les Davey de France

A beautiful morning. Figaro going through my mind again. Running faster in the presto. Oh well. Birds singing. Out before dawn, though. On my way back I passed Mrs Davey heading out. We have this plan to all three of us go running together to see if we spread panic and confusion amongst the good folk of our neighbourhood. (Mrs Davey said, "You run fast, don't you!" Honestly, she did!)

Those nasty, hard frosts have stopped for a while, to be replaced by the traditional warm, winter rains of Aquitaine, so about 6:40ish found me hurtling helter-skelter along the little roads to the château and back. Of course it was a slog after such a long time not running, but it felt good to be out again and to be back on track.

6:35 am found me at the corner of the vineyard, ready to rock, ready to roll, ready to run. Yes! Let's do this! I'd been impressed to see no frost on the ground or even on the roofs of the houses. "It can't be that cold", thought I. Then I began to run. OUCH! It was FREEZING ! I had a woolly hat on, but my FACE! And the TEARS! I briefly, oh so briefly considered running in a balaclava. Then I turned round and went home.

As I came back from my early morning exertions the two mistresses Davey were preparing to leave for theirs. And as I gallumphed alongside the vineyards my thoughts went out to the many friends in all corners of the world who will be out running either today or tomorrow in my worldwide running revolution. Bonne route, chers amis, bonne route!

as are some other friends here and there. Run, folk, run for your life!

6:18 - no, I'm not going to go for a run this morning. It'll be a rush anyway today. 6:22 - come on, you're awake, you feel OK, just do it. So I trotted off through the drizzle. Just 3 kilometres this morning, though. Faster than usual, though. I passed a chap running the other way, young, lithe, swift, running with grace. I thought of my crazy friend, Desmond, the evangelist who lives in a van. "What's happened to you?" he said again yesterday, "you've lost a lot of weight, sure you have*" I haven't. Perhaps between 3 and 8 kg. That's not a lot! However: 1) All my life I have inflated in people's memories. I put on weight in their recollection.  This means that almost every time people see me for the first time in months, they think I've lost weight. 2) Redistribution. I'm like a good French steak, whatever colour the outside is I'm pink at heart, and I've redistributed some weight from my haunches to ...

I have to sing something faster in my head. This morning I turned away from airs from Figaro and sang through mu old friend, Saltarello instead. It's a sort of comic patter song and it got my running faster.

I was out just a little later this morning. Don't ask why. But here is the result:

Yes, I'm back to it. It's been a struggle, not because I didn't want to run, and not because I didn't feel up to it, but because we've had a bit of trouble getting back to our usual bedtime and wake time routine. We've had late nights, broken sleep, I've fought to get back to sleep at 5 then slept till 7:30, things like that. But twice this week I was up and at it at 6:30 - just short runs for the moment, a couple of kilometres - and I'll build back up gradually to where I was before. Sadly the sun doesn't rise now till about 7:30, so no more nice sunrise photos till next year.

After another late night I told myself it didn't matter if I went for a run this morning or not. Then I woke at 6. By 6:30 I was sick of lying there, so I decided to be up and at it. I felt good, so I decided to add a 1km loop, and off we went. A quick incursion into Gwilym territory to find a tee-shirt, then off with me. And the cool morning air was a tonic, and the sunrise was beautiful, and the streets were calm, and the vines were lovely, and a worker was strimming all dressed in his orange protective samurai armour. "Bonjour", I said. "Bonjour", he replied, with a distinctly Chinese accent. Music in my head: Air de Saltarello , from La Mascot by Edmond Audran, followed by Brubeck's Take Five and Sing of the Lord's Goodness from Psalm Praise. I must find some other songs in 5/4... Good. Back on track.

to get back running. The problem is that it is impossible for me to get an early night, so I wake up late, so I get up late and I miss my running slot of 6:30 to 7:15. Still, I've run twice this week. Once on Wednesday and once on Saturday (today). I'll get back up to "speed". It will come. But it may take longer than I thought.