Unnatural Beauty

Today I was fortunate enough to run a beautiful route through the countryside. It was peaceful (apart from the odd zombie attack), green and lushous. It was easy to forget that I was not running through a rural paradise but an artifical industrial enterprise that during it's creation had at least as much impact as the high speed rail link, and just as much political warfare.
I was running along the old water highway that is the Grand Union Canal.
Once upon a time it was the heavy haulage M1, now it's the preserve of holidaymakers and the slightly excentric boat owners who make the waterways their home.
I am doubly lucky to live along a rural stretch that means I am not competing for towpath space with commuters and dogwalkers.
It's an unnaturally beautiful place to run and even in the rain I wouldn't trade it for a tarmac path on a road or, perish the evil thought and wash my mouth out with caustic soap, a treadmill in a gym.

There was a slight oops on the run though, a good oops in the end but it was a silly FraidyKat being distracted moment. I got so absorbed in the Zombies Run mission that I didn't look out for the landscape marker telling me it was time to turn around and go home. That oops meant that instead of a 3.5mile run it was in fact a 4mile run (well, 4.2 if you count the cool down walk up the hill to home). A good result in the end, a longer run that proved I can go further than I thought - although the real proof tomorrow will be in finding out what my muscle to nano-gremlin ratio is.
If FraidyKat can't walk tomorrow then FraidyKat isn't really ready for the 4 miles yet.
If FraidyKat can walk tomorrow then next weekend it's a 5mile run.
I really hope FraidyKat can walk because she'll be doing DefenceLab either way.


The weather today has been quite strange, heavy dark clouds one minute, brilliant sunshine the next, and no more that the odd light shower despite an oppressive humidity all day.
And now there is debate over whether the ice in Antarctica is melting or getting thicker.
I'm not planning on getting into the Global Warming debate (FraidyKat has an Environmental Degree so has been over it way too many times - including a fun debate with a GreenPeace fundraiser that ended with him in tears, but that's a story for another day), but I have to wonder on the conspiracy line... Is someone experimenting with weather control?
After all, the UK is the best place to experiment. We are obsessed with the weather but at the same time it is drilled in from a very young age that we should expect everything and anything to fall from the sky no matter the season. If we have snow in the summer we just chalk it up to experience and mutter about how it's good they installed a cover over the centre court at Wimbledon. A hot day in mid winter? We all flock to the beach and get winter sunburn before showing of the reddness in the pub beer garden.
Hurricanes and floods are only noteworthy because they're such a darned nuisance. 
So, evil masterminds with weather control devices - calibrate over the UK, no one will ever notice. We complain whatever the weather!


FraidyKat Runs - in unnatural beauty spots