Adding Insult to Injury

On Wednesday evening I joined the assembled runners in a local running group. I may have mentioned The Whippet before, there she was, all beautiful blonde petiteness and my heart sank. This would mean a fast pace. I asked one of the other woman if the group to our left was the next group down, she replied that it was but to stay with them, they wouldn't leave me behind. I was seriously contemplating reducing my ambition and moving to the slower paced group when my usual group took off. And I mean took off at high speed. I soon found myself not quite at the back of the pack but realising I should have jumped ship and now it was too late.

A slight incline and a loose lace put me right at the back and feeling very down. Come on head down, the first mile is always, always the worst. The group leader joined me at the back to check if I was the back runner, as if she needed to ask. A slight breather at the crossing of a roundabout but my decision was made, if they were going straight on at the next roundabout I was not.

Kindly, two other runners agreed to join me on a shorter route. We three took off and I very quickly knew I was just not able to do it. No matter how hard I tried, the quick start had finished me off. I was planning on taking the next left and heading back to my car. My new partners had other ideas and I feared they would not allow me to run back on my own and I did not wish to shorten their outing further so I dug in and tried to find an ounce of energy from somewhere. However by the next turning enough was enough and I left them to go through a short cut. They soon rejoined me as I was hobbling/jogging back to the start and the relief of horse power to get me home.

I limped through Thursday seemingly having pulled or strained my right thigh and calf. I was very downhearted about the whole episode. I have to resign myself to the fact that I have to join the next group down. This was not in my grand plan.

The insult? I wasn't needed for my usual Friday morning duties. No problem there, in fact very useful. However it would have been nice to have been in the loop instead of a forgotten team member who wouldn't have known anything about it had I not gone to speak to the team leader about my already done plans.

Is it not quite interesting that at the beginning of this very week a training day highlighted communication as an error requiring attention?

Have a great weekend.