The Red Running Shoes!

Hello Bloggers

What a wonderful morning it was this morning. The sun shining through my window, waking me up and reminding me that I had agreed to an early run, before church, with the Old Boy today. I was actually looking forward to it!

Do you remember the story of the Red Shoes, by Hans Christian Anderson, they just had to dance? Well the Old Boy has invested in some new running shoes,(they are red as well) and he was showing off like a kid a Christmas. As he was trying them on at home, he was pretending that they were 'running away' because these shoes were made for running! He was pretending that he had to control them! Tut so childish (So jealous me!!, I want new shoes) Let's just see if the new shoes work for him!

We were doing the (now) usual route. We parked the car at Tent Peg Lane. I was busy trying to find satellites for my Garmin as the Old Boy bounced about in his new shoes. I was still delicate from the whole weekend. It's been a grand weekend. Friday was my mates wedding reception, and of course I celebrated with her in the only style one should celebrate a union of two loving soles, and that is with plenty of alcohol and dancing!

Then on Saturday, it was getting up very late morning, shopping (to buy the new running shoes) and then me and the Old Boy had our own 'Tour de'Bromley' as we cycled out around our area, (visiting a couple of public houses) I think we must have cycled around 12 or 13 miles. I hadn't taken my Garmin and the Old Boys bike gizmo refused to work properly. But it didn't matter, we were just out having fun, in the wonderful summer evening air, we even ended it with a kebab, well I did anyway!

So, excuses out of the way, and don't forget, the Old Boys new shoes, I don't think I did too badly at today's run! The Old Boy did start off with me, but of course, his new shoes had a life of their own, and just stole him away, and left me looking at the little red cats on the backs of his shoes, which really got to me, as he said to me, when he put them on "Do you see these cats here, that is the last thing you will see when I start running"

As we were running past the hotel I thought I would just see how far the Old Boy was in front of me. I saw the Old Boy reach a the shadow of the trees on the road and then made a mental note of the time, then I checked the time as I reached that point. He was a whole minute in front of me! And we still hadn't reached the 1 mile mark! It must be the shoes.

So from that point onwards I was running my own run. I was presuming that the Old Boy wouldn't be waiting for me.(Or at least the red shoes wouldn't be waiting for me) He needed to run his own run, find out how far he can push himself. He has a watch on him and he started the timer to time himself. I will no doubt see him at the end, waiting and tapping his feet (trying to tame the shoes!) and pointing to his watch!

I tried very hard to stay focused and keep running. But this is me, still bloomin lazy, so still did some walking sections, especially up those hills. I tried to think of anything else rather than the running, I tried not to think about the wonderful down hill sections that I let the hills just drag me along. I tried not to think about those railway bridges that I have to cross, or the muddy puddles, dogs and their owners, flying insects attacking my face! I really did. And for most of it I managed to do so. I thought about the lovely morning, how it was going to be a lovely sunny day today, I thought about church and what will be spoken about and what songs we will sing. I thought about the holidays, the two weekends we will be having next month.

Before long I was heading for the last bridge! I was then thinking about pushing myself to go as fast as my fat little engines will take me! Visualising the Old Boy at the end. And there he was. "Come on, you're doing well, go on!"

I dug as deep as I could and ran as fast as I was able. I stopped my Garmin as soon as I got to the Old Boy.! "Well done" he said to me. Yep I think so, after the boozy weekend I have had, I am not too unhappy with this run!

Did the Old Boys new shoes 'work?' Well, he did his run in about 34 minutes! So I'm guessing yes!

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