Janathon day 4: A drowned rat, a wolf whistle and a two and a half minute improvement.

The weather was disgusting tonight and my after work run filled me with dread. I go home via Clapham Junction, normally just needing to hop off one train and on to another. However tonight I adopted some delaying tactics by mooching around the shops, buying a few random sale purchases and lots of green, healthy looking food. My shopping basket looked very January and the shop assistant in Sainsbury’s agreed with me.

I got home and carried on with the delaying tactics, hanging around in the kitchen and eating as many of the healthy green things that I could fit in washed down with a coffee. Jon noticed I was loitering and I kept putting off changing into my lycra and heading out in to the rain. After a bit more mindless chatter, I finally pulled myself together and headed out of the door into the rain and howling wind.

I decided I would try and pace myself tonight and pick up my speed a little. I ran the same route as last night which is a total of 5k and I managed to run at a really steady pace throughout. It was disgusting outside and before I’d even completed the first kilometre, I looked like a sweaty, drowned rat that had been feasting a little more than it should have been. You can imagine my shock when I was wolf whistled at. Yes, you read that right, an actual wolf whistle. To be fair, he did only see me from the back where he would have seen my blonde ponytail bobbing up and down and we all know the dark makes you look thinner. The red sweaty face and general bedraggled appearance wouldn’t have been visible as he whistled from his car as he headed closer to me. My boyfriend was actually impressed he had a car and not a van.

Joking aside though, it’s probably not that appropriate to be wolf whistling from a car when a female is running alone in the dark and you are alone in your car, it’s just a little creepy. Just to make this clear, I am not the kind of girl that hates compliments from men but there is a time and a place and I would think a certain level of grooming that should be adhered to by the female party being whistled at. I certainly wasn’t wearing attire to make myself look nice, far from it but I do accept the fact that the driver may have also been a pi** taking moron who was just trying to heckle me. There are a few of these about and as well as wolf whistling, these creatures tend to shout helpful comments like ‘Lift your knees up’, ‘ go on girl, keep going’ and occasionally they’ll run alongside for 3 metres, pint and fag in hand, before they stop and then return to their mates laughing.  Whatever the motives , thank you Mr car man, at least your whistle made me giggle and momentarily stopped me focusing on my heavy breathing and huffing and puffing that is normally drowned out by my loud music.

As I loitered round the kitchen wasting time before my run, I rammed a number of different things down my throat before I left to delay the inevitable day four run. I knew all about every morsel I’d munched during the run and in fact, I came very close to seeing all the healthy snacks for a second time. I wouldn’t recommend stuffing your face before heading out. Despite feeling pretty ropey, I kept going and managed to improve my time by two minutes 30 seconds from last night, which I’m pretty chuffed with. Although I was running in the rain and straight into the cold wind, I really enjoyed it once I got out there and I was thrilled that I improved my speed and steadied my pace.

Things I learned after tonight’s run:

·         In the words of Nike, Just do it! It really doesn’t make things better or easier by delaying what you know you need to do. Once you actually get going, you know you’ll feel good.

·         If you really put your mind to it, you will improve.

·         Do not stuff your face with whatever you can find before you go for a run! It makes you feel sick and you taste everything again mid-run which is pretty gross.

·         Running in the rain can be fun and makes you feel that little more smug when you’re finished. I find going out in bad weather somehow validates your effort and is like an extra little pat on the back

·         Even if you look like a chubby drowned rat, some men will still pay attention though there may not be romantic intentions. I don’t really understand this if I’m being honest.