South Riding 9: End Of Day 1

Day 1 draws to a close. For any of you who are still reading, I apologise. It must seem like a very long day of endless wittering. On the bike it felt longer  and by the time I got to the guest house I was completely spent.

66.5 miles with a lot of extra wandering around. It had been a very full day from 8 o'clock in the  morning to 5:15.

There was one final act of cruelty. The guest house I had booked into  was near the top of a hill. Not a huge incline but when all I wanted was a shower a lay down, it felt as tough as a tough thing. But when I arrived everything was good. It was nice and comfortable and the owners were very friendly.

Time to unpack and see what I had got wrong – I always get something wrong with my packing. Today it was the lid on the small tube of shower gel had somehow come loose and the inside of my washbag was covered in sticky gunk. But I had not forgotten anything and so l had got away lightly.

Anyway after a couple of pints of beer and a meal at the local pub I almost felt revived and settled down in my room to watch the 10,000km at the European Championships.

This being a running blog and all that, I have to mention how great it was to see the two British runners dominate the race. As for Mo Farrah I thought he looked beautiful in the way he flowed. He is built for distance running: small, slight of frame, with proportionately long limbs. He has grace.

Of those characteristics of a distance runner the only one I can match is  I am fairly short. For the rest I am solidly built (which a could be changed a bit by loosing some weight) and have short legs in proportion to my body and nobody would look at my running style and say it flowed. Ho hum. The only consolation I have is that for my sort of non-competitive running it doesn't matter, my only objective is to make the best of what I have. I may not be ideally built but at least I can try.