An interesting and slightly odd run. This is, I am afraid one of my ramblings.
I ran on Sunday morning. The folk who read my ramblings know that I like Sunday Run-days. It is often very quiet and gives me time to take even more in, than I do usually. Sunday was going to be a quick run... short, and enjoyable.
The day was bright and I was out of the house by 7.30. I decided to take Speed and Laura with me, as I find it very satisfying on a short run. I had planned the route, in my head, and was covering old territory, a little bit of road and more track and field than anything else. A brisk walk to Seagull roundabout..no birds there this morning... and the geese... late -risers the other day, were high above me as I turned and began to run down the hill. Down into the village and along behind the station and by the stream, through the small housing estate and back along the main road and up the lane by Rookery Wood.
Although Laura was whispering in my ear, I know this podcast by heart, so I had the volume on low, in order to hear the sounds around me. Sometimes when you run, it feels as if you are the only person awake in the world. Almost complete silence, except for my feet lightly hitting the floor. Gentle and quick steps, taking me along by the hedges of the field and under my Majestic Oak. The few days of unexpected and very warm sunshine have encouraged a growth spurt in greenery. Sticky, bulging buds and fluffy mouse-ear leaves now... a different variety of catkins, too, hanging like fat, yellow, hairy caterpillars from spiky twigs... and the small birds flitting in and out of the undergrowth as I ran past. Laura takes you through the intervals and they are second nature to me now, moving from one pace to another, all the while looking and staring and feeling at one with Nature.
I don't know how I run... I think I know, but I am not sure... I have tried to listen to Laura, read advice from the forums and also adapt my own style. A lady who drives and does home deliveries in our area, told my husband she had seen me once, out running, and I looked like a proper runner... 
I try to run tall and to be aware of posture and style but, how that looks to others I have no idea. Someone on here, I think it was nhs2015 , told me it is a good idea to be photographed as you run, as it helps with your posture.
I must ask husband to follow me out!
On this morning, the running took over; no thought of posture, style or anything else, and I just ran. Across the field ,over the steam railway line and up the field, to the top of the hill. Dry, underfoot and only a bit of extra breath needed. Turned across the top, by the copse of trees and down and back across the field, up the other side of the field , through the hedge gap and onto the lane heading back home. I was aware of a moving figure in the distance, coming towards me, somewhere to my left, as I turned, but I was so relaxed and at ease with the running...Laura, silent now,, so, still at a fairly quick pace, but very light and certainly very relaxed, I carried on down the hill.
Suddenly, I was aware of a runner behind me. I could hear the feet... I could, really, hear the feet.
A heavy thump as they hit the floor and the sound of very laboured breathing. I half-turned, as I carried on, jogging now, and across the other side of the lane coming down, still a fair way away.. was a young woman, running at breakneck speed.; I did, sort of stop, she never even glanced at me as she, quite literally pounded past. Dressed in Capri leggings, and a strappy t shirt, blond hair tied back in a pony-tail, soaking wet and plastered to her neck, she had sweat streaming down her bright- red face, but, it was the look of pure and total agony on her face that completely surprised me. She was grimacing, the awful, anguished concentration on her face was unbelievable.
I stopped running..for whatever reason, she really halted me in my tracks. She was past me in an instant and hurtling at a frightening pace, down the hill, arms waving out to the side and fists flailing, heavy thuds, as her feet struck the floor, down and towards the bottom of the lane.
I am prone to wild imaginings I know, but for whatever reason..it frightened me. Why would anyone run like that? I have seen many people run; in my youth I was a very fast runner.. ( hard to believe I know) , I have seen track runners, Marathon runners, I have watched Endurance runners, etc, but I have never seen anything like this lass's face.
I'm not even sure why I am posting this, but it was quite terrifying. I did not want to run now. I walked home from that point, all churned up inside and quite at a loss to understand why. Was she ill? Was she unhappy? Where was she running to or from? Are all her runs like that? Was that her running style? I have never seen her before.
By the time I reached the Station she had long gone... I passed two other runners.. gently moving along the road.. they waved. I waved back.
So, my run got lost on Sunday. Her run, will stay with me for a while I think.
