Events, which now seem to elude me, somehow conspired this week to prevent me posting last Sunday’s run.
Nikki was already at Falmer when I pitched up and we quickly decided to sit in the car to wait for Cliff, on account of it being COLD outside! In reality it wasn’t that cold, but it really did feel that way, possibly on account of a sharp wind laden with occasional heavy rain!
Having finally extricated himself from a traffic jam and parked behind us, Cliff sent a text message to say ‘what we doing this for?’… the reply was ‘we’re not!’
Of course, we did, running up alongside the Falmer Road and across to Newmarket Copse, then down to the Houseman Farm bridge over the A27. There are two long hills on the other side, with a sharp downhill in between and Cliff & I bullied Nikki into running just about every step… she actually didn’t take much persuading but pretending to be a sergeant major was fun nevertheless!
At the point above Balmer Down where we normally turn back down the hill to Falmer, some idiot suggested we carry on up the hill! This took us up to the path I often run along on the top of the Downs near to Blackcap.
Turning left and into the wind, we ran along the top as far as Streathill Farm, then south to Mary’s Farm, although if you look on the map you’ll find there are two ways to get there… of course, Cliff took us deliberately the less direct way!
Mary’s Farm lays in a lovely sheltered bowl and the road out towards Falmer starts by rising steeply for half a mile. Cliff and I ran it side by side, virtually step for step, just slightly faster than would otherwise be sensible. Fast enough that he had to resort to an old excuse to stop at the top… while I used him stopping as an excuse to stop too.
Nikki was more prudent, but just far enough behind to not qualify for an old git’s break before we carried on down the other side to the cars!
9.65 tough miles were dispatched in one hour 40 minutes giving an average of 5.8mph.
Nought has been done running-wise by yours truly since then, although I have a different run planned for tomorrow and I’ll try not to make you wait another week to hear about it!