Karen writes: Saturday excuses almost won

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Sometimes things just don’t go right.  The excuses to not run today were stacked up, with sick children (now improving...just at the grumpy stage),  the kitten still sneezing  (recovering from catflu enough to become a hazard to itself again...leaving the toilet lid down is the new habit in the house), then this afternoon the water pump got a leak and drained most of the watertank before it was spotted.   I wasn’t going for a run if I couldn’t come home and have any water, but the pump-man up the road had a spare, and some very very careful water use should hopefully keep us going until the promised heavy rain (please let the rotten weather forecast be right!) arrives.
Jax the SPCA kitten, well again
Anyway, I went out for a 20km slow run and  enjoyed the effects of the windy weather.  I felt like my lungs had too much air when running into the strong wind, it’s the strangest feeling, and when I ended up in a dip or gulley with the wind roaring over the top it felt like the air was really thin as though it had been sucked out.  I love leaning into the wind and feeling it almost hold me up too.   It rained a few times over the 2 hours, but as soon as I had struggled into my raincoat it stopped, so it was easier to leave it off after a while, I dried out fast enough.   It was a different experience from my usual bush running as it got dark quite quickly at only 5pm because of the deteriorating weather.    I was glad to come up the top of the hill and look down at Maraetai and see the curtains of rain heading my way across the water.

So I have done my quota this week in spite of a few glitches, next week things step up quite a lot, 50km to do according to the plan with the longest run 25km.

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