Hello running, my old friend.
Personal circumstances have dictated that I haven’t been out for a run for nine days. I usually panic and indulge in an unhealthy amount of self doubt mixed in with a tsunami of a crisis of confidence after four days with a run, so you can imagine what I’ve been like lately.
I’ve been awake since 3am or something obscenely early like that so pottered about for a few hours before, on impulse, deciding to see if I can run again, to see if everything I’ve done to date has been for nought, to see if I should just give running up as a bad job once and for all. It would also be a potentially futile attempt to clear my head.
As I stepped out the door it suddenly donned on me that I looked extremely suspect. I had a black cap on my head, and my black buff pulled up over my mouth and nose, not to mention my black shorts and tights. Thank goodness, then, for my bright yellow running top and head torch to keep me from getting potentially arrested as some sort of cat burglar!
Anyway, I wasn’t expecting much from the run and I wasn’t really feeling it. I wanted to hide, perhaps from myself, so I stuck on some German industrial metal on Spotify, turned it up as loud as I could, squeezed my earphones into my lugs for maximum effect and off I went. Probably not the safest idea to shut myself off from my surroundings but I wasn’t caring about that.
Almost immediately, I got to the first corner and changed direction from the route I had intended. I couldn’t be bothered with it, so I just ran to the next corner, and the next and so on. I just wanted this over with and having a route in mind would only signal a commitment that I wasn’t prepared to give.
In the end about half the run (I did 5k in total) was around my estate, running upto and around a carpark or cul-de-sac before going to the next one along and doing that. Not at all inspiring.
I kept it slow, who cared about speed? I certainly didn’t. My inactive legs protested a bit and, at times, a lot. I expected that.
It wasn’t my greatest ever run. In fact, it was pretty brutal in places, but I got out there and did it. I suppose I should just focus on that.
This was my first run in the Run Up To Christmas challenge in aid of Mind, the aim is to run at least 50km between 1st and 25th December, with milestones going up in increments of 50km thereafter. I’m hoping for 100 but, let’s be honest here, I’ll likely struggle to reach 50 unless things change. But let’s see anyway.
Run Up To Christmas progress (total: 5k)
2nd December – 5k
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 