Run with a tumble!

Having been feeling so lethargic, I needed to get my act together for my pre-arranged run with my friend Jon.  In the end it was a run with a tumble!

I drove over to Harpenden to meet Jon at his new pad.  As I followed his directions, this involved driving down a hill just before I reached his home and I thought “I bet we are running up this hill in a minute” and sure enough, we were.

Jon had a route in mind and I was hoping it would allow us to run alongside each other, social distancing of course.  He nailed it, absolutely perfect.  We went through little country lanes, a few trails, along the side of fields and passed the millionaire houses (they’re ten-a-penny in Harpenden).

I like to think in previous times, we have been well matched in terms of our fitness.  Nowadays Jon seriously has the edge on me – but was very gracious when I gasped “JUST SLOW DOWN WILL YA!!!!!”

In the second half of the run, where the surface was very smooth and slightly sandy, I managed to trip up and went flying!  It was almost like one of those Tom and Jerry films when I flew through the air, suddenly suspended in midair and then crash landed.  Of course it all happened in a split second.

Jon stopped, looked concerned and asked if I was okay.  I was a bit winded and just sat there for a minute or two.

“oh mate” he said “you’ve done it again!  Remember the last time?”

I did.  We had been running my favourite hilly run and less than half a mile from home I tripped up on something, managing to skin the palm of a hand and forearm, with some blood for good effect.  Now I’ve stopped of accusing Jon of being jinxed or anything. Nevertheless I did, just for a moment, wonder whether running with Jon was such a good idea.  Then I remembered all of the other times I have fallen over on my own.

So I got up, though feeling a bit jolted and bashed around and dusted myself off.  I suggested we restart by walking and after a hundred yards I started to jog and then running.  I was feeling like I’d run into a brick wall.

The conversation picked up again.  Something about property development, capital gains tax and things like that.  Actually, we talk about a million things when we run together; that’s the nice thing about someone like Jon and how we can, unconsciously, meander through many different topics as the miles drift by.

Talking of miles, we did almost 8 miles and the pace was good for me at 9:17mins/mile.  Jon was clearly dragging me along and I was undoubtedly holding him back but somehow or other we found the happy medium.

Happily we finished by running down the hill I had huffed and puffed my way up at the start.  We chatted outside his front door and both mulled over how we could scoff the 1,000+ calories we had just burnt off.

We agreed that Jon would drive over to Dunstable for our next run in a couple of weeks.  That’ll be nice, providing the broken rib has healed.


Footnote: yes I am 99% sure I have broken a rib.  Second one down, under my collar bone, left hand side.  Flippin hurts especially if I sneeze, cough, lift anything, bend over…..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.