January

[Sweder]

Eight dark, wet, chilly road miles to Falmer and back tonight.
No wind to speak of, which may go some way to explaining how I covered the same distance as last Friday in seven minutes less tonight.

Another reason would be my i-pod, spitting out a collection of anthems from Motorhead, Girlschool, the Kaiser Chiefs and Tom Petty, the latter kicking in just as I started my homeward leg on the downwind, down hill section. Runnin' Down A Dream has always been a favourite running tune for me; tonight, as the half-moon peeked out from behind a scuttling cloud, the rhythm picked me up and hurled me home.

For a few glorious, timeless minutes my grim surroundings faded. I ran as perhaps I might have had I run in younger years, light feet, straight back, arms pumping, an easy smile on my face. Just as suddenly the music changed, the swooping lights of the traffic once more grabbing my attention, my tread heavy again. But I was running well and I let the crashing, driving beat of Girlschool's Never Say Never carry me on. Even the long hard climb to Lewes Prison, it's jagged Victorian austerity looming, menacing, couldn't completely sap my spirit. The Kaiser Chiefs belted out Oh My God

It don't matter to me
It's all I wanted to be
Is a million miles from here
Somewhere over there

Oh my god, I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home

And strangely I do feel far from home on these man-made trails.
Far from my rolling Sussex hills, my beloved mud and sweet, soft turf, hammering my joints across this cracked and unforgiving cycle path, sucking down car fumes, wincing in the electric glare of the headlamps and street lights. Still, this is a necessary evil; acclimatising the bones to the jarring impact of road drill in readiness for six everlovin' hours of it in April.

For now it's a hot shower, some frantic bag-packing and as much shut-eye as I can grab. I'm picking Andy up at 5 and Niguel at 5.15 - barely six hours from now, actually - before we slump aboard the good ship Stelios, taking the red-eye to Almería.

It'll be my third visit in as many Januaries.
Odd then that I feel like a kid the night before Christmas

8 miles, 1 hour 5 minutes.