Not on the EcoTrail

Today would have been the day of the EcoTrail Wicklow race, had it not been cancelled a few weeks ago. I had actually been reasonably optimistic that they would be able to hold it, since trail running is a socially distanced pursuit even when there's no pandemic spreading through the world, but of course in the end it wasn't to be. Such a shame - it would have been a gorgeous day, with clear skies and views for as far as the horizon stretches out. Just imagine the views from the Sugarloafs, or Djouce! I did get to enjoy a little bit of it as I met a work colleague, who moved here a few months ago, and we went over Bray Head and towards Little Sugarloaf, but had to turn around after an hour. Still, it was a very enjoyable 20k run, and who knows, with the weather about to turn and the days getting significantly shorter, it may have been the last of the nice days of the year.

Covid is of course a worry for all of us. With two kids in school and Niamh being a teacher they are having plenty of unavoidable close contacts, and the numbers in Bray are actually worse than in many parts of Dublin. It feels like it's only a matter of time until one of us tests positive, and my main worry is to spread it to the grandparents, who are in their eighties. Please don't let that happen!

As for running, with everything else cancelled I signed up to another virtual challenge four weeks ago, a last person standing one with the EoI running group. It's not the one where you run 4.5 miles every hour until everyone else has dropped out, it's about running a set amount of distance every day (well, they set it to 5 times a week), until everyone else has dropped out. At the time of writing there are still 9 of us in the running, out of the initial 15. A few years ago I would have declared myself the hot favourite for that kind of challenge, but those days are gone. We'll see how long I can hang on.