Autumn has been waiting patiently in the wings for a while. Each time it took a tentative step forward, Summer would take yet another curtain call under the blazing lights. But the show must go on, and suddenly I am finding apples on the patio once again, and the stove will need to be lit; a sort of ritual in this house that truly brings the curtain down on the season (I think that’s enough curtains, ed.).
Another week has passed. Another week of work and running. The target this week was 50k and though I fell a wee bit short of that, I was happy overall with the tally. My long run plan was somewhat truncated on Sunday with foul weather in the morning, and then the harvest festival service at 3.30, but no matter. Mum got to the service, and that’s the main thing, plus I snagged a geansaí-load of traybakes afterwards. Fuel for the 22k run I managed as the sun dropped out of the sky.
And now we’re off to Westport and Galway for a few days, so I expect a mixed bag of a week from a running point of view. But there is more to life than running. Apparently!
(In the world of sport, Ireland fulfilled its fixture against Israel in the rather contrived Nations League; a match that should never have gone ahead. There is much to be said about this, but if anyone believes sport and politics shouldn’t mix, they are truly naive. This is a knotty ball of twine, and when you find the end and pull on it, you realise it’s tangled up with so much else. How far back do you want to go? Suffice to say, FIFA and UEFA bottled it, then the FAI caved like they always do, and it was left to the players to try and make some sense of it all. It will leave some scars, no doubt, but let’s not lose sight of the real scars. Ethnic cleansing is no laughing matter. Winning three-nil was a result on the pitch. We need some results off the pitch next.)
