Hey I'm loving this hot weather. Why we couldn't have got some decent heat like this in the actual summer I don't know but this is just great right now - so long as it holds out till the weekend! Not many things are as disappointing as a week of perfect sunshine followed by a hurricane season of a weekend. That's one way to rain on my parade.
Anyway I figured that I'd head up to the park today and get me some time by that big ol' lake The Serpentine. Once upon a time this lake was kept full by the River Westbourne, flowing naturally down from Hampstead, but that happy state of affairs only lasted about a century; since then we've had to pump up the water from the Thames and I'll bet that it all got a bit fragrant during The Great Stink! Nowadays though the lake is clean enough to swim in and it's certainly a very pleasant place to visit when the sun is out and you'd rather be relaxing with a picnic in the country.
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| Just waiting to be served! |
So I enjoyed a pleasing loop around the edge taking in the water fountains, for obvious reasons, and incorporating a little barefoot running along the eastern edge of the park. However my calves still felt a little tender from earlier in the week and so I didn't push my luck at all - although I get the feeling that I amuse my 'audience' somewhat as I don't see anyone else running around shoe-less (unless they're still in nappies that is!).
Still it helps to keep my running fresh and gives me something to look forward to; apart from the changing of the seasons that is. Soon the winter weather will be here and it'll suddenly become a whole heap easier to run around London - a bit like the roads emptying during the school summer holidays.
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| If only I could have got a gull on every pole |
As it happens I did warm up after a while (no joke) and the running became a lot smoother on my return journey. This is definitely becoming something of a theme for me; is this really what old age is all about? Becoming a low-revving diesel engine that finds it hard to get going in the morning? I suppose that things could be worse!
Distance: 7.3 miles
Time: 58m 08s