Today UpTheStanley and I wanted to do a longer run and decided that after all the rain over the last week we’d avoid the trails and head for Hilsea in the north of Portsea Island, where most of the paths are tarmac.
I looked at NRC for a suitable guided run and found “Run with Joanie”. This is a question and answer podcast with Joanie Samuelson the Marathon runner who was Olympic Gold Medalist and won Boston at the age of 50, chatting with her daughter. She was at school at the time when doctors were saying women should not run further than 800m and she looked on with envy as her 3 brothers could take part in all sports. She was only able to ski, play field hockey and tennis, and was known as a Tomboy as she played with her brothers and their friends. Thank goodness things have changed since then as a result of these trailblazers. The guided run was 65 minutes long so it was great to have something to concentrate on rather than listening to gremlins.
A beautiful morning, and about 11c, I ran along the northern foreshore, past Portsmouth’s athletics track and alongside the wake park. There were ducks and coots swimming along the water, a little egret on the waters edge and a swan sitting on a nest, watched over by her mate. Sadly, lots of plastic waste on the waters edge there too.
I ran past the beautiful murals that have been recently painted by local artists near the Lido (Pictures next time). Children were playing in the scooter park and in the toddlers playground. I had to navigate a few dog walkers and pram pushing mums but gave a friendly warning as I ran. One senior chap running towards me called “that’s 5 of us” as I said good morning. I later heard from UTS, who was running an entirely different route, that he called out “that’s 6 of us”.
I had got to 7.5k I think when I saw UTS ahead and was munching on a few dried apricots while walking for a few minutes (I didn’t want to choke). I then picked it up again and he fell into step with me. The guided run finished in 65 minutes but we kept going until we got to the car. 8.51 km in 1:09:52 and mostly in zone 3 .
We headed for the outdoor cafe for coffee and toastie and while UTS stood in the queue, I was extolling the virtues of c25k to a group of seniors who asked if I’d been for a walk. They were very impressed when I said that I started running at age 60 and had just run 8.5k.
I’d like to dedicate this run to my buddies who aren’t able to run at the moment due to various health issues. Keep on holding in there and I hope we’ll soon see you back on the road again. ❤️