The title says it all really. Free of all parental responsibilities for the first time in well over a year, my wife and I wasted no time in beginning our weekend celebrating twenty years since we first met. A day in London beckoned, first we had an evening out in gloomy Grantham to endure enjoy. I’m not saying the company was bad, far from it, neither was the meal nor the drinks. It was the weather that was about as depressing as EastEnders – wet, cold, windy – pretty miserable.
To ease the pain of the weather a fair few drinks were drunk. The meal was simply delicious, the Gurkha Square Restaurant delivering on taste and service.
Not long after the meal the night was done, soon fast asleep in a slightly drunken stupor. I woke early, cold from the perennial winter risk of wife stealing the duvet and holding it with a vice like grip. I hung around for as long as it took to for sun to rise, then got ready to go running, aware that our train to London left in around two hours.
Not long after heading out for the run, it was apparent that my shorts were suffering from Partridgesque perished lining syndrome, meaning that for much of the run it felt like I was running free, so to speak. I hope no-one saw more than they were supposed to….
The run, the usual Dysart Park and return was made more interesting by Dysart Park being closed -the park keeper clearly enjoying a lie in. This meant I made a slight diversion to make a loop out of a fearsome climb that did not sit well with my slightly hungover head or delicate curry filled tummy. It did though allow possibilities for different variations in the future for my now very familiar recovery run.
The three miles back were a delicate balancing act of trying to run as quickly as possible without tipping the belly into critical overload. It got a bit touch and go near the end, slowing to a painful trot to avoid the trots, but I made it, six and a third miles survived.
A swift breakfast and shower and I was off to the station, London bound. I have written this on the train on my phone. Technology blows me away sometimes….