About Me

United Kingdom
A runner now for 17 years, started short then moved up to marathons. The last couple of years has seen the transition to ultras. The start of this blog begins with the Juneathon Challenge.

Monday 7 January 2013

Janathon 2013 Day 6 - A slipping 'n' a sliding in the mud


As yesterdays run was an evening run this meant a small gap between this mornings run! A similar day was to follow to that of Saturday, but this time my son was playing in a football match rather than spectating. I didn't want to fall into the same trap so was determined to get out early. I had a two hour window for my run, which would allow for anything between 14 and 16 miles dependant on the volume of mud I was to encounter along the way.

I headed out the door just after 7 and dispensed with the head torch as it would soon be light (sort of). The chosen route would involve several field crossings, round the back of the airport on the trails, a couple of miles on the road and then back through Tatton Park. This would provide plenty of scope for mud! The first 4 miles in semi darkness passed with a combination of light mud and road before getting to the airport trail. This trail is mainly sand and provides a good running surface, not so today. The next couple of miles were sent spent sliding around, more so given that I was wearing road shoes - schoolboy!!



A nice 4 mile section of road followed and I was treated to a glorious sunrise. The temperature had dropped quite a bit and a shifting layer of fog enveloped the road. Before entering Tatton Park, there is a gradual climb along an old Roman Road and is referred to locally as the - Tatton Mile. A boring section of road where  cars tend to fly along there at over 60mph even though it is still a country lane.

Into the park and back on the mud, the fog is quite thick now and I am treated to a herd of deer huddled under the trees. A stag spots me running along and ambles across the park road. This is one of the great highlights of the park and is always an amazing sight to see. I could have run down the park road but given that I had been through a lot of mud a couple of miles more wasn't going to make any difference. 12.5 miles was reached on exiting the park and a final push of just under 2 miles back up the road to home would see close to 14.5 miles in a shade under 2 hours - all in all a good run.

My son's football match saw a trip to Frodsham to play Helsby in the Under 15 Mid-Cheshire league. They are unbeaten this season so the pressure was on to keep this streak going. The pitch was more like a farmers field and made the going tricky. A good match ensued with my son's team fighting back from 2-0 down to gain a good 2-2 draw. Swiftly back to the car and we were just in time to hear the draw for the 4th Round of the FA Cup. Macc were drawn at home to play Wigan or Bournemouth. We were hoping for an away match at one of the big premier sides but this match gave us a good chance of going further in the cup...

Stats
Runstreak: Day 586
Distance: 14.35 miles
Time: 1:58:09
Janathon Total Distance: 76.56 miles

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