It’s taken me 3 days to get back out running, I’ll admit I lost a bit of motivation somewhere between the insane heatwave and picking up a couple of nasty mosquito bites on the ankle and shin. The result of standing around in the middle of the night in shorts waiting for a puppy to do its business.
I react very badly to bites since a bite a few years back that developed into full-blown cellulitis creeping up my leg. So a couple of days of antihistamines luckily did the trick once again and the swelling finally receded. Unlike the heat.
I was honestly going to welch out today. I had convinced myself I needed another day to recover (or avoid the heat). Luckily, I’ve been finding motivation in such times in the Reddit C25K forum. If you are doing C25K or planning to do C25K do yourself a favour and give it a try. It’s just real people doing sweaty impressions of beetroots.
Anyway, it worked. Two posts, in particular, did the trick. Nobodez hitting W6D1 . The dude is rapidly becoming a legend on the forum, and Gaffaj who’d just done his W1D1 in the same heat I was currently hiding from. It was the kick up the arse I needed to get back out there.
So, back out to the local park. It was just past 7pm and it must have been 32c+ with most of that radiating back off the baked tarmac. But there is hope, a cool wind is picking up and in the distance, some interesting looking cloud formations are forming. The possibility of storms has been forecast. I’m seriously considering offering up a rain dance, to break this drought. I need the rain, my poor pup needs the rain and my lawn most desperately needs the rain.
Off we go at a steady pace. Laura checks in at the 5-minute mark. It truly is amazing only weeks earlier I thought running 5 minutes was madness. Now I struggle to settle down into my running in 5 minutes. The shooting pain I had in my knee at the end of the last run hasn’t resurfaced so that’s a positive.
At the ten minute mark, Laura checks in again, which caught me out. I was expecting it. I’m definitely into my running at 10 minutes, heading up the incline for the second time. At 14 mins, halfway and Laura checks in again. Dear god, I’m trying to run here give it a break. Head down again and I know I’m putting some real effort in. Somewhere around the 18m mark, I was heading up the incline for the 3rd time.
This last stretch seems to be dragging. Where’s Laura? Come back all is forgiven! I’m starting to have to dial it back a bit. Another trip up the incline is going to be tough. Best not to get to panty. Where’s Laura? FFS she’s gone off in a huff. I’m starting to think the app has crashed and then she chimes in “5 minutes to go … you got this”. Damn you, oh 5 minutes you say, yipee!
The last 5 minutes were tough, I won’t lie, I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth, trying not to dig into what little reserves I had left. I hadn’t had a single negative thought in the whole 20 minutes period. Not one. That’s unprecedented. But at the 23-minute mark, I’ve got an entire chorus screaming for me to stop and they’re trying every trick in the book to get me to quit this abuse. Where the hell is Laura with the 60 second left alert, I’m dying here.
Laura finally pipes up, and I actually groaned. I’m dead on my feet and I’ve got another minute. I can make it, I will make it but it’s going to …. hang on what? What did you say? It’s over? I’m still running I can’t believe it I must have misheard, there’s always a last 60 seconds announcement. I’m playing tricks on myself, surely. Laura starts the post-run cooldown chat, I can believe it, she’s getting her own back on my mid-run snappiness.
And then it happened. At first, I thought it was sweat hitting my hand, but no there it was again, it’s …… R A I N. The prophecy (forecast) is true and the heavens open …
We runners have a saying, God created C25K to test the faithful. One cannot go against the word of God (Laura)! Damn I should have the Dune soundtrack playing. I’m amazed Toto didn’t do more soundtracks.
The park by this point is empty. No one to witness my “stagger strut” to the exit. The rain is coming down so hard it’s bouncing back off the ground to waist height. W8D1 done and rain in the desert, what more could I ask for. A great end to a tough run and a reminder that I almost missed out because of my laziness.
