Running a Zoo

On Sunday, I ran the London Zoo 10k as the 8^th fastest female! 

I run like a girl

I actually ran in Holly’s place as she has a crocked ankle, perhaps I should have told them, but hey.  Results were both encouraging and alarming – I was 48^th overall, perhaps the highest I have ever placed in a race, with a time of 47min50.  That, however, is quite a slow time, which says a lot about the field.  Running on no breakfast, no coffee and no night off the booze, I guess it wasn’t so bad.  I look set for a long and gruelling Spartan in four weeks though.

We then went round the Zoo.  Some of it looks a bit tired, but it was good fun with a baby, and Willow seemed to really enjoy it – even spotting the pygmy hippo that I missed.  In the Bugs section, I made a point of noting the Black Widow and False Widow spiders – to my knowledge, never having seen a False Widow before and being curious about Britain’s only venomous spider.  Then, Monday morning, sitting on the floor by the door (my back just about allows that these days), what crawls up my leg? I shit you not, without a word of a lie, it was a chuffing False Widow!  I am ashamed to confess that it got squished in my panic, and to save my daughter from terrible peril, yes, that.  It was a small one, but I am pretty sure it was one.  My eyes are now constantly peeled.

Be spider-safe people!