I had decided early on today that I wanted to join the Monday night cake run group firstly (obviously) for the cake and, secondly, for the great company. I'm sure they won't be offended that the cake came first.
I left work, as usual, at 3.30 and got on my normal train. Unfortunately, after we left Manchester, the conductor made an announcement that nobody could actually hear, although we did pick out the words 'Wigan' and 'Preston'. People started chatting to each other wondering what was going on and my train friend, Scouse Dave, went down the train to speak to the conductor to find out. It turned out that due to some problem or other, probably the wrong kind of leaves on the track, the train was having to divert down the Wigan line and so wouldn't be calling at Bolton or any stations between there and Preston. To get to Horwich, we would have to go to Preston then catch a train back - assuming there was one and the aforementioned wrong kind of leaves weren't on the track in the opposite direction as well.
In the end, Scouse Dave, Chris (my other train friend) and I decided to get off at Wigan and catch a train to Hindley, where Duncan kindly picked us up on his way home from work and took us to Horwich Parkway. I arrived home well over 2 hours after I left work so was running really late for the meet up for tonight's run.
I told the guys I would see them up by the dog kennels at around 6.50. I was running so late that I ended up having to get Duncan to drive me up to the top of Wilderswood and I ran from there. I got to the kennels at about 6.45 and there wasn't a head torch in sight so I kept going and going and going, hoping that I'd see somebody before I had to run up the Pike but I didn't and so ran up there. I waited about five minutes at the top and then everyone arrived. My run to the Pike was actually surprisingly good and I was feeling pretty strong.
We headed down from the Pike, along George's Lane and up Two Lads. I manged to run all the way to Two Lads with ease and got myself a personal record on Strava in the process! Woo!
It was then cross country to the mast, a bit which I find a really hard slog but, again, I was feeling fine and managing to chat to Suzanne all the way along when usually I'm too out of breath to talk.
It's pretty much all down hill from there and I couldn't believe that I had found the run so easy tonight. Perhaps it's because I started on the flat, rather than running up hill straight away like I usually do. Who knows, I'm just feeling pretty high right now about how well I ran!
When we got to the barn, my Garmin was showing 5.91 miles so Josie ordered me to run around the car park until I got to 6 miles, which I did, causing me to miss the beginning of Mark's happy birthday song. Sorry Mark!
We then chomped on some delicious cup cakes made by the birthday boy and soon made our farewells.
A great run, thanks again guys!!!
Happy Birthday for tomorrow Mark!
Total distance - 6 miles
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