#96 The Philosophers Run (09.02.19) and #97 The Punchbowl (10.02.19)

Had a dip following the Excalibur run a couple of weeks back. Felt rubbish and couldn’t run well at all. Had a panic that I’d seemed to schedule all of my number 90 runs in some kind of random illogical order, having a weekend with no running, then leaving the last 5 runs all in three weekends. What an idiot! To make myself feel better, on the weekend off, I went for a run with Andrew, 18 miles around the Thames loop, which used to be one of my favourite runs; down to Greenwich and under the tunnel, along the south bank, back over Tower Bridge, and along the north bank, then along the canal, via the weekend market for a snack, and home. But I couldn’t even manage that, and had to abort at about 15 miles at the Tower of London (no one was raven about my running on that day, but for some reason that I can’t fathom, some people don’t like these jokes, so I couldn’t even laugh about it).

Anyway! Moan moan moan, blah blah blah. Enough of all that. Fortunately, things started looking up, and what I had interpreted to be a scheduling error, turned in to be one of my most favourite running weekends!

Saturday was the Philosophers Run, down in Egham by the Thames. Organised by Saturn Running, so bound to be a good day out. I woke up at 3:30, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so bored of staring at the dark and worrying about if would have to abort today’s run at 15 miles as well, and so ruin my 100 plans, I got up, made a brew, and did some work, which is a terrible way to start a weekend, but by 5:30 I actually felt like I’d already achieved something, and was feeling a bit better. I got to sit on the top deck on the front seat on the bus to Waterloo, which even though I’ve lived in London for ever, is still one of the most exciting things that can happen, so I knew the day was going to be good. I got to Waterloo ridiculously early, and being unaccustomed to being very early for anything, wasn’t sure what to do, but figured that I’d already been up for several hours, so it was probably acceptable to have cake and coffee, so sat in Pret for a bit and watched everyone rushing around.

Got to the start and caught up with some familiar faces, and met a lovely lady called Sarah who was training for her first London Marathon, and who has a 5 year old, and also 2 year old twins, which instantly made me realise that waking up at 3:30, once, was actually no big deal. We all gathered outside for the race briefing, and a little grey dog carrying a stick (well, a branch really, maybe even a log) at least twice as long as he was, decided that he should run right through the middle of everyone, which woke everyone up quite quickly. Then he turned around, and fixed his eyes to the front, ready for the race brief.

Soon we were off, which was good, as it was quite chilly. Ran with Craig – thank you for a great run - and for a good pace! Did 4:23 which I was quite surprised by, given not feeling too good the last two weeks, but it felt a comfortable pace, and I felt good for the whole 8 laps. I’ve run this route once before, but had completely forgotten it, so it was a nice surprise to rediscover it. The path was really muddy and a bit hard going, but the weather was pretty nice, with only a short shower on the last half lap. Ran into loads of familiar faces today and lots of chats on the way around; Kat (on her 350^th marathon today), David (I can’t count as high as the number he is on now), Costas, Apryl, Jagjit, Kerry, Olga, Rob, Brian, Sean, and lots of other that I'm sorry if I missed out. Got a twirly medal at the end. 

Thank you Charlotte and George of Saturn Running, and all your lovely helpers, and all the runners, for a fantastic day!

Sunday was the Punchbowl, which is a 30 mile run, from Surrey LDWA. I’ve done it twice before, and love it. It starts from the village hall in Witley and does a big loop, taking in the Devil’s Punchbowl. The Devil’s Punchbowl, should you be interested, is a 697 acre site of scientific interest, a natural amphitheatre, and takes a devil of a long time to run around the rim of it (which, by the by, used to be the route of the A3). There are great views from up there, and even on sunny days (which today was not, but more on that later), it’s sort of misty up there – a place indeed for legends, and it has some fine ones. My favourite, is that in the Middle Ages, the Devil was becoming irritated by all the churches being built in Sussex, so he was trying to dig a channel from the sea through the South Downs, and flood Sussex. How enterprising! He got as far as a village called Poynings when he was inconveniently disturbed by a cock crowing, and assuming it to be morning, leapt into Surrey (why the Devil should have decided that Surrey was a better place to be seen in daylight rather than Sussex is unclear in the story, but I feel these are details we should not bother ourselves with) and thus created the Devils Punchbowl. Who is to say whether this is true, or not, but what I can tell you for sure is that the Devil’s Punchbowl is a devil to climb, and I was moving much more slowly than anything on the A3 by the time we reached the top.

Anyway, I skip ahead. Ran with Andrew and Kasia today, and we were joined in the last few miles by Peter. Another fun day, and the miles went by quickly (and would have been even more quickly save for a few ‘additions’ to the route description, starting off with our first diversion in the first 200 metres, whilst I was in charge of navigating). The route had changed this year, the loop was the other way around a bit different, and it was just as good as normal. The route went south from Witely down to the Devils Puchbowl and checkpoint one, then a long section North up to Sands and checkpoint two (rice pudding!), then a loop around to Elstead, and back south to Witley.

I love the scenery around there – the red sand, pine and heather, and up on the ridges the views are great, and the route really shows it off to it's best. The weather was meant to be bobbins today, but it really wasn’t that bad, was even sunny for an hour or two. We were even chatting about how fine a day it had turned into, a few minutes before the end, when the sky turned dark, the wind whistled, and the Devil must have decided to flood Sussex after all, and it bucketed it down for the last two minutes. But who cares! We were soon back inside the village hall, tucking into beans in toast and hot drinks, and all was well again. Good to see Neil at the end too, who is well on target for his 50th marathon next weekend! Thanks everyone for a great run today, and of course Surrey LDWA for a top notch event.

It's funny that you can be really worried about something, and then it's turns out to be just the best time. Had the best weekend, so big thanks to everyone who made it so. I love running again! Which is a timely feeling to  feel. I think I might actually make it to #100 after all! Got The Winter Poppyline 50 this weekend coming (#98), and then the Jaw Dropper marathon (#99) and Dirty Running (#100) the weekend after....