Sociable Running

I took this photo whilst I waited for a good friend of mine to join me on an afternoon run around the lake.

My good friend has made some great progress with her own running, during lockdown & she wanted to challenge herself to this 10 mile circular, with some encouragement from me. I’m glad she saw me as a source of encouragement & further glad that ultimately, I was able to deliver on this...

I mention the above because I had spent a few selfish moments wondering about whether I might let her & myself down...would I look like a complete fraud & reveal myself to be not a decent runner at all & just some freeloader who claims to know what she’s doing?...

My running is for me & there are a select few people in my life who I’m prepared to share it with & perhaps this was going to be a step too far?...

Anyway, I can now confirm that the above was a lot of irrational, unfounded & ill-conceived b*¥¥+%^ks & that we absolutely aced the run together. I encouraged said good friend to set the pace, we stopped when she needed to & we chatted freely the whole way round- so freely that she was absolutely stunned when I pointed out to her that we’d hit the 8 mile mark.

She was absolutely buzzing when we arrived back in her front garden & she’s already messaged to arrange our next one.

(I wonder if she might be ready to embrace a cheeky bit of ascent next time...)

Back to this photo though & the start of our run: my good friend greeted me with: “this is going to kill me! You will look after me won’t you?” & I pointed towards the fells & the sunshine, casting rays through the clouds & replied: “of course I’ll look after you, look where we’re heading, you’ll love it.” And love it she did!