Janathon 2013 Day 8 - An evening in the hills with the Mow Cop Runners

It was Tuesday night, so that meant it was time to head up the hill to Mow Cop for a run with Mow Cop Runners a club which I have joined and been running with since June of last year. We meet at 7:15 and usually do a road route in the winter of around 6-7 miles. The lighter evenings allow us to get off road for a bit longer. So if I wanted to keep my double digit streak going I would need to do a few extra miles...

I had plotted what I could do to achieve the extra miles and decided to park at the pub at the bottom of the long hill that winds it's way up to the top of Mow Cop and the community centre where we meet. It was a distance of 3.75 miles and knew it would take a good half an hour. I timed the start so that I would arrive as everyone at the club was ready to depart so that I didn't have too long to stop for. The first couple of miles went well and then into the steep climb and the fog descended. Once on to the ridge I was straining to see through the swirling mist and had to focus on the white line on the side of the road to keep my bearings. Finally the dim lights of Mow Cop could be seen ahead and I reached the community centre where everyone was ready to depart.

I entered the centre to a comment of "You look like you've been out already". My response of "Oh yes, I ran up from the bottom of the hill" was met with glances of "Really?!!". There were two groups of us tonight, a newer runners group who were doing around 5 miles and the main group of around 10k. The route is usually decided 5 minutes before we depart and goes along the lines of "We'll go down to blah, blah, up thingamejig and then back up via blah, blah blah". This is met with nodded approvals and off we go. The routes all sound the same to me and can be quite confusing in the dark!! I kept with a couple of the 'faster' runners and enjoyed a steady jaunt round the undulating streets. On to the final hill and I commented to the other guy I was with that I would meet them back at the pub as I was continuing on down the hill to my car!

Once out of the street lights that we had been running under for the duration of the club run it was back out into the fog and it was a lot thicker this time. This made it harder, more so as I was running downhill now! The torch only served to light up the swirling fog and detract from lighting the road. The only respite came from a passing car to light the way only briefly. A couple of miles along the ridge and once I got nearer the bottom the fog cleared allowing me to up the pace for the final push to the car. I got back to the pub car park with another 13.76 miles in the bag! A quick change of clothes and I drove back up the same hill to the pub and met with some of the other runners for a pint before heading home...

Route
Garmin Connect Details - Day 8

Stats
Runstreak: Day 588
Distance: 13.76 miles

Time: 1:46:41
Elevation: 1,241ft

Janathon Total Distance: 100.49 miles