Well, that was cold. Having had an absurdly mild November so far, the sudden drop in temperature on Friday night came as a bit of a shock to the running system. In fact, thinking about last winter, there were very few days cold enough to even require gloves, so it’s been a long time since I had to fish out base layers and buffs and the like. Saturday morning was a particular eye opener – or rather, eye-closer, since when the temperature drops my eyes start streaming and I can’t see a thing. When I used to cycle regularly to work this meant that, during winter, many a concerned passer-by or fellow cyclist used to ask if I was ok. Clearly they thought I’d just had terrible news, rather than leaky tear ducts …
Anyway at around 8am on Saturday quite a few hardy souls were, like me, ‘warming’ up for the Battersea 10k in sleet. I started the race unable to feel my own toes so was fairly happy to finish in a solid-if-nowhere-near-PB 40m 39sec, especially as I somehow – despite not looking at my watch once (or perhaps because?) ran the most even splits I’ve ever run in my life. The Battersea 10k series attracts a pretty speedy bunch of club runners and as the last one of the season, this week’s was particularly good – just looking at the women, of 75 racing, eight went under 40 minutes which is, I imagine, a pretty impressive proportion compared to most races of that size.
Then yesterday’s long(ish) run was along the Thames, on a cold but much nicer day with that lovely, slightly hazy winter sunshine. Runners were out in force, as were the dog walkers. And one particularly idiotic man running on the north side of the river with two dogs off the lead, music cranked up loudly, oblivious to the fact that his dogs were both leaving mess on the pavement and doing their best to trip up absolutely everyone, from runners to toddlers on bikes. Unimpressed.
So, how was your weekend running? Those in the UK may have been digging out the gloves and hats but plenty of you elsewhere will probably have been wearing them for some time – or in the case of the southern hemisphere contingent, just getting into the summer gear. As always, share your stories and triumphs below the line.
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