Scarlet Runner by crooxi

.............though I spotted some words to strike terror to my heart: something about a word limit! However, that seems to have disappeared now - have they made an exception just for me?! Very mysterious.............

Not much sign of the predicted 'very hot summer' so far: it has been quite cool and rainy. Not that I'm complaining - this suits me much better. Although........... when I last wrote, optimistically declaring 'This is running weather!', the words had hardly left the computer screen when it began to rain in sheets. Not even I felt quite that waterproof. I decided to wait a while and let it ease off. It didn't, so the run got postponed until the next day (Wednesday 1 June). Out along the lake at midday with J. Hundreds of low-flying swifts swooping around - like something out of Hitchcock. We wanted to go to the school track and do some rounds, but found it locked, so carried on to the Ufschötti and did 2 rounds of the park. A swan was taking her brood of cygnets for a walk by the path. I thought this might be trouble, but she ignored us. Not so an over-protective goose with 2 goslings, which went for us as we passed, hissing ferociously. I was braced for a repeat performance on the second round, but it had moved further away and evidently decided we were no threat at this distance. One final ornithological encounter on the way back, near the Wagner Museum, where the park keepers were engaged in fishing a dead duck out of the water - they said they thought a dog must have killed it. 6.72 km in 49:15.

The next day (Thursday 2 June) J. had an appointment out in the wilds above Malters, and I had a free evening, so I agreed to meet him at Malters station at half past 5 so we could do a run along the river and then go for a meal afterwards. Thinking about it, I decided that was a bit late, and tried to ring him to reschedule it for the previous train, at half past 4, but he had his phone turned off. So half past 5 it was. (Or rather, wasn't, as he was quarter of an hour late - so we had even less time available.) By the time we had walked up to the restaurant and finished getting changed there, it was after 6, so our run was going to have to be a fairly brisk one if we wanted to eat at a reasonable hour afterwards. Regretting the turned-off phone and the lost hour, we set off down the hill. Littau or Werthenstein? Littau was nearer, but we hadn't been to Werthenstein for a while (not since gatecrashing Ivo's wedding) - so we turned left. The last time we tried, we were foiled by shooting (an army exercise), a massive building site (flood defences), and a sudden change in the weather, and had to turn back. No problems this time, though. The flood defences are nearing completion, and the path has been reinstated - just one place where we discreetly ignored the requested diversion, ducked under some plastic barriers and trespassed briefly across an area of mud, ditches, and parked diggers. They have made a lake, a kind of overflow basin designed to take excess water from the river and at the same time catch any tree trunks and other flood debris before it blocks the flow or causes damage, and are planning to turn it into a lido. They have also created various channels and barriers to control the water flow, so we did take a couple of minutes to inspect all this. Otherwise, though, we pushed on at as consistent a pace as the terrain allowed: woodland path; stones and mud; a short stretch of road; more woodland; an awkward bit of narrow, uneven path over grass; across a road and the railway line, and another stretch of stones, mud, and rutted tracks, this time with a few undulations. Then would have followed the steep road up to the church, but in the interests of saving time, we gave this a miss, and turned round by the farm at the bottom of the hill. In a small field by the house were 2 cows with very young calves - just 3 days old (said the farmer, who came out just as we were watching their antics), very sweet. One of the farmer's children refilled J's water bottle for him, and we set off back. On the way back, passing a field full of cows and older calves, we spotted (presumably) the calves' proud papa. He also spotted us! His intent stare, the ring in his nose, and the way he began to amble ever-so-slowly but rather purposefully in our direction persuaded us that maybe standing and looking at them was not altogether a good idea! The thin wire fence, electric or not, looked a bit flimsy against a ton of bull! On a previous occasion, several years ago, we had encountered the resident bull here when a couple of skittish teenage calves took fright at our approach and ran off, and he came over to check what was going on. Fairly small as bulls go, and actually rather sweet, with his appealing curly topknot, he seemed good-natured enough, and as he came up to the fence and stretched out his nose towards us, J. poured a dribble of water on it from his bottle. The bull, poor sap, seemed to like this, not realizing he was being made a fool of, and was trying to lick it up. On our return way, however, we found the path blocked by the whole herd, ambling along to another field; the farmer warned us that the 'Muni' (bull) was with them, and we shouldn't try to get past (we didn't tell him we'd already met the Muni!) so we had to amble too at the same leisurely pace behind them until they reached their destination. I think that was a different bull, though. This current one looked much bigger, and several degrees less benevolent. At any rate, we didn't hang around to find out! - we marched briskly for a few seconds, and once out of 'provocation' range, broke into a run again. And having once started running fast, kept it up all the way back. Inspired by impending hunger and a vision of the pizza I was planning to have, I led us at a fast clip to about the 10 km point, then J. decided to take over.......... even faster. So virtually all the return was at under 6 min/km pace, and quite a lot of it was sub 5 min/km pace! (Kms 11 - 15 all ended up under 5:30 mins/km - well under 9 minute miling. Km 13 (5:15) was even under 8:30 m/m!) Quite shocked to keep seeing 4:something on the Garmin (fastest pace 4:16!); even more shocked to find myself not struggling with it - now why couldn't I have felt like this at Sempachersee?! Theoretically this was the downhill half of the run (and actually you do see this quite clearly on the Garmin profile graph), but apart from the undulating section at the Werthenstein end, mostly it was so imperceptible as to be of no significance. So no idea why it went so well, though the conditions (cool, dull, not actually raining, but with little prickles of dampness in the air) certainly helped. 15.11 km in 1:32:03. Average pace of 6:06 mins/km (9:48 mins/mile). I have to say I'm rather proud of this! We were back at 7.46, one minute over my targeted 7.45, but that was because we had to wait fully 3 minutes - I timed it - at the level crossing (Swiss over-caution!) I usually reckon on about 1hr 50 for this run (admittedly including the hill up to the church, but also starting already down by the river, not up at the restaurant), so this was a big improvement. We changed in the restaurant toilets (no shower, but a basin at least), and by soon after 8 o'clock I was sitting there, steaming gently, cold beer in hand, pizza ordered, thinking 'Yes, this is total contentment................' Can't be bad, can it?

Okay, let's see if this will be accepted!