Spring delays posting

It was the Spring Equinox on Saturday evening and despite a rainy start to Sunday, by the afternoon it was glorious.

This meant that, despite feeling pretty knackered, I spent the afternoon moving pots and furniture back into the garden, edging the grass and generally titivating.

Which is partially why I’m writing this post a day late: the other reason being that the TV feed has gone and having spent a fruitless while trying to fix it, I have given up to do something less frustrating.

My schedule for yesterday said 14 miles, but I thought I would add on a couple for good order by running up the Ovingdean valley as far as the top of the narrow road… for those who know it.  So I ran down to Rottingdean, once again shedding layers as I went, along the coast and up to my designated turn point… where my testosterone pushed me on up to the very top of the steep hill before I actually turned around.

Once back at the coast I didn’t fancy shattering the Ovingdean peace by running along the roadside, so instead I dropped down onto the undercliff walk.

The chalk cliff has really fallen away over the winter, but I suspect that the council has used this as a bit of an excuse to drive walking traffic through the marina, as they have closed both the part of the undercliff walk behind the marina and also the path that ascends to Roedean.  This didn’t bother me as it was a good excuse to have a look at the boats, flats, people etc in the marina.

Sport Relief was omnipresent in Madeira Drive, although the marshal I asked at the marina end actually had no idea what event it was… her friend thought it might be running and when I had run down to the other end I saw that she was correct.

I must have got used to the seafront being cold and empty as it seemed to be thronging with people as I made my way down past the piers to the Peace Memorial.  Here I paused to stretch, my legs being unusually stiff, before I headed back past the piers again and along Marine Parade to avoid the worst of the throng below.

There were still a plethora of runners coming steadily towards me and as I neared the top of Dukes Mound, one of them stopped in front of me and bowed in a lavish way.  It was Mark Johnson and rather than run on past, or stand and get cold while we chatted, I turned around and ran back to the Palace Pier with him.

At the pier I turned once again and headed for home, noting that my left ankle was now quite painful, as if I had twisted it.  I found myself running alongside another runner, neither gaining nor losing and after a while I asked if he minded me tagging along.

His name turned out to be Gary and he was running to Telscombe, so we ran together as far as my turn off at Rottingdean.  The simultaneous upside and downside of this was that I had to keep running, despite my ankle slowly becoming more and more painful.

As he ran on, I paused to stretch and for a short while thereafter it was a lot better.  But as I really got stuck into the final two-mile uphill section, my legs and ankles began to stiffen and by the time I reached the Downs Hotel I was moving like a 95-year-old.  I couldn’t even manage a jog back down the hill, instead waddling gently like I had a beach-ball between my legs.

Despite this photo being taken after only five miles, it accurately portrays how I felt at the end!  It also serves to remind me to mention the anti-snoring device I’m wearing… although I’ve temporarily forgotten the brand name, it works really very well indeed (for running) by increasing air-flow and I highly recommend trying it at least a couple of times to see if it works for you too.

Time: 3.03

Distance 18.8 miles (remember, I had intended to do 14)

Average speed: 6.16mph, which reflects the stoppages as much as the snail-pace of the final climb.

The results of my afternoon recovery in the garden: