I woke up at six-thirty yesterday with the sun streaming through the bedroom window and staggered down to where Kim was sitting on the deck, enjoying the last rays of the afternoon sun.
Saturday had been a long day as we had driven up to meet M&D, Debbie & John at Wimpole Hall near Cambridge. I remember when I was younger being bored stiff by this kind of place, but now I find myself interested on any number of levels. We were also fortunate to have Julian, the Curator, follow us around and answering our many questions and he was even more fascinating than the Hall in many ways!
After a delicious bowl of soup and a cream tea in the restaurant, we headed back to D&J’s place for dinner and we eventually tore ourselves away from the conversation to drive home way too close to midnight.
It was pretty amazing then that I was in my runners and leaving the door just after half-nine the next hot and sunny morning. It was a sluggish start, but I just focused on a steady pace and soon got into the swing of it.
Out to Oldlands Mill and through Ditchling where I decided to take an untried path… only in the pretty village of Ditchling could a public footpath be grassed and closely mown like the lawn of a manor-house.
I soon found myself on the familiar route to the Beacon, but with unfamiliar energy levels as I pounded up the steep path. Maybe it was just because the ground was dry, so all my energy was pushing me forwards for a change. Either way, I was surprised to reach the trig point in a mere 52 minutes… although the reason was that I had finally discovered the optimal route at only five miles.
From the Beacon I ran to Jack & Jill where I careered down the hill to Clayton, trying to emulate Richard Askwith’s fell running style without breaking anything! From Clayton there is a path that runs along the railway to Hassocks and I went straight through and out onto the dangerous Keymer Road back home. I’m not a great fan of running on country roads, but it was Sunday and the road was dry so I figured I had a reasonable chance of survival!
The route turned out to be 11.75 miles and I completed it in one hour 55 minutes… back to my normal 6mph speed.
Before collapsing in a heap, I managed to cut the grass, clip the hedge and read for a while in the baking hot sun, but then the weekend caught up with me and the next thing I knew it was six-thirty.