December; festive running.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Friday morning.
Very cold but sunny and fog-free. Half an hour around the canal. Nobody about. Heavy frost.
Running time; 30 minutes.

And so to Christmas Day. Consulting my old notebooks I found only 2 previous references to Christmas Day runs.

“Dec 25th 2001. Up and down the river. 30 minutes.”

“Dec 25th 1997. Seaton. 45 minutes. Stoat on a rope.”

My route descriptions were concise in those days. No idea what the intriguing “stoat on a rope” refers to. Somebody taking a ferret for a walk maybe? If only I’d discovered the forum 8 years ago I’d probably have expanded on such peculiar observations. By amazing coincidence a ferret might have “popped up” in my Christmas Day run this morning. Mindblowing.
Crossed the rocks and makeshift bridge over the River Sil with extreme caution as everything was coated in ice. Then headed for Toral de Merayo along the trail which is trapped in Monte Pajariel’s frosty shadow and has been permanently frozen for over a week now. Against this background of whiteness a small black creature skipped across my path and for a moment I thought that it was of weaselly descent but its long bushy tail meant that it was probably a red squirrel. Even though it was black. Stopped a little later on to observe a descent sized buzzard perched amongst the poplar trees after Toral. Getting started again proved hard work but overall ran really well today. It’s probably the fastest I’ve done this route since March and account this to the cold sunny morning, for me the perfect conditions for running.
Running time 44 minutes.