Earlier in the week I ran with the dogs; three Springer spaniels. It is always a great way to get some speed work in and this week was no exception. As soon as I let them out of the car the dogs disappeared in all directions, leaving me to have a gentle warm up run. After a little while the most docile of the three, Muffin, came back to be with me and took up her usual position trotting comfortably in front of me. Her gentle trot is the same pace as my normal running speed. After a while I decided to speed up and for a while Muffin matched my pace until I put a spurt on, overtook her and got a bit of a lead. Muffin doesn't like being behind so she soon overtook me to regain her position then dropped back into her relaxed trot. I took a breather then repeated the whole process again.  We followed this pattern for the whole run, turning it into a great farlek session. Occasional Muffin would catch the scent of an animal and dash off into the undergrowth to investigate. While she was gone I would pick-up the pace and try and maintain the speed until she returned. 

The other two dogs were dashing all over the place and, because it had rained a lot, as they came past they would splash me with great dollops of mud. 

When I got back to the car I met someone who I had not seen for a while. She has previously only met me on formal occasions when I have been wearing a suit and tie. It took her some time to adjust to me dressed in running kit and covered in sweat and mud.  I could see her  making a re-assessement and reallocating me to the pigeon-hole marked 'nutter' 

This reminded me of a recent project by the French photographer, Sacha Goldberger. He took pictures of runners, then asked them to come to his studio a week later so that he could take another picture of them in their normal clothes. He wanted to show the difference between our natural and brute side versus how we represent ourselves to society. The results are very interesting.

 

 

You can see more photos on MyModermMet or Endurancejunkies.

Now I much prefer the mud and sweat covered me to the suited version.