Slipping & sliding, puddle jumping and a ladder!!!!

[Oldgirl]

Sunday is my normal day for running but asthma made yesterday impossible, today I was feeling better and would head off out. A lovely day for running, bit of a breeze, some clouds that hid the sun now and again and would give some shade, I was off and running.

Huh not for long, the route I had decided on was my old challenge of Jacobs Ladder, so first 1K pavement running and 2 busy roads to cross with quite a lot of rush hour traffic, our rush hour starts at about 7.00 and goes onto about 9.30am!!!! Then I have about 1K of what is usually a wonderful track, not so this morning there must have been a lot of heavy rain in the night, yesterday we had some hard showers but the track was awash with puddles, the stones were slippy so it was 1K of slipping and sliding and puddle jumping. At one point the track was water logged so I was up into the verge and scrambling around a tree trunk, it had become more like an assault coarse

Then I'm back onto pavement and its up hill for the next 500M, Abbotshall Road was going well until a car came out of a small side road and I had to stop for it, most inconsiderate don't you think!?!

Then at the top its a right turn but again the traffic meant I had to stop, phew I was by now delighted and grateful to see 5 cars, which I would of course have to wait for before I could cross the road and head on up the ladder. Yeah got to the top, just to be overtaken by a cat doing 100 mph. Oh I wish I could run as fast as that there pussy cat!!

I'm now out onto the country road, the breeze is wonderful the sun comes out, then pops behind a cloud, its just good to be alive. Thankfully the traffic on this road was quiet as there are no pavements on this section, its school holidays too so the school traffic doesn't start for another week. I'm then back onto my local forest tracks and its downhill for a while, yep, slipping and sliding again, no puddles to jump but its hard going to keep my feet going and remain upright some times. Once I have crossed the road the track evens off and now its just little ups and downs, round this way and then that, meandering through the trees, bliss. Lots of dog walkers out, all with well behaved doggies, sniffing and shuffling about taking not a scrap of notice of the thing that sounds like a steam engine coming through.

Today's run was done listening to my usual music but yesterday I downloaded an audio book, Huckleberry Finn, I remember my eldest brother reading some of it to me when I was little and unwell due to asthma, I'm looking forward to playing it, not sure if it will help with my speed but am I bothered?, Not one bit

connect.garmin.com/activity...

Happy running everyone.

[Mazzero Graduate]

What an inspiring post Oldgirl!!! (I feel a tad over familiar typing that) I haven't even run in public as yet and certainly not uphill either. I even risk assessed the field I run in for potholes etc so I feel a real wimp after reading about your efforts this morning. I do like the idea of listening to an audio book when running so must look into this.

[Oldgirl Graduate in reply to Mazzero]

Mazzero you are running on the hardest surface there is (in my opinion) I was out last week with a running club and they did laps of a huge playing field, so big in fact that we cut up the middle to reduce the size of the laps. I have run short distances on grass previously but never all grass running, I can say without a doubt it was hard going. Try mixing your grass with some pavement you'll see what I mean. Good luck with C25K

[danzargo Graduate]

A beautifully written and spell binding post Oldgirl! That did me the world of good reading that. And those car drivers on the road.......don;t they realise that US runners should get priority?!!! Let's start a government petition...

[Oldgirl Graduate in reply to danzargo]

Yes Dan but sometimes its a god send when a car makes you slow down or even stop just for a few seconds while you catch your breath

[Beek Graduate]

Hi Oldgirl! What a lovely blog! I can visualise you ducking and diving and weaving all over the hurdles of trees and the like. But you had a good time and that's what it is all about!

I know what you mean by traffic. I need to cross a main route before I get to 'my' riverbank and you very soon cool off and loose your momentum don't you? Still - another week before the hooligan Mum's on the school run are around to terrorise us on the the roads! We have a small school at the end of our cul-de-sac and some of those Mums can be very assertive! Not quite as bad as pushy dog walkers though!