…it was awful and wonderful all at the same time.My plan was to get up this morning and go for a run. I woke up, dozed off again, felt tired and sluggish and decided there was no way on this earth that I was well enough to run. I had a fairly productive work morning instead. Then, about 11.30ish I started running out of steam. Marking formative student work took longer than it should, I was unfocused… I decided I’d go for a run. Then I procrastinated a bit and mulled that thought over. Then I got changed. In my head I had this notion of an amazing, easy, evenly and fast paced 5k that would see me coming home in glorious sunshine barely having broken a sweat and certainly not huffing and puffing. Well I knew that was fantasy – the sun’s not shining for a start. So for once in my life I thought I’d be realistic. My aim was run to see the sheep and back. Not even the furthest field, just the first field. A round trip of 1.6 miles.

After a few minutes doing battle with the Garmin (I seem to have forgotten how to set it up) I set off at a gentle jog down the hill. Hm, not too bad really. Then I turned right and started up the hill. Oh bother. There was a bloke walking quite fast just ahead of me so I focused on catching him and as I nearly had him it occurred to me that I couldn’t possibly stop now. I mean how silly would that look. So I just tried to keep running a little faster than he was walking. Shit, are your lungs supposed to burn like that?

I turned left and gratefully waddled down hill. I was struggling to get my breath back and recover. I saw a friend of ours who was just loading his van for a trip to his caravan and was more than happy to stop for a quick chat. I stopped the watch, had a brief natter and then carried on. Bugger, forgot to start the watch again. I arrived at the sheep. 8 very pregnant ewes lying in the field looking thoroughly fed up. One ewe is possibly due tomorrow and she was separated. I watched her for a bit but no sign of anything imminent so I plodded on a little bit, said a quick hello to the tups in field 2 and turned round. I stopped for another breather at the ewes again and then set off for the long slog home. I made the first slope. Walked a few steps and then kept running.

I had to walk again a couple of times coming up the next slope and when I finally got to the top and turned right to go downhill my head was pounding with every step. I decided I wouldn’t try to run Ilkley Road, I barely manage that on a good day, but would instead power walk that. Just as I got to the last corner with the last nasty little slope our friends, the ones I’d seen earlier,  came up the road in their van – I set off running and the beep of encouragement and their wave gave me the last bit of energy to power up the slope and round the corner into our road. It was hard, horrible and slow but it was so good to be out. I feel better than I did before I went and am having a pretty productive afternoon. All assessments marked and teaching for next week prepped so I have the weekend free to do nice things – like maybe that 5k in glorious sunshine that leaves me glowing rather than a sweaty whimpering mess? Yeah that.