Operation Bye-Bye Fatso: Rain Delays and Scale Slays

We had a lovely downpour in the early hours of the morning – one of those proper roof-rattlers. And I knew I was officially becoming an old man because my first thought wasn’t “ooh, that’ll help the reservoirs” like a concerned citizen. No, it was: “This’ll do wonders for the garden.”

By the time I rocked up at Mile End Parkrun, the rain had stopped, the skies were doing their best to apologise, and things looked pretty promising. That is, until the announcement came at 8:20am: Parkrun is cancelled due to the weather. The weather that had already stopped. Cue 100 confused runners frantically finding out nearest Parkruns. I bet Uber did a booming trade this morning.

I looked around. One puddle. Just one. And it’s always there anyway – it’s practically a local landmark. Maybe they saw another downpour coming on the forecast and didn’t want to leave the volunteers soggy and miserable. Honestly, the nerve of those selfless heroes not wanting to get pneumonia on their day off just so we could chase a 5K PB.

Now, a few months ago, I would’ve sulked, gone home, and eaten half of the junk sold in my local Sainsbury’s out of sheer disappointment. But not today. Instead, I channelled my inner Forrest Gump and did a solo 5K anyway – and got caught in a second downpour right as I finished.

After towel-drying the British way (badly), I headed to Boots to weigh myself for the first time since April. Last time I stood on some scales, I was 211lbs. This time? 188lbs. Deduct 3.5lbs for clothes (Boots doesn’t have a “naked mode,” sadly), and we’re talking 184.5lbs.

That’s 26.5lbs down. Operation Bye-Bye Fatso is off to a roaring start.