Nettles

That is what summertime trail running means to me; nettles.

I try to dodge them, but doing so gets harder every day. 3 weeks ago there weren’t any; that unusually cold May kept the little green monsters at bay beautifully, but my word have they come back with a vengeance since?!

It is no exaggeration to say I have used a trail on Monday, fine, only to find the very same path, not joking, the same exact path, completely covered over with the nettles growing either side on Wednesday. Today! It’s not that rain has brought them out into the path either, that’s how fast the nettle clumps are growing. I’ve got an almost constant fizzing sensation in my legs, ‘cause I just can’t avoid the buggers.

This is me right now:

This is what it feels like to be running!

Ok, maybe I’m not enjoying it quite as much as this young fella seems to be, but heck, I must remind myself; I chose this!

I wanted to run home through Erddig instead of a more urbanised and traffic filled route home through town.

I knew there’d be kids by the river shouting “run Forrest” as I go by (didn’t know the fat kid on crutches out on a walk with his gobshite parents was going to abuse me more than most - wonder how they’d have felt if I’d retorted with “walk cripple” or something like that?)

I knew there’d be cows in the field but likely used to seeing people by now.

I knew there’d be bits of the path where it’s getting harder to see as all the vegetation shoots up in this summery weather.

I know there’s probably some other shooting up going on down by the river too, but that is a totally different story.

I know there’ll be people, everyday, with dogs off leads that they can’t control.

None of these things really matter to me, because there are many more good bits than bad.

I’ve seen rabbits hopping about in the meadows. I‘ve seen a buzzard so close it practically touched me when it dropped from its perch in the tree.

I’ve seen families out enjoying the sunshine together, kids splashing about in the river; had conversations with some of those people with some of those dogs; met friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time; seen people smiling; watched bluebells fade back from one patch to be replaced by buttercups in another...

There’d be none of these things running through town.

Just angry motorists in angry cars trying not to look like they want to run over the angry pedestrians who equally try to look like they don’t know that’s what the angry drivers are doing incase those drivers get out and punch them straight in the face.

Come to think of it, those nettle stings aren’t so bad after all.