On my command....unleash hill!

Getting through today's work day was a good feeling. Lots of "call me backs" logged with people who never call me back, and a clutch of emails hurled into the ether, and by seven thirty it felt like I'd been banging my head against a wall since breakfast.

However, text messages had been good to me. By eight o'clock it looked like I'd managed to line up a bunch of great runs over the course of the next few days, and as I leafed through my Janathon maps, I realised I'd yet to run my "normal" loop. Tonight's run sorted - excellent!

Everybody looks old at the top

That meant lightweight shoes (since I knew I'd be ankledeep in water in at least one section) and a little headtorch (I tend to remember where I trip up), and the only thing I'd do different for Janathon, would be to run it the "other" way round. I know, crazy.

It also would mean that for once that I could laugh in the face of Old Man's Hill, by going from top to bottom. This hill is usually the penultimate proper climb on a loop that gets progressively hillier, as the body inevitably tires. It's an enclosed footpath squeezed between high closeboard fences, and whilst it's reasonably short, from almost any point on the climb it has the light-bending qualities of an optical illusion. Particularly running it at night, whenever you think it can't get any steeper, you look up from your thigh-burning purgatory, and the path is still rising up front of you! With only twenty yards ahead of you ever visible beneath overhanging branches, you would be forgiven for thinking that eventually you'll be running up a cliff face. I love taking the uninitiated up it - the incredulous looks as they breathlessly creak their way out of the top - simply priceless.

The second good hill I got to run down today is in a location called Bourne Woods, and I use the word location for good reason. It's a patch of hilly, coniferous forest that is frequently used by film crews for creating ancient battle scenes. Russell Crowe is a regular, since many scenes of both Gladiator and Robin Hood were filmed here. About eighteen months ago, running buddy James took a group from our club for a bimble through Bourne Woods, which included a wide-eyed tour of a convincing medieval village, overlooked by a convincing castle, under the watchful eye of a convincing hi-viz-wearing security guard.

The "wet bit" of the run was indeed very wet, along a section of green lane where 4x4s tear up and down to see who's passengers can feel sick first. The result is a mile of track comprised of a neverending series of randomly spaced pits and peaks. The pits are almost always wet at the bottom, and the peaks are often loose, where they've been chewed by the undercarriages of a thousand ego-friendly futility-vehicles. Running this section is excellent training for core and lower body strength, which means for non-trail runners it's a baptism of fire. With no two steps the same, it's a constant test of balance, traction and stamina, as every body part is engaged to overcome deep sand, deeper water, and constant ups and downs in between. Every time I've been lazy here, I've tripped or stumbled, and on every occasion, I've landed in water. I love it.

And those are the highlights.

Which is the thing I most love about routes with character. They're like an old sweater, the more times you use them, the better they feel.


Summary:
Today: 13.1 miles, 1:52 hrs, 1841 cals
January: 280.0 miles, 40:46 hrs, 38035 cals