May 2014

[Charliecat5]

At 8:30 this morning I was standing in the pouring rain next to Jill’s Pond waiting for Sweder to arrive, not because he was late you understand but because I was early. I had already run 1.5 miles including a sharp incline so was struggling to hear over the noise of my pounding heart and gasping breath… however, I needn’t have worried, as before long I could hear something loud and clear, but what was it…

… was it a disease ridden old billy goat wheezing from the other side of the copse? Noooo…

… was it the 8:30 Great Western puffing into the station after a fierce fire roaring trip from Plymouth? Noooo…

… was it a clapped out old Harley Davidson struggling to gain traction up the hill? Noooo…

… was it the strange man of the hills who goes by the name of Sweder?... COULD BE?

And this is how my first run, running with a runner started.

I was nervous to be honest, it wasn’t as though my first run with a runner was with a fellow newbie; it wasn’t even with someone who had only been running for a couple of years; this was a run with Sweder, the man whose reputation goes before him (you can debate what sort of reputation it is that actually goes before him).

So where are we heading he says… let’s try Blackcap and see what happens I say… so off we go at a pace that was slightly above my comfort zone, down through the woods and up over the moor to Mount Harry and then onwards to the top of Blackcap.

And it’s alright so far, it seems that he is better on the flats but the hills are holding the old man back a bit. So a quick jelly baby stop and I ask “where next?” Let’s run over there he says… and very slowly it dawns on me that his finger isn’t pointing back to Lewes, well not the way back to Lewes I was hoping for, but was in fact pointing over the A27 straight towards THE RELENTLESS BASTARD. He can’t be serious! It is only just a week ago since I conquered that bastard, and he wants me to do it again. What could I say… you can’t say no to the Running Man. So off we went.

And funnily enough it was alright… I have discovered that I like running with company - it seems to make the tough bits easier, and the easier bits more enjoyable. Last week when I was running down the steep chalk path back to Kingston I was in agony, this week we seemed to dance down it like a couple of (slightly wonky) mountain goats.

So what I have I learnt from this morning’s experience:

+ He talks a lot

+ Jelly babies are just the thing when out running

+ The tops of my feet hurt - something I have noticed in the last couple of runs – any thoughts welcome.

+ My pace today was 40 seconds a mile slower than when I did this run last week… but I feel better for it. As the man says: it’s time on your feet that counts; not the speed you do it.

+ That the wheezing old billy goat running next to me has got these strange springs in his legs that can just keep going and going and going, whatever the terrain.

+ In the last couple of miles, when he tells you he’s stiffening up… it’s time to put on a spurt (so to speak).

And on that note, I thoroughly enjoyed this morning’s run, and for all my piss taking it was great to be out running with someone else and particularly great to be out running with Sweder. My running enters a new era.