A Little Bit of Everything!

As the title suggests, today's run was full of a little bit of everything - roads, trails, fells, hill climbs, speedy sections, navigation and mental training.

Duncan dropped me off at the car park just as you turn into Tockholes Road and I set off along the Witton Weavers Way in deep fog.  I had intended to run into Belmont then up Winter Hill, however, in a world of my own and because of the fog, I totally missed the turn off towards Belmont and found myself continuing along Witton Weavers Way.

After a while I knew that I had run too far because I had been going for too long and suddenly a wood appeared on my left so I got my map out to pinpoint my location.  I love my 'Around and About Belmont' OS map.  It's 1.16 scale so much easier to read.  I also have one that covers Peel Tower and the three reservoirs.  Far better than normal OS maps, wish you could get them in this scale for anywhere.

I found my location easily because it was the only wooded bit along this part of Witton Weavers Way so I then worked myself out a route to bring me out at San Marino.

At the end of WWW I crossed straight over a road and ran along a short road which was blocked to traffic at either end.  When I go to the other side, I crossed straight over the road and ran down through a muddy field and dropped down to a very slippery bridge which crossed 'Belmont or Eagely Brook' then climbed back up at the other side and headed towards a farm house.  From the farm house, I ran along the farm track and this brought me out onto Belmont Road, where I turned right then crossed the road to climb up the 'San Marino' ramp.

This is where the mental training came in.  I had been pretty tired during this run, probably due to the alcohol consumed last night and I was struggling going up the ramp.  For anyone who doesn't know, the San Marino Ramp climbs over a mile from the bottom at the road to the mast road on Winter Hill.  It's quite a slog and today was even more difficult than usual.  I kept wanting to just stop and walk but my head wouldn't let me.  There was a battle going on between devil and angel all the way up and angel won, bless her!  I'm really proud of myself!  Not for managing to run the whole thing as I have done that in the past but for managing to fight the demons telling me to stop and walk because I was so tired today.  I felt great and I even upped the pace to flat out when I saw the top gate looming through the fog.

This is one of the perks of being Garmin free.  If I had been wearing my Garmin, I would probably have walked because I would have wanted to get the fastest time and in this case walking was possibly faster than running because I was finding it hard work.  However, as Andy Ford once said (at least I think it was Andy) - I'm not going to get better at running up hills if I walk up them.

From the mast road I turned off just after the mast and ran cross-country over to Two Lads and then ran down onto George's Lane and home through Wilderswood.

Really enjoyed today's run in the fog and got home feeling really good!


Total distance - approximately 8 miles