Monday 12 January 2009

Concerns for my mental health

It's official, running can seriously damage your health - or at least your sanity!
Take this weekend for example. Sunday morning, my alarm goes off at 6:00am and I lie there listening to the wind and the rain battering against my bedroom window. It's warm and comfortable where I am and yet I decide to get up, tip toe around the house putting on waterproofs, gloves, hat and a headtorch before heading out into the darkness to run 18 miles on my own! No-one is forcing me into this, there is no gun pointing at my head and my loved ones safety has not been threatened if I fail to go out - why then would a sane, mature individual choose to do what I now find myself doing?
I question myself time and time again as I head out of Milngavie onto the WHW peering into the 10 feet of illuminated darkness that my headtorch provides with every foot fall landing in either a puddle, or mud or both. I reach the Beech Tree Inn and it's still dark and as I turn onto the main road to head up onto the Water Board track along the base of Dumgoyne, the full force of the wind; which until now had been at my back; hits me in the face and the rain stings my cheeks as I battle into the relative shelter of the woods once again.
Three hours later, I plod back through my front door, soaked to the skin and shivering to find my wife emerging from the bedroom, sleepy eyed, asking me if I enjoyed my run!
Did I enjoy my run? well, actually yes.
You see, I told you I had concerns for my mental health!

1 comment:

John Kynaston said...

Well done Graeme - I always think these sorts of runs sort the men from the boys! Plus it's doing runs like this that give you the mental toughness you need for the whw!

John