Corra

It was a tough start after a night on the tiles celebrating my birthday. In fact, it wasn't just my birthday we were celebrating but François's and Pascal's as well. Good meal followed by a few beers and the run to Corra suddenly seemed a lot more difficult than initially envisaged.

Nico had insisted on an 8:30 am start but after less than 6 hours sleep even the promise of an easy run to Corra and back was looking grim. Nico appeared looking fresher than I did and we set off slowly through town. It was a cold morning as winter has arrived and there was a thick frost on the ground and covering the vehicles.

After our slow start, we sped up once we got into the forest and soon we were cruising at about 4:15/ km pace towards Corra. The forest was lovely with the trees now devoid of leaves and a thick frost around their branches. Nico and I chatted about the upcoming races and how the female contingent of our running club are hard on their female colleagues and their behaviour at training. As men, we are openly competitive but far more respectful of our training mates.

We pushed on around Corra and then back through the forest to town. We kept the pace honest without overdoing it as we had to keep some reserves before the departmental x-country race on Sunday. Despite this, we still managed to run the 15km in 1:05 or an average pace of 4:23 over the distance.

Finished with a nice cup of tea and breakfast at Nico's. Good start to the weekend.