Run 1:34:00 [3] 18.1 km (5:12 / km)
Longer than usual today because I'll be doing technical training rather than a long run tomorrow, and later than usual for no really obvious reason - which meant the discovery that mid-morning Saturday traffic isn't that nice to contend with (if anything it's worse for running than weekday peak hour because it is moving, whereas during the week you can often get across it where it's stopped).
Started the run to the sound of horns in the background, which turned out to the latest act in the nurses' dispute with the state government. I didn't have a horn to voice my support so settled for a wave. (Do I recall correctly that a certain resident of Esperance once crashed his bike across the road from a picket line of striking nurses?). It was raining steadily so it was mildly surprising to see a reasonable number of cricket games in progress (one featuring Jaffe the younger). Once past the Ivanhoe fields, headed down along the river and across to Kew, then back through North Balwayn. Achilles took a while to warm up but eventually did; not a great run though, with the hills a particular issue (as they have been for a couple of weeks now).
The nurses weren't the last street theatre for the day; there was a group outside the Preston town hall demonstrating in favour of solar energy (as far as I could tell it was in favour of the concept, and against coal and gas, in general, and not specifically about the shutdown of the solar hot water subsidy). Not for the first time, venturing into the Preston market was a reminder that staying out of its car park was a very good idea.