Now some may think that what
I am about to say shows a weakness of sorts and maybe it does but then maybe it
shows me to be a little bit sensible too. For the longer of my winter runs,
none of which these days are very long since roughly 10km IS my long run, I
have a simple rule. If it is raining when the time comes to start the run then
I don’t run. If on the other hand, I am out for a run on a dull or threatening
day and it starts to rain, then that is just too bad and I carry on running in
the rain.
Yesterday morning it looked
dull and dreary but we still got up and got dressed in running kit ready for
our Sunday morning run with our friend Birgit. We meet her whilst we are out
running because we start first because she is a little faster, then all meet up
somewhere in the last mile or two. We start ten minutes before her as a general
rule. When Steve and I got to the start point yesterday it was already raining
and it was more than just drizzle, not that cold, but proper rain. HHHHMMMM.
We decided to wait for our
friend and see if she even turned up since she had not come swimming last night,
having excused herself with a text, because she was coughing. So we sat out the
ten minutes and had talked ourselves out of running in the rain by the time she
arrived. She said she was coughing, but said that she did not feel bad and was
going to run even though it was raining and could not believe that we were
going to duck out. I had suffered the same cough as the rest of the community
and it had taken six weeks to leave me.
So she set off and Steve
started the car and headed toward Arundel, just a mile or so away to buy a loaf
for later. If we were not going to the tea shop then we would have toast at
home. However, when we got to Arundel it was clearing up nicely, a little bit
of blue sky showing and generally brighter. So Steve drove up to the Bridge roundabout
while I ran in the Co-op and bought a loaf, then he picked me up and we headed
back to the run start point for the second time that morning.
We started the run even
though it was raining at that spot still but we knew that the weather was
moving off so we stuck with the second decision. As well as the rain; which was
lighter by then, there was the usual morning mist that we have had such a lot
of this winter. It is very pretty with the fields and wood shrouded in a fine
bridal veil. We thought it best to do the run in reverse so that we would meet
Birgit toward the top of the downs.
We got right up to the end
of the gallops where we thought we should have met our friend but she was not
in sight at all and we had a rethink that since she was still coughing as she
said, that maybe her run was not very good and she had turned around. It was a
mystery and I thought of Alice
in Wonderland…. Curiouser and curiouser. On our way back down the long sloping
path, we knew that had she turned back, that she would see our car next to hers
and realise that we had changed our plan again. Even if she had done the
turnaround she would get back to the cars about the same time. We did keep
looking back in case she appeared behind us but we thought that unlikely then
because it would mean that she was having a bad run, time wise that is.
When we got back and she was
not there as expected we turned back again to hope to meet her at a point where
she should be by then, whatever route she had taken. But no, still no Birgit.
Now we were a little worried.
I suggested that I take the
route back to the gallops and that he take the Monarchs way route and if either
of us spotted her we would call through the woods to the other person since it is
be a fairly narrow V shape at the parting of these paths. We would go no more
that two hundred strides of our right leg each and turn to regroup and rethink
if she was still not in sight.
So as you can imagine I was
very pleased when I caught a glimpse of her visi yellow jacket at eighty strides
from the start for me. I stopped and called to Steve and he yelled back and
started walking toward me. Then when he was back we both waited until we could
see her clearly and started back to the cars.
When she did come into sight,
she looked like a child who had been to a party since she was holding three
bright party balloons that were floating in the air behind her. I am a bit of a
‘Green’ but she is obsessive about picking up things that should not have been
left behind in the countryside and very often has a coke bottle, a plastic bag
or a MacDonald’s container by the end of a run.
So alls well the ends well
and off into Arundel we all trouped and had tea and a chat together. She was totally
unaware that we had worried about her. In the end we had got a reasonable work
out in, odd as it was.
***********
This morning the swim sets were
similar for both lanes.
Lane 1 was:
10 mins warm up
20 x 100 on 2.00 but as fast
as they could, holding that for the entire set, so long rests for them to allow
for that. Another few minutes swim down.
I was again swimming on my
own, the other side of the lane rope from the animals.
My set was:
15 x 100 plus warm up and
swim down.
After I finished that set, I
did some back stroke, checking this time that my hand came out of the water
thumb first, turning immediately over my head and then entering the water level
with my shoulder, little finger first.
When the chaps had finished
their set, I knew that Steve wanted to do a straight 1500 mtrs for himself and
when I mentioned that in the lane, he had only one other of his men willing to,
or with time to, join in, that being Anthony.
I moved into their lane and
set off behind them knowing that they would pass me a number of times without
making an issue of it.
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