It was a beautiful day, so I drove down to my folks place, ran the lawnmower around the garden and then ran down to the sea.
But first I met lovely new neighbours who, out of a world of choice (they moved from Shanghai) had chosen this place to bring up their child. I reflected on this as I ran.
I knew before I had even reached the ridge path that I was low on energy compared to normal… it was tough going even three minutes into the run! But the views were glorious.
I ran down to the bottom of the Ovingdean valley and then along the Undercliff Walk to Rottingdean. Exhausted, with only the downhill and level bit completed, I then had to fight hard to make my way back up the hills without stopping.
As I ran back up the ridge path an unusual thought occurred to me, prompted by my conversation with the new neighbours. I’ve seen lots of beautiful villages, towns and cities in this country and around the world, but as places to come from (I was actually born in my parents house), this really is a rather lovely one.
According to Strava my 5.9 mile run took me 1 hour, the slowest time to date… though bizarrely the fastest time is only 2.5 minutes less.
Of course, when I got back home later, the first thing I did was not to sit & recover, but rather to get the lawnmower out and cut the grass and the green… doing my bit to keep the area lovely for those people who come from (or simply live) here.