Hot date…

Well, aren’t all running dates hot?

Yesterday’s plan was to place myself, coffee mug and freelance work on the balcony to try to get rid of my Parisian builder’s tan (had I known I’d get tan lines I’d worn a singlet instead of tee). Of course the sun thought that was a stupid idea, and a flock of construction workers had set up camp below. I know Ford Transit is meant to be the most sold “car” of all, but did they have to place half the fleet below my balcony, engines running? To add to the lovely view they’d also erected this pretty contraption.

Kitchen table as usual then…

Work done (well, one of the two jobs) I headed out for my date. I’d “met” Mia via blog comments just before x-mas, and she was going to show me round her neck of the woods, the wrong side of the Thames. The dark South. I picked her up at her office just a hop and skip away from cool King’s Road and headed straight into the unknown. Had she left me by the side of the road I’d not made it home in time for bed I think, I’m really that useless with directions. Great to just follow someone else for a change though!

After 12k of chatting while running (how much harder is that!) we were quite peckish – and to be honest I could just about murder for a little glass of cold lager after passing some pubs with beer gardens full of people chilling in the evening sun – and so we made a pit stop. Grilled prawns with lemon and garlic, perfect running food, no? And of course my little lager. Now before you ask, I didn’t even finish it, I just wanted a few sips!

We weren’t quite sure if the prawns would behave and stay put in our bellies when we set off again but they did, at least for me. My left thigh soon put a stop to any further running though – the very spot I’d landed on a few times while snowboarding and also where I’d needed massage twice in Paris. I’d clocked up 13k in total when I cheated and took the DLR the last bit home for a bit of serious stretching plus some sitting on a tennis ball. This seemed to help – I guess this can take some time to heal but I’m really not good at being patient…