Juneathon 2012 – Day 1: Thames Pageant Preparations

Juneathon is here! Woop! Woop! Woop!.

All week I had been debating what to tackle on the first day of Juneathon because my only opportunity to run would be through a late work lunch thanks to a long morning of meetings. I had also been on a tough speed work session the day before so without wanting to push things too much, I headed over to the gym to change before heading out for a reasonably slow 10k around the Isle of Dogs.

As usual my Garmin had problems picking up a satellite signal thanks to all the buildings so I ran for about 0.5k as a warm-up before starting my run proper once a signal had finally established. I haven’t run this route for quite a while and I was surprised by the amount of changes due to all the new buildings going up. As I approached the drawbridge that separates the Thames from the docks, I noticed that the path was blocked by some TV crews filming something on the river. As I dodged each camera I noticed a lot of boats nearby and realised that they were part of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, which takes place on Sunday. I spotted a few RNLI boats before slowing down to a stop when I realised that the TV crews were all focused on what appeared to be the Royal Barge, Gloriana. I cursed myself for not bringing my phone as it would have made for a good photo and I will make sure to start carrying my phone with me in the future on my outside runs.

I enjoyed the rest of my run although I always shake my head when I have to leave the Thames path when it turns into a sudden dead end or becomes a private path for some of the residents. The planning authority really missed a trick when they gave planning permission for all the apartments around the edge of the Isle because a continuous path following the Thames would have been perfect for walkers, runners, and cyclists. I was soon running back across the Isle near to Canary Wharf when I noticed the docks full of boats all decked out ready for the pageant. Should have taken my phone *sigh*.

A good start to Juneathon and I plan to smash for Janathon running total, which was a fairly average 68 miles. Tomorrow is not going to be a running day (boooooooo!) as we’re out all day attending my cousins wedding. I am sure that some sort of exercise will be completed for Juneathon though. Aside from beating my previous running mileage, I am also going to use my daily blog entries to monitor my weight loss. Once I hit a groove of  constant exercise then I find it mentally easy to turn down all the cakes & snacks that appear in the office and I find my weight heading back down to a healthy level thanks to the constant running. I plan to run over 100 miles in June plus head out cycling and attend karate training with The Son.

Good luck to everyone taking part in Juneathon!

• Exercise completed today: running
• Distance run today: 6.22 miles
• Distance run so far: 6.22 miles
• Weight change so far: 0