Viva Johnny Vegas!

9.1 miles in 1:15:39
Route: Highbury and Islington circuit 4

My first celebrity spot of the marathon campaign! If this training blog were Heat magazine, it would read:

Spotted: Johnny Vegas walking his dog in Clissold Park in North London.

I had stopped briefly to take a picture of the deer (see the lengths I go to to make this blog so beautifully presented?) when he walked right past me. I’m afraid I was too chicken to speak to him, but I did manage to sneak this log distance paparazzi shot on my phone:

Pretty rubbish eh? Thinking about it afterwards, I wondered if I should have just taken a picture of him up close. If he complained I could (or would, in fact) have just run away. It’s not like the fat lump could have caught me. It would also have given me the opportunity to shout “enjoy your heart-attack Johnny!” in the style of ‘Snake’ the Simpsons as I legged it. Or maybe an ironic “where's Monkey?” Ah well, I know where he lives now, so maybe another time.

Leaving aside my near miss with Mr Vegas (or Mr Michael Joseph Pennington, as his mum calls him) this was a challenging run. I woke up this morning with very stiff legs from Saturday morning’s hill session. I seem to ache all over these days. I’m sure it will be worth it when I can crack a walnut between my butt cheeks.

Yet another Arsenal home game (are the FA deliberately trying to sabotage my training?) so it was gooner-dodging all the way to Finsbury Park. Got around Finsbury ok and enjoyed the job to Clissold Park. It’s been a few months since I was here last and it’s a lovely little place. More gooner-dodging up the hill to Highbury fields and down into Islington. My poor legs were pretty wasted by this point, but my overall fitness felt very good. Finished in an ok time – just short of a PB, but given the knee issues I’m not too disappointed. Knee was pretty bad in parts of the run but, again, stretching it out seemed to help.

I’ve been into town this afternoon to buy massage products. My osteo told me to massage my Achilles tendon every night before bed, but I’ve not been doing it because it’s difficult without any oil. Have selected a couple of suitable products – some deliciously smelling coca butter bars from Lush and some more traditional massage oil from the Body Shop.

Anyone want to rub it in for me? I’m pretty toned these days…

The deer of Clissold Park, north London