Hello Lakes

So, 6 miles for my 'long' run this week, back home in the beautiful Lakes. I did it on Sunday. A Sunday of unbroken sunshine, dire warnings of UV exposure on the telly and with half a bottle of champagne inside me because it was my wife's birthday and, well, driniking champagne on your patio in the sunshine is such a rare treat that it seemed churlish not to help finish it.
Still, I left it a couple of hours thinking that I would have detoxed a bit and it would have got cooler. I was wrong on both counts. Nonetheless I headed out, with the plan of running out for 3 miles and then turning back.
This would have worked well if, at 2.8 miles I wasn't working my way round the perimeter of a newly-sown field trying to find where the footpath went. With the heat and the low sun, the thought of 'Sod it' went through my mind and I decided to turn round there and then and tack the extra 0.4 mile on the end.
This turned out to be an inspired idea because that final 0.4 was through the most gorgeous mixed meadow, full of calf-high buttercups and clover, alive with insects. The sun caught the face of each of the flowers turning the meadow into a pointilliste jewel.
So I had all that and little champagney burps all the way round. It was the sort of run that training purists would frown upon, but it was a delightful experience all the same. And that's what counts really. I'm not going to shatter records and trouble finishing tapes. It's the experience that counts. But I'm going to leave it a bit longer after the next bottle of shampoo.

Smiley rating 8/10