First Road Run - Central London

I hate running. It's boring it hurts my knees and makes my saliva taste funny. The whole process is bloody miserable and I have been trying to avoid it since i was about 8 years old and first introduced to mandatory cross country at school. Last night was my first voluntary road run as part of my pre-trip training and the good news is, it wasnt that bad. My gym is shut this week for refurbishment and we are able to use a hotel gym on Piccadilly opposite the Ritz. So we are talking mega posh central London/Mayfair. I walked in and did an immediete U-turn and left. The place was decked out like some Roman times swingers club. Running machines all in a line surrounded my topless, armless statues of women over looking a turkish bath style pool. Very weird. Especially given the location. It had this weird feeling that it used to be a luxury snooker club converted into a half arse gym. I might go back on the weekend and go fishing for a cougar who can sponsor my trip. It seems like the right place to pick up an after market modified older lady. A Fast and Furious bankers wife. Anyway, as I said, U-Turned... straight outta the door and just ran round central London through Green Park and down to Buckingham palace and back home. Only collected one dopey pedestrain along the way. Poor guy... he looked in real pain... I run along the curb, doing my best to run in the road as much as traffic will allow to avoid 'walkers' but this guy totally ignored the high way code and from the middle of the footpath looking the opposite direction made 3 giant quick steps towards the curb as if to hurry across the road but alas I was running there and there was traffic coming so i couldnt bounce into the road and back to get round him. It was him or the big red bus coming straight at me. I did my best to avoid him and slip sideways through but managed to just catch him in the eye socket with my right shoulder. Like ball joint in eye socket connection. Natural fit. I glanced back with a cursory hand raised in apology (i'm english, we apologise regardless of fault) and saw him clutching his face with a grimaced face spinning and dropping to his knees. Pretty sure I heard a yelp over my headphones as well. I didnt stop. I'm not a doctor and the dude should man up. May seem harsh but the way I see it, by not paying attention he put me at risk. Had it gone slightly differently i would have caught the Busses mirror to the top of my head, or worse face planted into the windshield. So screw him. My shoulder is a little bruised today, I do worry a little what his face will be like. Having to go into his high powered suited and booted office with a black eye would be something to see. But in other news... I was listening to the Muay Thai Guy podcast whilst running. Another great episode especially related to Thailand and living and training out there. Check it out: http://www.muay-thai-guy.com/muay-thai-pros-thailand.html