Ever since my serious ankle injury earlier in the year, it has been a rough and at times painful recovery for me, mentally more than physically. The physical pain is something I’m used too and have had to cope with a lot, but mentally I get frustrated and upset if I can’t run.

I was a bit anxious setting off this morning, it’s a long way to work, and although I’ve been running pretty well recently, I’ve not done the half marathon distance (save one run that went somewhat close after going wrong on a Monday night,) in an awful long time.

Getting up when its dark has never really been difficult for me, I’m an early morning person. And given how warm it is for the time of year, it was actually nice getting outside so early. My part of the world is peaceful at 6:30am, and it is quite a fulfilling experience treading the streets without meeting anyone for at least half an hour.

I ran through town to Histon, where I picked up the path on the Guided Busway that runs from Cambridge through to St Ives. This is long and very straight. My total run was 14.21 miles, and most of it was done on this path, pretty slowly. It was at times demoralising, because way down the long route one can see traffic lights. It’s easy to run along setting markers, and to set these sets of lights as markers made things feel good for a while, and the euphoric feeling would slowly tail off as I’d realise that they were still a long way ahead.

Still, when dawn broke at roughly 8am, I stopped to have a drink, turn off my light and watch the sun crest over the horizon. I’m so disappointed that I had no camera with me as it was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in a long time. The suns rise in turn gave rise to sheer enthusiam within myself as well – I finished the last few miles considerably faster than I’d run all morning, and I got to work and into the shower feeling good. Far from fresh, but feeling good. And feeling so pleased with myself. I’m far off what one would call a reasonable half marathon time, but the simple fact that I ran the distance so soon after my injury made me feel amazing.

And I haven’t stopped grinning.