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The seven and a bit weeks of healthy food and plenty of exercise seems to be paying off. I had my first enjoyable Park Run for a while, where I felt that the pace I set off at was sustainable and didn't want to give up at any point. To be fair the Hitchin 5K had been like that too. I achieved my best time since 2023, crossing the line in 28 minutes and 48 seconds and only 4 seconds away from a top 200 finish!
Some way off my Park Run PB from my cancer year, but if I can keep shifting weight then I should get closer to that.
As I've said before there seems to be a switch in my brain that when it's flicked I can eat healthily and exercise and when it's flicked back I have to eat all the chocolate in the house, even I I have to lick it out of my children's mouths.
Yesterday I had a personal training session at the gym and my trainer ate a bar of chocolate as I lifted weights. Which was an interesting technique. But even though she said I couldn't have any, even when sweating and tired, it did not appeal to me at all. Yet, you know better than I do that the switch tends to reset at some point, even after I've claimed it never will again and that this time I've got it sorted.
But this time I've got it sorted.
Yeah, keep on laughing. Just like you did when I said I was giving up alcohol. That switch seems to have rusted in the off position.
It was one of those long and busy days and by the evening I couldn't believe that this was the same day that I'd done the Park Run on. Ernie had two birthday parties to go to, so I looked after Phoebe as Catie took him to the first one. Then after lunch I took Ernie to the second one. As always he was reluctant to go at all, but once there, turned into a party animal demanding to be the centre of attention, heckling the very nice lady who was playing party games with the kids. Hey look, this already unpredictable child was on his second round of party food. Just as I needed booze to every socialise in my younger days and then behaved like an idiot, this boy just needs some sugar and an audience.
It'd have been nice to chat with other parents and I did to a certain extent, but I couldn't leave him unwatched for too long or one of the mums would come over and tell me he'd made girls cry or he'd be throwing Minecraft figures at the head of the incredibly patient woman doing the games.
At one point he was trying to pull up a metal cover in the garden which housed the septic tank. Was I going to take this boy home covered in effluent?
Luckily this was beyond him and all the children were pretty wild. The noise of a room of 8 year olds, high on cake, playing party games is pretty phenomenal. My watch warned me about the sound levels. No shit iSherlock.
Thankfully there was no actual shit either and I got Ernie out of the party early, not to stop him killing anyone, but because we were driving to Somerset tonight for a few days with my folks.
We left at 6pm and got to Cheddar at 9.30pm and so it's maybe not surprising that I thought it was tomorrow.
We'd stopped at a service station for a quick bit of dinner. Someone had left behind a baby's cuddly toy that had been placed on a picnic table outside. It gave me a jolt, as it was very similar to Phoebe's Fluffy Rabbit (who made occasional appearances in Twitch of Fun) which she still takes everywhere. If we'd lost ours at a service station and got home to Cheddar to find it missing, I would then have had to drive a round trip of another 150 miles to find it.
I felt a wave of sadness and empathy for whatever family had dropped this thing. Would they even know where it was? I can't quite remember what animal it was supposed to be - maybe a sheep. If it's yours it's on a picnic table by the pasty shop at Chieveley services.
