Hell

Tonight I encountered the sort of run that would make even Gebrselassie think twice about putting his trainers on.

I was at the cinema earlier, so by the time I'd came home and had something to eat it was almost half past eleven at night before I went out. No matter - I like running at night.

The first few kilometres were easy enough - slight downhill, a brief uphill and then more or less flat for a wee while, with just a short down and up at about the 2km mark. But at 4.5km, there is an utter humdinger of a hill. It measures at over an 8% incline. It's short, sharp, and very steep - and when you get to the top of it, you turn to the right and are faced with an even longer steady climb.

It's called the Salmon Inn Road and it's horrible. I chose this course deliberately for this very reason - the hills build strength, stamina and endurance. Hills I can deal with. But a lot of the route is unsheltered, running from village to village. It seemed tonight that every direction I turned, the wind decided it would turn at the same time to blow right into me. It was demoralising - a slow run, lots of hills (my own fault, admittedly) and wind at over 20mph blowing into me at almost every opportunity.

It took me 53:34 to complete - almost four minutes slower than my run on Friday afternoon. Still, hopefully it'll serve me well...

17th January, 10.00km