It was a muggy morning after a night FULL of rain (the front lawn was a swimming pool when I went to bed), but it was too lovely to be inside so I opted for a seat in the tea house. I was particularly glad that I had ignored Mark’s offer of an 8.30am pick-up to go run the Chichester marathon!
I had been sitting and reading for some time, enjoying the smell of the honeysuckle and chuckling at the sound of a bird who seemed intent on waking the neighbourhood, when I had a minor epiphany. Joseph Jaworski might even class it as a ‘predictable miracle’.
Epiphanies are not actually an uncommon occurrence hereabouts and this one involved a connection between the fields of neurogenesis and change management: it turns out that one of the reasons that scientists have thought until recently that the human brain is unable to produce new neurons is because the primates used in experiments were stressed…. I’ve lost you, I can tell!
Suffice to say that this is a very useful connection to have made and it gave me plenty to think about… so I decided to go for a gentle run. Gentle is important here, since it gets more difficult to think the more quickly you run.
My aim was 5 miles at an average of 7mph, but after a first half mile warming up at 6mph, I realised that I would need to ramp up the speed to make my intended average.
7.5mph is just too fast to think clearly, but it was necessary so I paused my brain until I reached the half way mark to ensure I was ahead of the game. Then I dropped back to 7mph for the rest of the way completing the distance in 42.5 minutes. Average 7.06mph.
I guess that I should also have drawn a connection between muggy morning and running at more than 7mph… I was still dripping with sweat half an hour later, even after a cold shower!
I wonder if Mark managed to stay dry in Chichester?