August lashes out in volcanic fury

[Charliecat5]

Perdersi in Italia

This time I knew what I was up against.  I set the alarm for 6:30am to beat the heat, and because I was nominated the driver last night, I’d only had a couple of glasses of vino.  Plus I’d worked hard on the carb loading (12 inch pizza for tea).  All the stars were lining up for a perfect run.

At 6:30 the alarm went off.   At 6:30 and one split second later I had switched it off.  45 minutes later I woke.  Bugger.  Sod this I thought… I’ll run tomorrow.  It’s not good to be running two days, erm, running anyway.  So I got up and took my book outside to enjoy the first moments of the morning.  But just as I was settling down to read, I heard a runner go past… I didn’t see them but the scuff of their feet over the gravel was clear.  Bugger.  I need to run.  I got changed, I filled my water bottle (I forgot to take this yesterday) and set off.

I had planned a route the evening before, a circular one this time, as I am not particularly fond of runs that go out and back the same way – I’m easily bored.  On Google Maps it all looked straight forward.  I would run back down the roller-coaster but at the top of the first loop, I would turn right, not left and head along the top for a mile before heading north again, past some farms and back onto the road which would take me back to the entrance of the place we are staying. 
It started well… I paced myself down the roller-coaster and managed a reasonable 10min pace up the other side.  I turned right and plodded along the top until I found the turn back to the valley bottom.  It was all going to plan… until I lost the gravel track… but all was not lost, there was a small muddy track through some woods, and not being one for admitting that I could possibly be lost, and certainly not one for turning back, I kept going.  After all, there is only one direction in life, and that is forwards.

The muddy track was beautiful, heading through woods and across a lovely meadow before, brilliantly, re-joining the gravel track I'd lost in the first place.  Bloody ‘ell I’m good, I told myself, and was still full of my own brilliance when I arrived at a junction.  I didn’t remember this on Google Maps.  The choice was uphill or down.  I chose up.  The theory being that if I did get it wrong (obviously I wouldn’t) then I could run back down hill to correct my mistake.  The other way would mean running up hill to correct the mistake.   I got it wrong.  After a steep climb I found myself in a farmyard, surprising the tourists staying there, who had probably spent a fortune to enjoy the splendid isolation that the house afforded… and were clearly not expecting to see a fat, red faced, sweary English man sweating profusely in their garden.   I waved and smiled (I’m not sure that helped the situation) and instead of turning around, I kept going through their garden into the grape fields beyond. 

Any semblance of a path completely disappeared now, so I hugged the edge of the field and kept going, tripping over the odd vine as I went.  A small path took off on my right, so I tried it, but within yards it had disappeared into brambles and the suspicion of snakes.  I re-traced my steps and continued around the field, until eventually, having crossed a deep ditch, I was right back at the same junction that started this detour.

The direction now was clear, and after a few yards I made it to the road.  Brilliant, nearly home.  3.5 miles done.

I’m not a religious man… but Oh. My. God.  1 mile up hill on the hard-top in 30 degrees of heat.  It nearly broke me.  My determination not to stop and the thought of the swimming pool kept me going.  Eventually after a number of false hopes I reached the peak and enjoyed a quarter of a mile of downhill before I turned back onto a gravel track, uphill to our apartment.  Sitting back in a chair having a well-earned rest, I lifted my leg, to flick off an ant, and sweat poured of the end of my foot - that's not meant to happen.  5 minutes later I was in the pool cooling down.

This is ridiculous, I had only run 5 miles, but it felt like 15. 

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?