August lashes out in volcanic fury

[Charliecat5]

Don't take this the wrong way but ... This is good news. 
The Runner's Black Dog is a mangy cur. These ugly bastards come at us out of the hillside without much warning. Usually, the inverse is true. You wake up thinking there's no way you can run and end up having a decent go. But when that dark mood sucks the life out of your limbs there's nowhere to go but homeward to think again.

You fought well before pulling up, a sensible move when things go tits up. Nine miles when you're not feeling it is a bloody good effort.

Thanks both for your encouraging words.  I am actually quite sanguine about matters.   I realise these days that not every run is going to be great and that sometimes I will be knocked sideways by matters that I will never understand.  I made the right decision to pull the pin on this one and head home.  It just wasn’t working and although I could have turned north at Southease and wound it in along the river, it wouldn’t have been pretty.   So best to ‘suck it up’, accept it for what it is, go to the pub for lunch and save it for another day.

BTW I’ve now reached 2007 in The Running Diaries.  This is quite a salient chapter for me as I am currently 45 and am able to sympathise with much of your challenges, anguish and successes.  I have noticed certain repetitiveness with the prose though… I have wondered at times during the first 113 pages, whether this is a running diary or a chronicle of your 'midlife' beer years.  Either way, I approve.