I’ve had a brilliant week! One of the myriad challenging books that I’ve read recently suggested that there are just two critical measures that we employ when we are assessing how good something was (for examples my week or someone’s life): the high point and the ending.
So despite last week containing a sludge of stress and frustration, the duel high points of spending Thursday evening chatting with some really engaging Brighton Business School students and spending Friday working with the amazing Terbell PostGrad students, allied to the week-ending run I have just completed, make for a really positive memory overall.
The air temperature outside had an Arctic feel to it this morning as I ran off down the road and I quickly resolved to keep the route short. Inevitably though, as with life, when we get interested in something and delve a little deeper it can draw us in and we suddenly find ourselves doing things that we could not have hoped for.
I ran down Ockley Lane and out through copious quantities of icy wet mud to Oldlands Mill, which had clearly turned its back to the low sun.
The view to the South was beguiling, but I still had in mind to follow a relatively short route.
Anticipating that I might not come back this way, I ran down Lodge Hill (I normally only run up it) and thus saw the village of Ditchling from a different angle for a change.
I felt a little guilty as I ran down the high street leaving a trail of watery mud on the neat pavement. I could see it in my peripheral vision, flying through the air from my slowly whirling trainers.
Although it had not been my intention, I found myself on the path to the Beacon, ignoring the junctions which would have led me home more directly. And then I was running up the Beacon itself.
A series of comments this week had been spinning around in my head and I suddenly decided to try an odd experiment. Daren had mentioned that his tactics for getting up the Tank Tracks (a path which approaches the task of getting up the steep scarp slope by simply going straight up it) is to innocently ask me to explain something complex at the bottom and let me distract him with my reply until we reach the top. With this in mind I turned on the video camera and extemporised for the duration of the hill.
The result is difficult to watch because of the fast moving scenery and also hard to understand through the heavy breathing, but I enclose it here for in case it’s of random interest.
And then I was on the top of the Downs chatting to a couple whose young children were occupying the highest point in Sussex… the top of the concrete trig point on the top of Ditchling Beacon.
Ahead of me I now had the task of running home, but I smiled as I enjoyed the initial down hill section. My homeward route was going to be through the marvellous mud of the wonderful Weald… seemingly one part icy water to one part earth in places today… and this started before I had even reached Sporting Cars of Brighton at the bottom of the hill.
This route (especially at this time of year) is not for those who like to keep their shoes clean. It has gloriously beautiful views…
… but the soundtrack is consistently splashy…
… and at times you have to have faith that your feet are still attached.
There was even one hill that looked to be a wide and curving lawn, but was in fact pockets of water disguised by tufts of grass, all the way to the top.
Eventually I returned via Ditchling Common and back home, my woollen Thurlo socks being the only thing that stood between my feet and frostbite.
Just over 10.6 miles in 1:57 is an average of 5.45mph… a glorious end to an excellent week!
