When you can't sleep...

A full moon was lighting up the bedroom when I awoke at 6.30 last Friday morning.  After injections to both eyes on Thursday that almost blinded me I'd gone to bed early.  Now, I could see again and was rarin' to go for a run to erase nasty memories of the previous day.

Friday's full moon...   (Click to enlarge)

I stepped out under a clear sky into a silent world.  Grass was brittle and glittering in the moonlight as I made my way through frozen fields towards Castle Hill.  

Two masts at breaking dawn

At breaking dawn the local poacher materialized from the gloom with his two whippets and asked the inevitable two questions,  "Have you seen anything of Geoff lately (a mutual friend who is quite ill)" and "how is your prostate now?"  I answered  "No" to the first question and "It's manageable" to the second before tackling the final steep slope to the summit.

The ghost runner

The sky had lightened to pale orange as I circled the rim of the hill for a couple of circuits, waiting for the sun to peep over the horizon. 

Sunrise

I didn't have to wait long.  Pretty soon the whole landscape was awash with the sun's fiery rays and for the first time that morning I began to feel warm.  I jogged home in search of further warmth, hot porridge and a mug of reviving coffee.

It's two months since my last radiotherapy treatment and I haven't yet found the eagerness to run.  The Oncologist told me it would take time to recover but I didn't expect it to take this long!  Perhaps my 87 years has something to do with it?

Sunrise on the cricket field

But I'm trying.  Early morning reps on a local cricket field, stopping and jogging home when the sun comes up, is a current favourite.  I don't like folk seeing how much I've slowed!

Round Grimwith

And, together with my wonderful partner I've been on dawn runs round Grimwith reservoir.

Come on, slow coach...

She sometimes has to wait for me, which rankles a bit, but she is a tiny bit younger than me.... 

...which is better than thinking the radiotherapy hasn't worked.