Wednesday 13 December 2017

I'm not a morning runner but...

... I've run two mornings in a row at 06h00.

Earlier this year I enjoyed a number of weekly evening runs with my neighbour, Andrew. Then I got busy, he got busy with a lot of work travel and then both of us went through bouts of coughing and chest infections. We got out of the groove.

The other day, one of our parkrun friends suggests that we get together during the holidays to all run together - Gerhard, Andrew and me. We set up a whatsapp group. I add Sarel, who lives up the road and runs lots too. Gerhard adds Rob, who moved to town a few months ago and started coming to parkrun. Rob is a wily old runner.

Yesterday morning the five of us hit the road at 06h00 for a 12km run to the airfield and back.

This morning four of us ran through the golf estate (Sarel is out of town).

We're running again tomorrow morning (but not Friday, I think).

Early mornings have never been my strong point and they are less desirable because I am a night owl, favouring the quiet and still hours after 21h00 to work, especially if I have writing to do. I rarely go to bed before midnight and more often, these past months, I go to bed after 01h30. This makes it very hard to get up before my usual 07h00 / 07h30 alarm.

I made an effort to go to bed early (21h30 is early for me!) the past two nights and waking up wasn't a problem. Our meeting point is a quick jog from home and then off we go.

What I have especially enjoyed these past two mornings is getting home to a quiet, fast-asleep house, and sitting with Rusty outside in the garden. She still has a sore paw so she can't come with me. I felt awful leaving her at home yesterday morning but better today as she didn't even get out of her bed to see me off (but she was waiting and watching at the glass door for my return). Rusty is limited to walks still until her sore toe has properly healed - the vet thinks it is an injured tendon or ligament - no broken bones).

I'm definitely going to make a determined effort to join the guys for these morning runs over the next three weeks. Work isn't quite winding down yet but pressure is easing so getting to bed earlier is feasible now and over the holidays.

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