A bit of lack of focus for this run. First of all I was going to get up to join Bert's group for a 20 miler. Then thinking about how crap I've been lately I thought I'd be better doing the same run but setting off 20 minutes earlier and making the game all about catching me - or me avoiding being caught... but then I worked out that entailed me being at the bowling club at 8.40am, which was really 7.40am as the clocks were to go forward in the middle of the night. Before I knew it I'd watched the last episode of Dexter and episode 5 of The Wire and it was after midnight BST.
"Why are you going to get up early if you're going to run on your own?" asked a sagacious Peter. Why indeed? "Well I'll just see if I feel like getting up at 7." I told my bad self.
When the clock beeped for 7am I didn't feel that much like getting up as it happened so I slipped happily back into my dream. A disturbing dream right enough, but I could handle it. In my dream I was back on the main street of the town where I went to school and I realised I had a latin and a history exam coming up and I had done no work for them and had attended no classes. Why do I keep doing this in my dreams? Essays to write and piles of books to read in a matter of hours and I have done nothing, nothing, nothing... But in this dream I managed to rationalise and I figured that I didn't need to spend any more time on English that term, I would definitely pass, so therefore I could devote the rest of my time to cramming Latin and History.
I woke up somewhat relieved by this solution, and then even further relieved to discover I had no impending history or latin exams. It was 9.10am and some clown seemed to think the wheelly bin below the window was a bottle bank and was posting bottles into it one by one. The sound of breaking glass chased away the last vestiges of sleep and I thought that I better get up.
Peter had long since set off to meet up with Ben to run to North Berwick and catch the train back again.
"Carpe diem" I thought to myself sluggishly. I may have dodged an early start but the fact remained that there was some long running to be done and now I'd passed up the chance to do it in - or ahead of - company, I needed to think where on earth to go.
A winter of doing local long runs has taken a considerable amount of the shine off all of them. The best I could come up with to get shelter from the west wind and add a bit of variety was to take the cycle path out to Cramond, do the airport loop and then maybe come back alongside the Forth with the wind behind me.
I went wrong almost right away, cutting through a housing estate and missing the path that leads to the cycle path so I had to turn back on myself and added in a good half a mile. Then again, running along the cycle path even though I was constantly looking for the turn off that takes you to Barnton somehow I ran right by it and by the time I was absolutely sure I'd done this I'd come out in Corstorphine. I tried to think of ways that maybe I could hook up with the Water of Leith and divert to another route but the thought of more Water of Leith didn't appeal so I turned back on myself and this time found the well-marked turn off without any problems. By this time I'd added a good 2 miles onto my intended distance but I was feeling better than I'd expected and was enjoying the fresh springy weather.
To cut a long run story short the rest of my run went without much incident except stopping my garmin when a puppy went for my legs and then forgetting to put it back on for a further half a mile or so. Because I'd gone further than I intended I thought I'd avoid the front at Cramond altogether and go back via the cycle paths. By this time it was getting a bit busier so I had to dodge neds, dogs, bikes, drunks, children and walkers. My legs were stiffening up but all in all I was feeling okay and even tried to pick it up a bit for the last few miles.
When I got in Peter was back in bed, complaining in a childish voice that "Ben ran too hard".
21.47 miles in 3hrs 16 mins at 9.09 pace av HR 142, or 21.98miles in 3hrs 25mins at 9hrs 13 pace if you include puppy time. (Motion-based just ignores whether you have your timer on or off.)
No comments:
Post a Comment