run to the market and then bad day at the range

funny headline but gail and went out to run early enough after a night when i had almost 3 hours of sleep. just could not sleep. about three nights in a row now. but we ran up binsey and over the rainbow bridge and then were forced to go over the port meadow bridge as the trail was closed even where they weren't working on it. no problem and we ran around the little trail that overlooked fiddler's island and took us to the train station trail. a warm and sunny day, but not like back in virginia. would hit 68 later in the day and not rain as predicted.

headed down the train trail and cut over the makeshift bridge back to the thames on the lower part of the trail and then over swan bridge. high water and very dark green/blackish color. a short run brought us to botley road where i left gail to head home and i reversed myself back down swan trail and under the train trail and to the oxford canal. ran north on the canal to the bridge which brings you to jericho and the oxford university press. ran though the neighborhood and past the "old bookbinder's pub". need to look that one up sometime as we had an old bookbinder's in philly also.

did the loop around the little west side of jericho neighborhood and headed towards town and the public market. was running ok at this point and keeping an eye on all of the usual "spots" as well as the bikes headed towards town also. i would estimate that i get a bike passing warning from 1% of the riders. it just doesn't seem to be the way here. no problem as i crossed over walton street and into glouster green and the market place.

stopped to talk to some of my friendly vendors and then bought what i came for. the bread and olive guy was there today and picked up an olive ciabatta and some whole wheat scones and fresh apricot pastries. this market is one of those things i will miss for sure. bought a couple of large egyptian towels from the guy who knows the states and spent time in rochester, ny. he always likes to talk about snow. funny- we had about 2 inches almost here in oxford this winter, maybe less.

bags in tow i jog home. it is a mile to the house we live in from here and a pleasant enough jog as i take the long way to miss some of the walkers going in the other direction. there never seems to be enough space on the sidewalk and you just don't run down this street to get home. not even sure how the bikes do it as the bike lane maybe 2 feet wide. no wonder so many get hit. i cut up over the canal path and ran back that way to the thames. much easier and also much prettier.

at close to 7 miles i was home and also over 2900 iles for the year here so far. spent the morning do odds and ends and changing addresses on-line as well as paying bills and then headed up to the driving range. and i was just bad today hitting balls though i worked really hard i could never quite keep it going. i could say i showed signs of promise as i did hit many really nice balls, but i was blocking, slicing, groundering, hooking and just tighter than normal. 250 balls later i was done. did some chipping and pitching and that went better. the last ten balls were also ok so maybe there is hope. ha!

best part of the range were some of the people i met there. how can i help so many people with their swings and be so bad with my own? a rhetorical question i admit. and home to dinner and working on getting out of here. two weeks from right now we will be at dulles airport if all goes well.

supposed to rain a lot over the next three days-like today but it didn't. we have had trouble finding a place to stay in wales so the trip is in trouble but will see if we can find anything. otherwise we are off to Reading. also have 3 goodbye lunches planned so far and this sunday is the Binsey village "fete" and celebration of the re-opening of the "Perch" pub, just in time for us to go home. great.

and that is pretty much the day here. like a lot of other days. my plan is to rest the legs a bit as i had planned to do if we went to wales. if i pushed a little i could get to 3000 miles but i want to go home somewhat rested and with a right leg in better shape than it is so it will keep getting better there. i read it is code red and orange back there. not looking forward to that, but most everything else.