April showers.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The first run of our overseas adventure was a simple, short but significant one. Our eldest, Chris and his wife live in Kingston-upon-Thames, and this first outing of the holiday was a short 5km out and back along the river front from their digs to the lock at Teddington.  

The running was of no significance – just a gentle, uneventful plod which rather tested Chris’s patience. He has done this 5.2km outing in 18 minutes, however today we took a little over 30, but he was reasonably good-natured about it. I very much enjoyed it; a gentle pace and quintessential English riverside running. The real excitement though was at the turnaround point at Teddington lock. I’d only fully appreciated the significance of this locale the previous day, when from the boat on which we were cruising to Richmond for a sensational lunch at the White Cross pub (first floor balcony overlooking the river on a beautiful day, feasting on haddock, chips and mushy peas all washed down with local ales and chatting with the locals – brilliant!) I had spied a small blue plaque on one of the smaller dock buildings which piqued my curiosity. On zooming into the spot on my camera the true significance of the place was revealed as being the location for the shooting of that most hilarious of Monty Python sketches, the Fish Slapping Dance. The fact that it just happened to also be the turnaround point for one of Chris’s regular runs only made it all the more memorable.

So the first run of the holiday campaign was both brilliant and memorable – may the rest be likewise.