Well, it's been a while hasn't it readers! The last time I ran was on the 4th Feb, well, before last Saturday that is! It wasa club run, because I was leader! It was also the first time some of us got together for a prayer meeting before our run! How cool is that! Just a few of us at the moment praying in particular for runners, for our club members, for our leaders and all the little groups that go out during the week other than on Tuesday evenings! Like the 'run and talk' run, on a Friday morning. Mind you, if I tried to join that particular group run I wouldn't be doing too much talking as there are not any group 1'ers there at the mo! But it's good to pray, so readers, if you have anything you need praying about, just let me know! One other thing, my club run on the 4th didn't show up on my Garmin because I forgot to charge my watch! So annoying when that happens!
What else did I do since the last blog, hmm? Oh yes, yesterday, parkrun at Bexley, Danson Park. That is a lovely one, I do like that particular venue. Naggy and SnappyH was with me and of course SnappyH was snapping away, look at these great pictures, and a one from Loulou too!
I have been finding it tough to get motivated during these dark horrid nights, the wind and rain just seem relentless. Work takes it out of me, especially this last week! It was the first time I've done a Holiday Club for work! Oh my goodness, a baptism of fire I should say! But I loved it, loved the challenge, even though I moaned like anything! A bit like me with my running/cycling actually! I am sure when the lighter mornings and evenings are here it will 'feel' a lot better!
So now, I'm up to date with todays running exploits! A slightly less shorter route than those in marathon training...ok so about 8 miles shorter distance than those doing the training! We haf fun though. Naggy and SnappyH had 'shied' off this morning, mumbling things about doing training for a silly half iron man thingy and SnappyH having prosecco and cake because of celebrating a birthday! I don't know eh! Excuses! Some of our other group 1'ers are working, or not quite up to speed for a 10k, it's been such a long while since we've all ran together.
I told Tracy that I would be around to collect her about 7;30 this morning! She had no chance of not going, she couldn't come up an excuse quick enough, well apart from "I shall see what the weather is like"! Nah, nah, nah! Ironman, prosecco birthdays and injuries I will accepet....just! I should have nagged Auriol to come though, Nigel, her hubby, had told me I should have nagged her too, but I thought she had a niggle in her knee! Next time I will nag!
Our train destination this time is Swanley, or, the Llama One! I love the llamas, I think I would love to own a llama! Of course I took a picture of them, I show it to you a bit further down the blog! There we all were, Swanley lot plus the Wrotham ad Borough Green lot at St Mary Cray station! Here, I took this of us all, well, there were a couple in the um, comfort break room!
It is only one stop to Swanley, I think the people on the train already were very pleased about that, not that we were noisy, but all in bright neon colours, it's probably not what you want to see first think in the morning! The longer distance runners stayed on to go further, we all disembarked at Swanley. There were several groups leaving from here, I of course was in group 1 with Illustrious Leader, I was sweep! It was just as well, I would probably get lost if I was in the lead!
The weather was kind to us, a bit windy in places, but no rain, even though it was still damp in the air. I put on my rain jacket just in case, I knew I would be warm though, I had a couple of layers underneath that! We watched as the the faster groups left and we followed after them, keeping them in our sites for a short while.
We remembered our run last year from Swanley, that was such a lovely weekend, but it was also very special, Gill and Mickey had told us that they had got engaged! We took a photo of them just by the church that was in the villiage, such a sweet picture. They were married last year too! So nice! This year, though, now all the courting has been done and he's got his bride, he's running with the faster runners and Gill is running with us, still, I had to capture her, a year on! You never know, next time he will be running a marathon and going with the longer distance runners!
This route is a challenging route, with the uphills that seem to go on for ever! I always forget these, and I assured Tracy that it wasn't actually going up, it was all in her imagination. I don't know why she believed me, she has done this train run before! I think running just let's you forget the bad bits and remember the good bits, the bits where you are at the end, the bits when you realise you have achieved a running goal, an amazing goal, or just beat your pb! That's the bits us runners remember! Silly uphill flats we will forget until we run them again!
We came to the llamas! I told you I would get you a picture, and here it is, well, two actually. They were not close to the fence but I zoomed in as much as I could!
We also passed these two little beauties I couldn't resist calling them over, and they did move to the fence! Look how cute they are!
There were still some more undulations and then we could see the buildings! No more fields, not more running on the road because now there was pavement to run on. Just on the verge before it all became concrete I saw these growing on the verge, a little bit of colour, a little bit of freshness before boring tarmac started and cars and lorries spluttered their fumes in the air.
The quirkiest site we see on this run is the garage with all the gnomes on top. Now, either the owner of the gnomes had laid them all down or the wind had knocked them over, but most of them on their side!
We had a last bit of greenery before we ran through the Nugent Center. The park is a little bit of a green oasis, look, I captured them all and me and Tracy in the last bit of the park!
It was a great run, with some great company! Oh, yes, almost forgot, that last little killer hill that takes up to the train station that we left from, the station that I parked my car outside! There was no getting away with no running up this one! "Sigh"
Here is my geeky stats!
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