.........and so time passes…..
It has been a couple of weeks since my left knee decided it didn’t want to support my weight and I glumly looked at a total layoff of unknown length. However, my physio friend proffered the advice that cycling would be beneficial, keeping the knee mobile and strengthening the surrounding muscles to boot. I have only managed three bike rides…….it is so much less convenient than popping out of the door for a run……. but the knee was feeling good and this morning I set out to test it with a very gentle short run.
When I headed out of the door into the cool morning the magnificently full harvest moon was suspended at the top of the hill, looking as if it could be plucked out of the sky, it appeared so clear and so close. After four years of running, pacing is still the most difficult issue, but today it was to be my home 5k route, minus the loop round the school and I made myself start very gently. It was a relief to find my knee feeling strong as I headed South down the grassy ridge with the massive moon sliding gently toward the hazy Western horizon, with Dartmoor brooding in the distance.
Heading down Breakheart Hill, I was aware that my knee is still a bit sensitive but by keeping stride short and pace slow the bottom was reached without a problem. Across the railway and I turned my back on the setting moon to face the glow of the Eastern sky, dirty pink and watery azure, white slashed by the trails of morning flights heading South. Isn’t this the best time of year to run? Well, it was this morning.
A thin low mist hung over the water meadows and a pair of surprisingly brazen grey herons strutted nonchalantly across the field, keeping only one wary, beady eye on me as I plodded happily alongside the hedgerows, still strewn with glistening blackberries and dull blue black sloes.
Grey oaks, silhouetted against the lightening sky and the raucous call of the rooks made me smile………….did I ever mention that I do that when I am running? Out of the fields, along the track and onto the road for another couple of hundred metres and then I saw the rising sun as I crossed the railway line again. Shimmering orange, it hung benignly over the track burnishing the curving steel lines to a startling gold.
Up the lane and onto the footpath up Longdrag Hill, that was almost my nemesis in W6 of C25k, forcing me to change my route to avoid finishing uphill. Today I was probably running no faster than I did in that run four years ago, but I was considerably more comfortable now than back then, with the warm sun on my neck. Out at the top, through the estate and my run stopped, where so many have over the years and to my delight and satisfaction, I saw that my pace was almost 40 seconds per kilometre slower than my recent pace and almost two minutes slower than than my 5k PB pace.
It may seem strange to some of you newer runners that I should be so pleased that I managed to run so slow, but 75% of our running should be at an easy pace, which I have in the past found difficult to maintain, so this very easy pace, designed to give my ageing body a chance to catch up, is a great joy.
A beautiful autumn run, a solid feeling knee that still needs some careful nurturing and one smugly satisfied runner adds up to a great comeback run.
The bike? Tomorrow is rest day………...so maybe a sneaky 25k jaunt along the lanes…….it serves its purpose.
Keep running, keep smiling.
x
I will keep trying, and I will think of you as I am running and smiling 
Week 8 day 1
W7R2 - Run Report - Finally!!!
Week 2 Run 1 - Outnumbered and Out of Breath
It's a wonderful day; it's wonderful to run in it!
