Say it quietly... Autumn is coming...

The calendar has flipped over another month, another run has been done... Another one I've wanted to do for a while.

For as long as I've jogged along in the hills I've looked at the sweep down from Mam Tor and thought - that'll be fun to run... I've then walked along and up Back Nic and Losehill and thought, that may hurt on the way up... and I'm not sure I can run down the Losehill steps.

Well I did run down, dodging the walkers, and it did hurt on the way up... And there was no bloody way I was running down those steps.  My feet are far too big for them, and its as steep as hell!

Complete success, no.  I ballsed up my feeding and my hydration, and paid for it on the flat road section. Lesson learned, eat more and drink more than I think I need - I can't do the best part of a half-marathon on 1 gel and a packet of Cliff Blocks when there's 1500ft of climb in there. 


So, I did what I set out to do... Loved every minute of it, and learnt something... So not bad for a trip where I basically went out to collect my Nook from the Losehill Hostel.

As for autumn, well three indictors... 1) I wore my windstopper running gloves for the first time (for a dry run) in a while... The muppets in full on down jackets are an indicator of nothing other than muppetness... 2) My body is starting to want to lay down fat for winter - I'm craving toast, lots of toast 3) I've bought a 2014 year planner to start planning out next year's big runs... London, Liverpool Marathons, the Fellsman... Hopefully, Excalibur & the Intro to Ultra will fit in the plans...

Apart from that my course books for the next Open University course I'm doing should be on their way soon - I'm really looking forward to pushing my brain in different ways, and that's a lot of why I'm doing an arts based degree.  I am and always will be a scientist, my brain is wired for analysis and I enjoy it... But turning that analysis on Art History worked better than expected, and now Heritage:-)

But first a fortnight of flat stuff beckons, then Newcastle... The annual pilgrimage to the North East! Time for the Great North Run and resisting toast... I also need to chase my hospital again, its meant to be annual check ups for this old dicky ticker of mine... Hmmm....

So, autumn is coming, time to dig out those long sleeve tops and capris (what is the name for male capris?).

TTFN

Paul

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