....it becomes a way of life

....on Saturday morning there's only one place to find me, and probably Tony, and that will be running a park run. This morning, leaving behind our home park run of Riverside, Chester-Le-Street, we headed off to the Sedgefield run at Hardwick Park. This was our second time here and what a delight! The splendour of the park and the ponds and the beautiful buildings make this park run a delight. Durham County Council have done a great job of the visitors centre. Chatting as we go we work our way around the course at a reasonable rate. The sun is shining and there's a cooling breeze blowing so the running feels easy. Even the testing little climb that comes to you near the end of the first lap, and therefore also at the end of the run, feels manageable and you feel alive as your heart pumps the blood to your legs urging you on. We meet a guy from Darlington who tells us his home run is a good one and we regale him with stories of us as park run tourists particularly mentioning our run two weeks ago at Hartlepool running next to the sea. Tony's 100th! An out and back course along the sea walls.

Being outdoors is food for the soul. The trees, the sea, the wind, the sun. Feeling the warmth or the chill - whatever it is it - makes you feel alive. The exertion of moving your body out of its comfort zone is stimulating and while it's never easy the feeling afterwards is priceless. The freshness of the air being inhaled deep into your lungs purging the vagaries of the week from your body, re-energising you from within.

The ever present niggle at the back of my mind to get my name down for a marathon is overtaking me and will soon, I suspect, become a reality. The idea of spending the summer gradually increasing the distance I can run has an alluring appeal that is unfathomable at times but necessary. Why run? Because. It's that simple.

Run - it makes sense