A post-JSJ Sunday blast was needed to run creeping leg-rust out of town.
Paul had suggested a change of scenery which we all agreed was a grand idea, even if there is something mildly masochistic about meeting at nine in the morning outside a place where they're setting out chairs and starting to sizzle bacon . . .
Setting off from the Hove Park café I soon realised I’d not be keeping up with Paul and Steve. They ran easily, chatting all the way up the long haul out of the Park and up onto the Downs proper. Their easy pace was as much as I could manage so I dropped back to run with Gary who by his own admission was looking ‘for an easy one’.
‘Easy’ is a relative concept. 13 miles on an out-and-back loop with the first six and a half miles virtually all uphill might be considered by some (me included) as something slightly different. We chatted between huffs and puffs, recounting old marathon stories and how we got started. Gary was a good runner in his youth, turning out for school and then County on the track and cross-country. Like so many of us after a love-affair with competitive team sports – in both our cases football, where the rigours of getting kicked every weekend had taken their inevitable toll – Gary had sought a source of fitness with a social element and returned to running. He ran his first marathon in London this year with a target of ‘3:59:59’ and came home a good deal closer to 3:30. Despite his excellent time Gary couldn’t believe the price a full marathon exacts on a first encounter.
‘I got to twelve miles and knew I was in trouble. Cramp kicked in at around nineteen but I kept going. It was the most painful six miles I’ve ever run.’ I know the feeling, but assured him that the next one would hold less fears, especially after an impressive JSJ last weekend. Once you've tamed the Beast, whilst it won't necessarily get any easier it's secrets are at least revealed. You know how hard it's going to be, and you can get ready mentally as much as physically.
Turning west at the Dyke Pub we set off over the rolling hog’s back of the South Downs Way, the westerly continuance of my weekly BlackCap run. Walkers speckled the grassy trail, their untethered dogs taking great interest in our sweaty endeavour. Crunching up the final grinding ascent to the half-way mark I looked up to see Paul and Steve starting their homeward journey. They looked comfortable, relaxed. I felt anything but.
A brief rest to fill the lungs and slow the pulse and we followed a few hundred metres behind. A sharp blast of wind reminded us that we’d had it easy up ‘til now – the next six miles would be into an increasingly violent headwind. A mile in and the rain joined in. I can’t say it bothered me at all; this is after all what downland running in October should be – brutal.
We both struggled as we encountered that age-old running truism. No matter how much the outward leg had seemed all uphill there were still a few climbs to negotiate on the return. My hamstring murmured a veiled threat or two but I ignored it; we were hardly pushing it over the last few miles. Rain-soaked, wind-lashed and grinning like a loon I chugged back through the park to meet up with Paul and Steve, their coffees already drained, cake-plate empty. I set off for home and my own reward.
As someone almost said recently, I predict a fry-up.
As suggested this proved a pleasant break from the usual landmarks and we’ll probably do it all again next Sunday. The Jog Shop Marathon group is up and running again, around four-and-twenty virgins taking the first challenging steps on the long, hard road to London or Paris. They’re ‘doing the Wire’ now, four miles out, four back along the cliff tops, inevitably one way with the wind the other against. A whole new world will open up for these lucky few in the months to come. I’m looking forward to guiding them through the valleys and across the naked hillsides, to dragging them up the North Face and the Yellow Brick Road whilst all hell’s unleashed by the Gods of Winter.
And of course to introducing them to my old slithery friend
