2nd April The beautiful and the brutal


 Apologies for the late posting but I have only just got back from completing the Chicken Run in the Derbyshire village of Hayfield, and it has taken TOM a little while to help extract me from my Kathy Freeman style all in one lycra body suit. Now there's an image you won't erase from your minds quickly.

Offering two options of either Fowl (10.6km) or Fowler (13.1km) being the fool that I am I opted for the longer distance, thinking it was more miles for my pound, something that I would later live to regret. The setting and scenery was beautiful but my oh my the run was brutal with several sections that I (and many others I hasten to add) struggled to walk up never mind run. 

How those that did, actually did, defies belief and possibly the laws of gravity. I was already shedding layers before I got to the top of the first short sharp climb, as the sun decided to appear to raise the temps by several degrees.

Heading up and over Lantern Pike, a quick glance at my watch told me I was covering kms in the time I would normally cover miles on the flat. After that it was all down hill, metaphorically but not literally because any downhill bits on rough stony tracks only resulted in yet more uphill sections after several hundred yards. 

By the time we reached the split point in the route, having paced along behind a runner from Disley, I was ever so tempted to just do the 10km alternative, only for one of the ever so friendly marshalls, who must have had a list of who had signed up fo which run (or psychic knowledge), smiled at me as he said, '13km runners this way up to the top of the big hill.' Let's just say I didn't smile in response.

I did notice two of the runners from the Ravenshead Runners in amongst the crowd and amazingly I managed to finish ahead of both of them. And so what if one particular runner happened to be 70 and due to run in another 14km trail run tomorrow. When you are as bad as I am, a win is a win, no matter what the circumstances.

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