Good and Muddy

After a really fun, relaxing and generally somewhat studious Christmas and New Year break, FosterRuns got back to business this morning with a delicious run on a BEAUTIFUL sunny day!

I had decided on the title above as I sat studying this morning, so there was little question about where I was going to run… it was back to the old midweek circuit.

I set off with considerable aplomb, charging down the road section in a manner which might have suggested, to the casual observer, that I hadn’t just spent two weeks laid low with a cold and unshakable cough.

I was well into the woods before my conscious mind put pay to the speed, but I had already started to deliberately splash through the middle of the mud by then so the fun continued.  As I’ve written in these pages before, there is a difference in frame of mind between avoiding the mud and plugging on through regardless and on this simple scale I was well off the latter end.

The mud today was thin and wet, so my socks were quickly wet through, but the upside was that my runners didn’t clog up.

I went out past the (currently boarded-up) Royal Oak, touched on Wivelsfield and then ran up through West Wood where the gradient had me slithering all over the place… with a big smile on my face.  Other folk mashing through the puddles were sensibly wearing Wellington boots… they must have thought I was crazy!

Once around the industrial estate it was on to the magical path… as magical as ever with the sun filtering through the trees!

And then across a sun-stroked Common, before heading for home.

5.2 miles took me 51 minutes, so a merest shade over 6mph and a great start to 2012.  I hope that you all have a most amazing year!

And PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Cliff who is forty-something today!