Heatwave ! I’d forgotten how much I don’t like running when it’s hot. Now to put that into context for any non British readers of this blog, we Brits start getting excited about the sun the second the thermometer hits 15 degrees. The second that happens, the hardiest of the British males will be seen in the supermarket in Bermuda shorts, flip flops with sunglasses on their head. But this weekend we hit 23 degrees, warmer than Barcelona and Ibiza……now we’re talking summer!

I promised myself a weekend 10km ,maybe more,but I would have liked to get out at about 9am on Saturday morning….like the sensible Park Run people do, but as always, kids come first and I had to send my daughter on her way to her Duke of Edinburgh weekend hike with adequate water, snacks, sandwiches and her designated element of the group’s planned evening meal. I waved farewell, running kit on at the door and 10.15 was earliest I could get out. It didn’t seem hot but at 8km, I was feeling it. For once I took water out, if it’s 10km or about an hour out,  I don’t normally bother………..save that for the walking ladies. Come on fellow runners, we all see those ladies, strolling along, full sports kit on, water bottle in hand, not even moving swiftly enough to raise their heartbeats . I love to trot by, making sure they realise we are in the same LCA group and willing them to break into the briefest of  jogs. You can actually hear them thinking ‘I can’t run’ and every part of being just wants to say ‘You can and you might just bloody love it!’

I can’t bear carrying water, it seems so heavy and inconvenient, even the bottles with the hole in (not leaky, you know what I mean!) and when you’ve actually had a drink….the sloshing about drives me crazy.I don’t drink that much so it’s not me sloshing about, I’m referring to my steadily emptying bottle.  At 10km, I also used a gel I found at the back of the cupboard from my half marathon training last year. Do they go off ? I didn’t check. I’m aware that from previous experience I have sometimes felt ‘unwell’ all day after a long, hot run, probably because of salt and electrolyte depletion, not just dehydration so I think the gel helped, I felt fully functioning for the rest of the day. They always remind me of defrosted ‘freezy pops’……yum!

I cut short the route to 12.5km, not bad, I was planning 15km, maybe next  time when I’m out earlier. The lure of crossing the river at an earlier bridge was just too great. You know it’s hot when you wipe your face with the back of your hand and are met with gritty salt, wonderful for the complexion I’m sure, I pay good money for a lemon and salt scrub.

So the treat for the end of the  day was discovering beloved teen 2 was actually sleeping over at a birthday party and the night was ours……date night !! Time to discover the delights of living in a  middle class suburb in the trendy part of town where new restaurants and bars are currently opening weekly and the likes of us middle-aged wannabe party animals can safely mingle with the bright young things in their LK Bennett heels and Coast dresses. We secured an outside table at ‘The Parlour’ a newly opened venue…..tea room by day, cocktail bar by night (oh they know what we want). We were served by quite a bemused young chap, for whom waiting on several tables, clearing them and taking orders seemed daunting,we ordered mojitos 241. Actually I’m doing him a disservice as he was clearly perturbed that he was the obvious subject of the feared ‘West Bridgford cougars’ who were ensconced on the table behind us and clearly the worse for cocktails in the sunshine! It’s a shame you had to have two of the same cocktails on 241 , not conducive to trying the menu, why not ?

The cocktails arrived in jam jars, weird but with straws, acceptable. As an LCA, the closest one would normally be expected to get to a jam jar is during summer fete season with the W.I. so I’d much rather down a cocktail in one. A friend with younger children remarked it looked like we’d been pond dipping! There were cocktails in milk bottles, some in plastic bags and some topped with meringue, I so need to go back.

Mojitos or pond dipping

Still, what a heavenly start to date night, after a long run, a cocktail went straight to my head……peach Bellini’s next, gorgeous meal, bus home (for an LCA, catching a bus is an annual event!) Can’t wait to head back to The Parlour for coffee and cake, served how, I daren’t think. A nice long run easily compensates for a ‘mahoosive’ slice of something decadent.

Categories: Ladies of a Certain Age Running (LCA)

Tags: cocktails, heatwave, The Parlour, West Bridgford