The ecstasy and the agony

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It's Sunday night and despite the total raised so far being an amazing £462.80 I'm experiencing a very slight low but more of that later.

Thursday was fairly uneventful - no running but my usual 5 a side football. We got hammered and fitness wise I noticed a slight difference as I wasn't completely exhausted at the end although part of that my be lack of effort but I'm sure a tiny part of it may be due to my new fitness regime. Time will tell.

Friday was another run day (my 3rd although it seems a lot more). The good news is my time went down from 15 dead to 14 38. This means my 3 times have been 15 40, 15 dead and 14 38. Very exciting. The bad news is that Becky said I looked like 'The only gay in the village'. Shoe and sock-wise I've managed to attain the best that cash can buy, almost. From the knees up however, as I'm only running in the dark, I tend to put on old football shirts, the magic pants (groin-wise I'm possibly not what I should be but that's a story for another day) and any old shorts keeping the new ones for daylight activities. The run seemed hard work and it was another windy night on the borders of Barnes and Mortlake so I was happy to get such a good time. The MP3 player seems to playing my songs randomly - 'I just can't wait to be king' followed by 'Angels'. Good songs in their own right but Angels makes me want to set fire to something and put it in my mouth (don't smoke) and wave my lighter in the air in a way unbecoming of someone of my advanced years. It seems that with MP3 players like with most things you get what you pay for.

Saturday was a very sporting day if you count playing table football (got a proper table football table(!) from Becky, Mark H, Mark A, Geoff and Ade for my 40th), watching football results and rugby. Gary won football, congratulations, and was best player by a distance. Must be a Northern thing. Perhaps.

Sunday. Quiet day enlivened by big lunch in Tootsie's in Putney (that new wharf bit by the river diagonally opposite the home of English football) followed by early supper with the girls. Error. Left it a couple of hours after supper before running but found it tough and went round in a very disappointing 14 55. 17 seconds worse than 2 days ago. Why? The obvious thing to note is the fact that I ate before the run. On the other three runs I had supper when I got back from my run and not before. Could also have been complacency or thinking that I was going to improve EVERY time I went out. I think it was mainly the food - this will also become apparent as time goes on. Tonights run was enlivened by the first few bars of 'Don't stop me now' about 20 seconds from the end. Freddie said I was having such a good time. I wasn't. Especially after I saw the time.

So feeling a bit down but a couple of things I need to air/discuss:
1 - What music do people listen to when they run? I know a few who don't listen to music at all on the roads as it gets a bit dangerous with cars and pedestrians. My routes have to be by roads for the time being as I need exact measurements for my stats.
2 - Had I improved my time tonight I would have upped the distance to 2 or 2.5 miles for the next few runs but I think I'll stick with 1.5 miles until at least the weekend and see what happens with my time.

What I've got to remember is it's all a huge learning experience. Feel better now. I'm running this race with Niccy, my sister, and possibly Geoff, my best man (or one of them) who is wavering so I need everyone to send a blank email to gwoo@btinternet.com with the subject line: DO THE RUN, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

That's all for now, thanks for the masses of extremely positive feedback.