Sunday 11 November 2012

Hilly Sunday
















The only part of me that was still really sore from yesterday's run when I got up today was my quads - doubtless from my trip up and down the Law. So there was a degree of perversity in the decision to go for a hill run today. Teetering downhill in Hokas yesterday made me long for the bite of the mudclaws on heathery peat. Both of us were tired today so we didn't get off to the earliest start.

When we got to the Pentlands the sky had clouded over and the sun was a small whitish shape in the sky. It seemed uncannily dark and uncannily cold too. In the first mile we ran (literally) into friends the Mayfields, who we have not seen for ages, but it was impossible to chat (except for chattering teeth) because it was just too damn cold. They were swaddled up in layers but we were travelling lightly.

I got a big bang from being out in the hills again. Its a whole other season up there, quite different from yesterday's sunny beaches. The air was cold and pure and it was eerily still and quiet at times. The ground was really sodden. Has it been raining a lot? I couldn't remember but I guess so.

Even in the grippiest of fell running shoes I was pants at coming down the hill. It just takes getting accustomed to and somehow or other I've got out of practice.

We ran up the Drove Road, over West and East Kip and  Scald Law, then down to the Howe and back to the car on the stony path between the hills. 8 miles. Another weekend has disappeared. Tomorrow my quads will be properly sore.

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