Within about ten paces, the rain had started in earnest. Within half a mile it was hail, and I was so cold I was regretting my decision to go anyway. I also had this niggling thought in my mind that I had just started up running and not locked my car. Not ideal when I had just dumped my laptop, work phone and personal phone, along with all my other personal belongings in the boot! I decided to speed up, take a short cut and get back to the office ASAP. My ears were so cold that my head was seriously hurting - I'm sure you've all felt that pain before - and my hands were totally numb, despite running a relatively fast mile (for me!) at 8.57.
When I got back to my car, I had indeed left it unlocked. So, all in all it was the correct decision to cut that run short!!
Still, I was a bit frustrated, as I had been looking forward to just heading out for a longer slower run, to try and build my mileage up for my first 10k in a few weeks. I've not run further than 4 miles so far, so I need to sort that out! As soon as I hit the motorway for the journey home, the sun came out, which didn't help, although there was a beautiful rainbow!
When I got home the sun was still out, although the clouds in the distance still looked quite ominous. I donned a rather fetching ear buff, gave myself a stern talking to and headed out again. And I am so glad I did - that two miles was one of the best runs I have done in ages! I haven't run around Hermitage for a little while now, because there are no street lights in the village so running after work needed to happen at work on lit footpaths over the winter. But now the clocks have changed and summer is on the way, there is plenty of daylight to run at home, and it is good for me as it is a bit more undulating. I only did a couple more miles at a nice easy pace, but I really enjoyed it and I'm quite proud of myself that I tried again, after the first run had been so horrible!
And even better? That nice easy pace, enjoyable little run? It was a PR over that route. Hurrah!!!!
