No stopping now

Beginning to see real progress! OK, it's modest, but for me it's awesome. On Monday, I ran from Overcombe to the King's Statue and today, (Wednesday), to the Pavilion and back of course, and non stop of course. These are landmarks that are known to those of you who know Weymouth. To those who don't, Overcombe to the Pavilion and back is about 6km/4 miles approx. This took me about 50 minutes which is pretty leisurely I guess. One of the regulars overtook me at eye watering speed. Something to aspire to.
OK, it is still a little way from the 10kms that I need to work up to for the London run, but I have it in my sights now. I know I can do it. This link takes you to the BUPA 10k http://www.london10000.co.uk/site/?pageID=3.
Once I start running, I don't want to stop because I am concerned that it will be too hard to start again. And, at my new slower speed, I have no reason to stop. OK, my legs started to feel a bit tired on the last half mile or so but I've sorted out the breathing and that was the whole problem to start with. It isn't any more. Hooray!
I did say that I ran non stop but there was a bit of an, err . . . involuntary hesitation. As I approached the pier on the return (about 2km from Overcombe), I looked up to see a small boy lying on the footpath with his scooter laying on the ground nearby. I watched him as I approached, willing him to get up. He remained motionless. Can I just run past and ignore him, I thought. Obviously not. I silently cursed as I drew level and stopped. "Are you OK"? I asked. If he's hurt or dead, it's going to ruin my run, I thought. Thankfully, his head popped up and he said, "Yeah, I'm OK". "Sure"? I checked. He nodded. I was off. No problem but maybe that's why runners don't speak or acknowledge each other. I tried Candice's approach, i.e. if you can make eye contact, just smile. It worked once but most of them seem to be a bit of a miserable bunch.
John, who was the original inspiration for this madness, is staying with us at the weekend, and suggested that we go out running together. That will be quite a novelty. I haven't actually run with anyone else yet. I'm not sure that John is going to be able to run slowly enough though. It will be interesting to see.