This is a quick one-day-late run report of my longest run since coming back from illness. I am training back up to the 5k distance via our good old C25k app! Saturday morning (yesterday), week 6 run 2, the one with 2 intervals of 10 minutes, broken up by one 3 min walking break.
I put on my Olympic list ( open.spotify.com/playlist/2... ), getting in the mood ahead of some exciting watching of the soon-to-start Paris Paralympics. So it feels like a fitting playlist for my “champion-strong-come-back-run,” especially considering this particular run …..
…. because I planned to “ooooohowKaweeeee”! Or rather, “drrrrrrrriiiiihaaaaaw”!
I know, you’re wondering if I’ve gone mad with runners high?
Noooo, yesterday was going to be that day for which I’d been patiently waiting for ages!!! The rrrrrrruuunnn that would get me to the halfway point to finally switch from a simple out-and-back to a wonderful circular route!
While running towards this midway point, I kept pondering which onomatopoeic word could describe this midway point and that magic moment when you flip but continue on route, and start to run back home again! It beckons for a fitting noise! “Woooooih_Annnd_rrraaaaaahhh”? “Oooooooohhhhkkkkaloooooooo”? “UpupuppupAnnnnnnndDoooowwwwnn”?
Let me know if you have any good ideas for that elusive but soundingly expressive word! I need that word!
I’ve been looking forward to this switch point way before I got ill! And in-between, I also had been forced to reverse my route, as the original direction included a short but important section that had overgrown with nettles!
I had relied too long on Hubby to cut those nettles down, and somehow, he didn’t get to it for some long, nettle-invading weeks.
The last time hubby had cut the now overgrown section had been a sunny day 6 weeks ago!
At that time, 6 weeks ago, there was also a very memorable moment on my run. I had gone out after hubby with his shears, and we had met at the start of that section, and chatting right there, another couple approached us with another set of tell-tale shears! What a coincidence to meet another couple keeping these running paths free! And whilst the four of us were thanking each other and exchanging “shearing” stories, an elderly man walked up to us from the third direction … with …. yesss! … a third set of shears.
I thought this bode so well, and those paths would never be overgrown again, with all those shearing neighbours on the lose
But how wrong I was!
Two weeks after our shearing meet-up, those weeks full of rain and winds that presumably kept any shears in their sheds, the nettles sprang up like triffids, and at shoulder and head height, they were too difficult to navigate for this runner. At that time I reversed the direction of my route, losing that feeling of being able to experience that halfway point, as that way around, there were some hills in the way!
Not that hills would stop any runner, but that “wooooooooohaaawww!!!” moment is not quite the same when you’re panting up a hill!
So yesterday was going to be the day! I trusted that some good weather had allowed those kind neighbours to keep the route in check, as my hubby had slept on the nettle-busting-job and hadn’t been out there whilst I was ill!
But trusting in the neighbours’ shearing prowess, I took a chance yesterday and chose the route that would lead me soon to that short, but often nettle-infested patch. And yesssss!!! The route was manageable! Only hip high nettles, to be navigated with bare arms raised to safety and long leggings protecting my legs!
So after leaving the nettle-patch behind me, I finally had my “drrrrrreeeeehaaawww!!!” moment 7 min later at my halfway point. And you know those hills I mentioned? They come ca 2 min after the halfway point (which, as I think about it now, doesn’t make sense, but it feels correct when you run this route!). So going up this hill I had a second “uuuupp-yippeeeya-doooowwn” moment, and then running home downhill all the way!
What a run!
Worthy of some Olympic themes!
So wishing everyone their own “ruuuunnnnnn-yeosaw-dooowwn” moments on their routes!
And if you have your own expressive word for that moment where you flip an out-and-back route into a circular one? Let us now!
Happy running, everyone!
