No running but eating on a Thursday

I had been mightily relieved when I came out of the run up Moel Eilio, and down in the dark, unscathed. I am always scared of injuring my ankles or knees! But all went well. I thought.

The next warning I woke up with a slightly sore ankle. I did not know where it came from. And that Friday I didn't run because I was on fieldwork, and that Saturday I didn't run because I was marshalling. On Sunday I did a pre-breakfast run. If I run before breakfast I am always very slow!

Next Thursday I was running again. I could feel my ankle, but I ran through it. That seemed fine. 

Later Dyfed, who runs this, put a call out to see who wanted to go for pizza after the next Thursday run. I signed up. And I started to notice that everybody else who signed up also a blog. I asked if women don't like pizza. Luckily, then some ladies also signed up.

That weekend I tried another run. But I aborted it! My ankle just didn't feel right. And that was a bit worrying. I had a race coming up! And I also hoped to do the Thursday run. And I also felt like I couldn't pull out of the pizza now I had made such a point about female representation. What to do?

After thinking about it I decided that I wanted to be prepared for the races I could be. And that would be not running on Thursday. I could imagine I wouldn't feel up for running at all on Sunday, if I would do another 12K on the road just a few days earlier. And I wouldn't be that prepared as I hadn't been running much now for two weeks. But I'd still rather run without a sore ankle!

I drove up to the usual parking spot for the Thursday run. I figured it would be nice to meet up there, as I imagined we would all walk up together to the pizza place. And indeed, a while after I had parked up I saw the first head torches arrived. But it seemed we were going to all drive to the pizza place. I could just as well have gone there directly! But that's OK.

I ended up on a table with opposite me a medical couple from Felinheli, and next to me a lady I had cheered on during the Peris Pedol race. It was really nice to have a chat with them! Albeit with difficulty; a whole herd of hungry runners can be quite noisy. But the pizza was nice. And there was a birthday card circulating; it turned out that the next day, Dyfed would be 50!

I hadn't run, so I was less hungry than almost anybody else (there were more who hadn't run but were joining for pizza, like the lady who had injured her knee a few weeks ago), and only ate half of my pizza. And found out the restaurant has a great policy! If you ask for a box, they write your name and some other information on it, so if you end up littering the place they know it was you. I think that's fab! My box will end up in the log burner.

Just when I intended to leave, a cake came out. We all sang for Dyfed. He is clearly very well liked in the group. Why wouldn't he be! But after the singing I wanted to go home. It was getting late!

Cake for Dyfed

The next week there would be an opportunity for pizza again. This time I won't sign up until I know how my ankle feels after the race. I really hope it's okay, and I can do run and pizza. It is quite nice sit down for a meal with this water welcoming group. But I'm not taking my ankle for granted at all!