never drink before 5pm

One should never drink before 5pm. This is a good rule and should always be followed as I discovered last night. Let me start from the beginning. I drink these mini yoghurt drinks in the morning. They tied me over until I get to work and have breakfast there. But yesterday morning I discovered on my way to the train station that the yoghurt drink had gone off! I tried to drink it, but it ended up a bit too sour. So, I was starving when I got the office and I ate my lunch straight away. But then about 11:30 I was hungry again...so I ate my 'afternoon' snack sandwich. Then I had nothing left to eat for the rest of the day! Tragedy, I know. I had already made plans to meet my good friend from Scotland, who was in London for the day, for early drinks. But it couldn’t be dinner as I have a 10K on Sunday and had to run yesterday evening as well and didn’t want to eat an early dinner.... you get the picture. I was super excited, left work at 4:00 to meet her and so the fun began.

My first problem was I had a completely empty stomach and a really stressful day. Not that my stress level necessarily had anything to do with it, but all the same. So off to the pub we went. Good chat, great to catch up and all I had was two pints! That’s it, one pint of Hoegaarden and one pint of Fruli. So my next problem was my choice of beer. Two rather strong pints. I nursed the two pints from about 4:45 until it was time to run to catch my train at 6:30. But the damage was already done! I stood up and woah.... I was definitely feeling the effects of my early evening beers! But at that point what could I do?! Off I ran to catch my train. A bit worse for wear, but also laughing at myself for randomly being tipsy in the middle of the afternoon!

I managed to get on my train with a few minutes to spare. whew. Then we just sat, and sat and sat. Finally, about 15 minutes after the train was supposed to leave, right about when I am starting to get a headache from no food, the running and alcohol, the announcement comes on "excuse me ladies and gentleman, due to conductor problems, this train has been cancelled" Oh no, seriously? So off we all get and run across 4 platforms to the next train. It was packed. Still, we all try to cram on. It was like a movie scene, so many people trying to fit in such a small space. I was one of the lucky few who managed to get on. Then we just stood there, smushed for about 10 minutes. Then another announcement "ladies and gentleman due to the over crowding of this train, the service has been cancelled. Please re-locate to platform 11 for the service in a larger train" What?! That was the platform I just came from! So off we ran again. Now I have a headache, feel sick to my stomach and am still a bit tipsy. Back on the other train I go. Manage to grab a seat and then another announcement! (Seriously, I am not making this up!) "Ladies and gentleman, we are experiencing some signalling problems and there will be a slight delay to this train" Finally, about 40 minutes late, off we go. Get to Watford and think 'Crap, I have a stupid 10K on Sunday' so off I go to the gym. Thirsty, sick stomach, dreary eyed and still with a headache.... and it’s only about 7:45!! Somehow managed to stick it out for a 5K run at the gym, drank loads of water, had a stretch and was totally fine!

Whew... I tell you what! No more drinking in the afternoon, with no food, when I have to catch a train and run! Good lesson I learned last night. Shame it took me 2 pints, 3 trains, a headache and a 5K to learn it!