Running to Paris by sshaw

I'm very much a morning runner. I'm not even sure if I can run post meridiem - its just something I don't do if I can possibly avoid it. It's just the way my body (or mind) works I guess. But there's another good reason. Most of my long runs will, to a greater or lesser degree, include a trek through Windsor Great Park which is a very popular location for dog walkers. Now I have a theory that 'morning dogs' are far more in tune with runners than 'later-in-the-day dogs'. Maybe they're not quite with it at 7.30am ('why am I being dragged out for a walk now when I could be still asleep') but I find the 'morning dogs' just ignore mad runners, whereas go for a walk or cycle ride with the family in the afternoon and it's a veritable obstacle course of canines leaping up at you, running across you, lumbering out of the lake and shaking themselves just as you pass ...

So with that theory to act as my sole defence against insanity I was out of the door at 6.45am and on my way for a Sunday morning tour that took in Sunninghill, Virginia Water Lake (plenty of dogs ignoring me), Egham, Runnymede, Old Windsor, Datchet, Slough, Eton, Windsor, the Long Walk and Ascot Heath - 3hrs 15 minutes and 23.5 miles. Almost certainly the longest run before Paris and I would really like to say I ran the lot without stopping.

'I ran the lot without stopping'.

Unfortunately I'd also really have liked to be able to say it with a clear conscience which I can't. I did manage 22+ without a pause but the normal gentle incline across Ascot Heath appeared to have been transformed into a great hill - nay mountain - by some overnight seismic event and so that slowed me to a walk for 100 yards or so (ok, probably alot further but that's all I'm admitting to). And then as I trudged through the tunnel beneath the Ascot home straight I was confronted by a scouse couple who were far more cheery than I felt at this point  - 'Tinnie we get ter see de racecose' they asked - about four times before sufficient oxygen had reached my brain to enable me to reply with a sensible response (what I'd really needed was woohoo.co.uk's 'Scouse Translator' - isn't the internet wonderful?)

Anyhow I was home just after 10am, the long run done and still at peace with Scouse Racecource tourists and the canine world.