First run of spring

8 miles on the agenda for Saturday. I woke early and had my usual running breakfast: 2 slices of toast and a banana. With coffee. It’s not a lot of calories but fine for this distance and sits well in the tummy. The only snag was that it had frozen hard on Friday night and the footpaths were very icy, so I decided to leave it a bit later to go out, till the sun had a chance to burn off the frost. That meant getting back into bed for a while. No arguments there.

It was about 11.30 before I started. It was still cold, 0 degrees C and felt like -2, but I didn’t overdress. Short sleeves on under an outer layer, which I didn’t end up taking off. I had gloves and a neck buff which I did take off, but put the gloves back on later as the wind was making my knuckles red. There was beautiful winter sunshine however and I wished I had brought my phone to take some photos. However it’s just unnecessary weight to carry, so you will have to imagine how nice it was, despite the cold.

The running was fine, felt good, the cooler temperature really helps with how hard or easy a run feels. At around 6 miles I realised I was close to my parents’ house, so I stopped in to see them for a few minutes. I always enjoy running around where I grew up. My mother said I looked like a teenager. The hot sweaty face must have done that, but I’ll take it! Two miles home then and I was glad to finish but I kept going till 8.2 miles as I didn’t want to walk too far home. All in all a good run, on the first Saturday of spring. Life is good.