A therapeutic run

Muddy legs are a sign of a good run!

Somewhere in our office, making it's way between the two staff rooms and small "tea station" we have a mug which I seek out for when I really need it.  It has a little cartoon and a caption which reads:

Don't let the bastards get you down!

Now I can tell you I'm not normally given to language like that but tea and coffee does seem to taste so much better out of that mug when the pressure is on.  Finding it when it's really needed is a nice feeling and I think of all the times I have resorted to that mug over the years.  I'm sure I'm not alone.  Mind you, this week has been better than expected at work for three reasons.....

Firstly it has been a four day week, so reaching Friday afternoon was much faster.

Secondly there have been no disasters while I've been away.  Whenever I return to work after a break I normally schedule a meeting first thing so I can delay reading emails, knowing that if there was anything horrendous, someone would tell me.  There was nothing at all.  I almost forgot, we got a GREEN rating in an internal audit which only one picky recommendation, so a good result there.

Thirdly I managed to get a 48 page document sent off representing a project I'd been working on for a few months.  Aside from the assessment which will follow in a few weeks, it is done, completed, wrapped up.  My manager did decide to adjust the formatting saying "makes it look a bit more polished" but I was not offering to fix that bit of unnecessary 11th hour meddling.

This all brings me around to yesterday morning's run.  It was a nice way of putting the week into perspective but not depending on it for solutions to problems, dealing with stress or the need for inspired ideas.  Just a nice amble to gently close the page on 2012's first week at work, as a kind of therapeutic run.  A nice quiet dose of the Runner's High.  I mulled over the excellent drama shown over three evenings this week by the BBC - Public Enemies, which is related to my line of work.  Although that was purely a drama, I couldn't help but wonder how many prisoners we have who are actually innocent but pleaded guilty because their defence couldn't match the prosecution evidence and accept a shorter sentence.  Then to see someone who gets totally messed up and twisted by a system that then labels him as high risk is troubling.  If you keep putting a label on someone it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy and the system has then created an angry resentful person who is shunned by everyone, while the real offender continues to enjoy freedom.

Back home, Rachel always knows when I've had a good run as she can spot the mud falling off me and my shoes from behind a closed door.  "Stop right there, you can't come in like that!".  Knowing she means business my running shoes are duly kicked off outside to screams of "Daddy you stink and you're so manky" from Becky and Hannah.  Accordingly I am dispatched to the shower for a good hosing down.

This was my standard 7.5 mile hilly run (great views + woodland trails = fab run) and vaguely had some thoughts about the MK 2012 Marathon which I've entered.  I need to start training for that - crikey!