One quite nice running experience this week - yesterday I decided (sort of spur of the moment) to take a run out early this morning. I wanted to go along the first section of last week's route to one of the nearby beaches in time to catch the sunrise, again in the kind of vein of 'something to do and running is how I'm going to get there'.

It meant leaving the house at around 3.30am (after only eventually getting to bed at around 11.30), fuelled up by some wicked-strong coffee and a few slices of toast. It was a major, major psychological effort to get out of the house as my flatmate was returning from the same night out I'd joined him on a few hours earlier, but I eventually got started out.

It was the first time I'd run in the dark and it was quite interesting to be constantly running into a small pool of light from the torch; I found I couldn't switch off at all, I was constantly focused on my running form (slower and more cautious than usual) and it was an hour and a half to the beach that was split up into every individual second spent thinking about what I was doing.

It was great to finally arrive at the beach with perfect timing for the sunrise (I'm coming to anticipate my pace a bit better), then the run from there back to home along one of the routes through the hills was amazing - definitely one of the most tranquil experiences I've had out running. I eventually got back home at around 7.30 and promptly fell back to sleep pretty much straight away :)

The only thing that wasn't so great about this run was that I repeated an injury I occasionally experience - in my FiveFingers I sometimes catch the top of my left big toe on the ground, dragging it under and over-extending the knuckle. It's only been really serious once (turning my toe an attractive shade of purple and causing a fair amount of pain for about a week afterwards), but when it happens it often knackers my form and confidence for the rest of the run. I'm pretty sure the answer is just that I'm occasionally not lifting my left foot as much as my right, but if anyone out there has any further insight, then it'd be very much appreciated!

Anyway, now on to figuring out the next place-to-go-while-running :)

- Ben