Running is an inexpensive hobby in the main. You don't need much. Yet I do find myself 'browsing' from time to time. For what, I don't know, other than something that will make it better, make me better, or make it easier. But to cheer myself up today I have bought not one, not two, but three pairs of running shoes. I can justify each and every purchase...err, but choose not to! I'm having a crack at XC on Saturday. This is my least favourite type of running, yet somehow because of that, I'm drawn to it. Heaton Park, the first of the MACCL fixtures. Laps around a field. Why? As James May, who enjoys driving, beautifully describes the nonsense of driving fast around a track - what is the point of doing something you enjoy so much for the least amount of time possible only to end up back where you started.
Not really much of a journey! I'm not holding my breath. But I will be wearing my new spikes! I've also bought a new head torch. Yet another Petzl, but this one has it's batteries around the back with a proper curly wire connecting the lamp. I look a complete tool with it on, which turns out to be just fine as regrettably there's been no answer from any corner for some night time company to the woods.
So that's as techy as my running gets. Speaking of which, I've had no Internet at home now for almost 3 weeks. Long and dull story, but it's like I'm part of a curious social experiment, and actually I like it. I don't really miss it, but I noticed at first there's much I'm not able to do and most of it seems to be trivial so therefore I'd say it comes under the general banner of frittering my life away. There are other things to do. Actually, I'm missing browsing for new music. Anyway. So my run this evening, it was just a run. Nothing more, nothing less. I was less than enthusiastic, having just seen first the capture and then the blooded body of Gaddafi, Alive one minute, lifeless the next. So sat there feeling lethargic at the thought of not going for a run, yet exhausted at the thought of actually going.
So I drove down to the car park and started from there as I had to be elsewhere later. Though there are many places to run from home, coming back to the car rather than home gives a new dimension to the run, a moment to stretch and unwind, review and reflect, before re-entering the world. In the woods, the leaves are brown, soft, no crunch. The sun was low and I witnessed a slow sun set, capturing a plane heaving it's load of happy passengers into the sky and towards the sun. I, on the other hand, had an appointment with my soul...and the promise of a Chai Latte.
