Sunday run

When I was a child, Sunday represented the worst day of the week for me. Sunday was boring, nothing ever happened and everybody was focused on going back to work the following day. Since I started running regularly here in France about 5 or 6 years ago with a group of friends, Sunday has become most enjoyable.

I wondered a few days ago what motivated me to go out and run regularly. Why do I bother with putting so much effort into improving my time, when I'm the only one who really cares about this ? Tom said exactly the same thing in his blog today: http://pommytom.blogspot.com/2008/08/not-long-sunday-run.html
One of the reasons for me is to meet up with everybody on a regular basis and chat about work, life, running, holidays etc. It's really something that I look forward to and I enjoy running with others as it takes my mind off the pain and effort when you run by yourself. It's satisfying to see the same regular faces and some others, slightly less regular but who we welcome with pleasure.

Today's turnout was a sign of the return to work next week and the regulars were back from holiday: Pierre-Henri, Sophie, Nick were all there and we had a surprise visit from Emmanuel who we haven't seen in running shoes for a while. Ralf and Louise were surprisingly absent.

We set off slowly and Nick and I soon left the group which split up into those wishing to do a shorter run (P-H and Emmanuel) and those who just wished to go slower (Laurence and Sophie). As we got closer to the half-way point, we began to speed up and I ran the last kilometre to the barrier in just over 3:30. I was feeling really good and happy to build up the speed, knowing that I could recover for a while waiting for the others.

The second-half of the usual Sunday course was slower but more consistent and I finished the 10.4km in 47:49.

Now the usual Sunday afternoon depression begins ...