The Best Run(s) of the Year

Another year, then. A time for review and renewal. For taking stock. There were two runs that stick in the mind this year:-

On 19-Jan-04 I left Al-Hasa for the last time. I had been to the Al-Sinaiyah to finalise transfer of ownership of my GMC truck. Having done all that I could I left the Sinaiyah at 10:40 and drove back to Riyadh in a hired Renault Clio. The weather was good, and, unusually, there were fluffy white clouds in the blue sky. I stopped at the gas station just before the express-way and went for a pleasant run around the sand dunes. Charging up and down the pristine banks of sand made a nice change from my normal flat routes. Left there at 13:40 and drove on via the Sa'ad road to my hotel in Riyadh. Arrived at 15:00, 313 kms from Al-Hasa Sinaiyah.

Eight months later, on 19-Sep-04 and back in England, I was up at Lydeard Hill car park and out running on the Quantocks by 08:30 on this Sunday morning. It had just rained and with the sun low behind me the view was very clear and bright. My route was out to Halsey Post then back along by Dead Woman's Ditch car park and back to Lydeard Hill. A good run, which took 1½ hours.

Nice Sentiment

Here is a piece that I especially liked at page 203 in Jerome Preisler's book "Bio-Strike":-

"It was a feeling that was no less keen today than it had been when [he] was a thirteen-year-old boy pounding together a tree house. The ordered routine of readying his tools and construction materials relaxed him and gave him a chance to organize his thoughts. He enjoyed the direct connection between hands-on effort and outcome, especially when they were for the benefit of someone he loved."