Continuing my streak of attending the Harriers hill sessions, I made my way up the hill to the meeting point at Wilderswood car park this evening.
There were very few out tonight braving the cold and the rain, only myself, Steve, John and Doug.
We headed out to Pike Cottage to start the session. Steve gave us a choice of doing the same session as last week or just doing loops up to two lads, down past the water tanks to George's Lane and back to Pike Cottage. We opted for the latter.
The first rep was pretty uneventful but on the second rep the skies darkened and the heavens well and truly opened. We were relentlessly pelted with rather large hailstones. I was so glad to have a decent hood on my OMM smock but I still had to shield my face with a hand, although I suppose I got myself a free facial. I also ate quite a lot of it too as it pelted me in the mouth.
On the descent, it started to get a little frightening and the thunder and lightening started, with the thunder being straight behind the lightening meaning it was right overhead. Not cool when you're on open moorland and I was just trying to work out which one of us was the tallest and would act as lightening rod.
John decided to call it a day after the second rep as the ground was becoming increasingly more slippery but Steve, Doug and I decided to do just one more rep. The hail stopped for our third rep and we thought the lightening had too but it soon came back, however wasn't overhead anymore. Part way up, Steve told me to stop and turn around and the view of the distant storm was spectacular. I suggested we run a bit quicker so we could get back down in time before we got stuck in the middle of it again.
I actually found the session a lot easier than normal today, having run all three reps pretty well with no walking at all. Am I finally starting to get better at climbing?
Unfortunately, I won't be at the next two sessions as I'll be in Scotland but I'll try to find a hill there I can run up and down. I don't think that will be too difficult.
Total distance - 6.15 miles
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