After a highly entertaining dinner with friends in London last night and the subsequent 1am homecoming, an 8am meet-up at Jack and Jill was always going to be a little bit of a struggle.
I was actually there early and was reclined comfortably in my car when Cliff pitched up. We chatted for a while through open windows from the warmth of our cars before each calling Daren to see where he was… other than late, that is.
Finding no answer, we ran down the hill to the main road to give him some additional time grace, before heading up the hill again and on, towards the Beacon. He called while we were still half way up, blaming an alarm clock that still thought it was ten-past-six. If only! I would still have been comfortably asleep under the cosy warmth of the winter duvet, instead of up here on a cold and drafty hill and feeling tired!
We pressed on despite the cold and reached the top of the hill before Cliff’s phone rang and he stopped to converse. At the Beacon, his phone rang again, and he stopped to converse. When we got to the white cow, a bit further on still, which Cliff thought would be on my map but unfortunately is not actually shown, Cliff’s phone rang again. And then a second time.
We turned reluctantly for home and had made it past the Beacon and had met up with Daren coming the other way, before Cliff’s phone rang yet again… I can see why he normally doesn’t carry the damn thing! The three of us ran back to the cars where Cliff, now needing to run an urgent errand elsewhere, sadly tootled off.
Rather than abandon Daren to the hills on his own, I tagged along and we ran down the hill into Clayton and along Underhill Lane. We then took the tank tracks right the way back up to the top, running every step of the way. Which was why, when my phone rang as we neared to top, I didn’t stop to take the call, but rather ran on conversing with a persistent sales person between gasps of breath!
My feeling as we ran down the hill towards Jack and Jill for the second time was very different to the first. Gone was the feeling of cold and tiredness and I now felt warm and alive … that extra loop with its BIG hill was really worthwhile!
Between the seven phone call stoppages or distractions (I actually thought it was eight, so I think I’ve even missed one out!) and the steep hills, the speed was never going to be fantastic (at 5.25mph it clearly isn’t), but I’m pleased that I ended up running for one hour 44 minutes and that I covered 9.15 or so miles.
It was really great fun running with both Cliff and Daren, separately and together! And despite the different challenges that each of us has from a work perspective, it really is pretty cool being fit and in your forties and being able to schedule time so that you can spend it with friends like this!
And according to Daren’s clock, it’s still not time to get up yet!
As I said to Steve many years ago, ‘I shall never need one of those mobile phones!’