Today was the first day of touring around London.  And I had the coolest thing happen. 

I found out yesterday that there is going to be a marathon on Sunday.  I’m sad that I won’t be here to see it.  The Gazelle was sad too.  He thought I should sign up and do the 5 km race.  But I won’t be able to.  I’ll be on aplane, heading back home to Canada.

But back to the coolness.  I took a group tour.  We went to Kensington Palace park and there were joggers there.  We went to Hyde Park, as expected there were runners there.    We went to the Parliament buildings, there were runners there.

We went to Buckingham Palace and there were runners there too!  How cool is that?  It reminded me of a similar phenomena at home

Around the Bay in the week before the race.  Runners out getting in that last long run before the big day.

What made it so cool for me was the fact that people seemed used to seeing people in the midst of tourist traps running.

I promised that I would post some pictures from my trip.  I tried to get pictures of runners around the tourist areas.

With any luck, someone will take a picture of me while I’m running near a tourist area too.  If not, I’ll still write about how amazing it is anyway and you can imagine how silly I look doing the 99 thump thing

I was surfing the internet the other day and I stumbled on something that made so much sense to me that I thought I should share it.  Actually, I didn’t stumble on it as much as it stumbled on me.

It was this article on tips for happiness in life.  And how if you are happy your life will be pretty good.  Now how does this aplply to running you ask.  Quite simply in one of the first tips.

Maintain your health.  Exercise will lead to the release of endorphins.  That feel happy chemical.  Which as you know I have finally discovered I get.  I am quite addicted to runners high.  But I also love the feeling of happiness that I get running with my friends.

Another tip is allowing yourself a few minutes of you time.  I do that each time I run.  I allow myself the time to go and spend an hour or more with people who enjoy the same thing as I do.  Running and the comaraderie that comes with it,

Finding humour in situations is a great way to promote happiness in your life.  Everytime I go for a run, I find humour.  Uusually it is found in the noise that I make when I run, but who cares?  See the previous two tips.

Make a plan for attaining goals I beleive in.  My goal is being able to run a half marathon in the Road2Hope.  I might not make it, but boy am I going to have fun.  Which leads me to the next point, surrounding yourself with happy people.

Can you find a happier group of people than runners?  We might complain, but we still get out there every week.

I guess we really do already have this happiness thing covered!

I have just spent what seems to have been forever on an airplane.  I flew for the very first time to England.  I booked this trip last year.  Long before the blogging contest.  It never occured to me that I couldn’t continue to blog while on holiday. 

I spent some quality time with my copy of Run Fatboy Run.  I wanted to make sure that I knew the places that were featured in the movie.  I want to recreate the movie starring yours truly.  Oh and the other exception is that there won’t be any video of me doing silly and possibly gross things.

One of things I don’t wish to  recreate is the eventful trip over.  I learned several valuable lessons today.

Despite how big the plane may be, it is never a good idea to go for a short run.  The cabin attendants don’t like it when they have to get out of the way of a runner wearing an MP3 player.  And you lose the zone that you get into when running when you are trying to dodge the trolley cart.

Another valuable lesson when travelling on a plane.  Despite going for just a “short run” your jogging clothes might still smell from the previous run.  If you are organized, you can wash them before going on your vacation.  Otherwise wearing them on the plane and then after a run means you aren’t going to be ingratiating yourself with your fellow passengers.

And lastly, the Garmin just won ‘t catch on an airplane.  No matter how close you put your arm to the window.

I’m going to be posting from various parts of England.  And will include pictures from here too.  In the meantime, I’m going to see if I can wash the running clothes in the bathtub before my next run

So I was talking to my wife the other day after I had left Parry Sound and she told me about an amazing runner she discovered.  She took my son out for a run pushing him in running stroller that we have and after about 2km she let him loose!  She was on the local fitness trail in Parry Sound and I guess he wanted to run and I know she wanted him to burn off some excess energy. J However I don’t think she thought he would go as far as he did!  Apparently he sprinted in front of her for the entire time, all the way to my mom’s house which is just off the trail.  Along the way he was sure to tell the cyclist on the trail that he was ‘quicker then them!!!’ and of course what would Connor running be without him falling down a few times and being run over by the stroller (he’s got his mothers clumsy gene).

In the end he went from the town dock all the way to my mom’s place which according to the sign on the trail is 1.4km!  (More than a little embarrassing to think that a 3 ½ year old is running half as far as me.) Anyway, he showed up to my mom’s place out of breath, red in the cheeks and asking ‘water please granny’.  If he had a longer attention span I would be worried that he would run a marathon before I did! I don’t think I need to worry about that, but I will learn from him and try to take his enthusiasm out on my runs.  Do you think it would be acceptable for me to yell comments at passing cyclists?

Sometimes the best way to get yourself out of an awkward situation isn’t to glance at your watch and say, look at the time, gotta go.  The best way is to see the humour in it.

I wrote about my friend from work, whose son was running as a pace bunny at the recent Around the Bay Road Race.  I was thrilled to know someone who knows someone who is a pace bunny.  I have no desire to be one, I am happy with how I’m running now, but this was a thrilling thing for me.

Ah but I digress and delay the awkward moment.  I got back to Copps Coliseum before anyone I know was due to cross the finish line.  So I settled in a took a bunch of pictures and just really enjoyed the atmosphere. 

  I was thrilled when I saw the 2:15 bunny running down the shute.  I knew it was my friend’s son.  I yelled for Dan.  And took his picture too.

I went into work on Monday and told my friend about how I had waited for his son to cross the finish line.  And how thrilling it was that Dan had crossed the line a couple minutes early.  And how I took his picture a couple times and couldn’t wait to post the picture and story.

Then awkward came to visit.  My friend said that his son had actually scratched from the race.  He was just too sick.  Opps awkward.  Followed by what the heck, I had a great time anyway.

Ahh the debate rages on is quality more important or quantity.  I thought about this a lot this past weekend as I sat and watched my son literally bounce from one piece of furniture to another in his chocolate induced high. It was actually quite impressive, I mean how often do you see a 3 ½ year old run 3 grown adults into the ground by 1:00 in the afternoon?  What is equally impressive is the crash that he has experienced, or should I say is experiencing.  (According to my wife he is having a bit of a rough go two days after chocolate fest 2009!) 

So what about running, quality or quantity?   I think it depends on what stage you’re at it your training.  Speaking for myself, after going on my second run since injuring my back pulling on my boxers (yeah that’s right, for those of you that are reading my blog for the 1^st time, go back a few entries and see the wonderful experience I had getting dressed a few days ago) I would say that quality is better.  Maybe that’s because I can’t go more than 500m without having sharp shooting pain into my thigh and knee and the thought of running everyday with that kind of pain is not very appealing! But hey at least I was out right?? A little more details about the run itself, I did have that sharp pain after the 500m mark and the weather was a tad chilly and running in Parry Sound (where I was for Easter weekend) is a bit hilly (and by bit I mean very) and my grand total distance for the run was a pathetic 3km. WTF! I was only incapacitated for a few days and going out for 3km feels like I have never run before! Not good.  So I guess you could say I have had neither lately, quality or quantity.  I know in the long run (no pun intended) that quantity is necessary for any success in a long distance training program but it sure would be nice to have some quality thrown in there to encourage me to do more. 🙂

As for my son I know if I asked him what was better he would definitely say quantity.  At least when we are talking chocolate! The same would go for ice cream, playing hockey and wrestling! And really who can disagree with a kid that can wipe out 3 adults by lunch and be ready to take on a 4^th for the afternoon!