Blistering Heat!

I got up nice and early this morning so that I could get that long run in that I had intended to do yesterday.

I thought that today I'd give myself a nice flat start rather than going up hill straight away to give me a chance to warm up a little.

I headed from home down the school then along the path to Liverpool Castle.  I can't believe how warm it was!  I had gone out in a short sleeved t-shirt with a very light windproof over the top, thin gloves and a thin hat.  By a mile in, I was already stopping to remove layers and ended up running in just the t-shirt!  It's nearly the end of December, how can it be so warm?  Not that I'm complaining of course.

I skirted the side of Lower Rivington Reservoir and had to come slightly inland at one point as the water had come up over the path.  I kinda felt like I was by the seaside as the waves were crashing onto the shore!

I came out at the prep school then ran to the bowling club and up the path by Yarrow then dropped down 'the slipway' and carried on to Healey Nab.  I ran up to the cairn then back down again and down into White Coppice.  It was on the way down to White Coppice that I realised how much my feet were hurting.  My shoes were rubbing me on my arches and had caused blisters.  As they were on the soles of my feet it made running quite difficult and I could feel myself running on the outside of my feet to try to stop the pain.  I had a sit down and tried to make some adjustments but it didn't really help.  I carried on and pondered whether I should ring Duncan to pick me up somewhere or whether to just man up and carry on.

Manning up won over and I decided to carry on, albeit I changed my route and decided to start heading back home rather than carrying on further away from home just in case it got really bad and Duncan wasn't around to pick me up.

I ran to Waterman's Cottage and then along the path around Anglezarke coming out onto Knowsley Road.  I then ran up the road to the end of the path past Yarrow Reservoir then ran along to Rivington Green.

I carried on to the Lower Barn but, instead of just going home, I decided to head up a little just to get an extra bit of mileage in as, by now, the pain in my feet had turned into more of a burning sensation which was bearable.

I headed up through the terraced gardens coming out onto George's Lane, then ran along and headed for home through Wilderswood.

I didn't do quite as far as I had wanted (I wanted to between 15 and 20 miles) but I wasn't far off and at least my feet will now live to run another day, rather than being in utter tatters, although they're not a pretty sight right now and I'm going to have to stick a couple of blister plasters on them - if I can find some big enough!

Total distance - 14.1 miles