Warning: a bit of a ramble. Just like the run 🏃♀️
Work’s been pretty relentless this year and I’m ready for a break, so I was pleased to start some time off from yesterday until January 🎉. This morning I embarked on a run-wherever-however-run, in the fog and drizzle. I live on the side of a hill, and all the runs are undulating to say the least. I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go but frankly I just needed to run and leave some responsibilities behind me!
So after the 5 minute brisk walk up the hill through the village, I took a left down a short lane where the oldest miners’ cottages are, left again, then right on a lovely downhill out of the village through winding lanes and past the cow fields, until a left turn up a very steep hill. The run app tells me I’ve done 2.5k, and I think - I can do this - and I manage half before walking for a couple of minutes and regaining control of my breathing. Actually it feels great to be out! These lanes are about 2 horses wide and I seldom see a car, which is great because if a car appeared I’d probably become part of the hedge 😂 I get to the top of the lane and decide to turn right over a stile and down a grassy, muddy, puddly path between a horse field and a sheep field. Through a kissing gate, then another winding uphill climb up an old track flanked by old whitewashed cottages and hedgerows of oak, beech, hazel and holly. It’s raining and I don’t care. At 3.5k and at a cross-roads, I’m loving this run and just want to keep going - no plan for how long or where, just running because I’m loving it. What a gift this running malarkey is! So I take a right in to another old lane with a mixture of old cottages and new builds, down to the village main road that takes me home, but I’m not ready for that! So I cross the road in to another lane that takes me through an avenue of old beech trees - a cathedral of beautifully ethereal skeletons reaching out of the fog. Past the farm and sheep fields up and down this straight and undulating lane. 4K now, and left up the biggest hill so far and I have to give in to walk a few minutes till I reach the top. I could take a left and get home sooner, or I could continue up the hill via an old stony muddy track past the cemetery, and up to the moor. Yes, I’ll do that! So off I go - walk/run til I get to 4.5k and back in to the main village road and a lovely run down the hill to home. Feel like I deserve the down hill at this point! Finished at 5.2k in 46 minutes, because I just felt that was alright for today. It was very much a run for the soul as well as body. No competition. No pressure. Running because I could. Like children do.
Happy running everyone 🏃♀️💃🤗
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
week 2 begins! 
