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RE: The Road to Richmond
Week 8 of 18
A solid week in the bank. Great to be back on track. Wednesday I had a free spot while daughter 2 frolicked in the lake at the excellent Liquid Leisure water park in Datchet. It turned out to be a blistering early evening. I was hoping to get up to the banks of the Queen Mother Reservoir, which the internet told me was a neat 10k in circumference, but unsurprisingly this large body of deep and obscured water was heavily fenced off. So I plodded around the area, and eventually found a half mile strip of pathway along the back of a quarry which offered partial shade. With aircraft of all shapes and sizes on their final Heathrow descent overhead, I slogged up and down here in a ragged but ultimately worthwhile interval session.
A gentle, easy 5 miles on Friday night was then the precursor to the long run on Saturday morning. The goal was to get to Windsor to meet the rest of the family, and bank 15 miles. The most direct route is only 7, so a scenic alternative was an option, but I didn't want to carry 15 miles worth of water on a hot day. So I settled for 8 miles around my usual routes - where sticking to woodland shade suddenly seemed a great idea - then swinging by the front drive for water, squash and raisins, followed by 7 miles of hot tarmac. As usual with these things, it got ugly occasionally, but overall I made it in a comfortable state. As the BBC science podcasts dried up, I found a New Order greatest hits album on the mp3 player to carry me home. So I crossed the finish line to the slightly ridiculous strains of World In Motion - "they think it's all over - it is now..." - but Track du Semaine must surely go to the song below, an all-time favourite of mine (as well being appositely titled) which saw me fist-pumping, arm-swinging and goose-bumping-despite-the-heat as I slogged out the last mile.
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