Hair shirts

hair shirt: a penitent’s garment of haircloth.

I'm sure that to non-runners, it must seem like runners are only happy when they're suffering. Whilst we don't usually go as far as wearing a hair shirt, it does contain more than an element of truth. The old saying "No pain, no gain" is undoubtedly true if we want to excel (or at least improve) in any competitive physical sport. Whether we're happy when we're suffering, I leave for the philosophers, all I know is that I willingly accept the necessity of pushing myself out of the comfort zone.

Getting back to the hair shirt though, on Sunday my long run was somewhat spoiled by a bad choice of running top. It was a nice Running Bear wool/synthetic mix running top that wicks nicely and is very comfy. What it isn't good for is wearing underneath a rucksack as I discovered. Thanks to my customary nipple tape, my nipples were fine. It was everywhere else that suffered! I've never had so many abrasions over my chest and around my waist before. Showering was a veritable scream-fest. It just goes to show how easy it is to make a bad choice and how important it is to find out what works before an important ultra event.

The run itself was a great release after the stresses of the previous week and I enjoyed all but the last mile or two when the hills had ceased being challenging and had just become annoying. To give me some incentive to do a long run I decided to run up to the Failford Inn from home, a distance of just over 19 miles where my wife and friends were going to join me for some beer and dinner. From my point of view it worked out fine, what the other folk in the bar thought I don't know. ;-) As I didn't set off until 3:30, I was using my headtorch from Oswalds Bridge onwards, laregly due to the heavy tree cover that effectively brings an early nightfall.

Despite having run that section of the River Ayr Way several time, I still managed to get lost on a couple of occasions, once just before Stair where the path appears to carry on along the river side (but actually turns sharp left) and once between Stair and Failford where there are multiple paths in the river gorge, all of them looking equally valid when covered in leaves. Fortunately I didn't make any major misjudgements or lose too much time. I did start to worry about what I would do if my torch failed as it was very dark by this time, there was no mobile phone reception and feeling ones way out of the River Ayr gorge at that point would be a very dodgy exercise. Fortunately my torch was fine but I think if I'm going to go running on my own again in such a remote spot I'll carry a back-up torch just in case.

All in all though, it was a nice run and I feel a bit readier than I did before it for our first 24 mile training run on the WHW this weekend. I'm still agonising over whether to have my traditional bowl of Cullen Skink & bacon Sarnie at the halfway point - in the past, the cause of considerable suffering on the return leg of the run. ;-)

On Tuesday it was the club 5K time trial and I was hopeful of improving on my time back in September (20:53). Well, I did improve, but not by much (20:50). It was a much windier night though and nearly everyone's time suffered so I suppose I should be happy that my time was better despite the wind. I reckon I could have been nearer 20:30 had it not been so windy. Still, it seems a long time since I was able to knock out a sub-20 5K without too much difficulty. :-(