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| Inclement weather doesn't stop a happy runner |
Day 120
20 miles covered, just two weeks until the taper. Time is running out. Worrying niggles around ankle and right heel, which I hope will be dampened when I cut back on mileage and increase swimming.
A fellow Kent AC woman joined me for the Sunday long run. Jacqui is a clinical psychiatrist and a lecturer. She's interesting to talk to and the miles flew by. She was cock-a-hoop when she realised that this morning's was the longest run she's ever achieved. The conditions were challenging, too, thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Big puddles gathered at the pavement kerbs, which meant passing buses gave us a further shower. You try to keep off main roads as much as you can, but sometimes the link from park to park is a busy 'A' road, making conversation difficult.
Conversation is an all-important factor on these Sunday runs. Last Sunday's 18 miler was accompanied by music, as none of my Kent AC buddies was available. It's better when there's someone else. It struck me, as Jacquie and I compared notes on work/life balance, marriage, childrearing, difficult students and challenging deadlines, that my social circle, or at least the social circle that revolves around running, has been so enriched by Kent AC. If it were not for the club, all of my friends would be roughly my age, my class and in the media. Thanks to Kent, I can count doctors, builders, personal trainers, lawyers, scientists, academics and shop workers as my friends.
When, as during these past days, I have felt inclined to brood on life's little complications and certain insurmountable problems I have brought upon myself, running has chased the blues away. Today, running through the stair-rod rain and shrieking wildly with Jacquie, I forgot to navel gaze, for a couple of hours, at least.
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