Sunday 20 December 2020

City living

Time flies, when you are looking back but when you are counting the minutes it seems to drag.  The last 10 days have been like a staged event, an unsupported ultra.  If you keep looking at the finishing line it seems far away so I applied my mental approach for a staged event to living in cramped student accommodation.  Granted it's nice accommodation but very different to what we're used to with environmentally friendly neighbours recycling their bottles at 3am!  What I didn't appreciate was that the birds don't wait till dawn to provide their glorious chorus, they start about 2am and keep it going.  Fair to say I've lost some sleep during the week.
I've enjoyed the varied running through my home town but the countryside certainly has less air pollution from exhaust fumes.  On Saturday I took at trip out of town to Chatelherault for our club annual fancy dress run.  We had a huge turnout and everyone was wearing fancy dress with some outfits causing the dogs to get out of our path!  The pace was slow but we had a great time.  Pace didn't matter as we chatted, socially distanced, with our pals we hadn't seen for most of the year.  What a great run and it just underlined how much more I enjoy running on trails in the countryside with friends.
Today was my final run in the city.  I headed west along the Clyde and then up the River Kelvin.  It was encouraging to see so many runners out of all shapes and ages.  Walkers too and with us going back to Level 4 on 26th December, I hope people will have the freedom to go out for a walk or a run.  It's so important for our mental and physical health.
Looking back over the last 10 days, time has flown and in 22 hours we will arrive at our new house that's been built over the last 13 months.  To say we're excited is putting it mildly as we have been dreaming about this day for a long time.  It's a new chapter and in addition to the new house, I have lots of new running routes to look forward to.  I'll be back in the countryside again, surrounded by green fields and trees - my happy place.  But if I want the city life then it only a short journey as we are more centrally based.  Bring it on......quickly please!