no disco

eaterie’s a-frame sign recumbent again. needs a stake down the middle. through woods crankily. spiky tree lying across main path. pause in dead end lane. bury hill? all right. aim for the sun. puppies on sunny little hill. poster on gate at top of private road. 80s disco fever. forget the 00s and the 90s and step back... running is my dancing. secret dancing. not all the time. not now. relieved to get to bury hill. off-road and downhill for a bit. through and out. past lake. up track towards downs. bloke ahead tottering through swamp. runner. not just me who does that. totter through swamp. runner crossing railway line. want to push climb but don’t want to overtake up steep narrow path. wait for a while at bottom. run up a bit, jog back down to bottom and go again. up, with no uncivilised overtaking. enough up. down pilgrims' way. close on runner. slow down, nearly at end of way. runner stops. starts again. flipping heck. overtake slowly. listening to i-pod. through park. ridiculous lights ablaze in car park by church. lake full to the brim. moorhen balanced serenely on submerged wooden edge. achilles hurts. run has felt submerged and wooden. slow finish doesn’t even have usual slow finish hand shaking, side to side head lolling, alternate shoulder shrugging, and arm waving - another secret dance. still in a rut but change of scenery was all right.

guardient

why golfers never set foot in the woods.

sequins

rain that was sleet that was hail bows out. bloomin cold. no noticeable benefit from stretching. usual cranky pit stop in woods. slowly up main path. pause in dead end lane. across to bury hill? no. slowly slowly down slippery, rooty slope. wood end of coach road annoyingly slippery. puddly mud around stiles. woman with jack russell outside farm. tells jack russell to let me pass and stop grumbling. over tiny bridge over streaming ditch. over stile. now facing bright bright sun. field is in sequins. under bridge. flooding again at bottom of ploughed field. ratty lane back to woods. small lap in woods, pointless pussyfooting down slope again. also want to get back and do more pointless stretching and first weights for too long.

out

could have run early or late yesterday but didn’t. foul today. gales and spitty rain. don’t mind. aching. mind that. one lap of usual. pass dog walker on coach road who is always muffled up in a hood like kenny’s. understandable today. straight into gale across fields. don’t mind, can work hard without having to stride out. back for usual lap of woods. stride out home. proper hamstring stretching after. only way out of rut.

rut

sun. pain. woods. people. coach road. people. fields. coot, or moorhen, running to fishing pond. stony track. suffering. group of walkers ahead. walkers leaving track. dog gives chase. wet black dog takes mouthful of gloved hand. stop. woman runs up. say to dog that way and point. woman asks if ok. back into woods. round again. stiffening. think i just wiped mouth with wrong glove. back into woods. round woods. home. rut.