50km Friday, World Series of Running with SVN, 26.08.2022
Up early to cycle to St Pancras with Andrew (who went off to the cricket, instead of coming for a run) to meet Sarah to catch the early train for our day trip to Gravesend!
Thank you so much Theresa for the lift to the Cyclopark and back - and huge congratulations on your 7 x 50 kms in as many days, so far, you're amazing! And thank you to Craig, for brightening all of our days.
It was really very good to be back at SVN after too long, and to see Traviss and Rachel. I have missed you guys! There is a 15 days World Series of running going on at the moment. Everyone is looking brilliant, you actually wouldn't even know they were on day 7!
Excellent to catch up with lots of friends, some who I haven't seen in a long time!
Distance: Sarah and I ran 50km, as it's Friday, and 50km Friday is now a thing (especially when someone needs a purple hoody soon). It was very good fun, and as there was lots to catch up on, the time passed by really quickly. Which was a shame, I wish Fridays could last forever.
Route: it was the lightening blot route, so 9 and a bit laps for the 50km. The route went down Stoney Hilly, up Shade/Sun-Slope, under "Tree!" and then under "Branch!", into the Sun Section, over Dried Mud Pool, along Poo Alley, over Rabbit (AKA tiny mouse) Bridge, and down the nice flat part (which turns out definitely includes some marble rolling hills after about 5 laps).
Issues dealt with: Sarah's hair got stuck in a branch, and cramp struck at 30 miles. I needed a wee (and the toilets in the service station had been moved, so we ended up following the instructions of "past the alcohol, on the right") and had a minor fall into some grass.
Nutrition and hydration: we ate lots of watermelon, bananas, and squash, had a half way Rocky Road (made with Brazilian chocolate) and had a last lap Brazil nut, in keeping with the theme of the day. We had a Bible lesson, which was inspired by salt tablets and sweating, and our (unfounded) concern that we may turn into salt statues. We learnt that, actually, there isn't a lady in the Bible who turns people to salt (and nor is she called Sarah), but rather Lot's wife was turned to salt, after she turned to look back at Sodom whilst fleeing it. She wasn't called Sarah either, but she did have an Aunt-in-law called Sarah, which is good enough.
Thank you Traviss and Rachel and everyone for a fabulous day! Thank you Sarah for a fabulous day too, and for as usual putting up with all my problems. And thank you for my toiletries!
Am excited to have picked up my Triple Crown top today!Tara's Tea Shop Trundle, 21.08.2022
A date in the calendar had been highlighted for the summer get-together of the recce team, organised by Tara, and named Tara's Tea Shop Trundle. This would take in a range of tea shops in the Surrey Hills, with a few miles thrown in in-between (with the aim of wearing off some of the tea shop calories, before taking on more). A sort of running picnic, if you like.
Armed with a bespoke map of the route, drawn up by Tara, and a back up map of rude place names, we set off from Denbies, with a good appetite and our inbuilt cake-o-meters finely tuned.
The first potential tea shop, was at Denbies itself. Here, there were also a large amount of juicy looking grapes, which looked like they would make exceedingly good wine. But alas, we all exercised great restraint, and refrained from falling at the first hurdle, so off we trundled up Denbies Hill.
Up the hill (trying to catch a lift off the back of the Denbies train), down, and along, over to Wootton, and up to Leith Hill Tower for the first checkpoint at about 8 miles. It was actually a bit hot for cake, so the first refreshment break included ginger beer and ice cream.
Much refreshed, we pressed on through the "bonus" hilly section (at the request of Andrew, in preparation for Tiree in a few weeks), which included three extra punchy hills - Holmbury Hill, the hill by the Duke of Kent School, and Pitch Hill (which with just a tiny typo would a) make the name exceedingly more apt given the steepness of the hill, and b) would place it fittingly on the rude place names map). Still, the views from the top were nice.
Down off Pitch Hill, through the lovely pine/ fern/ sandy section to Peaslake and Checkpoint 2,. Here it was definitely cake time, and between us we got through a large sample of the cake selection from the Peaslake Village Store (coffee and walnut - Alan, fruit cake - Tara, chocolate fudge cake - Andrew and me).
Feeling a little too full if I'm honest, we set off on the three miles to Shere. Here, we had an altercation with an angry man in a big car, who swore at all of us, and tried to swerve at me. I looked up some of his words on the rude map, and whilst doing so, noted that we weren't that far away from Knob Hill, which I guess must be where he lives.
It would be easy to get the....
....but there was ice cream in the shop at Shere, so our attention was quickly diverted.
From Shere, we headed back in the direction of Denbies, passing through Abinger Hammer, Abinger Roughs, spotting some killer cows....
...and stealing some last of the beautiful views.
Back down on the way back to Denbies, we ran down a road with several houses with apple trees in their gardens, with signs by them saying to help yourself. Very kind! And very delicious (Discoveries, I think). We got back to the outskirts of Denbies where we parted ways - Tara to head back to Denbies, and Andrew, Alan and me to catch the train from Dorking.
27 miles and 1000m of ascent. Cracking day out! Thanks recce team!
