Four day week! And not only that, but a four day weekend too.
On Friday I headed to Sudbury for the “fun run”, which despite the name is very much a proper road race. It also has the distinction of being the only race I know of that includes a road crossing on a zebra crossing, which the motorists must love! Only 15s slower than two years ago (last year’s time looks much quicker, but the course was short thanks to some unexpected emergency roadworks that caused a last-minute change of finish line location). Sudbury always seems to take ages to get to, despite not being far away, but Google Maps managed to make it take even longer on the way back, taking us a very odd route. Still, it was through pretty countryside, and it was warm enough to open the sunroof for the first time this year (28 days earlier than last year!), so I’m not complaining.
When I did eventually get home I had to figure out what I could make for lunch with the fairly meagre contents of the fridge and no bread, and settled on pancakes – just two days before we’re supposed to start eating them again! I assume that’s how Lent works, anyway.
After 12 weeks at Kesgrave parkrun, I tagged along with Holly, Maria and Gary who felt like a change of scenery and headed to Framlingham (actually Thomas Mills) instead. Still no word on a return for the Ipswich event – a man walking his dog even stopped while I was waiting to be picked up (and wearing my parkrun shirt) to ask me if there was any news. I’d not done the Framlingham event before, and it’s not massively exciting – basically two laps of a mixture of school playing fields and farmer’s field edges – but pleasant enough. Afterwards we headed into the town for some breakfast at the Two Magpies bakery. The name of the place made for a couple of odd-sounding items on the menu, like “Two Magpies sourdough toast & butter”, only saved by capital letters and the absence of a comma. We all ended up opting for the full English, which was particularly greedy on my part, being the only one who’d already had one breakfast before setting out.
In the afternoon I made my traditional hot, cross buns (with a comma this time). I realise that traditionally they’re for Good Friday, but never mind. I didn’t even leave them overnight after their first proving so they could rise again on Easter Sunday (I’m here all week).
On Sunday Robin organised another “freedom parkrun” at Chantry Park. I thought I had plenty of time to get there, but decided my bike tyres were a bit soft and needed some air, and when I took the dust cap off the rear wheel the valve (and all the air) came with it. I screwed it back in and pumped the tyre up again, but could hear a hiss and didn’t fancy its chances of staying up for 15 minutes. I grabbed my old mountain bike (which only comes into play in this kind of scenario), found that had a completely flat back tyre, pumped it up and hoped for the best. It did indeed stay inflated and got me there, but only barely in time for the start. Not sure whether it was the lack of a breather after riding up the hill, or delayed tiredness from Friday, but despite plodding round really slowly I felt awful, struggling not to give up and walk. Still, a week of very little running now, before the big one next Sunday.
Weirdly, given that the tyre had only gone slightly soft since I last rode it on Thursday, the hiss turned out to be a puncture. All fixed now, and will hopefully stay that way.