Good morning runners! Well I am hoping to download my Strava run for you this afternoon, but I am having technical difficulties! For my Scottish friends, I hope that you will be able to notice that I tried to recreate the flag of Scotland in the bottom right hand corner. For my Irish friends, a four leaf clover appeared to be too difficult for me, but you were in my thoughts, and for my Welsh friends, I am sure you can find a leek in there somewhere! For any other nationalities, give me a simple shape, and I shall try to run it for you!
So I begin Week 1 Run 2 of B210K, which incidentally is the same as R1 and R3. I decide to set myself the goal of “hills” today. Well, what a laugh! My warm up walk takes me down my road (I live at the top of a little hill) then I decide to turn left and walk uphill to the base of a big hill. At this point the AAM (Assertive American Man) demands “Run” but this time, I am ready for him, because I have been clever enough to set my Garmin to look for GPS whilst I am walking and so all I have to do is press “start”. Genius!
Anyway, feeling very smug, as I didn’t have the same problems as Tuesday, I begin running uphill. I am aiming for the local recreation ground, but, since I have never run up there before (I have only ever walked), I miss the first turning! (LOL) and run up on past. I couldn’t believe it! I have now to concentrate to take the next road to my right, which I manage, and then I arrive by the Scout Hut. I check out the number of people around, not many, it is pretty early, a few young parents with their pre-school children at the playground. Nice.
I run on up to find the field above the rec, running along the side of the park until I find a gate. Oh dear, I am supposed to be running and I have to jog on the spot in the mud to open an iron gate. Never mind, I manage to open the gate, close the gate and continue. Oh now this is a massive field! The children of our village play football up here and I discover a BMX track that I never knew existed.
I run around the field, walk for one minute (as instructed) then run again. Come back out to join the rec and run around the perimeter. Think about trying to create a four leaf clover, realise that it is definitely far too difficult for me, plus wonder what the yummy mummies might be thinking and that perhaps they will call for the men in white coats, so I decide to play it safe and go for the hypotenuse instead. So now I am running diagonally across, I have no idea what the music is, and begin to concentrate on SOH-CAH-TOA. (Whatever floats your boat!) So I am saying to myself sine = opposite over hypotenuse, cosine = adjacent over hypotenuse, tangent = opposite over adjacent. Why? The only thing I can say in my defence is that I was trying to imagine my route mapped out on Strava and that I had probably, at this point, lost the plot 
Having run diagonally across and along one side and diagonally back, I decide to investigate another field to the back of our rec. Ooh – perhaps not! I only have ¾ length bottoms at the moment, there are lots of brambles and it is very muddy, slippy slidy and I don’t want to fall. So at the next available gap in the hedgerow, I weave my way back to the safety of the rec. Getting rather bored going around this square, however, I decide to venture further uphill to the top of our village.
Well, this is a little more interesting. I meet a charming silver-haired gentleman walking his dog who smiles and says good morning, I say GM back. I meet a delightful lady with her dog who does the same. Super. Two lady cyclists pass me, one of whom shouts out “Good morning Flossie” and I am a little upset because I am now into my one minute walk and I want her to know that I have actually been running for 20 or 30 minutes already! Promise! Anyway, I begin to run down a hill and take a left back towards my house as the AAM tells me that this is my last run. Well, I wasn’t sure to be honest, I had lost count, and thought that I had perhaps one or maybe two runs left. He says “get ready to run” so I run.
And that is when it happened “Little Bunny Rabbit” came into my head. For those of you who don’t know, this is a rather strange, in my opinion, track. It always seems to be playing when I am feeling ploddy and like Lady Hippo. I have already listened to it earlier today, but then I suddenly get the giggles. You see, I now imagine myself as a bunny hopping about a field, stopping now and then, twitching my whiskers and shaking my little white fluffy tail! As I am daydreaming about this scene, very much à la Disney, a very sensible lady walks past on the opposite side of the road. I think I must have a ridiculous grin on my face (thinking of my bunny hopping) and notice that she is looking at me in an extremely sober fashion. I then think, thank goodness she can’t read my thoughts, try to compose myself and smile sensibly at her, wish her GM, and run on. I think I failed dismally! Never mind, because I glance down and notice a lot of tiny red holly berries on the ground. They are all sprinkled in a haphazard fashion on the roadside, but they look beautiful. I feel a smile cross my face again.
Oh my, and what is more, I am now running downhill. Yippee, I have that feeling of gay abandon you get when travelling down a helter-skelter. I want to shout “weeee” as I run down the little hill, but just imagine it instead. Then, realising that I am coming to a road junction, I slow down to take care of the traffic. No traffic, so I can run across the road.
Finishing my run, my cool down brings me home too soon, so I go up and round a few times, then decide to go “walkie round the garden like a teddy bear”. Problem is, my garden is pretty small, and after three laps, despite the grass being beautifully soft underfoot due to moss (oops), it is becoming really rather boring. Then another track begins on my podcast and so I go back outside to begin walking down the hill. Good news, just as I start to walk past my house, the AAM announces “your cool down is complete”. Fab, I can get back home to write to you all! (Stretches first, though!)
Happy running everyone!
Week 5 run 2
Consolidation Run 2 - Another 4K !
