mad dogs and englishmen

i landed in manchester at zero dark thirty in the morning, headed through customs, grabbed my bag and hired a taxi for the drive into congleton.  fortunately, the hotel had been notified of my early arrival and had someone to sort out my room.  i grabbed something to eat, took a short snooze and then got my gear ready for a long run.

the thing i enjoy about staying in congleton is that there are quite a number of trails and canals to run on.  after a short bit on the roads, i have access to an endless number of options for running on dirt.  for the days run, i planned to run for 20ish miles or around 3 hours.  i loaded the pack with gu, gatorade endurance mix and 100oz of water, grabbed a hand held, put on the salomon kit and i was out the door.

after the long layover in phili the day before and 97f highs with 90% humidity, the 70f and relative low humidity felt wonderful.  the trail i had picked was mostly shaded by trees as well, so even when there was full sun, it was only briefly.  the grade was a mellow uphill on the way out and was a welcome change from all the long, hard climbing i've been doing over the past few weeks.

by the time i hit the turn around it was close to noon and the day was actually beginning to take a turn for the warmer.  the breeze had died down a bit and the temperature had crept up into the 80's.  as i headed back, the warmth, lack of sleep (2 hours in the past two days) and constant sitting in terminals and airports was beginning to take it's toll.

really, though, it was some of the best training i could have done.  continuing to run when it was getting warm and i was completely fatigued will prepare me for the long challenge of next week.  two thoughts kept running through my head as i continued back down the trail.  first, i continued to remind myself that it never always gets worse.  at some point, conditions will reverse.  and if they don't, then i'm dead and it doesn't matter anymore.  second, only mad dogs and englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.  i guess that makes me rabid.  maybe i should change the sub title of the blog.  haha

i finally cruised back into the car park behind the hotel, stretched and headed back to the room.  i was tired, a little sore, but thankful to have logged a solid 20+ miles (nokia died again after 11.4 miles) after a rough trans-continental/trans-atlantic journey. 

cleaned up and into the local pub for some dinner, i started nodding off while watching a darts competition.  at that point, i wasn't sure if it was due to my fatigue, or to the boredom that is watching darts.  at least it wasn't a cricket match.

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Posted by jeff at June 8, 2008 2:12 PM