Hurrah! Against all my assumptions, I managed to run my 3 miles today without any aches, and without stopping.
Bloody freezing today. So cold that my plans to nip down the road to see Bristol City play QPR were scuppered by a frozen pitch. The postponement of the match at least allowed me to uncoil gradually this morning, and to go for the run at my leisure. Much of the morning was spent admiring the Christmas-card-like scenes outside. Thick white frost coated the paths and the bushes in the front garden, and we even had a robin hopping along the window sill at one point.
High noon came, and the deed had to be done. A rare appearance of the jogging bottoms was called for, and along with a double helping of T-shirt, I set off.
I tried a new permutation of lanes for today’s 3 miler, and decided to take the opposite direction from normal. Being New Year’s Day, it was no great surprise to observe 3 separate pyramids of frozen vomit on the pavement. The differences in hue and texture between the 3 deposits confirmed their disparate provenance. Ah, the Brits certainly know how to have a good time.
It didn’t take long to get warm and develop a decent rhythm, though I was certain that it would once again come to grief prematurely. Passed a very jolly cyclist who fair bellowed out his new year greetings at me. I made my way past the athletics track and up past the forge. As I got to the long, lonely stretch I could see 3 figures in the distance: a couple and a young child between them. As I got nearer to them, I saw that the mother and father were carrying small suitcases and wearing slightly old-fashioned clothes. It was very odd. I couldn’t help drawing comparisons with the opening scenes of The Mayor of Casterbridge. Ghosts don’t exist of course, but these figures in the landscape did have a slightly spooky presence. They didn’t say anything as they passed. In retrospect I thought they looked a little like refugees, though it seems unlikely that they would be wandering down a quiet Cotswold lane on a frosty New Years Day.
Much thinking came and went today. I tried to come up with some New Year resolutions, but decided that I was already being insufferably saintly without inviting further disaster.
