December 2010

[Sweder]

I stepped out into bright winter sunshine, strapped on my Garmin and sucked in a lungful of iced oxygen. The first arctic blast scythed through my lycra layers, shrinking more than capillaries as it dissected my spine and charged on through my back to whip away across the ghost-white town.

Deep freeze wasn't the only challenge this morning. Temperatures knocking on the door of minus seven teamed up with a soul-chilling wind and the heaviest frost of the season to coat the roads and pavements in polished glass. The lethal layer slithered off the road and up the well-trod downland path, making my initial ascent a highly comical fusion of drunken stagger and anxious mince.

Happily the downs proper offered relatively untrammelled safety. Here the frost formed a thin crust across crunchy, yielding snow, the perfect plodders' pavlova on which to run. Willow, my doubty Cocker Spaniel, scampered along, ears flapping, thrilled to be free of the wet snow ice-balls that usually attach themselves to her feathers. I slugged out the hard yards, climbing the slopes to the stables against an unrelenting wall of invisible ice, the cruel north-westerly wind banking hard off the ridge to slap my face as it screamed towards the sleepy Lewes valley.

We managed 5.6 kilometres in all. I reached the foot of Mount Harry only to skate horribly on slick marble as I wrestled with the gate. It was pure Buster Keaton and quite enough to dissuade me from going any further. Visions of spending Christmas day in casualty saw me head homeward down the slippery, wind-assisted slopes, sunshine drying the wind-tugged tears on my cheeks as I picked up the pace.

My post-run shower thawed me out, blanched skin turning lobster-pink as steam filled the bathroom, adding a misty fur to the window view. I could have stayed in there for hours but for my duties, together with number one son, as Christmas lucheon Masterchef.

Season’s greetings one and all. Safe travels and, if you get the chance to get out into this winter wonderland, be careful out there.