Running water

For the second Sunday in a row I've just done an eight mile run and then had a bath with a glass of red wine (Valpolicella, if you're asking) and currently I'm actually feeling pretty good. I did a new thing this week as an experiment - I took a bottle of water with me. Often when I'm running I will think: "My mouth is quite dry. I wish I had some water to drink". But inevitably I have no water and no way of obtaining any. I don't take money out with me, and even if I did I'd have to make a stop to use it to make a purchase and I'm not allowed to make that sort of stop within my own self-imposed running rules.

Even were I to have money and even were I not to have imposed self-imposed running rules upon myself, I'm not sure most shopkeepers would want a sweaty man coming into their nice local shops to buy a bottle of water. I'd make the place look untidy. They might even think I was a violent sweaty drunk tramp and call security (ie get out their big stick from under the counter). So it's not an option for me.

Taking the water with me from the outset wasn't too bad though. The obvious drawback is that you have to carry the water with you the whole time. This isn't so bad though as it gets lighter the more you drink. And if you sweat lots then even the overall weight you're taking round may decrease as time goes on. It was only half a litre (ie half a kilogram) in any case - and it probably means I'm getting even better exercise. Minor weight training for the old arms.

I did, however, realise fairly soon that I'd made one fairly basic mistake. The water I took was straight from the fridge. Hence it was cold. This would have been alright except that I had to carry the coldness in my bare hands. Brrrr! It warmed up after a few miles though. Whether that was caused by heat being transferred from my hands, general atmospheric warming, kinetic energy from being shaken a lot or just a passing solar flare I can't say. Whatever it was, it worked and I was glad.