Tonbridge (very) early Friday morning....

I was up with the larks this morning to take my son to school for his day trip to Switzerland. It sounded like a fantastic idea going to see the Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva, when he first brought the letter home about seven months ago and very educational; how could we deny him that one? But when the harsh reality of getting up at 5am this morning kicked in I'm afraid I momentarily lost  my enthusiasm for the whole idea! Actually I'm sure he'll have a great day so long as he doesn't stick his head in the collider or get shot through the tunnel at the speed of electrons (or is it protons?!) I'll be testing him on his theories of the most fundemetal questions of physics when he returns tonight to make sure that the money we spent on the trip was justified! The St. Johns Road is pretty well empty at that time in the morning so there's a lesson there for all those Tonbridge folk who work in Tunbridge Wells. Set off at 5-30am every morning, avoid all the traffic and then just drink lots of coffee all day to keep awake! When I arrived back home it was still before 6 o'clock and it was a beautiful morning. I had no excuses. I'm in training for the Tonbridge Half Marathon, as some of you may have gleaned, I had plenty of time to get a long run in and still be on schedule to open up the shop. I felt wide awake and it'd been over a week since my last run so off I went. I could have listened to the radio or read a paper but decided to go for it.
Tonbridge really does look quite beautiful on a sunny day at that time in the morning. People were out walking their dogs near the Vauxhall Inn, rabbits were hopping and bouncing across Postern Lane, the golden fields of wheat looked especially wonderful, the river was shimmering in the morning light around Cannon Lane Bridge, the trees along London Road were in full leaf and provided some welcome shade, the water of Barden Lake seemed crystal clear, gardens looked fresh and green. The few other people I encountered were all friendly; there seems to be an unwritten camaraderie at that time of day as if you're all part of a special early birds club or something. I reckon I'd ran 8 or 9 miles by the time I reached Quarry Hill and that was quite enough but it felt good and I can now feel smug for the rest of the day. That is until I flake out about midday!...