24th August The drizzling Bank Holiday one back to the Bronze Age (R42)

I think I should have known that any plans to run on a Bank Holiday weekend might have meant a battle with the elements. So a day after Storm Lilian blew in and almost blew out, under  a leaden grey and weeping sky, nine normally lycra laden lads and lassies gather just outside Matlock sporting the seasons first outing for a variety of waterproofs instead.

I had been given a day pass as TOM had gone to Sheffield so I used my freedom to join a little jolly from the Aldwark brewery as it hosted its annual beer festival. It's a good job that I live where I do rather than in Youlgrave otherwise I might never be sober enough to do my job. In the space of just a few weeks this is the second run that I have joined the Youlgrave Harriers that has started from and more importantly ended at a brewery. 

It was once again an area of the world that I had never run before, which is always a bonus, one that almost made the constant dizzle and stiff breeze disappear. Almost. 

As for our route well it was a mixture of nettles, wet knee length grass, slippery stones, stiles, puddle laden tracks and bronze age burial mounds. Wow what was that John just as our atention was beginning to waver...bronze age burial mounds!!!

Detouring off after running a mile or so along the High Peak trail, a former railway line which runs from just outside Buxton to Cromford, we climbed up to Minninglow, and within the clump of trees crowning the hill we came across a Neolithic charmbered tomb and...yes there is more...and two Bronze Age bowl barrows. I know I bet none of you tuned in to todays blog expecting an episode of Time Travel with Tony Robinson.

By the time we neared the end of the 6.3 mile jolly, the drizzle had stopped and some of my fellow runners had been brave enough to shed their outer Gortex layers. I however was still running in multiple layers, hat and gloves. In August!!