A toe in the water

The recovery plan for my oedema was to run 5kms on a treadmill, then 5km on the road and then a longer run and then it should be ok (as long as I do the 101 other things I had to do to aid recovery). So the dreadmill run was endured (with thanks to CBBC for providing something really mindless to watch); I’ve never panted or sweat so much in my life (and I have run in some very polluted and hot places)! How do people run in gyms?! Any way, instead of running 5km that evening on the road, I fell asleep. I know, that is what treadmill running does to you – bores you to a stupor.

So the next day, I had to be out and about for a good five hours, which really called for a long run in countryside, so off I went to Watford and reverse ran the half marathon off the weekend before. I tested out the foot at 5km and 10km; it seemed to still be attached my foot with behaving ligament so I did 15km and called it a day. Yippee!

It was a WONDERFUL day for a run. Even though I had planned for blue skies and 13C (never trust the BBC), I managed to dig out all my winter kit and extreme high vis because it was about 8C and foggy as Ripper’s London. As @mrafletch said, it was like running in Tupperware. about for a good five hours, which really called for a long run in countryside, so off I went to Watford and reverse ran the half marathon off the weekend before. I tested out the foot at 5km and 10km; it seemed to still be attached my foot with behaving ligament so I did 15km and called it a day. Yippee!

There’s something quite haunting about canals in the fog and other than Cassiobury Park where I started, the route was pretty desolate of company. I couldn’t even find my way out of the park to the canal without asking directions and when people found out I was running to Uxbridge, they thought I was brave. Me, brave?! No just silly. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do something that other people can’t even contemplate.

There was a patch of muddy orange leafed wooded area before I got onto the canal and I just span around in circles with my arms out going “this is all mine – and it’s mine because I run through it.” I get a little giddy when I can throw some clothes and fuel in a tiny camelbak and be out all day frolicking in the woods – it really makes you feel alive.