Inspired by tales of runs along the Tiber and around the Austrian Lakes I started wondering where my dream (aka my legs and lungs just work with no niggles and hills make no difference) run would be ....Shut my eyes and imagine running
On a trail through a giant redwood forrest ... along the side of a Norwegian fjord ,,,, on a smooth track under a starlit sky
What about you?
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KANdoit
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Midnight... along a beach on the Outer Hebrides, right by the ocean... and by some miracle the sand is perfectly easy to run on... and the waves coming in at your feet are silver-tipped in the moonlight... and the wind is blowing around the rocks and you can smell the heather and the seaweed and it's lovely and warm but not too hot... and you jog along looking out over the sea into the darkness beyond the moonlight, and feel how the ocean goes on forever...
Will I make you jealous if I tell you I almost experienced that when we camped, not in the Hebrides, but across the Minch at Sandwood Bay, near Cape Wrath, I wasn't a runner then, but I did I yoga on the sand at the edge of the ocean.
But then I can make you jealous about wandering through Alpine valleys being chased by friendly fawn-coloured cows with big bells on and eating cheese fondue by a wood fire watching the sun set over the mountain peaks...
I'm definitely jealous of you running in the Swiss Alps. It's about 10 years since we last visited the Bernese Oberland and spent several weeks hiking in the alps, listening to the cow bells clanging across the valleys and eating cheese fondue - amongst other things!
Well, I haven't actually done any running there - hiking, too, though! My running corner of Switzerland is lakeland though you can see the mountains when it's clear. My running skills are still more suitable to a nice flat lakeside path leading to the woods... Maybe next year!
My dream run would be in the Swiss Alps under the towering snow-capped peaks, which I'd climbed up to the higher meadows the previous day (so I wouldn't feel I was missing by not being on the tops today).
I'd like a long trail run, starting by leaving a small alpine village, running past fields of grass turning yellow and almost ready for cutting to make hay. The trail would take me through a not-too-dense forest of pines with a soft running track of pine needles and the wonderful citrus pine smell. Eventually the trail would emerge at a high alpine meadow (like you, running uphill with no effort!) where I'd run across the short-cropped grass, grazed by cows and goats, to the lake where I'd finish my run with a very invigorating swim in the cold water.
I was up in the fells last week for a couple of days walking. We stayed in a hotel right by the BGR start point in Keswick.
It did make me realise that whilst I found the walking much easier than I used to I am so far away from anything like that! Not fit enough, strong enough, brave enough. Holey Moley those guys are tough
Much work still to do....unfortunately I live in Surrey......not known for its mountains
Running around the base of Ayres Rock in Central Australia just as the sun sets. I've walked it some years ago but would really love to go back again. It turns from orange to burnt gold, to crimson, then deep purple, just magical.
Around the place I was brought up in - at the foot of Loch Lomond just where the River Leven comes out and heads to join the Clyde at Dumbarton. There is a park there in Balloch which goes up the East Side of the loch.
lochlomond-trossachs.org/ I want to run in that park on a nice cool Autumn day. I did a 10K around Drymen much further up in August and it was a bit warm for me.
I ran (well, shuffled) it in the summer - South of France around a coastal path between St Jean Cap Ferrat and Villefranche, early in the morning as the sun is just coming up, lovely views of the sea, mountains and boats and David Niven's old house. Just lovely ... but all of the above sound amazing.
I would like to run along a beach back in my home country - Camps Bay, Wilderness, some of the beaches close to Port Elizabeth, any of them will do.
Or I would like to run through the vine yards in the Western Cape where my dad grew up, with those wonderful blue mountains in the distance.
Or I would do a midnight run through the flats of the Karoo
and now I have made myself homesick...
However, I have amazing running tracks here in the Scottish Highlands, feel very priviledged that I have so much beauty around me and so much to chose from.
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