LE JOG

[El Gordo]

My final leg of January sees my mileage reach a very modest 63.2 miles for the month, and way behind the ever-impressive LadyRunner.

When I wake, I'm not certain where I am. Everything is dark and prickly, and smells of bovine urine. Then I recall that I am embedded in a haystack. Scrambling clear, I find that the sun is high in the sky, and my onward journey awaits. The leg isn't as bad as it has been, but I decide to shelve my planned 13.1 miles, and settle instead for 9.5. Avoiding the major A roads isn't always easy, and today my circuitous route takes me through a network of tiny Cornish lanes to the small village of St Wenn.

My plan is to visit the Bishop of Dublin, who has a residence here. However, on arrival, I discover that he died in 1471. My search for a luxury hotel is thwarted. I was looking forward to a night at the most agreeable St Wenn Manor Hotel. However, despite the large 'VACANCIES' sign, the proprietor looks me up and down, plucks a piece of hay from my hair, and announces that they are, after all, full to the gunwales, and that I will have to look elsewhere.

Instead, I make do with Tregolls Farm. Here they seem far more amenable to haystack chic, and usher me in without a word of reproach. I choose to stay in one of their four grockle cottages. All are uninhabited in this most wintry of months. I select the one called Blackberry, in memory of the high-tech, fast track business life I used to lead, before the lure of the countryside, and the thrilling idea of LE JOG, proved too appealing an antidote to mid-life angst, which can lead to rapid, terminal decline unless treated appropriately.

January 2010:
Total miles: 63.2
Total legs: 11
Average leg length: 5.65 miles
Frequency: 1 run every 2.8 days.