Wherein I Encounter A Viking Ship (But No Hobbit House)

   I finally headed out for a run today, after a little over a month of only occasionally throwing in a long walk or two. My only goal when I left the house was to run---it didn't have to be fast and it didn't need to be continual. All I really needed was to run.
   This was kind of a refreshing approach because any of the last runs I'd done that month ago were all performance-based. I'd been desperately wanting to get my 5K times down and, slowly but surely, that's what was happening. And then I stopped running. Not sure why.
   It's still very autumn-like, weather-wise, here in London and today was a great day for running. I wore shorts and just a couple of layers up top. For some reason the top of me gets cold much faster than my bottom half and I need to be warm at the beginning of a run but still be mindful of the fact that I will warm up, eventually.
   There are a couple of cool things I wanted to be able to show you all today so I took just a bit of a detour from my usual 5K route. I wanted to show you the little hobbit house but when I ran by there was a pickup parked right in front of it, so that was kind of a no-go. Too bad, too, cuz I had to run up a freakin' hill to get there.
   There is, however, a miniature Viking ship right around the corner and I was able to get a pic. I'm a little far away due to the fact that there are no sidewalks on that side of the street . As have most viking ships, it's fallen into a bit of disrepair, its sail lies, bedraggled, atop its stern.

   From here, I just continued to run along at my very slow speed and was kind of loving it. I did time it and it ended up being a little over 42 minutes. I could not have run any more slowly but that was fine with me!

   I needed to make sure I took pics today because Crystal of Running With Rhyno fame had strongly suggested I run yesterday. But I whined and fussed and she said I could run today but needed to provide pictorial proof. So here it is, Crystal! Even a tiny bead of sweat on my left cheek, a bit of a foggy-breath effect, and a dilapidated Viking ship in the background...

   I can always tell when I've gotten into a better headspace with my running---I feel like going out again the same day. Today was one of those days because tonight I definitely feel as though I could run again. My plan is to hopefully feel like that again tomorrow and to maybe go hunting for that hobbit house I told you about!

A happier-looking me!