After Saturday procrastination I reviewed several students’ work before going on my long run. This meant I was late leaving. Not only was I late, I did not have my canine companion – still recovering from her operation, and I set off at a pace, which was a little faster than easy, in a rush of self destruction.
Thirty minutes in I realised I could not keep it up unless …. what if I ran for 10 minutes and walked for one minute, and in doing so try to maintain the faster pace? This became my strategy and as I walked I took a few pics. The first was just after I left the beach and headed towards the trail through the mangrove boardwalk.
This was a benign section of the run. It was not too hot and puddles, which I did my best to go around on the inward journey but just splashed through due to fatigue on the way back, did not feature.
The boardwalk is a favourite. I enjoy the enclosed coolness and I am fascinated by the eiree mangrove roots twisting around and through each other in the mud. 
Once out of the boardwalk I was into the challenging Lee Point track. It is challenging as it is undulating, the path itself deteriorating in places, 
and with the current monsoon troughs, waterlogged in many places. 
It is also quite beautiful and this distracts me from the fact that I am really struggling to maintain any sort of pace.
In fact, by the time I had come back through the track and back on the boardwalk I took this pic, enjoying the contemplative vista, and I also fervently wished I had laid out a phone home option i.e. ‘please come and get me I am done”
Unfortunately that was not to be and I continued for another 3-4km to complete 14.5km which was my goal. It took another weary 45 mins to walk the 5km home.
Just before I stopped, my iphone, and the ironically named iphone app ismoothrun, stopped. However the saved data showed that amazingly I was able to maintain a faster pace than most of my runs despite my fatigue. I am just not too keen to do it again too soon.
rage against age 
Wonderful blog post. The pictures are gorgeous, well done. I believe strongly that in the midst of our runs we need to stop and take a few photographs to document what we are going through that day. I have to remind myself at times that life is about the journey not simply the destination. With this in perspective it enables me to ride hard then stop and enjoy lunch on the side of the road and then to ride hard again.
When I would run with my dogs before leaving on my journey, they were eager to run with me but I just wasn’t fast enough for them. It drove me on and on trying to get them a workout but inevitably when I would return they would look up at me expectantly to go outside and play yet I was totally exhausted. The only way I could tire the two out was to get on my mountain bike and ride them for 20 or more miles. Going 28mph they would still be flanking me tongues out and happy that dad was finally able to keep up with them. Dogs are amazing animals. I pray that yours recovers from surgery soon so that you have your pace setter dog in tow and the scenery continues to be amazing on your runs.
One thing to remember on the especially hard days is that you are getting stronger and simply the fact that you are out there proves that you have already won. Regardless of the pace, you are out there. Awesome job on winning that day.