Unfortunately that most terrible of words, work, has managed to get in the way over the past few weeks and I've got a few weeks behind in blog world. So, there's a bit of catch up required, starting with the weekend of 11/12 July and another of my stupid ideas. I've no idea why, but for some inexplicable reason I thought it would be a good idea to take July's “Marathon a Month” effort a bit further away from home, and if I'm going to travel I might as well make it worthwhile, take the van and have some bike fun whilst I'm at it. So, plan hatched, I'll take the van down to Shere in the Surrey hills on Friday night, ride the CTC Tour of the Hills route on Saturday and then on Sunday I'll push off to the And a brilliant plan it was too, wrap up work on the Friday night, out for a quick run followed by Fish and chips for tea and then off down to Shere in time for a quick brew and a good nights sleep. Saturday dawned fine and I was on the road for 07:00, making the most of the cool morning air and lack of traffic. The Tour of the Hills route lives up to its name and takes in all the big climbs in the area, Box hill, Leith Hill, Barhatch Lane and Whitedown Lane amongst others. None of which are particularly challenging on their own (Ok Barhatch is a bit cheeky), but when you put them all together things get a bit more interesting! Thanks to my early start Box hill was dispatched before the mass crowds arrived, I suppose featuring in the 2012 Olympic road race bought it to popular attention but it's probably the easiest climb of the day. It's a steady gradient, on a wide, well surfaced road and certainly not worthy of its reputation in my opinion. Off Box hill, through Dorking and onto Leith Hill, there's a brilliant trail 1/2 marathon up Leith Hilll if your that way inclined, but we will save that for another time, and on towards the next climb. It was at about this point that I realised my first schoolboy error of the weekend. In my haste to get away on Friday, I'd only gone and left the GPS and route for Sundays run at home. Oh well, I still had plenty of time to come up with another plan whilst crawling up the next few hills! Steadily progressing through the mornings efforts I made it back to the van in time for a late lunch with 70 odd miles and 2400m of ascent under my belt, ready for a well deserved easy afternoon sitting enjoying the view and afternoon sunshine outside the van, whilst contemplating my options for tomorrows planned marathon effort. There was no way I was going home, so a bit of Googling and inspection of the maps gave me 2 options for easy to follow routes that I could run as an out and back route. From my position I could pick up either the North Downs Way or Greensand Way, both of which looked pretty hilly and rather inviting. Umming and Ahhing over which way to go I elected to sleep on it and make a decision in the morning, no sod it I'll do the North downs way, or maybe the Greensand Way, oh I don't know! By the time the alarm went of a few seconds later I'd made my mind up. The Greensand Way it was, and what a morning I had for it, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and still being stupidly early on a Sunday morning I had the whole world to myself. The only decision to make now was to turn Left onto the trail or Right. Right it was and as I steadily wound my way through the trees, occasionally catching glimpses of the expansive views out over the Weald towards the South Downs I was in my element. It didn't take long for stupid error number two to raise it's ugly head though, and within the first couple of miles I'd lost the path 2 or 3 times. Not a major problem you would think, a bit of extra distance isn't an issue, just turn back and find the path again and off you go. And yes you would be totally spot on in your assumption. However, I find it incredibly frustrating when I don't know where I'm going, and it really throws your rhythm out when you have to keep stopping, turning around and trying to work out where your going. 26 miles of that was sure to do my head in! Eventually things settled down and the miles started ticking along, 5, 6, 7. Hello what's this? As the path deposited me onto a main road with the signpost pointing along the footpath. Follow the signs then, until, ½ a mile later the footpath abruptly ended with no further signs and no indication of where to go next. Well, that's the end of that then, there's no way I'm running aimlessly along an A road with no idea of where I'm going, best turn round and try the other way. And that's when schoolboy error number 3 decided to raise it's head, the first 7 miles had been steadily down hill, nice easy running to wake the old legs up, when I turned round though! Not so nice. And my legs said “what's this all about, we did 70 hilly miles yesterday, your having a laugh if you think were playing today too” - “Shut up legs and get on with it”! By the time I'd lugged by sorry arse back up to the top of the hill where I started from, run straight past the van, down the other side, got lost again another couple of times and started up the next big climb I was starting to wonder what the hell is was doing!
In fact by the time I'd got fed up of getting lost and having found myself back at the van again at the 20 mile point, my legs were in bits and I'd pretty much decided that enough was enough, this was one stupid idea too many! “But wait” said the little voice inside my head, “If we stop now we'll still have to do the same again next week if we are going to finish the Marathon a Month lark”. “Shut up brain” said the legs “the guys clearly an idiot and we're not playing” I'm not ashamed to admit that those last 6 miles were bloody hard, more from a mental point than a physical one, but slowly tick them off I did. There was no way in the world that I was quitting after 20 miles! 4:32 for the 26 miles then, and whilst a long way off my best times for the distance, its a time I'm more than happy with considering the terrain, the getting lost, the stupidity of running 26 miles off the back of a hilly days cycling the day before and the mental battle to get there! Roll on August, that ones going to take some beating for sheer stupidity!
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Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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