Christmas morning. What a treat! Woke at 6:15am, 15 minutes before the alarm and it was magical. Quiet, cool and pleasant, with the wonderful sound of magpies warbling their Christmas greeting. Many bird fanciers will tell you that the Australian magpie has the most pleasant, and also the most indescribable birdsong of all, and this morning there was a whole host of them encouraging me to get out there and run.
And run I did. It was a little cool, and I nearly swapped my singlet for a t-shirt, but figured the sound of rampant guffawing from northern hemisphere RCers at my complaint of requiring layers in a 12 degree Celcius chill would not go down so well. So, singlet it was.
Magpies were everywhere, singing fabulously. Whether it was just the weather that brought them out, or the lack of traffic, I don't know, but it was fantastic. I was on the road by 6:30, and on this one day of the year when there is no traffic and no rubbish bins to negotiate, it's brilliant. I didn't see any other runners, but there were plenty of walkers and the odd cyclist, all of whom happily exchanged seasons greetings as we shared the fantastic bliss of a Christmas morning outing. This is only the second time I've ventured out on a Christmas morning, but I would dare to suggest that it is the best day of the year to run. Fantastic!
I took on my old friend, the 8km loop, which is actually something of a bastard, as it has an unrelenting 2km climb at the end. Being a loop, this of course means the first half is mainly downhill (slightly), and I often go out too fast, making the hill climb at the end doubly troublesome. I realised I had done this again today, when I reached the half-way point much quicker than expected.
The half way point is actually at the very hospital that welcomed me into their intensive care cardiac ward a few years back, and which I now love running past. I didn't exactly cheat death back then, but it's still a lovely feeling to be able to run past under my own steam rather than laying helplessly on a gurney while serious looking specialists strap me to machines that go "ping". But what really struck me this morning as I ran past a bit before 7 was that the visitors car park was three quarters full! Given the otherwsie deserted nature of the streets this seemed to me a little odd until I thought about it some more and realised these were almost certainly the families of hospitalised children doing what you'd expect - being there for them first thing on Christmas morning. It put a tough run well and truly into perspective, I can tell you.
And it was a tough run - because I went out too hard I struggled up the hill at the end, but I got there without stopping and have to say the rest of the day went swimmingly, and I'm mighty pleased I made the effort to get out there. It's now early evening here in Australia and after a long hard Christmas lunch that lasted much of the afternoon, most of the family have settled down for a nap or a quiet whatever on their respective computers. And so I've grabbed the chance to hop on here and say Merry Christmas everyone, I hope it's a good one for you!
Track du Jour: I didn't take music with me this morning, but I have to confess that John & Yoko's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" did keep popping into my head as I ran. Still one of my favourite Christmas songs.
Desperate in December
