It had been hissing down with rain all last night and generally blowing a hoolie, so it was with some surprise that the day was glorious by the time Daren and I met at Jack & Jill. That doesn’t mean fabulously sunny, mind, but rather just that it was marvellous to be out in!
We followed the same route as last week, the only difference being the amount of mud and general slipperyness underfoot… requiring a degree of circumspection lest one of us oldies did ourselves an injury. [you can see already that I’m setting the scene for a slower time!]
We chatted amiably as we ran up on to Wolstonbury where the view was sublime.
We ran gently down the rather slippery grass side of Wolstonbury and into the next valley… the one that would be great for sledging.
It’s hard to believe how deceptive this looks… what may look like a short bank is actually a deep valley with steep sides. In fact, the other side was steep enough to cause us to stop just beyond the stile to get our breath back… not even the tank tracks do that!
Then it was across through Clayton and up, up and more up the tank tracks, up to the very top, from where we looked across and down onto Wolstonbury.
From here it was all downhill to the cars.
In fact, the round trip was something like 900 feet of descent, so apart from it being slippery underfoot, it was probably pretty easy.
So 6.25 miles in 1.10 or 5.35mph.
Can I just say, that despite all the downhill, I had SUCH an enjoyable run… thanks Daren!