I’m hoping that by sitting in the cool of my office, writing, my energy will return. For two hours now I have been walking slowly about the house, shallow breath, eating gently, spending a long time in the shower. The latter because I had too little energy to lift the soap.
It has been a beautiful morning, certainly ever since I rose at 7.30am. This may have been a trifle early for a sunday but it gave me a chance to sit supping espresso in the garden, reading at my leisure.
I had made a mistake yesterday, twice walking into town in a pair of old boat shoes and creating, then destroying, the blisters that quickly formed on both heels. I scoured the house for Compeed to no avail, but found some this morning in my depleted first aid kit. What would we do without Compeed?
I set out with one of my vague notions to visit the Beacon, or at least notgo north off the map again! My nose went south along Keymer Road, branching off left towards Oldland Mill and I dutifully followed. I was merrily hoofing along on firm ground when my feet disappeared into a heavily disguised puddle of almost liquid mud and I had to stop to take the picture above.
Once past the mill, I dropped down towards Ditchling but skirted right and across to Keymer. Here I aimed for Clayton and a very kind dog-walker pointed me in the direction of a boggy wood (with the delightful name of Lag Wood) at the point where I thought I was lost. This turned out to be quite beautiful, with a stream meandering its way through and though I initially scoffed at the use of the word boggy, I did indeed manage to find a stretch of deeper mud to splosh through.
Somewhere along the way I passed a glorious house with a statue of a traveller sitting by a pond. Overall quite idyllic.
Once through Clayton, there is a really (really!) steep path to Jack and Jill and I put my legs in low gear and made myself run the whole way…
… and then past and on to the very top of the hill. I took the next photo because you can just see the bright white Oldland Mill facing the Downs, almost in the middle of the shot. I thought it might give a sense of how far I had run. Especially bearing in mind that I was really feeling it by this stage.
From the Beacon, I dropped directly down into Ditchling and back up the lane to Oldland Mill again, where a chap kindly explained the presence of a marquee and assorted paraphernalia. It’s an open day today, so if you act fast, you might still be able to get there while the food lasts. And if the wind blows, which seems remotely possible, they will be letting the sails turn.
The stretch home from there was hard work, but I just kept the legs going, avoiding the odd squishy puddle and then avoiding the cars on Keymer Road. As I stood gasping for air and stretching my muscles out at the front door, so my neighbour emerged, probably to take his family off somewhere for lunch dressed in their summer clothes. They must have thought I was certifiable, standing there in my muddy trainers and shorts… and the recently removed and sweaty t-shirt that I had the dignity to put back on when they emerged!
Overall, it was just shy of a half marathon distance, at 20.5km or 12.8 miles, but I would have won no prizes for the two hours thirteen that it had taken me to complete. Set against the slow pace (5.78mph or 10.4 minutes per mile) was the fact that I explored a whole new set of paths through some very pretty places, did a small chunk of the South Downs Way with its stunning views, had no pain whatsoever from my busted blisters and managed to keep going without the need to walk.
I’m feeling better already!