bright. It was quite chilly to start, and there was a "refreshing " wind blowing on and off the whole day, which when it hit you in the face, felt like someone had opened a walk-in freezer door (but without any ice cream appearing).
We spent some time running and chatting with Charlie, Clare and Pixie, and Liz, which was lovely.
There were a lot of swans around today! Some of them seemed to be getting quite keen on each other. With it being April, and not having seen any cygnets yet, and the swans seeming only now becoming acquainted, a natural question for my post-run Google list was, how long is the incubation period of a swan egg? It turns out that it can take 2-3 weeks for swans to build their nest, the female lays one egg every 12-24 hours over the next 2-3 weeks, and then the eggs are incubated for 42 days. So cygnets are born anytime from May- July. And mute swans usually mate for life, so I hope the Walton swans are taking their towpath speed-dating seriously.
On the topic of babies, it occured to us that we have never seen a baby squirrel, or a baby pigeon. Well, we learned that Rik actually has seen a baby pigeon, a whole attic of them in fact, but apart from that, in our poll of runners on the towpath, no one else has. I added this to my post-run Googling list of things to look up. It turns out that it is because both squirrels and pigeons don't leave their nests for a relatively long time, and by the time they they do, they look just like the adult versions, only a bit smaller, so unless you saw one next to an adult one, it would look just like normal.
The towpath has dried out so much, and our shoes today were so clean at the end. We discussed running shoe colours, and what nice/funny/wierd names they have. Mine are called Festival Fushia/ Iris Rose. Sarah tomorrow will wear Marin Yellow. On Googling if these are actual things, I spent some time down a rabbit hole looking at the Pantone colour palletes and codes, which is a very satisfying way to waste time that you don't have to waste.
Saw another Chinook at the end, whilst having post run chocolate fudge cake and mint tea.
On the walk back to the station, we caught up on the Walton dramas. Yesterday afternoon, four beautiful cherry trees in full blossom were cut down on the high street (we saw it when walking past 😔). This is to make way for a new zebra crossing, but the word on the grapevine is that a planning application from 2018 was used, not the current one, so people were not properly consulted about the changes. There is uproar, and the two remaining cherry trees have stay of execution notices on them now. It's very sad, they were such pretty trees, and I always liked to see them. I don't really see why they would have been in the way.
So another 9 laps, and 29.5 miles, for ultramarathon #5/10.
The medal today is the Perseverance Ring.
Thanks so much everyone who has sponsored me! I am genuinely blown away by how kind and generous everyone is.
My justgiving page is HERE!
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