Test the Legs Trail Run

I was going to get up and run with a group this morning but I was really tired and treated myself to a lie in instead.  When I finally did get up, Duncan and I decided to take Ruby for a walk around the Hell of a Hill Marathon route so that we could cheer on the competitors on yet another miserable wet and windy morning. 

After walking around the route in the opposite direction and cheering the guys and gals on, I got my running coat on and went for a run whilst Duncan drove Ruby home.  I just wanted to see how my legs were after Friday and was only intending to run about three miles.  The answer was that they were surprisingly good so I ended up going a bit further.  Aside from a bit of a calf niggle, they were pain free and I had expected my quads to be really sore because of how painful they were on Friday. 

I ran from the Pigeon Tower car park down the road past the campsite and all the way to Lead Mines Clough.  I then ran through Lead Mines Clough and up the right hand hill at the end, then followed the trail to Higher and Lower Hempshaws.  At first, I had tried to come off the trail and go the cross country route I went along last week with Josie and Co but when I got down to the stream crossing, it was more like a river and I couldn’t get across.  There are stiles to the right, but I wasn’t sure these would take me the way I wanted to go and I didn’t have a map on me so decided to just go back up to the trail and stay on there to Higher Hempshaws.  

From Lower Hempshaws, I climbed the hill towards Hordern Stoops.  I was hugely different to last week because I practically walked that whole hill last week but today I ran it all and felt fine. 

Once at Hordern Stoops, I decided against climbing up top as I had intended this to be a trial run rather than a fell run so I ran along to Belmont Road (continuation of George’s Lane) and ran all the way along there to the Pigeon Tower.  It was pretty slippery underfoot in some places and horrendously wet.  Once at the Pigeon Tower, I carried on along George’s Lane to the dog kennels and then went slowly down my favourite field. 

I’m not usually bothered by mountain bikers as the majority of them are sensible and considerate but I got really angry (in my head, not out loud) with a mountain biker who was riding up through my favourite field.  There are some footpaths which it doesn’t bother me if there are bikers on, as long as they’re being considerate to walkers/runners, but footpaths through farm fields like this, which are soft grassy ground, shouldn’t be ridden on.  He was coming the opposite way to me and as I passed him I could see the groove he had cut into the soft ground.  I love that field and don’t want it to become a mess due to bikers riding along it. 

Total distance – 7.5 miles