December is here before its June

[Charliecat5]

I realised something this morning… well to be honest, I realised this sometime ago… but the thought was reinforced this morning… runners are lovely people to be with.

They come in all shapes and sizes, all different abilities, and run for all sorts of different reasons.  The bunch of reprobates I was with this morning run just for the hell of running - which is what gets me out of bed. There is just a joy to be had from running up the streets of Lewes with a load of other fools first thing on a Sunday morning.

The last few weeks will go down in history as carrying one of the worst colds ever. The best bit has been the hacking cough and lack of lung capacity. BGG complains about lung capacity quite regularly, but until recently it is not something I've really understood – not because I’m any sort of athlete you understand, rather my legs usually give out long before I struggle with the breathing bit.  However, over the last few weeks… I could actually feel parts of my lungs refusing to work… complaining bitterly to the rest of me. 

Forcing the issue on Sunday mornings, running up the Twittens probably hasn’t done me a great deal of good, physically… mentally though, it has been great to get out there.

But it hasn’t all just been Twitten running… oh no… on Christmas Eve I came up with a cunning plan to run Blackcap and back.  I sent out a tweet advertising the fact, with the hope that the runners of Lewes would flock.  There was radio silence. I tried again. Nothing.  Nothing except for one. 

So 8am on Christmas Eve morning BGG and I set off from his gaff… having first shown me his beer collection (as some sort of temptation/excuse not to go).  Within yards we hit mud, within half a mile we were in gale force winds, within a mile the man had gone arse over tit (I didn’t laugh – honest (I laughed)). Fortunately, the pace was sedate as I don’t think I could have managed anything other than sedate.  We got to the top and then realised, horribly, that the wind that had carried us out was now in our face for the return trip to town.  Even the downhills were hard work.  Yet we still arrived back home with big grins on our faces. 

Mad fools go running… bring on next year’s adventures.