Over and out…

… as in, the run was over and I was out for the count.

I met Mark up at Jack & Jill yesterday morning for our 14 mile circuit and though it felt like an early start, it was late enough to bump into Maria coming back from a later than normal 8-mile run!

We set out on good form but I didn’t get too far up the hill before my energy levels started to wane.  I seriously doubted that I would go the distance, even though I wasn’t quite ready to give up at that point.

Mark has a simple strategy for keeping me going… he asks me to explain something to him.  In this case it was the barmy idea that I alluded to last week, the explanation for which carried me about four miles… you can tell that Mark has tremendous patience!

By this time we were running down towards the A27 so it seemed churlish to bail out there, especially as we overtook a couple of cyclists on the lump and raced to get to the bottom of the next hill before them.  We reached the half-way turn (just ahead of the cyclists, by dint of the narrowness of the path) at 1.10, meaning that we had averaged 6 mph.

The return leg, by comparison, took us 1.30 and although I was guilty of a couple of lame-excuse pauses along the way, the real delays were due to a couple of people we stopped to chat to.

First there was a guy with a £3,500++ Cervelo R5 that even I could appreciate… what an amazing looking bicycle, and SO light!  We weren’t the only ones ogling, as another half a dozen people also stopped while we were standing there talking to him… he was waiting for his cycling buddy to catch him up Ditchling Beacon, which he eventually did!

Second was Gary, another of the people Mark has met running along the Downs over the years (I’m also one of them, if you remember).  This conversation continued long enough that I watched a girl on a horse approach, mosey past and continue plodding up and along the crest of the hill… long enough that it was hard work to start running again!

We ran the final mile or so to the cars, ending with time elapsed of 2.40 for our 14 miles, average 5.25mph (although the return leg actually averaged 4.66mph against 6mph outbound, due to the  various conversations).  Mark probably has a better sense of the running time, but it was way better that I had expected bearing in mind my initial energy levels.

I returned home and collapsed into a chair in the garden, falling asleep for long enough to get tan-lines on my legs.  I then stumbled lightheadedly through the shower and fell into bed where I stayed, comatose, for another four hours… even then I belonged to the sofa for the rest of the evening!

All of which pales by comparison to Pete & Cliff, whose weekend race was over 103 miles in distance and 13,500 feet in combined ascent along the South Downs Way.  It took them 29.5 hours to complete… I’d need to sleep for a fortnight after that!

Respect!  Over and out!