Crikey. End of week 4 already. Further than I’ve got before on this programme. And plenty of enthusiasm still in the tank according to my dispositional dipstick.
Friday:
Arrived at the seafront at about 11 and parked by the Treasure Island Theme Park. I’ve never entered this entertainment facility as I’m baffled by the description given on its website. It boasts of combining “an indoor soft play area on 2 levels with slides, zip lines & lots of other fun” with a “pirate-themed 18-hole miniature golf course”. What’s the target audience here — precocious tots who might fancy a round of golf after a session in the soft play area? Or senile oldies who might want to retreat into their infancy after a couple of hours of giggly golf?
Today was a repeat of Wednesday, except my 3-minute walk breaks were cruelly shrunk into 2s. So a total of 16 mins of running, broken down into a 3-minute run, 2 x 5-minute runs, then another 3, each separated by a couple of minutes of moderate panting and snatched photography.
Saturday:
Officially a rest day — if an afternoon at the Amex Stadium can ever be classed as relaxing. It also involves a brisk 15-minute walk from home to the coach I catch to the match, and another brisk 15-minute walk home from the coach I caught to the match. Including the usual bit of anxious pre-match pacing round the stadium to take in the atmosphere I had 41 briskies to add to my spreadsheet.
The 2-1 victory over Fulham was Brighton’s 6th successive win, an unexpected response to the 7-0 thrashing by Nottingham Forest that immediately preceded the run. When I emerged from the City Ground that day, somewhat shell-shocked, I couldn’t have imagined this rosy status returning so soon. And there’s an FA Cup Quarter-Final to look forward to as well. Against… Nottingham Forest, though this time at home.
Cool but sunny, a perfect spring day for football. Fulham have sculpted a tradition of producing very annoying results against Brighton in recent years. In defiance of Brighton’s normal dominance, Fulham have refused to be beaten over the previous nine encounters. Today the Seagulls finally got ‘em though it took a dodgy 95th minute penalty decision to secure the win. Where I leave the ground and stroll up to the coach park, I have to pass through the deluge of disappointed away fans as they escape from their compound and head in the opposite direction, towards the station. Man alive, there must have more convulsive, angry grimaces per square metre here than you’d spot at an EDL rally. It was quite lovely.
Not such a good day for my true lifetime club, Queens Park Rangers, who went down 0-1 at West Bromwich Albion. A QPR-WBA fixture always stirs the pot of nostalgia as it was the very first QPR match I saw, almost precisely 58 years ago, on 4 March 1967. The League Cup Final at Wembley. I was nine years old. I went to the match with two school friends, Neil and Dan. Those were the days when nine-year-olds were allowed to go to huge football matches unaccompanied. Third Division Rangers against First Division West Brom. QPR losing 2-0 at half time but coming back to win 3-2. There’s a delightful Pathe News clip on YouTube.
Sunday:
I’d already done my three C25K runs this week but it was another invitingly sunny day, and I didn’t want two blank days in my calendar. So I got togged up and went for a simple run-walk round the cemetery again. The seafront is preferable in many ways but on a sun-filled Sunday it would be heaving so I gave it a miss. The cemetery’s a greater delight than it might sound. There are two long, flat parallel paths, each about 450 metres. A circuit involving both paths and the bits that join them at each end, comes in at just under a kilometre. And apart from the 20,000 corpses lying a few feet below me, there’s usually no one there. Today I passed one beaming old lady, walking her dog. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and presume she was grinning because she’s always quite jolly, and not that she found something amusing about a fat old man waddling along in front of her.
Today it was another 16 minutes of running time: 2 x 5 mins sandwiching a 6-minute slice. 3 minutes of walking separated the runs. 6 minutes is the new longest running distance. It was a struggle, but then 1 minute was a struggle 26 days ago, when I started inching my way through the C25K plan, and it isn’t any more. So I’ve made progress.
