I'm out running again this evening! And the Old Boy is joining me. I do love my running, but I really needed to be concentrating on my cycling for the London To Brighton in the next couple of weeks, but due to some sort of squishing or trapped nerves or something, in my hands the cycling has had to take a rest, probably until the 16th! So the Old Boy said he would join me in a run this evening.
This can only mean one thing, and that is a run through the woods! We are just so fortunate to have these woods just on our doorstep. Just perfect. For an old townie like me, I still have the 'home comforts' of concrete and tarmac, and I do believe there is a tower block or two in my vicinity to completely stop the agoraphobia taking hold, but just go through a small gate and we are in the most beautiful parks and woods!
The Old Boy hasn't run since, well, I think since late last year, and so we chose a well used, well loved route of ours (well apart from Goss Hill it is not particularly loved), the Old Boy loves it though! I told him to take it nice and gentle at first, neither of us had warmed up, we were just going to take it easy for the first mile. Then get into a nice steady pace after that. In other words.....I am doing it my way, as usual! Just plodding through the woods deserves to be done at a leisurely pace! Just to look around, take in the fresh air, (excluding doggie doo odours) and also to concentrate on the ground! It is a bit....lumpy! And rooty.
We ran from Tent Peg Lane, all the way to Goss hill. Yes, I really ran all that way, I think I even managed to get up a bit of the hill before I stopped! And of course when I say stopped I mean I only stopped jogging, not moving along altogether! I like this Mr. Galloway chap, he says the whole run/walk it A O K!
The Old Boy managed to get to the top, without stopping, but he was overtaken by some tall young dude! His strides must have matched 10 of my steps! I got to the top and the Old Boy was no where to be seen. I just presumed that he wasn't having to take a rest at the top and he must have just gone straight along the path. I started jogging down the path, and then I turned around and he was creeping up behind me! It was a pee stop for him!
We carried on running along the top until we came to Botony Bay, we turned left and then right, to run along the Bridle path. It was mainly dry along this path, but you can tell where there had been sticky muddy puddles. There was also, still, some very sticky patches too. I was negotiating a particular sticky piece of path on a downhill section, I could hear someone running along behind me and getting closer. If I had thought about the sound of those feet, instead of concentrating on where my own feet were landing I could have guessed who it was that was catching up to us, it was the sound of' pat pat pat', sounds, like flat feet slapping.....it was Mr. Monkey Feet S. himself! "I am just seeing if my legs still work" he says to us. Mr. S had done a little run at the weekend, quite a well known one actually, he didn't quite get to the end, but.... you can forgive him for that, for what he had actually ran was the GUCR! He had covered 112 miles! His legs, by the way, looked like there were working fine! Even the fact that he had his VFF was totally amazing to me! I would want my feet wrapped in cotton wool, feather pillows secured with bubble wrap, and have huge helium balloons attached to my shoulders helping me to keep the weight off them!
Mr. S. joined us for the next mile or so. This means that I have to run! I could get away with the odd walk with the Old Boy, because I can moan at him and he will still love me. I can chuck my dummy out of the pram and he will laugh it off! But now I have to look like a PWR.... Nah!!! This is Mr.S he reads my blogs and knows what a cry baby I can be. So I will still stick to my running. The thing is, just after the little up hill section just a little further on, its all down hill! I can do that sort of running all day long....well...for quite a while anyway. So I was keeping up with the boys! On this particular bit of path, the Old boy pointed out a crow or something eating its dinner! As we got nearer to it, the 'dinner' was even more fresher than steak Tartare, it was a little baby pigeon! Still alive! But just too late to save it! Nature does have it's ugly side!
Just before 'Dog Poo Ally' we turned right to run along the side of the railway. Well, the light is still with us, the paths are relatively dry, and its bloomin good fun to run in the woods. There were a few sticky patches on the path and I was concentrating on not ending up face down in them and the boys were a little way in front of me. Up a little hill and then down a little hill, the boys were waiting just at the bottom, (and here is where the elephant comes into it!). "Here you go, so you can be like Dumbo" said Mr. S., as he held out a feather for me! "Ooo, no, I mean.. you know, it's a magic feather...to help you fly" he said, as the Old Boy chuckled, watching him trying to dig his self out of the mire! It's a good job that I have seen that particular Disney film! I took the feather. It will be my mascot for the rest of the run.
Mr. S. took his leave just as we were about to go over the first of the three bridges, it looks as if he will be heading back up to Botony Bay, while me and the Old Boy make our way over the bridges and back to our car! Oh, I think that the feather worked! Because usually I don't run up any of the stairs, but this evening I did! Of course I walked down then, health and safety and all that!
A great run, a lovely perfect evening run! And....I don't think the mozzies were out, I have not been bitten this time round!
Geeky stats.
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