We had our early morning cup of tea listening to the rain beating against the window and I was toying with the idea of delaying my run until later in the day. I can tell you fitting a run into our family routines can be a tricky challenge and I sometimes need to steer things in that direction with a delicate, diplomatic approach at times. I decided no amount of gentle nudging would pay off today and I had little choice but to brave the elements!
When I say "brave the elements" I mean the high winds with rain mixed in. It has that effect of sand blasting your face so you feel thoroughly woken up. Also it is on days like this I feel it "serves me right" for still wearing shorts as my legs also had their own sand blasting experience. It sometimes felt as if I was being stabbed by lots of needles all over my legs and face - and at high speed. After the needle stabbing experience, it then feels like your face is raw, bright red and tingling all over. Brilliant! Once I was up on the top of a near by hill, I can tell you it nearly took my breath away! Talk about being windy! What was giving an enhanced windy effect was a funnel effect of the terrain which, if the wind is blowing from a particular direction, it is just something else. Luckily for most of the exposed, open part of my run, I was running along the edge of an escarpment and the wind was slightly behind me. It felt that for every step I took, I would be moving forward two steps (at my office it is generally the other way around!).
I kept to the roads today, avoiding the knee-deep mud so the distance worked out to be 6.5 miles in about an hour; my normal time for that route.
Home in time for a quick shower and a leisurely breakfast. The four of us had our breakfast, chatting as normal. No one really knew about my sand blasting, needle stabbing experience but that's just for me to savour along with a few more miles logged for the Christmas running challenge.
Where will I run tomorrow? New Year's Day and with it the last day of my holiday as I return to work on Wednesday 2nd January. As a contrast the weather forecast is for clear, sunny and cold conditions with less wind. Could be a good time for my second long run of the holiday.
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