15 miles

[Charliecat5]

“It’s very hard to understand in the beginning that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners.  Eventually you learn the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants to quit”

I don’t know who said that, but I like it.  I’m running quite a lot at the moment… at least three times a week if not four… and have run the long-haul over successive weekends since returning from the Land Down Under.  The last two weekends have seen Radar and I knock-out 13 milers over Moyleman terrain and the weekend before we crashed a fantastic outing with some of the running greats (Cam, Jules, Sweder, et al.) managing to nail 11 odd miles.

The long runs are not fast – in fact in terms of pace they are nothing to write home about - but they have been fantastically enjoyable.  We’ve run through driving freezing rain, we’ve slid down muddy hill sides on our arses, we run over trails so frozen that they hurt your feet… and we have run through the pitch black. 

A memorable jaunt out with the herd this week started with a cryptic email a couple of hours before we were due to meet suggesting we bring our head torches.   On arrival we discovered that the plan was to run Caburn by the light of our own making.   I also discovered that my torch lacked the ability to actually make light (dead batteries).  Not to worry – I met the criteria to join the run (I had a head torch, they didn’t say it had to work).  As long as I ran on the shoulders of others it was fine.  

The night was freezing, the trails were as firm as you like and the stars shone as those their lives depended on it.  It was beautiful.  We ran across trails I know like the back of my hand… muscle memory and moany and groany (aka my feet) conspired to land every footstep just as I expected it to be.   Running across the field from the dew pond back towards the golf cause was as accurate as an arrow fired from the bow of Legolas, even though I couldn’t see more than a few yards in front me.   Seven and a half miles flew in a tick of a heartbeat.  Glorious running. 

So the point of the quote… I’ve lost that niggling little voice that wants to quit… now all that’s bringing me to a halt is legs that won’t run any further.  At mile 11 this morning as I came off the top of Blackcap the body just kicked in and took off down the hillside.  A friend of mine past on two wheels in the opposite direction … I don’t know what he thought as he passed the grubby, sweaty and grinning loon coming the other way… but I thought life was just brilliant.