Holding onto one another's hand

I've just been running again. I was amazed at how much I seemed to have improved since last week. We did the same route, but about five minutes faster and I felt much better at the end of it. Reasons for this may include:

1. I bought some proper running shoes. Last week I was wearing some cheapy crappy old trainers I've had for years. They were ok, but possibly not the ideal footwear. So at lunchtime today I went into town and bought some proper running shoes. Now, I know that you're supposed to wear shoes in a little bit before going out running for a few miles in them, but I didn't have time. I did try them on in the shop to check that they fitted, so it's not like I was being stupid or anything.

2. I had more confidence, due to knowing that having done running once, I wasn't actually going to die at the end.

3. I was running in front rather than at the back and so was able to set a pace more suitable for me. This actually turned out to be a bit faster than the girls would normally do, so I was running on my own for most of the time...

4. ...which didn't really matter because I'd decided to take the iPod Shuffle along. Finally I was able to use its lanyard! Tunes it gave me included "Run" by Snow Patrol (quite appropriate!), "Underneath the sky" by Oasis, "She's an Angel" by They Might Be Giants, "Shine On" by The House of Love and "E-Bow the Letter" by REM. It would have been nice if all the songs had been as relevant as the Snow Patrol one, but also a little bit scary.

Also, for those of you who thought I was diving in a bit too quickly last week, I added in an extra stop so that I did four 8 minute (ish) stints rather than the three legs I had last week. Although, as mentioned above, they were a bit faster.

At the end I felt significantly less dead. I might even go as far to say I felt ok and could have gone a bit further. But it's probably best that I didn't because my right little toe was starting to hurt a bit due to the new shoes. I might have a little blister tomorrow. Souvenir!