Hi guys, so we’ve been at it again. Running when we could
have just caught the tube all in the name of training! This week though
unfortunately we couldn’t quite match up our busy schedules so had to take on
the southern half of the Victoria line separately.
For those of you musically inclined, I wanted to make this
blog a bit like The Last Five Years, without the emotional trauma, given that
we ran in opposite directions and Anna lived my journey backwards…
Unfortunately, Jason Robert Brown is a genius, and writing like that is
impossible. So you’ll have to make do with a bog standard blog post (musical
score potentially to follow in future, eh Anna?!).
I managed to tie this particular tube leg up with a visit to
my new flat. So it was on the soon to be home turf of Brixton that I took my
first selfie, before going to check out progress on site. Then it was dreaming
of furniture purchases that I took off up to Stockwell.
I can pretty categorically say I was having one of the worst
working weeks of my career and I probably set off a bit hard for the first
couple of miles dealing with that stress. But running past the joyful memories
of The Swan (sarcasm), looking like a complete dickhead taking a selfie in
front of Stockwell Station and the slightly rebellious feeling of not being in
the office at 2pm on a Wednesday was pretty cathartic.
In my newfound zen state, I reached Vauxhall very quickly. I
went for a crouch in the selfie here- when sweaty, wearing running gear and
getting drizzled on, the angle of the photo becomes even more important,
believe me I’m becoming an expert!
Then it was across the river. I love running over bridges in
London partly because of the space that suddenly opens up around you revealing a panorama of the
city. This was the next stage in my de-stress, literally running over the
healing water of The Thames. If I could run over a bridge every day I think my
life would be better. If you’ve never done it…trust me you won’t regret it! Try
and get multiple crossings into a run if you’re really in need of cheering up!
So it turns out Pimlico is practically on top of the river. I mean, I knew this, but it hadn’t really
registered with me just how close. Weird given I sit outside The Gallery
(shout out to the Picpoul de Pinet crowd) pretty much every week, less than
500m from the river! And you all know how I feel about the river now…
Victoria was just a short hop away but an absolute nightmare
to navigate. I somehow avoided being hit by a bus and then was off up Grosvenor
Place. By this point my pace had slowed a fair bit as my legs started to
protest at the slight incline and the idea of returning to the litany of
problems I had in the office!
Nevertheless, as I rounded onto Piccadilly past Green Park
and onto Old Burlington Street, I had another of my favourite running feelings,
I call it owning the city! Ladies, if you’ve ever been out without a handbag,
with just your Oystercard or phone in London, you might know what I mean. When
you’re such a ‘local’ that you don’t need to prepare for eventualities, you’re
just popping out in your city and you get a bit of a buzz from it! No, just
me?! Well as I weaved amongst the tourists onto Regent Street and towards
Oxford Circus, it didn’t matter how many people I was sharing the pavements
with, the West End felt like mine, and I was ready to take it by storm back in
the office. Don’t try and stop me, I’m a runner.
Thanks for reading everyone! Here's where we're at....preparing for some pretty epic legs over the next couple of weeks so watch this space!
Jess x
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