Time flies! Can’t believe it has been a month since I wrote on here.
There has been lots of good running. And I’m using Good in the definition of fun, enjoyable, social, not just fast ! I’m happy when fast happens, but it isn’t the only thing that makes a run good.
My seven year old nephew did his first parkrun with me. With his football club they are aiming to do junior parkrun as a charity fundraiser and as they were visiting us I suggested he join us – thinking that he might just do part of the course and could stop when he wanted. As Sewerby is kind of a figure of eight course it is easy to drop out as you pass the start again. But no, he carried on and did the whole lot, no moaning at all! We chatted the whole way round, taking walk breaks when we needed to and it was great fun.
Summer trail running. We’ve done a few away runs with club which are always nice – different routes to try for a change of scenery and we always try to make sure that at least some of the course is off road.
A couple of weeks ago I found myself unexpectedly alone to head to parkrun. This doesn’t happen very often as either my son or OH are normally with me. I decided to set off early and get a few miles in beforehand. I’ve been wanting to run the cliff path at Sewerby towards flamborough for some time so a quick text to my OH to let him know the route I was planning (safety first. Does anyone else do this?) and off I went. I knew that this wouldn’t be a quick run as there are lots of steps. It was a gorgeous morning, clear blue skies, bright sunshine and the smell of the salty air really does wake you up.
Steps down into Danes Dyke and back up the other side made my legs feel like jelly (and makes me think I need to do this more often…) a bit further along the cliff and more steps down and back out of Hartendale Gutter. This path is really easy to run for the majority of it, just some of the steep sections that need to be walked. I made it to the top of the steps at South Landing and decided to turn round to make it back in time for the start of parkrun, knowing that I had all the steps to do again. I really enjoyed this run and am planning and repeating but going a bit further next time. I do think that the steps will help strengthen my legs.
Monday was a Bank Holiday here in England – an extra day off work! So what to do, but plan a run on a new route! We parked in Ulrome and headed north, initially picking up North Turnpike before trying to find the public footpath. Less than a mile in, first problem – couldn’t find the footpath. We stopped and asked some guys in tractors who pointed us in the right direction (never did see any footpath signs) which meant running down a rough potato field. Over a very high and narrow footbridge and we were on better running for a little while. My planned route had us taking a left turn onto the main road in Barmston and then quickly picking up another footpath to the right. This was such a narrow path, with nettles and brambles one side, electric fence the other, knee high sopping wet grass, that it was impossible to run. Just as we came to the end of the path and a kissing gate with a sigh of relief, I spotted the cattle. I don’t like cattle. I particularly don’t like a herd of young, inquisitive bullocks. My OH headed into the field to see how they would react and straight away they all started to move towards us. Our route took us along the side of the field, but the other side of the fence was a dyke, so no escape route. I refused to go.
Will you go through fields of cattle? It is one thing I’m really frightened of.
This meant having to turn round and go back down the lovely narrow path, getting feet a bit wetter (if that was in any way possible). Back in the village and we retraced our steps and headed the other way along the main street and soon picked up another footpath heading north. This was actually the path that I’d planned on returning on – chalk track to begin with then onto grass field edges. We don’t really like doing out and back routes so worked out how we could change our plan to still do a circular route. This meant heading across to the beach near Fraisthorpe and running two thirds of the way back along the beach. I’ve never run on sand before. Running on sand is hard work!
It was absolutely beautiful though.
Slight issue that we got as far on the beach as we could go with the tide as high as it was and had to climb up the rocks to get to the top path (safely note – probably not a good idea to climb on the rocks and certainly not if you were on your own). The grass path definitely felt easier than the sand!
The last mile was the most boring part of the run taking us along the edge of a caravan park and back along the road to the village where we’d left our car. 7.5 miles run. Wet soggy feet. Achy legs from the sand. Slightly red faces. Great big smiles. Loved it.
Back to more mundane running this week – club hill repeats last night, general club run Thursday, parkrun Saturday. Hope to get out on Sunday but haven’t planned the diary that far ahead yet…
Hope you’ve been enjoying some nice sunny runs.
a mile run 
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