Frustrated with everything, I needed to run yesterday. Almost a week since I'd done any exercise, I simply had to get out...to let the pressure off. Thing is, it was a sticky hot day, but I like this. Again, it's that all consuming heat that envelopes you, like being in a sauna, but outside, or like California! So off I went. Lunchtime, and 27C and sunny. Nice. Until I soon realised that this was quite different.
Not run on a weekday lunchtime before. Everywhere was teeming with people. Down at the Carrs, it was more like Hyde Park than a tiny patch of green in Wilmslow. Families picnicking, office workers chilling, kids playing, ladies who lunch, secret liaisons...it was all here...in my space. Everything was fine at first, mildy irritated, but also a little entertained by how this space is different things to different people, despite the attachment you have with it. I guess the townsfolk are lucky to be able to enjoy a day like this. Up towards to the woods, I hear screaming, jubilant triumphant cheering. Children playing.
So I jinx right and head out towards the relative peace and quiet of the airport. Down the roads, there are no distractions, just me...and the heat. The heat...crikey it's hot. I'm hot...very hot. Down past the perimeter fence, no planes for me to watch today, just the road. I start to really struggle and get that all too familiar prickly shivering. Time to ease back. I decided not to go back through the woods, but head up the hill to the farm. In my head, I know this run is over and really I need to stop and walk. I managed to keep moving up the hill, but once the farm is in sight, I walk. A walk turns into a stop, the stop submits to a sit down. And some nosy cow company to distract my thoughts. 
I decide I'm not feeling very well and have clearly exceeded my abilities and not taken heed of the conditions. Despite drinking well for most of the morning, I thought I'd be ok, but must have pushed too hard, instead of just enjoying a simple run out. Looking around, I see a sign for an electric fence and wonder if I might need this to jolt me back to life. It's a long walk home from here! Clouds have come over, trapping the hot air underneath them. Humid, it's trying to rain and the distant rumble of thunder. All very dramatic, I manage to pick up a lite jog and hold my head high as I pass the Mill and back through the park. Put this one down to experience.
But a run is a run, and I acknowledge that I'm lucky I can.
