It was the message that I’ve been looking forward to for months… a sociable run with friends on the Downs. However, the decision was more complex.
The plus sides were obvious: running outside on the Downs, with a bunch of people who I like more than most. However, the furthest I’ve run in an age is one mile on the machine, which took around 10 minutes, and Andy was proposing a 75-90 minute run.
If I were to keep up with them across this time, then I would not be able to walk on Christmas Day, for sure, and probably not for several days afterwards. If I were to favour my legs, then I would have to bail out after a couple of miles & run back on my own.
On top of this, the forecast was for heavy rain and (of course) there are always concerns about catching bugs (you know what I mean) when you are desperately gasping for breath in a group of people.
Sadly my risk averseness carried the day.
But it was too good of a call-to-action to ignore, so I felt that I had to at least climb on the machine and show willing. I gave myself a slight head-start on the group and ran for two miles, during which time they would have started and probably caught up with me.
At their allotted start time the sun broke through the clouds to shine on the righteous and the day brightened up… so much for the forecast and I hope that it was the same where they were too!
At the point that they were probably finishing their run, an hour or so later, I was still walking around sweating from my brief run… it would have been a sofa afternoon if I’d joined them!
So 2 miles run in 20 minutes 30 seconds… nothing momentous, but yet another step in the right direction 🙂
