25th October When less is more

 


It was another opportunity to gatecrash an organised event today with the running of the Monsal Trail 10km and half marathon. The route was along, yes you've guessed it. the Monsal trail, site of the former Midland Railway line that ran between Manchester and London that was closed in 1968 as part of the Beeching report and later turned into a recreational trail in1989. 

Now whilst I admire organisations that organise such events I cannot for the life of me understand why people would want to pay £30 to run along a public footpath that they can just run along anyway. It's not as if there are any significant navigation issues involved apart from when to turn around and run the other way. Unless you classify a cup of water on route and yet another medal at the end as being worth £30.

So on a glorious autumn day I simply set off from the starting point approx 15 mins before the official race began and waited to see how long it would be before anyone caught me. Surprisingly it was quite a while, in fact I was half way through the first tunnel just before the Monsal Head viaduct, before the first of the official racers whizzed past, making it look and feel as if I was standing still. Which quite possibly I might have been after 3 miles. 

Initially I had set off with the intention of running 5 miles out before turning back but with heavy legs I cut it short by a mile making my up and down saunter just over 8 in total. Three more weekends of long(ish) runs to go in the build up to Benidorm so I am hoping to make each of those 10 miles along some more gorgeous autumn trails.

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