Today, 8th November, is an anniversary, though an event whose anniversary we mark the day before, the Great October Socialist Revolution, may have had a greater impact on the world.
The October revolution happened on 7th November on the new style calendar adopted in the Soviet Union in 1918. Under the tsars, Russia kept to the old Julian calendar abandoned by most countries centuries before.
The anniversary of which I speak is that of the day when I returned to running after a long gap. It was in 2003, and I was a mere stripling of 48. I took myself off for a lunchtime run on the downs at the back of the university where I worked at the time. It was the start of more or less uninterrupted running up to now.
I wore an old cotton t-shirt and a pair of rugby shorts I had worn at school. I forget my shoes, but I doubt that they were sophisticated running shoes.
Today, older and slower, but better clad, I went for a bright chilly morning run halfway up Seaford Head and then along the seafront. Yesterday I was proud to marshal at a trial run for a new half-marathon run around the beautiful Rathfinny vineyard. On Saturday I volunteered at Seaford Bach parkrun, and later ran over Seaford Head. There is life in the old dog yet.
