I’ve just returned to London after a fabulous 3-week stint for the 2nd part of my residency at Metal Southend. Due to a very full day and an evening spent with the complications of packing (not least taking down and folding the 10 metre long map/drawing chart I had put up around the walls of my room), I didn’t have time to write an entry on my last day yesterday, so I’m writing it now. This will be in two parts.
Since the beginning of the week I’ve been acutely aware of how little time I had left and was mindful of how I should use it productively. It’s been great to have this 3-week block, with few distractions and I have done alot, but I have not done as much as I thought I would – perhaps I was being a bit ambitious, or working in such a focused way has made me realise just how much I need to do in relation to the planning of this work. At the same time, I knew I was going to not going to complete this in the time-frame of the residency and that it will continue for some time beyond it.
Being at Metal Southend, allowed me to get a sense of the particular landscape around me, north of the River Thames, as it meets the sea; my excursion over to the other side at the weekend, allowed me to experience a little of the estuary landscape on the south side. As I sat working on the large map/drawing on the wall and calculating distances to be run each day using the distance calculator on the Thames Path website, I realised that I no longer knew which side of the river I would end up favouring as it widens and that I would probably plan for two possible routes. I had initially thought that I would opt for the south side, for no obvious reason other than thinking that access on that side of the river would be better. However, there are barriers to get round there too and getting round barriers is also part of the work. Now I have a better sense of the estuary landscape on the north side, I feel that both options are equally valid and it will probably come down to which side of the river the work is eventually shown.
The penultimate evening of my residency saw me join the Leigh on Sea Striders once more, this time for some hill training. This is something that something that I’m not good at doing regularly and it certainly showed. I straggled towards the back of the group and turned around at the first mini bollard, which was the shortest distance we had been set. I was also concerned about not over doing it as I was due go a last long run the next day. Six reps. later and I vowed to build this into my weekly running schedule- it’s not like I don’t live near any hills, I just tend to choose to run on the flat mostly, but I’m aware of how important it is in terms of strength training.
This was my last evening training with this group and I’m sorry that I won’t be joining them for next training session on Monday evening. I’m touched with how welcoming this group has been over such a short time- I felt very at home in a way that was completely unexpected and they seem to be genuinely interested in what I’m doing. I will definitely keep in touch and keep them posted about the work’s development. Perhaps I ‘ll consider joining a running group closer to home.
