It was late – after 9pm – when I finally got out to do my 6 miles this evening. As is often the case with runs that I’m particularly looking forward to, it was a disappointment. No problem with my health or performance, but the flies! My God, the flies! Running along the canal this evening was a nightmare. I could feel the dense clouds of the blighters every few yards. I must have eaten several billion of them, which partly explains why I felt less hungry than normal when I got home.
This inconvenience lasted for nearly 3 miles, which is the point where I turned off the canal and came back along the busy A4. This isn’t usually a pleasant stretch of the run but tonight its flylessness felt great, and I finally felt able to enjoy myself. I ended up doing 10:33 pace miles which isn’t fast, and not surprisingly so given the running conditions of the first half.
Twelve miles coming up at the weekend. I need to decide how I can do this without being force-fed midge pie the whole way. Perhaps if I ask the Kennet & Avon Trust to drain the water out of the canal for a few days, the flies will go somewhere else. Hmm, yes, a damn good plan – if I say so myself.
