Tara and I were planning on a fairly impromptu "Luxury Spa 50 Miles Girls Weekend". There isn't a whole lot of luxury involved in running 50 miles it must be said, but it started and finished in Guildford, which has a plethora of spa choices (as in the relaxation type of spa, not the shop), so our plan was to run 50 miles on Sunday, and have a spa day on Monday.
Buoyed by the thought of a day of relaxation and indulgence on Monday, we ignored the weather forecast/ weather warnings for Sunday, and collected ourselves (together with honorary girl Andrew) at Guildford train station ready to start at 09:30. The day so far looked promising; no rain and it was even quite warm. The weather forecast must be wrong after all, and we were in for a sunny day of running!
We ran out of Guildford to pick up the start of the route at the postbox on the Pilgrims Way and started off in a clockwise direction in a big 50 mile loop.
The first 8 miles or so were along the North Downs Way. A couple of miles in we reached the top of St Martha's...
Then it was along to Newlands Corner, for some nice views...
Next up was the long straight stretch through the woods which always seems to go on for ages and where we played "In my rucksack on the Luxury Girl's Scottish 100 I have..." game, in which we got up to a record of 19 items, and included (should you be interested) a tutu, an empty bottle of whiskey, a full bottle of whiskey, a unicorn, Tom Jones, a pan-fried vegetarian haggis, and a marble (amongst other essential items).
After 11 miles we made it to the first checkpoint at the church in Abinger, but not before our first encounter with the wild, tropical, jungle which Surrey seemed to have turned into during the last few weeks of alternating hot and rainy weather. We sat pensively in the churchyard for a few minutes, bemoaning our scratched and stung legs. When that didn't seem to help them any, we got back up, and embarked on a hilly section, taking in Holmbury Hill (unintentionally running over the finish line of a 1/2 marathon going on at The Duke of Kent School), up Pitch Hill, and down to Jelley's Hollow. The sky was starting to turn quite dramatically dark, but by a charitable turn of fate, we made it under a shelter at the next checkpoint (21 miles, at Smithbrook Kilns) approximately 10 seconds before the sky opened wide, and dumped it's entire contents out directly overhead. It felt a little bit like walking in to a mirage; there was a cafe table and chairs set up underneath the canopy, and we ate cake (cinnamon bun muffins) and watched the rain for a while, accompanied by a few theatrical claps of thunder.
In a few minutes, the worst of it eased off, and we set off in a gentle downpour, which continued for the next 20 miles or so. It was rather like running in a rainforest for the rest of it - wet, hot, muggy, muddy, and all the giant plants of the Surrey Jungle were now soaking and extra stingy and scratchy. But no matter! This provided plenty of material for a good moan, which is a great way to pass the miles, and make you feel much better. We even devised a new points system; a system of rewards based not only on the length of a run (1 standard point per mile), but also takes into account:
- The weather conditions (1 extra point for each mile run in the rain, 1 extra point for each degree below 10oC)
- The underfoot conditions (the points system for measuring bog depth, bog temperature etc is still in progress)
- Botanical injuries (1 extra point for each injury obtained from a plant
- Animal attacks (1 extra point for each midge bite - probably there will be larger points prizes available for other type of animal attacks, but we only saw a frog, a deer, a red kite and a fox, and none launched an attack, this time).
At 30 miles we made it to Whitley, where Andrew left to catch the train home, and Tara and I continued on to tackle Gibbet Hill and the Devil's Punchbowl, where we had a checkpoint under the eaves of the cafe and watched the rain.
The views of from the top of the Punchbowl were beautiful, if you like looking at the inside of clouds, but it is nice that bit of the route anyway, as it's a long and slightly downhill section, so we cheered up a bit. Not too long after that, the rain started to ease off, and it started to look very beautiful, in a delicate, melancholy kind of way, the evening light touching the mist around the pine trees, and flashes of purple heather like jewels beneath it. From there, we ran along Kettlebury Hill and on to Elstead, where I took some photos for evidence that firstly, this is what summer in Surrey looks like....
...and that secondly, despite this, the sun still existed, deep behind the clouds.....
In Elstead, there was almost a disaster, as the trusty village shop which AWLAYS seems to be open, was shut, but we still had enough bits and pieces of snacks to get us through the last 8 or 9 miles.
Then it was on to Puttenham Common, Puttenham Village, and then the last part back into Guildford just as the light faded...
The next day, there seemed to be quite a Covid backlog in all the spas - I guess they've been shut for a year or so really, so that's a lot of luxury and relaxation to catch up on. But, we compromised with shopping and ice cream - to spend some of our points from yesterday, which we somehow (and don't ask to see the working out) made out to be 203 points each.
