It’s been a rainy few days, though I think that we got away lightly compared to the rest of the country. Even so, my run today had a way higher proportion of splash footfalls to thud ones than normal. And inevitably with a fluid top layer, the mud was slippery!
I stuck to my simple local route and realising how wet and muddy it was going to be, adopted an approach of direct assault on every puddle or mud bath I encountered. Within minutes my trainers were wet through and my tights were plastered in mud… it was glorious!
Slip-sliding around always tests the core stability muscles and today more so than most, though I’m glad to report that I managed to stay right-side up for the duration.
The weather was largely overcast so the photos were more subdued than normal, but I did manage to find some vivid green moss.
The magical path runs along the shallow crest of a hill and is thus normally dry, but today it was waterlogged so I can only imagine the state of the normally muddy path lower down the rise!
Ditchling Common was strangely no wetter than normal but the weir from the pond at the bottom was flowing strongly. I decided to pause on the path back towards Burgess Hill rather than splash a nice couple wading through the liquid mud in the opposite direction.
Overall I was coated in mud right up to the middle of my back so upon returning I headed straight for the outside tap where I rinsed the worst of it off my tights, trainers and socks before I even bothered to try to take them off. I then hand washed them to lessen the mud content before putting them anywhere near the washing machine!
So 5.2 miles in 53 minutes gives an average of 5.88mph that doesn’t seem bad for all the sliding that was going on.
Happy Christmas to all!