In praise of good service!

We are up in York for a bookfair, staying at the delightful Middlethorpe Hall Hotel for a few nights. As ever I have my running kit with me, but realised halfway here that I had left my water bottle at home. Carrying a water bottle seems to be as much a psychological crutch now as a necessary means of rehydration! I even carry it in races where there are water stations at ridiculously frequent intervals just in case I get a bit thirsty on the way! So off I trotted to Up and Running to pick up a new bottle. Strange how the purchase of a £3.50 water bottle results in a bill for over £100 as one acquires new kit and decides to treat one's husband to new shorts (he's been wearing the current pair since the mid 1990s) and tops! The guys in the shop were great, helpful and knowledgeable. They took the time to sketch out a couple of good running routes for me around York - it makes a big difference to know roughly where one is going rather than just having to run out and back because one doesn't know where the road will end up.

Running in York has been refreshing, I did 4 miles on Wednesday and 5.5 miles yesterday. It is so flat here. That said, my run coupled with walking 2.5 miles into York, around the shops then 2.5 miles back to the hotel again yesterday meant that I could barely move last night. Today I am having a 'day off.' I may have walked into York and back, and I may well be considering a trip to the hotel gym in the next half hour, but that isn't running, so will count as a rest day.