Back to the trails!

Saturday marked exactly 9 weeks since the last time I left London. Lockdown has really changed my views about living here, and for the last few weeks I've been missing the trails so much - the open spaces, the big skies and peace and quiet, that no matter how early or late, or where you chose run here, you just can't find them. Constantly running on pavements, stopping to cross roads, jumping off pavements to avoid people, always some kind of a noise in the background; it has kind of stopped being the fun that it was back at the start, when deserted streets and stolen solitary moments with the big landmarks made it seem like the city was all your own. The slight lockdown relaxation has brought it back with a bang that it's really not, and normal life which was blurred out of all focus for a couple of months, has felt like it's come back into sharper vision. A bit like, at the opticians, when they suddenly take off your glasses so you can't see a thing, and then play that cruel game with the not quite strong enough lenses for ages, so you can sort of see that should be there, but not quite enough so you can really make it out (....it looks like H, but it might be an M, but let's go with N). Anyway, that may not make sense, but that's where I feel at the moment.  

Last week I got ill inconveniently at the exact time we were allowed to meet a person outside of the household, and also to do driving to go to exercise. So this week, it was nice to do both of those things! Great to meet up with my sister (and explore a new place - Hollow Ponds) and then Tara....and do a TRAIL run!

It's been over 3 months since doing a long run like this. I'd forgotten everything I needed to pack in a running bag, or which pockets I use for what. I even forgot I'd got a new pair of trail shoes shortly before lockdown, and put my road ones on in autopilot, and ran it in those. But no matter, it was good to be reunited with the kit in one way or another.

Started and finished at Denbies, and did a 30 mile (LDWA, Winter Tanners route) run in the Surrey Hills. It was nice to do something LDWA themed, as this weekend was meant to be the LDWA 100 in Wales, and I should have been finishing it this afternoon (so long as I hadn't got stuck in a Welsh bog somewhere on the way around). Although Coronovirus has turned the world upside down, the weather is gloriously unaffected - it was definite 100 weekend, as the weather was "mixed" - twinkling sunshine one minute, biblical rain showers the next, followed by gusts of wind, then back to sunshine again. 

What a day! I've missed this so much. The trails, the views, the air, the laughs, following a route description filled with cryptic abbreviations, hills, getting rained on then drying in the sun, ultra-runner topics of conversation, exploring new places. Even the things that I thought when running, well, I could really do without this (for example, sore feet and aching muscles, the tired feeling afterwards, insatiable hunger), actually those feelings are the ones that I realised that I'd missed too in a funny sort of way. All those things, and the runners that you are with when you experience them, are the things that I miss most about running. That, and some things that we can't have back yet - like not having all your running buddies around, and not being able to be close to each other. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do 100 miles without a hug. But anyway, hopefully one day that will change too. And here are some memories of a lovely run.....

Only one third of the hundred, but as the furthest I've run since in the last almost three months is 13 miles, that's OK. And, I have all of my toenails and no blisters, which is most usual for this point in the running year, and sounds like an reason to celebrate.....