Part way through my run today I heard the inexorable approach of feet from behind and turned to find Kurt from Run in Hove just about the slide past me with his friend Ken. They were out for a 15 miler and though they were into the last stages, were clearly still running a tad faster than me. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I needed to start piling on the Sunday miles, so I took the opportunity of a beautiful day to run from my folks house in Woodingdean, down to Rottingdean, along to Brighton and all the way back again. Aside from anything else, I thought it would be a good test of my staying power to run up a long, long hill at the end of a long run.
Of course, most of the first two miles were downhill, so the run started real easy for a change! Between Rottindean and Brighton I took a couple of photos which might help explain why else I had chosen this route.
I reached the pier around 55 minutes which gave me an average speed of 6.9mph, it being about 10km into my run… with the help of the long downhill section, of course!
As I ran back along towards the Marina, so Kurt and Ken picked me up and pulled me along at their pace for a few hundred metres before I made my excuses and paused to say Hi to the guys at Martlet Kayak Club. It seems strange to think that I was a member here in the formative years of my teens and early twenties… although the club is amazing now by comparison! Andy was cleaning drains, but Nikki just happened to have her running kit on and agreed to join me for a while.
I had planned to run along the Undercliff Walk, but it was closed due to falling rocks and we ran up on to the cliff top instead… both feeling knackered at the top of the ramp! It’s a lot easier running with someone else though and we then made light work of the three miles to Rottingdean.
And so it was, around the ten-mile mark, with Nikki heading back towards the kayak club, that I started back up the hill. And actually it was okay, as the long, steepish hill is broken up by flat sections that give you a welcome breather from time to time.
The only thing that you don’t get from any of the sunny photos above, is the temperature. I was under no illusion as to how cold it was as there was solid ice across the pavement in a couple of places on the way down, but it was most apparent on the hill coming back… with the front of my jacket pressing against the two sweaty layers below, my chest was so cold that it was actually painful!
I had decided to stop at the Downs Hotel, but when I got there I felt a curious need to continue up the hill to the ‘bakery’. The bakery has long-since gone but as the top of the village, it holds a symbolic value for me.
Apart from the symbolism and another photo opportunity, the other benefit of having run up to this point was the ability to run easily back downhill to the end!
13.5 miles completed in 2 hours and 5 minutes… 6.48mph. Not bad Foster, even if I’m forced to say so myself!