Oh No: A Selfie!

Decisions decisions. I fancied a lie in but the weather was forecast to be really rubbish in the late morning and I had a run to do. Ohhhh well.... I was awake at 7am and watched Non Stanford on Iplayer winning the ITU triathlon world champs. Awesome race. I thought Jodie Stimpson was the best runner up ever too, crying with joy at being 2nd overall. Absolute credit to her coach Darren, a guy who somehow manages to get the best out of people. He once told me to give up triathlon because I was shit.....a completely honest assessment of my abilities, but it motivated me to be better.

Down in the valley of the broad bottom, the weather was calm, albeit with a light drizzle falling. My legs were feeling good as I ascended towards Coombes Edge. Wow..this 'selfie' is taken on towards the top of the ridge. The wind must have been 60-70km.h and the rain was falling horizontally.....can something fall horizontally? It was a good idea to move away to somewhere less exposed.

Down towards Glossop I descended, through the heather and away from the savage wind. Hmmm....where to now? I considered doing Doctors Gait and then getting the train home but somehow ended up going towards Chunal on the road. A group of cyclists were braving the elements up this long climb and into a strong headwind. I was keeping pace so stupidly decided to see if I could beat them to the top of the hill. I beat all but one, impressing myself as a result. Back over Monks Road, and then the steep descent home. Wow.....nearly 800m of ascent in just over 18km. A tough but amazing run.

I stopped by in the Garden Centre deli for lunch treats, had them, a hot bath and then fell asleep for the afternoon., waking just in time to do my coaching stuff and then head to swimming.

Big well done to my Rosemary who won the Gullane Beach Triathlon the day before.