New jeans, new waistline

I have taken a picture of my arse, which you may find a little odd and perhaps might think all this running and lack of alcohol has sent me over the edge, but fear not the aforementioned rear is fully clothed.
I took delivery today of a new pair of Levi 501s, which I haven't worn for about four years.
I was so please to be able to slip into them, not just because of the way they fit better than any other jeans, IMHO, but because they are a 34 inch waist.
I'm so pleased to be able to get into them that I decided to document the moment and take a pic of my Levi-clad backside.

 

It feels so liberating to wear good clothes again, it's been so long. I know they make Levis with a 38 inch  waist, but they don't look good on a fat bloke. In fact, nothing looks good on a fat bloke, unless your Pavarotti in that painting smock he used to wear. But he was Italian and even fat Italians manage to look cool.
I have spent a lot of the last few years schlepping around in a pair of very cheap jeans from Asda which I only bought because they managed to fit round my huge gut at the time.
I also bought a huge black jumper at the same time in the hope that it might look slimming, but who was I kidding.
In fact I was treated by Amy to a trip to M&S at the weekend for my birthday (I am an M&S man now, I've given over to the inevitable) and bought a load of shirts all sized 16inch collar, which again is something I haven't done for a long time.
It's like being let back into normal society to wear clothes which are design to hang off you, not stretch around you like canvas over ten frames.
The jeans were also a present from my parents and I asked for a 34 inch waist not knowing if I could fit into them, but damn it I dared to dream and today I lived that dream and walked around all day in them, just to prove they did fit properly, no stretchy waist bands or lycra in woven into the material to help get them over an ample rump. Also weighed in at 14st and a pound today.
Now don't get me wrong, I know that a 34 inch waist isn't exactly the stuff of snake hipped male models, but I've come down from 38 and was actually probably more like a 40 but couldn't bring myself to buy new trousers that big and put up with tight jeans. (By the way if you say trousers over and over again it begins to sound absurd).
My ideal would be to get down to a 30inch waist, which I had when I was 18 I think. But that was a while ago now and I have just turned 35 so perhaps I should accept I can't have everything I had when I was 18.
I mean, I had a 17 year old girlfiriend then as well and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have one of those at 35. 
Moving on, I had a great run tonight, felt like I was going really fast, for me at least.
I should have done four sessions this week but did two instead and I have a three hour run at the weekend to look forward to. I don't know if I did the right thing, but I did put some real effort into the Bath half on Sunday so felt I should recover properly from that before attempting another very long run. I want to feel fresh when I take on Bristol for three hours or more on Sunday, I want to make the long runs count, but I know I need to keep fitness up as well.
So tonight's run was heartening as I covered a distance that used to take me an hour in 47 minutes and kept the pace up most of the way.
Also got a bit of a fright when I realised we are already in mid-March and there is just a matter of weeks to go until the big day and I have loads of money still to raise and lots of distance to cover. Wish I had another six months!