At last – a great run this evening. How long since I said that?
I noticed a while ago that the success of a run was usually found to be inversely proportionate to the expectation – and so it proved again tonight. I just wasn’t looking forward to running 6 miles. No particular reason; just a general lethargy and a sense of pessimism about how I’d cope. Not that 6 miles represents any big deal anymore…
Hang on… let me just re-read that last sentence a couple of times. Let me chew on it and suck every nuance and implication from it. And yes, it’s true. Running 6 miles is really no problem for me now, while only a few months ago it would have been unthinkable.
I had a 6 miler on the first week of this programme, and it took me 80 minutes to complete. Tonight’s took me 69:56. That is still slow by most objective criteria: about 11:40 a mile. But it’s getting better.
I almost wore my new Hal Higdon Coolmax singlet this evening as it was so mild, but decided against it. And I’m glad I did. A mile or so into the run the rain started to come down again. Slowish at first but becoming heavy for perhaps 20 minutes. For the 4th time in the last 5 runs I found myself splashing through rain and puddles. It didn’t start till I got to the back lanes, so with no moon in the sky, this drenching had the extra spice of being in total darkness. A final twist was that I’d not been down this route before and had no idea what to expect.
I soon found out: much of it was a rutted, muddy track and pretty treacherous in this weather. Despite that, I found that I was actually enjoying all this misery. Rain can be great if you don’t care about getting wet. People seem to think that running around in shorts and a T-shirt in the rain and darkness must be worse than being fully togged. But it’s the opposite. It really doesn’t matter if these clothes get wet. You can actually enjoy the naughtiness of getting soaked and splashing mud up your calfs. There is a lovely sensation of liberation and some sort of purity.
It took me a few minutes to realise that I was actually enjoying myself. And I also became aware that I was running quite fast by my normal standards. I got to the 4 mile mark in about 47 minutes, and decided to try upping the pace a bit more for the last couple. It was great to feel that there was still something there to work with. Previously I’ve always been conscious of the aches I get when I push things a bit too much. But perhaps that’s more true at the beginning of a run than at the end when I’m warm and more supple.
I got home feeling great, and more than ready for my veggie pizza and salad. Just how good can running be? Pretty good, believe me.
