I've just re-read this post and it is terribly dull. Please feel free to scroll down to the bottom for the few words about today's miles. I'll try harder tomorrow.
** boring moan starts here **
Our showers at work were clearly designed by someone who has seen pictures of showers in a magazine, possibly a flight magazine showing cubicles you might find in a business class airline lounge. This person has never used showers at work, or has sauntered down mid-morning or mid-afternoon and not arrived sweating their tits off in the morning.
Problem number 1 is access. They are not on the ground floor or in the car-park or anywhere that can be accessed quickly. They are on a weird mezzanine level that is accessible by one of the four lifts in the foyer. No stairs. I've asked building management about getting access to the stairs but regulations say no. So my day starts in the foyer, leaving a puddle of sweat the size of which depends upon how long I have to wait for a lift. I need my own yellow plastic 'WARNING! Wet Floor' cone. I could cool off in the alley behind the building and risk falling foul of problem number 2.
Problem number 2: There are only three showers. For the entire building of 12 floors. They are unisex showers. You get your own little room to change and shower in. I don't want to be out in the alley while a queue forms inside the building. I've spent half my run time again waiting to get into a shower. Some people like to cycle or run to work, most start at around the same time - do the maths. Occasionally someone will use a hairdryer in one of the three shower rooms instead of, oh I don't know, at any of the million other plug sockets in the building. You're causing a fucking queue you ignorant TWAT! Ahem, sorry.
Descends into niggles after that. No toilet. So if you've skulled a load of water before running in for an hour then you've stood in a queue you might need to have a pee by the time you get to use a shower. I'm not losing my place in the queue. If I do the inevitable I'd wager many other do too. Meh, my kids piss in the shower at home if they think they can get away with it. No basin and no mirror inside the shower stall, so wet-shaving could be a bloody business. (This hardly bothers me as I only shave once or twice a week. Since late October my mo has developed into something Captain Flashheart or General Melchett could be rightly proud of now sits.)
But the showers look nice though. They're shit, but they look nice.
For reasons I have yet to fathom there are about 30 lockers set into the wall opposite the three shower rooms. These combination-secured lockers would make sense were it not for the time limit of 3hours, or somewhat less than half a working day. No leaving your cycling or running gear in a locker for the day. I guess they could be there to accommodate an inter-company lunchtime football match between people who don't mind queuing 9-deep for a shower before going back to work.
Our old building did it far better. Grotty old showers where you didn't want to linger. Four showers and a toilets for the boys and presumably the same for the girls. Basins with mirrors above, school-shed style slat benches with hooks above and no fancy lockers. They were in the carpark, near the entrance so you could sweat with impunity, queue outside, and if the room got too hot you could jam the main door open with a shoe. If you need the loo you can use the loo while others shower, shave, get changed - perfect.
I told you I was a grumpy old bastard.
** end of boring moan **
So I ran to and from to work today. I've played my hand-of-life pretty well and I get to run over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the way too and from work. Legs are starting to get used to the daily grind, which is good. Biggest threat to tomorrows miles comes from AJ's tonsils. No work tomorrow, parenting. I'll think of something.
Janathon total - 111km
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