Random Ramblings: Signal failure and waterproof trousers (#Janathon day 21)

About 8pm last night, it was confirmed. The kids had another snow day. A quick discussion with Stellian and I was texting my boss to see if I could get in and leave earlier so Stellian could get some work done at home.

I'd already decided that I wasn't going to drive into Birmingham as although I don't have a problem driving in snowy/icy weather, the idea of being stuck in a rush hour traffic jam like on Friday did not appeal.

The problem arose shortly after I woke up when I checked to see how the trains were running. A signal had failed between Birmingham and Wolverhampton with delays anticipated of up to 45 minutes. Dudley Port is a dinky little station with no facilities whatsoever, so the thought of being on the platform for three quarters of an hour.

The next most sensible plan was to walk to Black Lake to get a tram - Early morning Janathon exercise, result! I dug out my waterproof trousers that had been such a lifesaver when I was 'studying' in Moscow and set off. I just missed a tram as I arrived and the next one was absolutely rammed. In a moment of irritation, I decided to walk to the next stop, completely forgetting to see how long the next tram would be. I hadn't got 100 far when I looked back, to see another tram already there. Even a quick jog wasn't enough for me to get back to the metro stop before the driver pulled off. Fortunately, another tram was only 3 minutes behind, but this delay had scuppered any chance of getting into work earlier than usual.

On a whim, I decided to get off the tram a Jewellery Quarter to save fighting my way through the city centre. In total, this morning's walk was about 3 miles. On the way back, the weather was quite pleasant so I chose a different route at both ends, which enabled me to take some photos. I initially thought that this afternoon's walk was four miles, however when I looked at the GPS trace on runkeeper, it had me dancing around Oozell's Square. After editing the route, it became 3.94 miles and felt nice to be able to do nearly 7 miles on foot without needing the gym or a treadmill. And so three weeks of Janathon are complete. Todays milage takes me over 25 hours of exercies and 150 miles and to cap it all, G made me a cup of tea when I got in.

Walk #1: http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/143528437?&tripIdBase36=2dgb91

Distance - 3.01 miles
Time - 48m 25

Walk #2 : http://runkeeper.com/user/plockplock/activity/143589670

Distance - 4.94 miles
Time - 1h 08m 42

Total today:
Distance - 6.95 miles
Time - 1h 57m 07

Janathon:
Total Distance - 154.36 miles
Total Time - 26h 17m 51

Photo - One way - a frozen lock on the Fazeley canal...