Today Madame Truffe and I did it together, for the first time, despite the fact that we have been together so many years and what a lovely thing it was. She's played hard to get, but decided yesterday that we could do it. So, I was on a promise and woke up excitedly this morning. I like to do it first thing, while she prefers to have a bit longer to wake up, before committing.. I waited patiently. I won't go into all the details, but we got hot and sweaty together for 35 active minutes and I am proud to say that I managed to keep going for another half an hour after she had declared that she was satiated.
Oh how the British love an innuendo!!
Yes, today we swapped our Mid Devon fields, which are beginning to resemble the Somme, for the clean and level banks of the river Exe and the Exeter ship canal, for our first run together. Lady da Truffe, who rejects her aristocratic heritage in favour of the more continentally exotic nomenclature of Madame Truffe, recently graduated from C25k and eventually allowed me to run with her, having declined my company throughout the programme. She apparently doubted my gallantry, even though I insisted that I would remain three steps behind her and would only speak if spoken to. So with Gwendolen Runkeeper discreetly in my back pocket, we set off in glorious sunshine along the canalised banks of the Exe. It seemed strange to see so many runners. Cows normally outnumber runners by about two hundred to one, but this morning I didn't see a single cow.
Running through mud, on uneven ground and gradients does not prepare us country types for the hard and unyielding surfaces of the city and my dear lady came a cropper on a treacherous concrete step, having wet shoes after running off the soaking grass. The minor scrape was not enough to stop this plucky lady though and we ran upstream, over a bridge and back down the other side. When we reached 35 minutes and covered about 4.5k she declared that she had had enough and we were a convenient distance from our car at that point. We had agreed that I would run on, so I left her and completed a loop which brought me back to the car, once round the football field and Gwendolen announced that I had covered 10k. After a warm down walk we were reunited and basked in our mutual satisfaction with the expedition.
I hope that this will be the first of many runs together and I am thrilled that my good lady took the C25k challenge to keep me company occasionally. One other bonus of this morning's run was that I managed to achieve a negative split run for the first time ever and completed my second 5k in under 30minutes.
Thank you C25k for giving us both a new lease of life and vigour.
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IannodaTruffe
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Must have missed Madame Truffle's graduation post so a belated well done to her. Lovely to hear you had a good run together, and hope you continue to enjoy your new lease of life and vigour
My husband joined the programme, several weeks after I started. He is doing well but is a reluctant runner unfortunately. But as he is always willing to keep me company when I go out, this makes him do it.
And it is great when you do things together and get such a kick out of it!
I have to entice her to actually run at a Parkrun next, Aftabs. She's pretty stubborn when she gets the bit between her teeth, so I am sure she will rise to the challenge soon. She also reads these posts......
It does sound like a lovely run for both you and Mme Truffe! Lovely to be able to share a run; I was proud as a mummy duck when we managed a family Parkrun a few weeks ago (except for my eldest daughter beating my pb by 3 seconds; but I have gained it back last week); so was happy to run with my younger daughter yesterday to get her to a new pb and as I was running after nightshift it was good not to have to push myself too much!
I'm sure you and Mme Truffe will have many happy hot and sweaty sessions together in the future (& hope that Parkrun will be one of them!)
It was great. She was the last one to mention Parkrun, so I am hopeful.
Nothing wrong with a bit of in-your-end-oh ~ oh, Matron!!
Love the post and I know the canal well from cycling. If you didn't know, there is a great canal-side pub at the end, which isn't necesarily open year-round, but worth a stop-off if you run in Spring through to Autumn.
We discovered the delights of the Turf when our 11 year-old son was doing a sponsored 50 mile bike ride to raise money to go to Nepal to volunteer in orphanages and on Water Aid wells projects, and help in a health centre ~ an excellent watering hole indeed.
Love the post. It's been great to see you both on here encouraging everyone else. My hubby has been very ill but is starting to recover now and all the way through my journey he has kept saying I can't wait to get better so I can start. So I am looking forward to that day when he is well enough and we can run together.
You really are naughty. I bet you didn't run this post past the lady before submitting it. I like the fact that up until now you weren't permitted to run with her despite you insisting that you would remain three steps behind her and would only speak if spoken to. Still think you should stop fraternising with Gwendolen.
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Would highly recommend this new lease of life too. 
1st post grad run. What a joy!
63 not out & the joys of running up hills...and down 
This morning’s run was so lovely
The absolute joy of being in this for the long haul (and with all of you)
