Running – Page 2 – I Walk Alone

Birthdays, bees and blossoms (plus a few graves)

Saturday 2 July 2022 was Southampton parkrun’s 10th birthday. Sadly, event number 448 did not have the brightest, sunniest weather. The wind was whistling across the flats so much the balloons wouldn’t stay still for my photographs, and looking at the clouds, I couldn’t help wondering if we would all stay dry. The possibility of getting wet didn’t appear to have deterred the runners. As the magic hour of nine o’clock approached, more and more people arrived, and the Common began to fill with lots of smiling faces. Soon the crowds began to gather at the start line.

Marathon views

The return to post-COVID normality continued on 24 April 2022, with the ABP Southampton Marathon. The last one, back in May 2019, had been eventful, and I was hoping for a more relaxing time. As usual, Commando was acting as a pacer for the Half Marathon, which meant I had access to the VIP changing rooms. This year they were in the MAST Mayflower Studios rather than across the road in the Sir James Matthews Building. Pre COVID, this was the NST Nuffield Southampton Theatre, which opened in February 2018 as part of the new Cultural Quarter. The original Nuffield Theatre opened on Highfield Campus in 1956. I was lucky enough to see a performance of The Tempest there back in my college days. As far as I can tell, the new theatre was supposed to run alongside the old rather than replace it. Sadly, both were victims of the pandemic and went into administration.

Another pandemic Christmas?

Christmas 2021 was a controversial event. The new Omicron variant of COVID had been tearing through the population but the powers that be were divided on what action to take. On one hand, there were loud calls from some for another stringent lockdown. On the other, there was a lot of evidence that the new variant was relatively benign. The result was a combination of confusion and apathy from the general public. The nations of the UK were divided in their approach, which didn’t help with the confusion. Luckily for me, restrictions in England were ruled out before the New Year. Dire warnings were issued by those who disagreed — hospitals would be overwhelmed — millions would die — it would all be the government’s fault. Hyperbole was flying around like Christmas tinsel. As for me, my Christmas morning was spent at Southampton parkrun.

Mud, paint, park runs and fallen leaves

As 2021 drew to a close my outdoor exercise mostly revolved around parkrun. My first Novel, Plagued, was about to be published and almost every waking moment was consumed by proof reading and panic. The empty boating lake and the bare branches of the trees, like ink blown paintings, were a welcome relief. Even so, my head was buzzing with ideas, flitting between Plagued, in 1918 and my work in progress set in 1937, working title The Luck of the Draw. My plan for the morning was to walk up to the Avenue to try to imagine it with tram lines and trams.

An Omicron Christmas

Twelve days before Christmas 2021, Kim and I were wrapped up against the cold, up to our ankles in mud and taking photographs of yet another cross country race. Meanwhile, the media were doing their best to whip up a storm about the new COVID variant, Omicron. It was spreading like wildfire, but everyone I knew who’d had it described it as a mild cold. Most only knew they had it at all because they’d taken a routine test. Some had no symptoms other than a positive test result. Even so, there was plenty of hype about cancelling Christmas and locking the country down again.

Christmas comes to the Common

As Commando and I headed across the Common to parkrun, on 11 December 2021, we thought the pandemic was all but over. Well, I did anyway. Of course, we were still all wearing masks in shops and things, and washing our hands every five minutes. Ok, so that might just have been me too, but you get the picture. There was an annoying little variant called Omicron, in the news, but it sounded fairly innocuous, nothing but a bad cold really. The first case had hit our shores at the end of November, but no one was especially worried about it. Well, I wasn’t. It sounded to me as if the virus was doing what viruses generally do, getting weaker. In fact I thought it might be good news.

Time machine and preparing to launch

Much of March has been taken up with going through edits and checking the manuscript and proof copies of the paperback and kindle version of Land Fit For Heroes. The process is slow, and it feels quite strange to become so intimate again, with a book I began writing in October 2020. So much water has passed under the bridge since then and all the characters have changed and grown in the subsequent books, it feels a little like stepping into a time machine. Combined with the decidedly peculiar weather (we had snow last week for heaven’s sake), my walking has been curtailed somewhat. Despite all this, I did manage a couple of short walks that didn’t involve just going up the hill for milk.

A two race weekend and a new variant

December 2021 brought a new COVID variant, Omicron and a two race weekend. The former didn’t sound like too much of a worry, all the reports said it was mild, more a sniffly cold than anything. The latter was a different matter. The first of the races, on Saturday 4 December, was a Hampshire Cross Country event in Aldershot, forty odd miles from home. Predictably, we got a bit lost. Things in the car got fraught and we arrived cross and later than planned. There was a rather interesting looking statue on the opposite side of the car park but the women’s race was about to start so there was no time to have a proper look at it.

Typical!

Back to November 2021, and the Manor Farm CC6 came around very fast. It seemed just days since we’d been walking the course talking about marshal points, although it had actually been weeks. It also felt very early to be getting out of bed, throwing on warm clothes and a Dryrobe and setting off into the frosty morning air. Truth to tell, it was early. We had to pick Sergio up on the way and we had to arrive at 8:15 for a pre race briefing. Still, I was quite excited at the prospect of getting a marshalling spot somewhere on the farm. Secretly, I was hoping to be near the alpacas.

Not Sunday Runday at Manor Farm

Sunday mornings usually involve me sitting in my dressing gown far longer than I should, writing, editing, or staring into space thinking of what to write while Commando is off on a Sunday Runday. Occasionally, they involve early morning trips to watch and photograph lunatic runners, usually in the cold. having squelched through acres of mud. On those Sunday mornings, I may sometimes be more than a little grumpy due to frozen hands and lack of sleep. The last Sunday in October 2021 was different. I was not wearing my dressing gown, and I was far from home. There were runners with me, but they weren’t running.

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