Oo, 6 m elevation gain, apparently, on this morning’s run - I think that’s still an overestimate! It was a lovely morning for it - a perfect temperature, completely still, with the morning sun poking above the trees, and the water vapour rising from the river. The only blot on the horizon was the towers of Didcot Power Station, rising like Blake’s Dark Satanic Mills and visible from all around.

I wonder how far along the river the path goes - quite a way I imagine. I’ve cycled along it, but the cycle path takes a different route at that point, on the other side of the river. As I was wondering how far it goes, I was reminded of a tale from a few years ago, of a man called Robert Young, who set out to break the record for running across America; except he spent half of it travelling in his support vehicle. I wonder why someone would do that… for money, I suppose. The current record (by Pete Kostelnick) stands at 43 days. I doubt I’ll ever run that far, but It’ll be fun to explore this footpath some more!

Quite the flurry of blog posts today! There must be something wrong with me :o

Just to say, I had a lovely swim this evening in the Thames. I wish I’d had someone to share it with! The water seemed much clearer than the other times I’ve been in (as in, I could see my hands in front of me. Don’t get overexcited, I still couldn’t see the bottom even though I could stand up. And I know I’m not that tall, no need to remind me…). However - and I blame one of my friends for this, after a conversation about ‘the itch’ in a lake she swims in - I feel very itchy! I don’t know if it’s purely psychological ; I feel like it must be, since I was fine the other times I’ve swum here, and the water was so much clearer this time. And I showered straight afterwards. Oh well; if it happens next time I’ll be most miffed, I was starting to like that swimming spot!

I also saw a narrowboat for sale. Can you see me living on a boat, I wonder?

This seems to be becoming almost a running blog rather than a cycling one - I suppose that’s my focus for racing at the moment, what little racing I’m doing. My racing at the moment is restricted to Parkruns; and with my third attempt at the Abingdon one I seemed to be getting into my metaphorical and literal stride. A time of 18:33 puts me back on course for where I’d like to be this year, especially given how comfortable it felt - smooth and controlled the whole way round, and when I finished I felt like I had something left, despite getting a course pb by 10 s.

It was my 2nd time at Abngdon Parkrun today, and it was another gloriously sunny day for it, with a cloudless blue sky, and already warm by the time I set out. I had decided to run this one a bit more slowly today, as a training run; but I didn’t mean to take it quite as slowly as I did! I set my watch and tried to use that to stay on pace, and I was close, but a whole load of people shot off far too fast at the start, and clogged up the path just as we were coming to the lock, at the narrow section. In the end I finished about 20 s behind by target (which was to aim for the same time as last time, but with a steadier pace). Oh well - there’s next time!
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