Sunday, Week 5
Run: "15 mile, slow"

Total Mileage This week: 40 miles

Total Mileage So Far: 174 miles

Woke up to drizzle on an overnight snowfall. Great - slush. Ran on tip-toe down our road, hitting every thawing pile of snow and wondering how I'd keep it up for 2 hours.

The snow puddles slowly got more and more sparse and found myself running up to and through the city centre with the snow a distant memory, and it feeling pretty easy, as I joined the canal towpath for the run back.

After a mile or so, I ran past a pink helium filled balloon with 'Happy 18th Birthday' printed on it, lying on its side in a freezing puddle. I'm not sure what it meant, but for some reason it reminded me of the little vignette I saw on one of my earlier long runs where I ran past a girl still dressed in clubbing gear who was just about to get into a taxi on a road in the middle of nowhere at 8:00am. I found it hard to make up a positive story to fit around it.

By the time I reached Armley, I was starting to notice little patches where the clay had frozen on the path and I had to step onto the grass verge. This got worse and worse over the next 3 miles - I tried getting up onto an access road by the electricity substation where the power station used to be but this was no better. The buzzes and crackles from the 20ft high machinery inside it was quite spectacular however.

I struggled along to Newlay Bridge where I had to skate around some cyclists trying unsuccessfully to be helpful ("Careful!" they said, as they stood parked on the grass, despite the fact it was obvious I'd just run along the frozen path from Bramley, at least).

I therefore left the towpath and took a short cut home (including a sprint up some steps to make myself feel better).

The final irony was in the last mile where I stepped out onto the road to avoid the slush, and nearly stood on a banana skin sitting in the gutter.