Mid-afternoon. The world was getting colder, wetter, darker. And the football was about to start.
So I did what I had to do – put on my running stuff and ventured out along the canal for a twelve mile slog.
The first of those miles was as long and as miserable a mile as I ever ran. I couldn’t see myself making it to the third. But I persisted, and as always, gradually, the real world began to drop away and I entered that other place. The Feelgood Club. Open to all, but entered by so few. Hardly any rules, and so cheap to join. Such amazing benefits and perks. Yet the hoi polloi stay without, whispering in groups. How terrible the suffering must be in there, they say. How sorry we feel for the inmates.
Hee hee.
Six miles out and six miles back. The pace was never fast, but it remained steady. As I turned round at the halfway point, I looked at _colin, my GPS gadget, and worked out that if I was to manage negative splits again I needed to get back before 2 hours 17 minutes were up.
It didn’t seem likely. The light was fading now, and as it did so, the temperature began to drop. Those last four miles were dark and chilly and difficult, but I kept going, slithering on the muddy, bumpy paths along the water’s edge. I saw no one for nearly 45 minutes, and it struck me that if I fell and hurt myself, as I could easily do in those inhospitable conditions, it could be a long and painful wait for help. The last mile, back along the road to home, jarred my shins and plucked at my hamstrings, but I just tried to keep the pace steady. 2:17 was the target, but for the last 2 miles or so I forced myself not to look at the watch. As I turned into my driveway I hit the stop button and hit the backlight button. 2:16:56, it said.
I’d run for two and a quarter hours without a break, and had managed to hit my target by 4 seconds.
The beer tasted good this evening. I sat by the fire in the public bar, enjoying the ache in my legs and the beating of my heart. Such simple pleasures, but amongst the best. At one point, one of the regulars chuckled and said to me: “I’ve been watching you, Andy. You’ve been sitting there grinning to yourself for the last five minutes. What have you got to be so pleased about?”
“Oh, it’s a long story”.
“How long?”
“How long? I’ll tell you exactly. Two hours, sixteen minutes and fifty six seconds. That’s how long.”
