As Christmas 2012 approached, with bad weather and odd working days, not to mention all the Christmas palaver, I’d got almost two weeks behind with my Moonwalk training schedule. The short walks were easy enough to fit in, the long walks not so much. Still, the whole reason for starting the training so early was so I could have the odd missed long walk when the weather was dreadful, I was ill or life was too busy. Forward planning at its best. Even so, with one missed nine mile walk behind me, it was annoying to wake up on my next walking day to torrential rain. There was also the small problem of picking up the Christmas meat.
21 December 2012
Around lunchtime the weather suddenly brightened and Commando said he’d go to pick up the Christmas meat so I could go out for my nine mile walk while there was a window in the weather. So, over a coffee and a wrap, I tried to plan a route that didn’t involve rthe flooded area by Mansbridge. Commando showed me an alternative route that left the river at Woodmill ubt would still take me to Eastleigh. Best of all, it got me to the Swan Centre at Eastleigh and back within the nine miles. Going the normal way it’s ten.
So, after lunch, I set off, enjoying the weak sun, the swans and the blue sky but not so much the huge puddles I had to navigate at regular intervals. Not far into the park WalkJogRun unaccountably lost the satelite signal. Luckily it came back again almost at once and I could see I was making brilliant time despite the puddles. The walking felt pretty effortless and I was enjoying the winter sun. It was pretty obvious from the number of huge puddles on the first part of the river that the area round the White Swan was going to be impassable but, because of Commando’s alternative route, it didn’t matter. There were masses of seagulls on the water at Woodmill for some reason but no swans today.
After I’d gone past the mill and round the corner I was in new territory so I relied on the maps on WalkJogRun to Make sure I was going in the right direction. Before long I came to a bridge over a tributary of the Itchen and I was back on more familiar ground. The new route really did cut a huge chunk out of the journey as well as missing out the areas that always flood so I’m pretty sure I’ll be walking that way again.
When I got the the roundabout by the airport I could see the moon already in the sky. I always think its a bit odd to see the moon in broad daylight but I do like it. Planes were lined up being loaded as I crossed the railway bridge with just over a mile left to Eastleigh. I’d been pushing my pace for the whole walk, apart from the bit when I wasn’t really sure where I was so I was making good time but I was also getting a little over heated. Despite the sun I’d been quite cold when I set out so I had a jumper, a hoodie, my parka and my floppy eared hat on. Just after the airport I undid my Parker and hoodie as much as I could with the Camelback bag strapped around my waist and took off my hat. That felt a bit better. I also had a few sips of my water which was satisfyingly cold.
The thought of a skinny latte when I reached the Swan Centre was really pushing me on. That’s one of the reasons I love this route so much, not only is there a Costa Coffee but a loo as well. I cannot over emphasise the importance of toilets on a long walk route. Before you all start tutting, I do know I won’t be able to stop for coffee on the Moonwalk but give me a break, it’s cold, there’s a Costa’s and I only stopped for a few minutes to get a takeaway. Now I don’t work at the Mad House I don’t have lattes very often so I savoured every mouthful.
The other thing I’d been looking forward to, apart from the loos, was seeing the Christmas decorations. I know I’m a bit Bah Humbug but I do like to see the decorations, as long as it’s not in November. What a disappointment, they were, so pathetic I don’t know why they even bothered, just a few little squares of lights on the ceiling, not even pretty colours just white, the odd tiny strip of blue, smaller than my berry lights. Really you needed to be wearing glasses to even see them at all. Even the glass roofed atrium just had two pathetic strings of baubles and a sad looking circle of white lights hanging down. The man up the road from me has more lights on the front of his house than they had in the whole place.
The Christmas lights in the Swan Centre may have been a little too low key but the blasted Christmas music certainly wasn’t. As I walked back through Eastleigh I had Slade going round and round in my head on a loop and the only way I could get it out was singing the whole of another song (in my head of course, I wouldn’t inflict that on the general public). Sadly, all I could think of was Silent night and it sounded suspiciously like the Sinead O’Connor version. Still it was better than Slade at least. When I passed the mural on the archway at Campbell Road, by the old carriage works I took a photo. Even though I’ve googled it I’m still no wiser about what it’s meant to depict although I think the train tracks are in there and an air traffic control tower but I’d love to know why it’s there and what it really represents. Answers on a postcard please.
Not long after this I noticed it was no longer sunny and it suddenly occurred to me this is the shortest day of the year so it was going to start getting dark pretty soon. As I was still more than three and a half miles from home I thought I’d better up the pace as much as I could because I didn’t fancy walking through Riverside in the twilight.
By the time I got to the river it was beginning to get pretty gloomy so, despite wishing I could slow a bit for the last two miles or so, I pushed even harder. There were still a few runners around but hardly anyone else and there are no lights at all in the park so it really isn’t the place to be at night alone. When the triangle finally came in sight lights were beginning to go on in the houses on the other side of the river and the only people around were a runner going the other way and a lady walking a dog behind me.
Yet again, at almost the same spot, I lost the satellite. This time it didn’t reconnect, just ended my training session unceremoniously at eight miles twenty. I stopped at the top of the hill by the road and fiddled with it trying to restart it but it was no go. I began to wonder if there really was something to this end of the world malarkey and the satellites had all fallen out of the sky or something. Eventually it let me restart but only as a new training session which was a bit annoying. Still, I know how far I walked and I knew I could add the two sessions together when I got home.
From there it was just under a mile to my house anyway and street lights all the way. They were literally coming on as I passed them. By the time I got to the very bottom of the Big Hill, by the Station pub it was almost dark. Good job I didn’t slow down really. The whole walk (adding both parts together) took two hours sixteen minutes and I actually walked 9.14 miles, possibly a tiny bit more as I was still walking when the satellites cut out each time. All in all a fairly good walk with an average pace of just over four miles an hour and I wasn’t totally exhausted when I came in the door, just in need of a coffee and a little sit down before I cooked the dinner.
So now I’m only one week behind with my training. Hopefully, with the Christmas break coming up, I’ll be able to catch up with that shortly and get back on track. It seems to me walking a marathon would be so much easier if we didn’t have winter, or it it was shorter.