Saturday July 29
The project: A month-long stint of pounding the fields and lanes of Sussex in my hapless and ill-advised attempt to complete a quintessentially English 5k race between two local pubs. Yes, a pint of beer awaits every finisher!
Dear Reader,
After my too-close encounters with dogs yesterday I decided to set off much earlier for today’s session on the outside treadmill in the hope of avoiding any more canine attention.
As I came through the gate into the second field on my way to the lane where I’d start my run, a buzzard took off from a dead tree along the fence line. I wondered – and not altogether idly – whether buzzards are carrion feeders, or hunt live prey? I hoped for the former, figuring that I’m rather too large for it to be considering carrying me off in its talons.
It had rained again overnight, and on the lane the wet patches beneath the trees gleamed in the sunshine. Those were interspersed with matte stretches of dry tarmac, and I used this alternating pattern to mark my transitions from running to walking and back again.
There was a welcome cool breeze, and it wasn’t a hot day yet by any means, but goodness me, yesterday’s dog-printed capris were becoming uncomfortably hot. I was glad to be wearing a running vest on my top half – even a short-sleeved t-shirt is not the thing to be running in in July – and I wished I paid more attention to my bottom half.
I giggled as I reminded myself of Hotlegs Ricardo, a character in Richard Stilgoe’s extraordinary 1981 book ‘A Jumble of Letters’, in which every character is an anagram of Stilgoe’s name.
Here’s an Amazon review to give you the idea:
This could even be a fictitious autobiography, for each little tale is based on a character whose name is an anagram of Richard Stilgoe: the wrestler Arlo Rigidchest, Dr Gloria Ethics, the fisherman Israel Rightcod, the African dictator Idi Lostcharger, etc etc., I particularly like Giscard O'Hitler; (Giscard d'Estaing was the French Premier at the time} . Witty and ingenious, by the master of anagrams, playing with English after the manner of Milligan.
Reader, Hotlegs Rebecca vowed that for tomorrow’s session she’d wear shorts. Those sweaty dog-printed capris were clearly due a wash in any case, and exposing my legs to some sunlight would not only dull their milk-bottle brightness, but might also provide a boost of Vitamin D.
Love,
Rebecca
The Jog Log Stats – Day 2
Session: alternating walk/run
Distance: 3.87 km
Duration: 34:00 minutes
Average speed: 6.9 kph
Thank you for reading my Jog log!
Follow my month-long stint of pounding the fields and lanes of Sussex in my attempt to complete a quintessentially English 5k race between two local pubs.
I’m not sending these posts out by e-mail, but you can always check in with how things are going by clicking Jog log 🏃🏻 in the top navigation bar on the web browser version of my Substack homepage.
I too have legs of milk-bottle brightness. Grin. Always terrifying that first attempt at getting a bit of sun on the poor things. I’m always so afraid that I’ll blind someone accidentally! But I’m not someone who can put a towel down on the back lawn and lie there while nature does her bit. So blind strangers it will have to be.
Oh! And I’ll have to check out that book! Sounds excellent.