Neck And Neck

I run the last four miles to work again. I’m not sure whether to do a short run on the way home as well or just rest up until the weekend now.

I do so listening to Pat Barker’s ‘Border Crossing.



L and I are reading the same audiobook at the moment, with slightly different takes on it. It will make a lively discussion over a few beers when we've both finished it. Which in her case will be quite soon. She's more adept at this reading lark than me and has, after giving me a head start, caught me and now we're I think we’re about neck and neck but I know she's just slipstreaming me and is about to rocket past. This is one thing I won't beat her to the finish line on. If she was a cyclist on the morning commute, she'd be deadly and not popular with tactics like that.

I decide that I will do another run tonight and the weather turns out nice for it. No, not really. It’s mainly horizontal, the rain that is. Thankfully it stops for 5pm and I run to Chaddesden, from where I’ll get a bus to nearer home and then run from there. Then it starts hailing, sideways. Three of us take refuge in the bus shelter. Which is cosy. All lads unfortunately.

L's at the gym, probably sheltering from the rain and she says she's not coming home until she’s finished the book. Told you. I’m going to get comprehensively beaten in to second place on this one.

Thankfully the rain/hail blows itself out whilst I’m on the bus and I run the last four miles to home, only getting wet on the very last stretch, half a mile or so. As I wind my way through our local streets, I cross the road and nearly get mown down by a cyclist. No lights! He swears at me. Perhaps he has a point. Perhaps I should have seen him. Then 50 metres down the road he almost drives into the side of a car which had just pulled out of a side street and obviously hadn’t seen him. Perhaps he hasn’t got a point. Perhaps he should get some lights.

(Tuesday 19th October)

I Have No Idea What She’s On About

I fail in my role as supportive partner and forget to kick L out of bed at 6am or to even walk the dogs so that she can leave early. Oops.

Not that our little dog seemed in need of a walk anyway. He looked too tired to put one paw in front of the other this morning, let alone patrol his patch but apparently he managed. The deer, who were grazing peacefully on the golf course, got the brunt of his barking. Oh dear or should that be oh deer. No one needs an alarm clock around our way once MD is out and on patrol. L describes it as like walking with the Gestapo.

I’m late but I make the bus, no problem, as it was 15 minutes late which should be impossible as they’re now every 10 minutes.

I’m on the bus because I run most of the way home after work, running between bus shelters to dodge the frequent, heavy but mercifully brief showers. Daughter is at a BBQ this evening, hence the rain. The run goes well, much better than last week when oddly I hadn’t done a 10k the day before. I stop where I finished last week, at 10.75 miles, to buy a drink because I can’t think of anywhere else I would be able to get something appropriate and then carry on to complete my 12 miles.

I was feeling rather smug after that until L texts to tell me she’s done 80 lengths of the pool. That’s not the really amazing news though. Earlier she had emailed me at work and asked if I was sitting down because she had something to tell me. OMG. What could this be...

Son had asked her if could join her for a lane swim. Perhaps I would have been better standing up, as I practically fell off yet another chair. Wonder what’s brought that on but who cares. Good for him.

L wonders if this girl he’s friendly with is a better swimmer. She says she knows how the male pride works when a girl is in front of them. I have no idea what she’s on about.

(Monday 23rd August)