Runstreak Day #187 - flies, mozzies and things that buzz in the evening...

Flippin' heck tonight's run was plagued by small buzzing things.  I don't know what my running must look like when I'm in the middle of a swarm of flying nuisances... one arm with my hand up, covering my mouth and nose, the other arm vaguely flapping as it misses its running partner.  Imbalanced and chaotic.

There I am, trying to concentrate on not heel striking - mainly because I can feel that it feels better when I don't - but on the top half, flapping and breathing like Darth Vadar to avoid inhaling half the bug population of Nottingham.

Why is it that all the flat running around me involves going down to the river... which involves battles with the things that buzz?!  A nice flat street to run on, that'd suit me fine!

Am going to attempt a much longer run this Sunday and am nervous that I won't manage it.  It's funny how a run that feels difficult rattles your confidence in that moment... and yet in the longer run, it builds your confidence that you can survive the trickier stuff.

Come on brain... get it together!


Geeky stats stuff

Distance:

3.34 mi

Time:	27:35
Moving Time:	27:36
Elapsed Time:	29:33

Avg Pace:	8:16 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace:	8:16 min/mi
Best Pace:	6:53 min/mi

Runstreak Day #171 - FLIES!!!!

The weather was supposed to be all kinds of crazy today. Instead it was okay. A bit of rain overnight then nothing much during the day. In fact, I doubted that it was going to bucket with rain... until I went for a run with my littlest coming along with me on his bike. And *then* it decided to start raining. Well, whatever the meteorological equivalent is of essentially tipping a bucket of water over both of us and drenching us within seconds. Running in the rain is okay... once you're wet, you're wet. And it was fine for the first mile or so.  Fun almost.

What wasn't so okay was that once the rain has stopped the flies were unleashed. LOADS of the damn things. They got in my eyes. I choked on them. My hair. My face. URGH!!!

In fact, by the time it came to running back to the car, my speed had increased to a panicky 'must escape' pace and it was bloomin' hideous!  I hadn't even got my sunglasses on to protect my eyes because it had been raining when I started out.  So I'm there, squinty eyed, breathing in some random nose / almost close-mouthed way... going at full pelt just to get away from the clouds of flies which, by now, seem to be absolutely everywhere.  At one point I think it's started pouring again... but it hasn't.  It's just loads and loads of flies raining down on me.  With relief, I get back to the car, almost snagged in a bramble as I go, but I don't care... I just want it to be over.

Picture the scene.  I've just finished my most fly infested run ever.  I'm waiting for my son... dry retching by the car.  I'm wet.  There are flies in my eyes and my eyes are streaming.  There are flies in my hair.  I'm muddy.  Sweating.  When my son gets back to the car and I'm loading his bike into the back, some how I manage to cut my thumb.

Bleeding.  Eyes red and watering profusely.  Coughing.  Filthy.  Soaked to the skin.  Losing my rag with the damn flies.

Yet at no point does my brain go 'running sucks, let's not do that again'.

Go figure.  :o)

Geeky stats stuff