James is an annoyingly good runner. And what do I mean by that? He perpetually complains about injury and fitness, then knocks out a sneaky 1.26 half which kills the rest of us who diligently train hard and share our training plans and sessions and never achieve such glories. Annoying. So James had been away for a week, skiing. Our usual Monday evening easy run with the boys, wasn't so much stories about the skiing, but listening to James telling us about his niggles and how much he'd been eating and drinking...
... and generally not running, as he played the part of a man who was struggling with our comfortable pace. A few of us pursued, probed and questioned the validity of his statements. But not Pete, he remained tight lipped...listening, taking it all in, saying nothing. And then perhaps sensing the lack of bite, James flipped it round and asked Pete directly, not Chris and I, knowing he'd get a nonsense of an answer, but straight to Pete..."how about you Pete, been doing any training?" He gave a lingering pause, into which we all fell, then a derisory snort...
His response was magical, a killer single statement that was at the other end of non-fact scale, but dealt a disturbing unease into James's heart, you could sense his angst. "I've been doing loads" he replied deadpan, no detail, no numbers, no qualification...just a well placed forehand volley return that won the point. James was floored, Chris and I quietly chuckled. Non of us were any the wiser after this sandbagging contest about the efforts of either of them. And neither did it matter...it was fun to listen to this jostling and chest puffing!
Last night, the same group with the addition of the current Mrs Eyre, conversation was regarding the relative merits of shaving foam brands and the thickness of good quality carpet underlay. Zoe declared if this is all we talk about, she wasn't coming with us again...the term she used was 'boring bastards'. I enjoy these runs...again, it's not about the running, or clearly the banter...but just companionship! It's XC Nationals this weekend and the end of my diligent Winter Series...which quite literally didn't have any point and didn't count!
