Today is beautiful indeed, with clear blue sky and a gentle, warm breeze. In fact it looked like a great day to be running on the Downs, so that’s what I did.
I started by running out towards Oldlands Mill, but I turned left before I got there and dropped down into Ditchling High Street. Once south of the village I took the Beacon Road for a short distance before turning left onto my usual Beacon track… and then turning left again onto a path that took me further along Underhill Lane. And then turning left again to get to Westmeston.
From here I took the Westmeston Bostal to the top of the Downs and ran the short distance to Ditchling Beacon, which I reached in an hour.
Several years ago now, Cliff had given me some little orange Sport Beans and despite them being almost a year out of date (one of the downsides of having an overflowing gear draw), I now opened the packet and tried them.
The breeze was strong up here and since it was coming from a North-Easterly direction, I opted to run to Jack & Jill which I reached twenty minutes later.
Rather than running on down the hill towards home (via the white blob of Oldlands Mill in the last picture) I turned around and ran back up to the top of the hill before descending on the Burnhouse Bostal.
As I ran back towards Ditchling, I ran through the farmyard at Park Barn Farm. Here there are two gates to go through and I took a direct line between, realising too late that this took me straight through a silage puddle with white mould on the top! Anticipating that I was going to disappear into the depths, I yelped (which must have amused anyone watching) but fortunately it was no deeper than my trainer. Nevertheless I stumbled and consequently ran straight through a second, adjacent puddle. YUK!
From there I ran back through Ditchling, up Lodge Hill and along to Oldlands Mill, where there was a great view back to Jack & Jill.
The run back from here is straightforward and was quickly dispatched, with me even pushing harder along the final few hundred metres… I must be getting used to running longer distances again.
So a shade over 13.5 miles in 2.23, 5.66mph. That’s the forth Sunday that I have run in excess of a half marathon distance, although it was also the slowest.
Cliff’s orange beans seemed to have helped though and I don’t feel as tired as normal… although that means that I now have to go and cut the grass and wash the cars! At least it’s still a beautiful day out there!