A trail adventure with Andrew, in the Surrey Hills.
The Founders Challenge is an annual event, remembering the founders of the LDWA - Alan Blatchford and Chris Steer. It starts and finishes just outside Guildford, and is a circular route, all around many of the places that are significant in the LDWA's history.
It was the 26th running of the event, and that first time I have done it officially, but I have done versions of it with Tara and Andrew during our Surrey Hill adventures, and I love the trails in this part of the world. When I run here, I feel free, and happy and calm.
As no run is complete presently without the addition of a storm, this weekend it was time to be joined by Storm Babet, who was not shy about putting in an appearance.
We registered, and drank a cup of coffee, slowly, whilst delaying going out into the rain. Another participant arrived, and registered, and the marshal asked "is it brightening up out there?" He replied "I'm confident it's going to brighten up", whilst zipping up his waterproof to the top.
Thus instilled with confidence, and caffeine, we headed out into the mud monsoon.
To be fair, the weather wasn't really as bad as it could have been, the torrential rain was only torrential on and off, and it was actually really mild. Pretty nice to run in, all in all!
The route was a big muddy, hilly, bog fest, and I loved it! It is such a beautiful place to be, and being at one with nature (literally, after launching knee deep into a bog in the first mile) is just the best medicine for everything (and mud is good for your feet and skin).
Andrew and I marvelled at how there are so many nice places to run in the UK, and how few dangerous animals there are to contend with, compared to say America. I said, that despite this, I would still like to look in to doing some runs in America, even if there were bears, which along with alligators, were Andrew's top dangerous animal to consider. This lead to naming all of the types of bears we could, which included (and was limited to): black bear, brown bear, polar bear, panda bear, Bear Grylls, bear left, bear right, and teddy bear.
It was lovely to see some familiar faces, and to see Tara who was expertly running CP3! Thank you for the cup of tea!
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