Janathon 2012 – Day 17: Brighton bound, The Big Boss Man, and one of those days.
I hate disrupting my running once I get into the flow of following a specific training plan but once a month I have to travel to Brighton for the department group hug meeting. I get little chance to run early morning or late at night due to the demands of The Son so today was written off for running and my schedule shuffled along a day to accommodate the required change.
I knew things were going downhill as I arrived at my local tube station to hear announcements of problems on the DLR due to a fire alert at Bank. That would have been my normal route to work, so not a problem for me today, but experience has taught me that the public transportation system tends to experience multiple problems so I was now wary of how things would go today. It was not long until my fears were realised as my train was told that it was no longer stopping at Victoria, my destination to change for a Brighton change, due to overcrowding at Victoria station. I managed to hop off the train a stop early and decided to hang around until Victoria opened again, which did not take too long, and I hopped back on the line to find an empty Victoria station. Not empty for long. The station staff were holding people back to let the platforms clear then suddenly opened the flood gates just as I was approaching the exit stairs. I suddenly felt like a lone salmon trying to swim upstream.
After making my way to our Brighton office I found that The Big Boss Man had missed his flight from Manchester to Gatwick so would not be attending the group hug or the meeting he had scheduled with me. Cue much hilarity of emailing him pictures of people running for planes or images of people arguing with airport staff.
I had planned to leave Brighton fairly early as Mrs Dan was going to work late so I had to be home to meet The Son. Everything was going fine until my London bound train stopped before Croydon then continued to sit there. And sit there. And sit there. An announcement gave everyone the good news that a person had been hit by a train further up the line and we would now experience major delays. Oh boy. Roll the clock forward 3 hours and I had managed to fight my way through Victoria station onto the tube and finally home to go collect The Son from his childcare.
- Janathon: some karate kata practice
- Time I will never get back: 4 hours travelling from Brighton to home
