Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Running Up That Hill

by Russell Turner - 16:56 on 05 April 2020

Another week in lockdown, another missed race. Today should have found Matchgirl and me in action in the Glenlivet 10k in glorious Speyside; that’s another the coronavirus has kippered. A new date has yet to be found but chances are that, like Wigan and Alloa, it will clash with a gig, a better race or not fit in with marathon preparations. We’ll see.

Matchgirl was not to be denied, especially as the weather was good and she had the 10k distance factored into her Edinburgh training (for the old date – she still plans to do a virtual marathon in May), so she ran the route I covered last week for my latest PB triumph and did so a minute faster despite a major tractor hold-up and a face-off with a car on a single-track road. I hope the driver’s journey was a necessary one.

I’m following a half marathon plan which today called for an eight-mile long run with the second four miles faster than the first. To ensure that I obeyed I set myself at the local Big Hill, which rises 180 metres in 2.5 miles – a significant gradient. I needed to stop for a breather 10mins from the top but made it, then continued to the four-mile mark where I turned around.

The mostly downhill return trip was much more pleasant, and enlivened by the sight of several puffing cyclists (all socially distant from each other) grinding their way uphill, and a car driver who was most reluctant to pull out, which she did at the last second, despite having a perfect view of empty road ahead. Doubtless another vital journey.

More training runs will take place next week, and the occasional shopping trip. Apart from that, life continues indoors. Many books have been read, most of the complete Line of Duty series has been rewatched on iPlayer and good inroads made into Bosch on Amazon Prime. I’ve also got the latest season of Outlander ahead of me; Matchgirl, who’s not a fan, will make do with Bones and a plethora of cookery shows.

And if all other entertainment fails, there’s always the garden to tidy up. If the pandemic lasts that long.

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