Abbey Wood - The Run
Neither of us had a very good nights sleep. Ian because he was wittling. Me because when he can’t sleep he turns on a searchlight he borrowed from checkpoint Charlie in order to look for his ‘headspace’ app on his phone. This helps him drift off. Till it doesn’t, then he needs the searchlight etc,etc.
He needed to be at the start for 9.30 so we decided on the 7.45 tube, leaving the site at 7.25. At 7.25 he was still pfaffing so I set off without him, me being a slow walker. He caught me up just before the station and we were soon heading smoothly towards Bond Street, where we changed to the rubbish tube for Green Park, the chosen stop.
We walked to the enormous number of toilets, then milled about a bit and Ian went to the toilet again. I forced him to do some stretches as all the bright young things were stretching all over the shop and I felt it must be necessary. Around 9.20 we arrived at the start and he passed me all the stuff he had brought but deemed unnecessary now. Originally he had his eye on a time of around 2hrs, which was the second, or Cheetah, wave. Because of his injuries, lack of training, and a bout of cramp in the middle of the night, he had decided to drop down a wave. His target was now 2.20 and he was in, you won’t believe it, the Mexican Wave!! If you know him you realise how ironic that is!
I left him anxiously champing at the bit, and throwing his arms in the air every few seconds, and headed to the start to see if I could see anything. Not much was the answer, although I did get a photo that Chris described as ‘where’s Wally’.
It was at this point that my day started to go downhill. I had a plan to head for St Paul’s and cheer him on from there. There were a lot of wiggles around that area, and in my head I was sitting at a pavement cafe sipping coffee and waving. I dawdled back through St James Park, admiring the birds and flowers, then caught the tube from Green Park to Holburn where I changed to the Central line for St Paul’s. Except I didn’t. ‘The central line is closed in both directions everywhere due to An Incident’ a disembodied voice told me. ‘Everyman for himself’. Mmm. Back the way I came, down to Embankment, then over to Mansion House was my plan. Except when I looked on the tracking app Ian had decided 2.20 wasn’t fast enough, he wasn’t taking it easy like he had planned. No stopping and taking photos, smelling the flowers, etc. Only a new world record would suffice. By the time I battled the crowds to St Paul’s I had missed him. I sprinted down to The Embankment. Gone. He was on his way to the finish with the eye of the tiger. I hopped back on the tube and was just getting off when I got a notification. He had finished in 2hrs 4mins 58secs. And where was I? He was at the meeting point sporting his new TShirt and waiting to go.
In the end I was more flustered and breathless than him. We wandered back down to Green Park tube station, I am so fed up of that place, and were soon winging our way smoothly back to Abbey Wood. He told me he had felt good so decided to step up the pace in order to get a good time and cause me to miss him completely. His splits were negative meaning he got faster towards the end, which is good, and he was very happy with his time and performance. I was very proud of him, and annoyed at missing him. Next time I am just going for coffee!
Back at Abbey Wood we sat out in the sun for a while then I warmed up a lovely homemade lasagne.
We toasted his performance with a nice glass of red, watched another episode of Kiera Knightly blowing people’s brains out, then went to bed. Even Checkpoint Charlie won’t keep me awake tonight.
Musings
There are a lot of people on the tube at 7.45 on a Sunday
Chinese people love squirrels
There are a lot of guided tours of Green Park
There are a lot of ‘incidents’ on London Underground
I don’t like Keira Knightleys smile
Richard Wood is very tall
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