earthquake or not and the rest of the day

sometime around 1a.m. while i was sitting in bed reading we either had a whole lot of wind hit the house or something else happened. the windows rattled and the rest of the room seem to quiver, if that word suggests to you what it felt like. then it passed,and i had work to do on the computer and finally around 4:30 a.m. i went to sleep.

got up about 7:30 when the front door was being banged on by the guy delivering cat litter- 2 huge big boxes ordered from our landlords in amsterdam. is this a great world or what? then gail told me that the UK had an earthquake about 1am somewhere north of us and stretching down to london. not quite in our path probably, but what did i feel? won't know for sure i guess and it wasn't a big anything, but i don't drink and the room was not staying still.

and so i got myself up and carried the cat litter back to where we keep it and got ready to go run. out the door and walked gail to the bus stop as she headed off to brooke's and i headed south to the king george park trail and then did the dirt trail loop around to osney island and turned back towards north hinksey village. picture two parallel trails connected by crisscrossing paths.

today i took the dirt trail along the creek past the horses and got a little muddy, but there is no other way to get that close to the horses and they were worth a little mud. came out along the trail behind the "Fishes" pub and went down to north hinksey village, a small old village of old and somewhat newer houses, plus a tennis club and rugby stadium.

ran down to the stadium and tried to keep going down the trail, but the gate was locked so turned back up and stopped to do the smaller of two hills- still straight up- three times up and three down and then headed down the ring road trail- gail hates this part of the run which is why i tend to do it when she is not running with me. it is a mile basically running alongside a smaller version of the beltway. like running with the ocean in your ears.

the mile goes by and i turn into south hinksey village, a small thatched roof type set of houses in a circle road with one pub and no other stores. development has just come to this village also as they have started to build some new houses about 5 o'clock on the circle. i head around the other way from 6 to 12 and down the bike path at 12. the sun is out and it is warming up fast. i am over dressed.

this takes me across the power lines and some cute little creeks where swans and ducks are out and about and then i jog up many steps and across the reservoir bridge and into north hinksey park. really pretty along the lake and i meet two guys from bozeman, montana doing a three week walk across some of england. chatted for a minute about where they were headed and our previous trip to montana, and then headed off. the water shimmering in the sun a very dark blue today and a couple of hundred ducks were enjoying it. i was thirsty myself. debated adding two miles to the run to hit a store for a drink but passed. bathrooms and water fountains are not easily found around here.

around the park and then up the trail and back out on the street for 3 blocks that would take me back to the thames river. headed north up the river through grand-pont nature park and eventually came back out on the river trail and headed up to botley road and home. basically this is a big circle with a few criss-crosses, but it goes through several park areas and across and along a lot of small creeks and streams and then back up the thames and i like this run a lot. have to accept the ring road mile or it becomes an out and back to run it and it is not the same. and after i ran the three hill repeats the mile follows immediately and it is flat so i can use it to recover somewhat.

all in all a decent 9 miles. i don't have to mention slow 9 do i, as all runs these days are slow. the better runs have some faster parts, but there are no fast runs anymore. i could tell though that i had taken the day off yesterday as the legs were not dead. maybe they weren't bouncy and springy, but they had enough life in them to do this nine miles.

later after usual chores and stuff i walked up to the range and hit 200 balls trying to work on my new swing. worked up from the lob wedge to the 7 iron and did a variety of 30-40 yard pitch shots also. not as good hitting off mats but it is what i had to work with. later i sort of snuck outside to the back of the range hit about 20 chip shots off of the grass. then i spent some time helping the pro with his swing-i get to watch and see if he is on plane or too steep. his tour starts soon. i would like his misses believe me. like a machine.

funny- the guy next to me was hitting his driver almost to the fence every time, almost 275 and i was thinking how nice that would be, when i finished hitting he said to me that he wished he could hit pitch shots like i did. nobody is satisfied are they. difference is that he will learn to hit good pitch shots, but i will NEVER hit 275 yard drives, not counting the roll. oh well...

all good. tired from very little sleep to go with my 9 miles and two hundred balls, but a nice enough day. cold and rain are coming so not sure how the next few days will play out -27 degrees and heavy rain doesn't sound ideal. almost sounds like snow.

eight days to be home to visit and 154 for good.