Author: FosterRuns

Once again it has been two weeks since my last run.  This, combined with a warm day and a stiff shoulder/neck, made for a slow run, even by recent standards.

My legs might have been heavy, but I still managed to extend my run a little, rather than do the minimum.  I ran out to Wivelsfield and then continued to the far end of the wood where there’s a steeper track up to Hundred Acre Lane, which I then ran back along.   I cut through past Ditchling Common Industrial Estate and ran back along the main path, parallel to the Magical Path.

As I neared the edge of Burgess Hill, I turned left to run along the side of the Common to the pond and then back around onto the normal route home.  Sad to report that a new housing development reaches right down to the Common… the sad bit is not that there’s a development there, since change is inevitable, but because, based on the record to date, it will consist of another couple of hundred anonymous, accountant-designed shoe boxes.  What a missed opportunity by the planners and the myriad of council folk (Burgess Hill Town Council, Mid Sussex District Council and West Sussex County Council) to inspire the townsfolk and step into the 21st century!

On a much lighter note, we were privileged to host a Japanese official from Ashikita Board of Education the week before last.  Our esteemed guest Tatsuya was one of the adults looking after a delegation of students who were staying at South Downs Language School, organised by friends Nikki and Ian in Ditchling.  It was a really fun week and lovely to be part of such a small and meaningful initiative.

Todays run was 7 miles in 73 minutes, an average of 5.75 mph… you can see the route here on Strava.

I was sitting in the tea-house writing this, listening to the burble of water falling onto stones and enjoying the cool evening breeze.  However, something went awry and now I’m inside, nearer to the wi-fi connection and writing the post over from scratch.

This morning I was in a rare weekend mode, supping a quadspresso and deep into a very thought-provoking book on reinventing organisations.  Then I realised that it was Sunday and that I needed to go out for a run.  Such are good habits that it’s okay to skip your given task on occasion, provided it’s a good reason, but I’d done that for the last two weekends so skipping was not an option!

The good reason for missing two weekends was a short trip to the Amalfi coast in Italy, which was beautiful but way too hot to run!

With no reasons sufficient to miss a third week, I got on my gear and got out there.  It was a simple run, out to Wivelsfield, up through West Wood and along Hundred Acre Lane, then back via the Magical Path.

I wasn’t out to break any record, so I was running along, looking at the fields and the trees and, at a certain point in time, singing my latest song out loud.

Clearly, in retrospect, looking around and singing meant that my focus was not on the ground in front of me… one minute I was singing, the next on my hands & knees on the ground having tripped on a protruding root.

Nothing damaged, other than my pride (I would prefer to have tucked and rolled rather than landing in such a clumsy way), I dusted myself down and carried on, singing even louder to scare any other have-a-go roots away!

The run was 6.12 miles and according to Strava I completed it in one hour.

There, finished.  Though I’m not sure that writing it a second time improved it any!

The forecast for today (on BBC weather, yesterday) was overcast and 65 degrees max, so I was surprised by the far hotter and more humid morning that turned up (though, to be fair, the forecast was correct as I sit here now).

I opted for a short run through the woods and even then came back more physically and mentally exhausted than I expected… hence a rather short post!

According to my Strava record I completed 5.75 miles in just over 57 minutes… an average of just over 6 mph.

There was a flatness to the light today and although it feels sort of chilly, I suspect that it’s just the humidity that’s making it feel slightly cool.  It wasn’t exactly ‘let’s go run’ weather, but I’m not running enough at the moment to vegetate for no reason, so I pulled on my runners & got out there.

I did a simple loop out to Wivelsfield, up through West Wood and back down the Magical Path.  I even managed to get lost again… I was sort of making my way out to Hundred Acre Lane, but as you can see from Strava I wasn’t even close to it!

5.6 miles in 55 minutes, an average of 6.2 mph.

After a day spent power washing our drive (and generally clearing up the mess that I created by doing this) I didn’t really feel much like a run.  However, I didn’t run last week so I managed to find the motivation to get out there anyway.

I’d managed to catch the sun a little on the back of my neck, so whilst I ran in the same direction as the last couple of runs, I decided to keep to the shade.  The light through the trees was beautiful and I actually managed to get disorientated in the wood such that I ran along one path for five minutes before I recognised where I was… I really enjoy that feeling of seeing something with fresh eyes, not to mention the delightful  ‘aha’ moment when you realise you know where you are.

At one point I tripped magnificently and went flying.  I’m still unsure exactly how I landed (I wasn’t certain at the time either)… I had mud on my hands and back, so I can only guess that I let go of my phone and water bottle, tucked and rolled.  The whole thing would have been quite funny for anyone watching, though there was sadly no-one there to see.

Later I took to the road to avoid a section of path that I thought might be thick with stinging nettles.  As I rounded the corner so I found some medics treating a cyclist who had slid off his bike on the gravel, so I stopped to slow the traffic down until an ambulance was on it’s way and one of his fellow cyclists relieved me.  The man being treated had blood right across his face and must have been in quite some pain with gravel burns, though I know from personal experience how much the head bleeds from even a minor cut.  I hope that he views the experience as life-affirming and is soon back on his bike!

You can see my run on Strava at https://www.strava.com/activities/320200150 – 6.8 miles in 64 minutes, average 6.38 mph.

I didn’t run last week, but this run was the week before (as I write on the 7th June).  I followed the same general route as the previous week with a few tweaks along the way as I discovered more about these new paths.  Aside from Lew’s cows coming over to ‘talk’ to me as I ran past, the highlight of the run was actually stopping to allow someone time to negotiate a stile.

I stopped to chat and it turned out that the man (Peter ‘Percy’ Pettinger) had grown up in the Royal Oak and was just back in the area visiting.

I was captivated as Percy described the area when he was growing up in the ’60’s… for example, the main road had gates across it because common had sheep & cattle grazing on it.  Apparently the local kids would turn these gates into tolls, charging drivers to pass through.  As the road developed so they installed kerbs, but these stopped some distance on either side of the Royal Oak to give people more space to negotiate the sharp corner.  He also described walking past the local labourers working in the fields and hiding, until they walked off home at the end of the day (probably via the Royal Oak), in order to poach a fish from the farm’s pond.

You can see the run on Strava at https://www.strava.com/activities/310967949 – 7.12 miles in 69 minutes (excluding the time spent talking!), average 6.2 mph.

Every so often I have a super-nteresting run and this run (bearing in mind I’m writing this on the 7th June) was one of those.  Where I had been running my normal circuit in an anti-clockwise direction, I simply went the other way.  Bearing in mind that I teach people to look at things from a different perspective, this was a beautiful example of what happens when you do.

A while ago I noticed that the local hospice had created a dog-leg in the path adjacent to their boundary and because I saw no particular reason for it (it could only be about 15 feet long), I had never run around the other side of the bushes.  Coming from the other direction and being in a curious mood, I took the diversion and found that it’s the start of a delightful path that runs along the field edge, parallel to where I normally run.

Needless to say I took this path and was delighted that it led onto a few more new paths.

You can see the run on Strava at https://www.strava.com/activities/306515705 – 7.18 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes, 6.34 mph average.

You’ll be pleased to know that, despite the absence (I’m writing this on the 7th June), I have actually been running most weeks… it’s only the writing that had lapsed!  I didn’t make notes after this run, or the next two, so the posts will mainly consist of photos.

You can see the run on Strava at https://www.strava.com/activities/301661469 – 6.06 miles in 57 minutes,, 6.5 mph.