Otherwise know as ‘The Attack of the Wheelie Bins’. Running has again been a bit random but I have got much better at doing a little bit of something exercise-y every day. I have been looking forward to Day 1 of the Festive Ultra. We are running 105 miles between us over 12 days. Obviously Kath will be doing way more than me but I want to make my contribution and thought maybe it would be a way to make me get out more consistently. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I was not, however, excited about getting started

For context, it’s this sort of day here today:

And no I didn’t run in the gorgeously bleak Yorkshire Dales today although I was thinking about how nice it will be when I have some fitness back and we can have more adventures out there. For now though I’ll have to settle for driving through stunning scenery (and a lot of water) for a morning cheese themed adventure. Anyway, after we’d got back from our morning outing up to the Wensleydale Creamery and had some lunch, I felt overwhelmingly tired. In the end I gave in and had a nap while Kath went for her run. I’d just woken up when she got back and thought I’d best get myself out there before I could really think about it too much.

Things didn’t really go to plan. I misjudged a puddle within the first few minutes so had soaking wet feet; the gusts of wind were scarily forceful and the rain horizontal. Still, ‘character building’ I thought. I wasn’t planning on going very far anyway, just a short loop of just under 3 miles, so this would all be over soon. I splashed my way to a mile, swore at a van that nearly soaked me to my knickers with the tidal wave it created by going too fast through a puddle and crossed over the road and plodded on.

A little further along I decided to cross onto the other side of the road and I got to the pavement just as a gust of wind took hold of a wheelie bin on a drive way and catapulted it towards me. I didn’t have time to move out of the way but instinctively turned by back to it so it hit my well padded arse. It didn’t really hurt but it unsettled me so I just walked up the hill home. A few minutes away from home another wheelie bin flung itself at my feet. I was too bemused and bothered to take a picture but I stopped a bit further up the hill and snapped this one which had obviously flung itself at someone else.

So, not quite the start I wanted but between us we have 9km on the board – only another 160ish to go. In other news, the Christmas tree we bought yesterday is now up and decorated