‘Very, very, very, very’, the nice lady in the bright pink sock near the top of Ditchling Beacon paused momentarily to find an adjective which might not offend me, settling on ‘brave’. Stupid would have been closer to the truth.
The morning had started slowly, with me sleepily escaping to the tea house with a quadspresso to read the Economist. I ate a banana rather than having some more meaningful fuel as I vainly expected to be out running before too long. By the time Kim offered me breakfast, over two hours later, I was starting to get peckish, but instead of joining her I finally made it out the front door.
The ruscsack remained unchanged from last week and despite its comparative lightness at 4.5kg, it still felt pretty heavy as I started running. In fact I could easily weigh that much more without anyone noticing anything odd. Sadly it looks likely that the final TMB pack will be more than twice as heavy so I’m going to have to ramp up the training weight sometime… just not today!
I hadn’t decided where I was going until I made the turn at the bottom of the road… it was right, so only then did I realise I must be running to the Beacon.
It was a pleasant day for a run, though strange for August becuse of the muddy puddles on the path either side of Oldlands Mill. Running up the Beacon I realised that I was experiencing no particular pain, just a lot of heat, hence the comment from the nice lady was probably a reflection on the colour of my face, which was in turn was probably a reflection of her pink socks.
I made the top of the Beacon in 53 minutes, which at 5.67mph is a perfectly acceptable time for me without the pack, but I allowed myself three minutes to cool down before I made my way back down. In many ways going down with the additional weight was harder work than going up, but it was still not painful and I made it safely down the tricky path.
I chose to run down past Sporting Cars and along East End Lane to rejoin my outbound route at Boddington Lane, where the sharp ascent of Home Hill really did tax my legs… such that I paused at the top to take photos.
Then it was a short run back home via Oldlands Mill gleaming with seemingly fresh paint in the sunshine. I arrived back in 49 minutes, or 6.1mph which is very pleasing for a largely off-road track. Overall, 10 miles in 1.45 gave an average, including my half-way pause, of 5.71mph.
Still not feeling wiped out I got out to cut the grass (and the green across the road) and then the hedge, but now I AM feeling wiped out… such that I can hear the sofa calling gently to me! Zzzzzzzzzzz