Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

In These Shoes?

by Russell Turner - 19:55 on 24 October 2017

I hope the Virgin Marathon is less disappointing that Virgin Trains. I’d been looking forward to my debut journey this morning aboard one of Richard Branson’s finest, from Edinburgh to Durham, but the plush spaciousness implied by the TV ads was sadly lacking – the Inverness to Edinburgh Scotrail service offered better legroom and more comfortable seats. Another illusion shattered. The happy girl in the ads must be a munchkin. Matchgirl thinks Virgin Trains are great, but she only travels first class. It’s all right for some.

My welcome at the B&B (66 Claypath, just a few minutes from the station) was warm, especially from Georgie (I think it was) the curly-haired terrier who brought her tennis ball into my room and demanded to play. She was unlucky, because after getting on for six hours aboard teeny trains I wanted to stretch my legs.

I’d brought my running gear, in case I felt the need tomorrow (today would have been too soon after yesterday’s 5k triumph – slow and steady is the way), so I set off on a leisurely ramble along what looked like a potential running route, via the riverside paths that almost completely circle the peninsula on which Durham Cathedral stands.

Durham Cathedral – there's no point me turning the Pentax on it because it's covered in scaffolding.

This wasn’t an original idea; I was passed in both directions by many perspiring athletes, proof this is a popular route. The circuit is around 2.5 miles, but faulty navigation near the end sent me in the wrong direction – something I accepted after a mile, which was then retraced, turning my pleasant 40-minute ramble into a 4.5-mile epic covered in ordinary shoes. (I’ve been instructed that real runners never use their running shoes for casual walking.)

It will be ironic if the first blisters I get since beginning training are from walking (or cross training as the real runners call it). With luck I’ll have got back to the B&B early enough for my feet to survive – I’ll find out tomorrow. However, running will be off tomorrow’s agenda whatever the result, and walking will most likely be in my running shoes. Us athletes can’t take any chances.

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