Builders – Black and Tabby Runs

Juneathon Day 23. Not a Paddle, honestly

After a rubbish night’s sleep (did I mention earlier we have builders at the moment? And roofers due to start stripping the roof this morning? And a man to spray the loft for woodworm?) I was awake at 4am and wide awake at 5am. Can’t think why. Despite trying to get comfortable, trying to relax and get back to sleep, it was no good. I decided to get up (quietly) and have a cup of tea.

Never seen this sign before in this house

As I was tip-toeing around the house sipping my tea I realised I had the chance to go out for my first ever early morning run and still be back in time to shower before everyone else got up. Hmmm, I thought, I might wake Mr B&T by rummaging for running kit in the bedroom drawers. Then I realised my favorite set of kit was all clean and dry in the office waiting to be put away! I was out of the house at 6.30am. It was quiet. There was a little traffic going through the village but no dog walkers or cyclists – my usual running audience. I ran past my allotment to see how my well-watered onions were looking (all fine!), along another lane, down through a field. I was hoping to see some deer here but they were obviously all hiding. I was just taking it easy, not looking at my Garmin, just clearing my head before a busy, noisy day. As I turned onto the lane that goes up a slight hill back home I remembered it was a Strava segment and decided to push up the hill and see how it went. It felt hard but okay and I was keen to get home and upload my data to see how I did. I laughed at my Garmin track which seemed to think I’d run right through the village pond (I’m not Triathalon training thank you very much)…

I didn't paddle, honestly — I didn’t paddle, honestly

… and I practically cheered whan I saw I’d taken a new CR on the Strava Segment (That’s a “Course Record” which means I’m the fastest female on that particular stretch of run.)

Juneathon Day 18. A quick blast

After my epic rant earlier, I thought I’d better write a calmer post about the day’s Juneathon activity.

I’d put my running gear on first thing hoping to sneak out before any of the day’s deliveries, but as I waved the children off to school my son shouted “there’s a big lorry coming up the lane!” I made the newly arrived scaffolder a cup of tea, rang the builders to say he was already here, and went and got changed back out of my running kit. A hectic day followed, with many deliveries (including nearly two tonnes of steel), lots of people, much noise, and a great deal of tea and coffee made.

When they’d all finally left, I felt the need to escape. I put my running kit back on and speed of for a 5K blast. Despite the heat I was delighted to receive a new Course Record on Strava for the route and I believe it was the fastest I’ve ever run it.

Who knew builders could make you run faster?

Juneathon Day 6. Builders.

Warning – this post contains builders. If you’ve never had any experience of dealing with builders then please feel free to skip to the middle of this post, the “I went for a run” part. If you’ve ever had any building work done on your house, or if you’ve watched Grand Designs and are currently contemplating it, then read on. Friday has always been my long run day. However I knew it wouldn’t happen today because the builders were coming. We are just about to start our loft conversion and needed the Building Inspector to come and look into a hole dug outside our kitchen, and at two holes above windows.

Black cat re-enacting classic ‘Titantic’ pose on temporarily displaced decking

The builders arrived just before 9 o’clock to wait for the inspector (apparently we were first on his list) and we took the time to discuss various complicated details of steel beams and purlins. We drank tea. We ended up deep in village gossip and still the inspector hadn’t arrived. After an hour and a half they went off to do other things. Inspector finally arrived around twelve. I rang the builders who came back and the inspector duly* gazed into holes, passed judgement, and left. Builders filled in the hole, chatted some more and went at about 1pm, promising to return around three when the Roofer was coming to discuss scaffolding.

I looked in the fridge to see if there was anything inspiring for lunch, found there wasn’t, and decided to pop out for a short run instead whilst the coast was clear. I got into my running gear, strapped on my Garmin and had just shoved my hair off my face with a hairband when the doorbell went. Guess who? It was the builders of course. They were off to price some steel up and could I just photocopy the specs… They left, again, AND I WENT FOR A RUN! It was just three miles, it was slow, but it was a chance to stretch out my stiff hamstrings and enjoy the sunshine. It was wonderful.

It is now three o’clock. I’ve run, showered, my running kit is in the washing machine and I’ve had my lunch. Guess what I’m doing now – I’m waiting for the builders to come back.

* my predictive text auto corrected this to ‘dully gazed into holes’ which is much funnier