Officially better....

Officially better, well nearly, cough.  Feeling pretty good actually.  I look at the photograph below and that pretty much sums me up right now - it's like the dawn of a promising day and, while there is much to be grateful for, there is so much to look forward to!

At 7.30am this morning I sneaked out of the house in my running gear for a gentle run.  I did 4 miles at a fairly easy relaxed pace, no hills, just to see how I felt.  I admit that I have had the stuffing knocked out of me over the last two weeks but this run was okay.  Although I cannot possibly put my Saucony's back on and run well for over two hours without building up again, this is a great start.  Perhaps on Saturday I will run for an hour or so and quickly build up from there onwards.  No Runner's High today but then no real exertion to stimulate all those endorphins.

This little run has reminded me of how much I missed running, even though it is still bitterly cold outside and the ground is still frozen hard.  I miss the mental uplift I get from it, the feeling of a breeze of fresh air on my face and all those other things to make me feel so alive.  I miss not being able to mull over some of the things on my mind in quite the same way; I missed not having those flashes of inspiration.

I missed that feeling of running up a hill as fast as I could and panting at the top, breathing in as deeply as I can while I tingle all over with the sheer joy of it.  I missed the mystery in running on auto pilot mile after mile.  I missed not running with my colleague Chris after work.  I missed seeing the countryside around here that I know so well and where it always seems a little different, day by day moving through the seasons.  I missed returning home, bursting in through the front door having sprinted up the road to our house as fast as I could.  I missed dripping with sweat and having a red hot shower and a good stretch afterwards.  I missed the Runner's High.

I really missed the smile on Rachel's face as she wouldn't have to say anything at all; her smile simply says "don't come anywhere near me until you've had a shower and put those smelly running things into the washing machine".

You can tell, I'm feeling pleased to be better!