The weather is getting warmer and I’m starting to get that the warmth is not the friend of the runner. Despite now stripping kit right back to just tee, shorts, socks, shoes, even on a gentle 3 miler I end up drenched.
At the end of a run, I always stretch in the same place outside our house and over the last few days, I’ve noticed some little white salty patches forming in the area. Whereas in the winter, rain would wash away and dried sweat, the dry means it’s now a little crusty… I wonder if, in time, I could produce a small stalagmite?
Streatham’s urban foxes had been out in force overnight too – tearing food and stuff not only from bags waiting for the bin men but also from regular rubbish bins. The area looked like a war zone in some places. I wonder if they will have to introduce those bear-proof bins they have in North America.
I’ve seen some strange things out running. Polish builders with their cracks showing drinking beer at dawn, a group of new mums highkicking their way around Tooting Common with their push chairs and a woman who just pulled her pants down for a pee in the middle of a busy road as I ran past. I saw something today though that took the biscuit.
There’s one woman I often see running past me. She’s one of those people who run to work, something I’ve never got… You get there, have to shower and then pull some rather creased clothes from a backpack you’ve just sweated through to wear for the rest of the day.
Anyway I digress, this woman always looks proper kitted out. Black leggings, black top, camelback style back pack with a tube going to her mouth, headband, running sunnies. We sometimes nod at each other as we pass.
Just behind her though was another woman. She was proper lithe and also kitted out … not for running but as though she had just come back from the gym. She had full kit on, some lycra top, baggy sweat pants, proper trainers and a hoody and was even carrying a sports drink bottle of the kind you mix your own solution from powders in. Whatever was inside was pink, so I assume it was some kind of protein drink.
It was her other accessory that struck me though – a lit fag she was cheerfully puffing on. As an ex smoker, I totally get the craving thing – just seemed such as shame that as she was making the effort to go to or return from the gym that she’s ruin that good work by poisoning herself.
Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a route map and full details of the day’s run
Miles today: 3
Target: 711
Miles to date: 939.97
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