Chancery Lane Run

Chatting to people at the drinks stop

This evening's run was being held at Chancery Lane, and I was looking forward to getting out for a run on a sunny evening, even if the weather wasn't quite warm enough yet for me to ditch my long sleeves.

When I arrived, I spotted a girl sitting outside dressed in running kit but obviously not knowing anyone,  so being my usual friendly self, I started chatting to her and introducing her to people.  Which then led more newbies to figure that I was the friendly person to talk to, until I was chatting and making conversation with a group of about five new people.  Nice, as I always like to be welcoming.  

The run started, and I found myself running for nearly the entire run with Snotty Bot.  I was pleased with myself for being able to keep a steady pace with her, although part of the reason I think I could keep up was that she was due to have bunion surgery in a few weeks, and so her feet must have been killing her as she ran.  Hence, between her slow pace and my unfitness, we were well-matched to pace together.  

Alas, that meant that when we reached a drinks stop midway through the run, we didn't get any drinks because we had arrived a bit too late.  At least we still got to see the crowd and talk to people, which was nice.  

I really must have been running slowly however, as when I got back to the pub, I wasn't really tired.  I wanted to talk to Roofie's Brother (as I usually do post-run), but I got distracted by all of the virgins who wanted to talk to me, given that I was so friendly to them.  I also became quite distracted chatting to a South African rugby player who had come for the first time last week.  He didn't strike me as being that bright, but after I turned out a little charm, he quickly became putty in my hands.  So I chatted and flirted with him for a while, until suddenly Sweetheart and Roofie's Brother came up and said that they wanted to go grab some dinner, and wanted me to come with them.  How funny, that the one time I'd actually like to stay and chat with another guy, I'm being pulled away by Roofie's Brother.  

So I said my good-byes to the South African rugby player, who then started joking about whether we were in a two-kiss or three-kiss situation, and then just started giving me tons of kisses on each cheek (as he obviously really wanted to kiss me!)

The South African rugby player

I then left with Sweetheart and Roofie's Brother, where we explored a few dinner options, before going to another pub where we realised we could quickly grab steak dinners if we ordered them before 10 PM.  

I had a good time chatting with Roofie's Brother, where he explained that he's living in the flat attached to his office, but it has been reserved by another company on Mondays and Tuesdays, so on those nights he stays at Sister Fister's place.  Which suddenly made so much more of their dynamic clear to me, as he sometimes seems annoyed by her incredible clinginess, but he of course has to make sure to keep her happy as she's doing him such a huge favour by letting him live with her two days a week all summer.  Very interesting to chat to him, and just made a lot of things clearer.  

The post-run circle

I was then curious about another group of people dressed in running kit in the pub, so since I like talking to strangers, I went up and asked them what they'd been up to that evening.  Turns out they'd been playing netball, and having contests to eat three water crackers as fast as they could (trying for under a minute).  This sounded like the strangest sort of contest ever, but I guess it's something that British students in pubs must do, for Roofie's Brother suddenly announced himself to be a champion at this.  They had three crackers remaining in their pack, so a timer was set, and Roofie's Brother began eating like a furious little squirrel.  He didn't quite break the minute mark, but was very close to it.  Surprisingly quick, although the challenge seems to be to get it all down without water.  What a strange game!

We then waved off our new friends, and headed him, bellies full after a good dinner!