"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

SAN JUAN 1 -  Virtual Race - December 30th, 2020

It didn't feel like we were in Puerto Rico and as you can see it didn't look like it either.

This re-imagining of a Christmas Trip race took place in freezing conditions in the salubrious surroundings of Central Business Park, home of our local Amazon warehouse, one of the few employers recruiting people in these tough times. Suswara opted to run his mile in a handy 6.02 on the Portway but Kokila and I fancied a change of scene and Farm Lane, a traffic-free road recently resurfaced and nearly flat, seemed like a nice venue for a one mile jog out and race back.

We headed out of the door early in the day but the sight of ice all over the road, pavement and car sent us back inside for a re-think. After a few hours of watery sunshine and balmy temperatures of around 3 degrees we finally drove out to Easter Compton and started our warmup. Well, it was better than before but still seemed too slippery to me to risk running flat out. Just jogging the route I could feel myself losing my footing here and there on the damp and frozen roadway.

When we did get to our start line at the roundabout near Amazon I stopped for the pre-race meditation and poem with Kokila, but as she starter her race (she wasn't planning to go at full one-mile race pace) I ran the other way in search of a safer surface. I thought maybe the roads around the estate would be swept by the lorry tyres and free of frost and ice, but before I got that far I spotted the bridleway heading off around the fringe of Central Park (no not that one) and decided that was my safest bet. It was certainly not going to be fast but it was at least flat and less treacherous than Farm Lane. I could see about 150 metres down the track to the first bend and decided that I would start racing and hope the soft, gritty surface carried on around the corner - if not I would be looking at 10 or 11 goes along the same stretch of path - not great....

I started stupidly fast, partly as I expected to have to slow down here and there to navigate around ice or obstacles, and soon found myself doing just that to get around frozen puddles and divert on to the grass to stay safe. The path varied from safe, ice-free gravel to wet, muddy trail to dodgy-looking frosty road, but I was always able to avoid the white stuff and stay safe. I was soon wiped out after the fast start and the constant changes of surface which stopped me getting into my stride, but I got more than half a mile done before I saw a road crossing and decided to turn around and head back. I got slower and slower and staggered home with a time of 6.01 which I will call "not bad for the conditions".

Shame about the conditions underfoot as the breeze was non-existent and with good purchase on the road Farm Lane would have been fast.

Oh well, there is another 1 miler later in the series so maybe things will have warmed up by then!

I was grateful to have had a good run and not come to any grief on the ice. Always best to stay on your feet to run another day rather than go for broke and bring your race season to an untimely end....

I wonder if I will ever get to visit San Juan and run a 1 miler there? I would like to think it will happen one day, as it's where the first Sri Chinmoy Centre was established way back in the 1960s.

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