The temperature in my wee cottage plummeted during the night. I got up too early. The central heating hadn't fired up. Radiators were still cold, and so was all my running gear. I reset the control switch for it to fire a bit earlier in future - then went back to bed until things warmed up. It was 6.30 when I re-emerged from under the covers and after a quick (ish) cup of coffee nearly 7am before stepping out into an arctic wind to set my Garmin and get under way. Gosh it was cold. Both my neighbours' cars had frosted windscreens and grass was crunchy underfoot through frozen fields. The thinnest sliver of a moon hung in a cloudless sky, a celestial icon over the luminous landscape of breaking dawn.
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| This morning's dawn run.... (Click to enlarge) |
I recognized the fluted notes of blackbirds, and a robin chirruped as I ran past Clough Hall cottages, but I'd no idea what the other early morning songsters were. Certainly I wasn't one of them, not today in a wind chill temperature of 23ºF. I was on a second circuit of Castle Hill when the sun peeped over the horizon. I forgot to note what time it was, possibly around 7.25am, when the glowing red ball spread a veneer of palest pink over the frozen landscape. A perfect work of art, a burning bush experience that lifted my spirits and sent me home rejoicing - but something very difficult to explain to sceptics who don't, or wont, understand why people run....
NOTHING like a sunrise run :) .
ReplyDeleteThere sure isn't Karien, don't know whether it's a good habit or a bad habit I've got into, but it sure recharges my old batteries....
DeleteHave a great day. Cheers!
....... and your spirit soared !
ReplyDeleteApparently we are still in for more cold weather, it is only mid February after all.
All the best Jan
Aye, year before last we were snowed under in March. Running in the cold and snow can be fun so long as I'm well wrapped up. Then, when the snow's gone and I'm stripped down to shorts and vest again, I run all the faster....
DeleteCheers Jan....
I was up before the sunrise and while it's dark out there it's easy to get up as the winter cold and wet is still months away...
ReplyDeleteCome summertime Coach, it might be time for a lie in. I started this silly habit in September, in Menorca, as sunrise was getting later and later. As sunrise gets earlier I'm not sure I'll want to be up at 3.30 to be on the hill in time to greet the sun at 4am. We'll see....
DeleteCheers!