So the world didn't end last night and this now means I'm behind on my Christmas shopping, caution being my approach prior to the Mayan Apocalyptic deadline. To celebrate continuing life, albeit wetter than usual, I took a gentle run down to the woods this morning. My leg is still hurting, but a call to Wayne suggested I could still run, but needed to tape up and be prepared to stop. I did stop, many times, mostly to take photos but also not wanting to do too much more damage. The tape didn't last long!
These next few days, I do have a calendar of runs I want to do, none of them overly ambitious, more significant as events rather than efforts. Christmas ParkRun tomorrow at Bramhall Park. Any excuse really to wear a silly hat. Then on Christmas Eve it's the increasingly traditional (now on it's 3rd occasion) Christmas Eve Shuttlingsloe Sunrise Run. There's a clue in the title and my good friends have on the whole been overlooking the significance of this, chirping up with annoying requests.
'Can we go later', 'can we run locally', 'can it be on the the 27th'...and so on. Obviously, I say no and will drag them out. I rather suspect they'll feel all the better for it afterwards, but I'll have to put up with some moaning beforehand. And indeed there has been plenty of moaning already. Pete, Captain of Industry, individually responsible for delivering National Economic Growth figures on target is working Christmas Eve, and rather than expressing his deep disappointment at not being able to join us, he thinks we should all be working also.
Last year on this run is when I realised that nagging pain in my foot was something more serious than first thought, rendering me hardly able to walk towards the end. A stress fracture of the heel was later diagnosed. As I write this, I have an icepack on my leg determine to lay that ghost to rest! The final race of season I intend to run is the club Christmas Handicap. There's nothing like a bit of skewed competition to get everyone excited and fuelled with a fleeting sense of hope!
Down in the woods today, it was very wet and did actually look a little Apocalyptic in places. There'a an area where trees have fallen into some swamp ground, an area that floods when the water is up, that collects mist when the air is heavy and that no man has passed through in years. Kind of beautiful. As the sun rose, it looked like there was a little hope for the day. A bit of blue sky, another appointment with Wayne and a degree of energy needed to do battle in the shops! Mayan Calendar anyone?
