Saturn Ten in Ten Series, Day 10, 50km, 23.07.2023 + Saturn I Believe in Bru, 50km, 30.07.2023

Saturn Ten in Ten Series, Day 10, 50km, 23.07.2023

It was nice to do an event again, after a few weeks away doing other things. 

Wasn't 100% sure I was going to make it, with the train strike going on the day before, and engineering works. But, success! I arrived in Staines feeling like I'd already had a successful day by getting there, but then remembered I still had to run....

It was the last day of Saturn Runninng's 10 in 10 event. It was very good to see the epic Ten in Tenners achieving their challenge - congratulations to all!

I arrived, and quickly adopted the role of "person who has turned up for the last day, but who moans more than anyone else who has already been doing this for 9 days". I felt sick, and had a fall about half way through, and generally found it all a bit tough. Hey ho! It was brilliant though to run with Lucas, who likes to chat just as much as Sarah and I do, and so that was great fun, and I really enjoyed it. Thank you to Lucas who stayed out for an extra lap with me after my fall, to check I was OK, even though he had planned to finish at a marathon. We both ended up doing 50km, and it was fun! The journey home was less fun; but via a bus, the Elizabeth line, and the Overground, I made it home without needing a train - result!

Saturn I Believe in Bru, 50km, 30.07.2023

REUNITED with Sarah, after four weeks apart!!! We had a LOT to catch up on, but luckily there were rail replacement buses on again, so we had extra journey time to chat, and we did a 50km, to get maximum chat time.

The route was the Egham route which is my favourite, so that was nice to go back there. The weather was "mixed", that wonderful way of describing an English summer day, which isn't like a summer day at all. It looked quite cloudy, but was really quite humid. We almost finished before it really started raining, but then, it's nice to have a refreshing soak at the end of a long run.

Fabulous to see lots of friends out, and happy birthday to Kat (thank you for having a run for your birthday!)

The Dragon Boat club was in action today, it is always a great atmosphere when they are powering up and down the river in their brightly coloured boats and banging drums. 

Wildlife highlight - almost getting run over by a squirrel, who shot out of the bushes, saw us, and swerved back into the buses at the last moment. Also seeing a baby sausage dog (aka, chipolata).

Thank you chatterbox twin for a brilliant day!

And thank you Saturn Running for an excellent couple of events! 

Phoenix Running, Back to the Fridays, Marathon, on 30.06.2023, in 4:33

Well, after that week, Friday was by far the best day - a fabulous Friday running a marathon with Sarah by the Thames! Thank you Sarah for always being amazing and cheering me up 😃 Out usual "rolling chat agenda" item of "work", which is normally allocated about one lap (so as not to take up too much chat time, at the expense of other more interesting subjects), somehow took up around five laps today, such was the amount of angst that we had to cover. 

The weather was cooler than it has been of late, but still was really humid. A sunny and windy day....or, sundy and winny.

Other towpath observations....saw Dimitri, who was resplendent and looking well strutting along with all his feathers in place. School sports day was going on, on the track, and the roars from the crowd kept drifting over. There was an abundance of swans and Canada geese bobbing up and down the river, even more than normal, and the swan spas were all full.

Congratulations to lovely Amanda on marathon #150! Great to have chip chat in the Wier afterwards!