Runaround

So we've established I don't make life easy for myself and I was umming and erring about getting up Saturday morning to do the ParkRun. I was supposed to do it last Saturday but the weather was rubbish and I was knackered. This week I managed to roll out of bed and get my shit together to get down to the start line. The reason I was reticent was because I had to take three paintings up to London for a group exhibition. I enjoy the logistics of planning an exhibition or how I’m going to get paintings from A to B it’s just a pain in the ass when you’re actually doing it.

The conditions were great for a run on Saturday morning, a lovely crisp winter morning and the ParkRun was as busy as ever. I had no great expectations of my time as I never know how the race is going to go until I’m actually doing it. It turned out that I’d remembered to put my running feet on as I got my best time of the year with 21:45 and I felt pretty good at the end. I really want to beat my Parkrun PB of 21:13 by the end of the year.

I didn’t have time to bask in the glory as I had to cycle over to the Hilton to get showered and scrubbed. After that I cycled across town to my studio to pick up the paintings. I’d invested in a small collapsible trolley and some bungee ropes to transport the work. I lashed them up with lots of lovely bubble wrap and tootle off into town. I see to hit every bloody lamp post on my way into Cardiff Central but managed to get through the crowds who had flooded into Cardiff for the Wales v South Africa rugby match.

Navigating through the tubes to Islington wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.I wasslow and was mindful. It always amazes me that people in one of the most frenetic cities on the planet don’t look where they’re going.

My trolley and I weaved around the people to Romeo’s Sugar Free Bakery, a lovely space with I met up with Anastacia from Happenstance. Boy was it a relief not to be carting the paintings around and it was great to talk to Ana about the exhibitions in the past year and what’s planned.

All that was left for me was to meet up with my mate Bill and his boyfriend Affy for drinks and then off to Paddington and an early evening Burrito.