Running

^must try harder, htfu etc.

I got up at 5am on saturday morning to go and do my last 'long' run of training, figured I would get the 16 miles out of the way before stonehedge's stag do so I could have a few drinks instead of not drinking and then have to do the run on sunday.

It was absolutely beautiful running through richmond park at 6 am as the sun came up and I was surrounded by deer and squirrels, then it rapidly got just that little bit worse as humans began to appear and every one of them to a man(/woman) was a miserable joyless cunt. it might be early but there's no reason to be so dour faced and miserable particularly when it's bright, sunny (albeit a little chilly) and you're surrounded by some amazing natural beauty (myself included obvs). every smile or nod I gave was returned with a look like i'd just shit in their cereal. cheer the fuck up people.

only problem I had really with my run was I was on a tight schedule (I had a maximum window of 20 minutes to get changed and back out the door when I got home to get a lift to the stag do) so hadn't had a proper chance to clear the decks before leaving home so by mile 5 things had worked their way loose and I did almost the whole of richmond park trying to hold in my guts until the public loo's automatic doors opened at 7am (mere minutes before I arrived at the gate I was leaving the park by).

the run was slower than I'd intended, the early start and some tightness in my knee/achilles meant I couldn't push myself too hard so ended up about 20sec/mi off pace but was happy to just get the run done. skipped yesterdays run to recover from my epic hangover and may give today's a rest too as my knee was a little worrying and don't want to overdo anything this close to the marathon although i feel pretty much pain free now.