Benito's Hat

Does everyone remember how I said last week that long runs were a joy? Well they're not. Yesterday we traipsed (that's the only word that can really describe it) around London for hours on end in order to clock up our 14 mile quota. We went from base camp in Holloway to Angel, along the Regent's Canal all the way to Limehouse, through Wapping, across Tower Bridge, along the South Bank all the way to Westminster Bridge, through Parliament Square to Whitehall, then through Trafalgar Square and up Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road to finish at Benito's Hat on Goodge Street.

Benito's Hat is great. They sell burritos and tacos and not a lot else, but you can have all the fillings in the world inside them. And, best of all, they make your burrito or tacos right in front of you, so you don't need to wait for ages (which is really important when you've just run (traipsed) 14 miles).

During the run, I managed to sustain my first real injury of the training campaign. I can almost hear you thinking "knee? ankle? hamstring?" No, don't be silly. I managed to injure my left arm. That's right - I injured my arm while running. You are now thinking "how could she possibly injure her arm while running?" Well, I did it while trying my hardest not to fall into the canal. We were on a cobbled humpbacked bridge that takes the towpath over the entrance to a canal basin. I caught my toe on a cobble and did that uncontrollable-staggering-forwards-while-trying-not-to-fall-over-and-trying-not-to-look-too-stupid thing, paying special attention to changing my course sufficiently to avoid going head first into the canal. This resulted in my careering into the back of James who, luckily, had realised I was about to fall over and had braced himself for the collision. Not so my arm, which got itself twisted up. It felt OK for the rest of the run and it wasn't until bedtime that I realised I'd done something quite nasty to it. Getting dressed this morning was quite tricky.

On the bright side, my horrible deal signed late on Saturday night, so this week I should be able to get back into the swing of the mid-week running, all in preparation for next week's 16-miler.