The joy of travelling

So here I am at 2am wide awake and hungry on my first night in England despite having had not a wink of sleep on the plane over and then staying awake all day when I got here! Luckily the girls did great on the plane and don't seem to have the same problems adjusting so they're snoring away happily. I tend to get away with hardly any sleep on a day to day basis so I'll be okay.

Yesterday I ran into work and compared to the previous few days felt great! My new office is half a mile further away than my old, so it is now a 12.5 mile clip to get there. I'm lucky I'm able to do this- there is sidewalk (pavement) the whole way and I literally just run straight down one road crossing intersection (crossroads) after intersection so if I get lucky with the lights it's okay. The hairiest part is between miles 9 and 10 when I cross a section where a bunch of I-77 exits cross Tyvola Road and it's pretty much a case of remembering the lights sequence, putting my head down and sprinting till I'm safely on the other side! For this run I started off at around the usual 7:20ish pace but was soon ticking off 6:20s most of the way there. That set me off nicely for a morning at work before Lisa picked me up to take us all to the airport and our flight to Manchester via Philly. First time we have not done the flight direct to Gatwick and it was fine. Girls got some good sleep on the plane which was all that mattered- although imagine 6 hours of not being able to move because of a 60lb weight being slumped on your leg and you've got my journey...

Dad picked us up and drove us the hour back home and the rest of the day was spent catching up with Mum and Dad and spending the afternoon with my brother John's family. He and Charlotte have two daughters themselves (Poppy, 4 and Rosie, nearly 2) and it was the first time the 4 girls had played together so that was cute. I went out for a little run before dinner to shake the legs and tiredness out and I felt predictably awful and heavy legged at first but was feeling much better by the end. I scoped out a good location for my 'Hovis 400s' workout tomorrow and a great hill for a hill workout I have planned next week.

Anyway, time for a bowl of cereal, crumpets and hopefully some more shut eye!