And occasionally I go running...

[Charliecat5]

I’ve been busting out the miles…. a combination of Parkruns, Twittens and a more recent foray up Caburn. But if I’m being brutally honest, I've been cruising. Not pushing hard, just racking up the distance.  And again, if I’m being honest, I’ve not really been doing much distance either. Someone, somewhere, on here, once used the term ‘junk miles’.  I don’t think they have been junk miles, as I know they’ve been doing me some sort of good, but it hasn’t really been moving me forward… well obviously it has, but you know what I mean. 
 
One thing, amongst many, that I haven’t been doing for the last six months, is running with the Herd.  All sorts of things have got in the way of this; predominately a severe case of the ‘can’t be arsed’.  This however, changed this morning.  Radar flagged up yesterday that the Herd was organising a run around the Firle loop.  A lovely romp the wrong way down the Coach Road, the wrong way up Bo-peep (have you ever run up that bastard?  I hadn’t until this morning… and it is indeed a bastard), and the wrong way along the top until you drop back down into Firle.
 
A severe case of puppy love caused Radar to pull out this morning, and I very nearly used this as an excellent excuse not to go… but I didn’t.  I went.
 
It was a really mixed group of runners this morning.  Mixed in terms of abilities, but also between those I know, and those I didn’t.  Since I last ran with the Herd, they have been recruiting.  Which was really nice.  I found myself at the front of the pack as we scurried down the Coach road.  I held my own up Bo-peep, and fair flew down from Firle Beacon pushing speeds I haven’t done for quite some time.
 
I loved it.  It was so nice to be out with a pack of runners who pushed my boundaries and reminded me what I am capable off.  It felt like those early days when Goat Face dragged my sorry arse all over the hills, albeit with fewer tantrums today.