Matrimonial bliss

Took the day off work today to make the most of the Christmas break. To truly benefit from the day, I went running with Laurence to Chateau du Val through the forest.

We set off at a steady pace and I couldn't help but reminisce on those days when we first went out together and Laurence would sometimes come running with me. In those days, she would begin by putting on at least 5 layers of clothing so that she didn't feel the cold, slip on an old pair of grotty trainers and jog around, breathing only through the nose so as to avoid a stitch. I would always despair, tell her to speed up, to move her legs faster and finally we would inevitably fall out with Laurence telling me that she would never, ever go running with me again.

Those days are long gone and nowadays Laurence is fitter than ever and running faster than I was able to in those early days. Luckily I've improved too or I wouldn't be able to keep up and my male pride would be forever tarnished. We were running at a steady 12 km/h with every kilometre taking a fraction over 5 minutes. The morning was lovely: crisp and dry and the forest had a great wintery feel to it.

Laurence ran well and is a natural road-runner. The sections over the tracks and up through the woods were harder for her and she slowed a little on the pace over these sections. We arrived back at the house after 7.1 km in 36:36. I was then that she announced that her record for the course was 36:15 - if I'd have known beforehand then we could have broken that today without any problem.

Lovely run, very relaxing and a real pleasure to accompany my wife.