So it started much like any other run with the "girls".
7.30am on a Sunday outside Sarah's house.
Ice Cream Sian (ICS) had been up all night looking after a poorly daughter, and I was suffering from minor bout of food poisoning.
Sarah was fine, and full of the joys of spring.
We set off at our usual pace (slightly slower than a glacier) along the flat of the lane that leads to the woods above the village. We dropped into the woods still maintaining our sloth like speed and then started the run up the "pylon field" to Rudry. At this point as the gradient moved a couple of degrees above the horizontal it all started to go wrong. Sarah was dropping back in obvious discomfort. We eventually made it to the top of the field and then “jogged" through Rudry and onto the common.
My plan was to skirt around the west side of the common and pop out onto the road without having to climb very far. Sadly at this point Sarah gave in to the inevitable and had to stop.
We were only 1.2 miles from home and about 200m from the village, so I had no qualms about carrying on. ICS on the other hand was most concerned and wanted to go back with her. At the time I thought she was being caring, but now looking back it is possible that she may have seen a sneaky way of avoiding what was going to be quite a difficult run.
I do have to admit that I have never been on the path that I was planning to run up, although I thought I knew where it went. Sadly it would appear that most of it is nothing more than a dotted green line on a map. So it was that I then subjected ICS to a steepish plod through wet waist deep bracken almost to the top of the common before hitting another path and then improvising what I thought was an excellent “short cut” to meet up with my original route.
Apparently a steep wet slippery descent followed by another long gradual climb cannot be described as excellent!
Our slight detour had cost us a bit of time so after splashing through the woods we went right up “Catch 22” – so called because there are 2 ways out and they are both horrible – and then dropped round the quarry. I took this opportunity to tell ICS about how I had been chased by an angry cow just where we were only the week before while running to work. I was most surprised then to see her face fall as we came to a field containing the offending bovine and many of her friends. “We are not running through there are we?” said ICS. “Of course” I said, “it will be fine”. She countered with “no, you’ll be fine as if we get chased you don’t have to outrun the cow, you just have to outrun me”. I was shocked at this damning statement and also her uncanny ability to read my mind.
Of course we were fine and I even waited until we were out of the field to recount another story about how I and a couple of mates had been chased by a really angry bull in the very same field. She didn’t seem to enjoy that either!
Once we reached the farm it was downhill all the way home and we fairly scampered the last 2k to be greeted by a limping Sarah who was sporting Waterloo’s running accessory du jour, the ice pack.
Total distance 11.16k. Average speed, slower than a tectonic plate.
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