Boxing Day Bogtrott

I had all kinds of plans for getting to the Boxing Day Bogtrott.  I'd mapped out the route, packed my stuff, put the phone on charge, printed membership forms for next year.  I forgot all of those things in some kind of rush to get out of the house.  Rushing I don't know why because we got there and the car park was empty and we were 1 hour early.

So early we drove home, got all the stuff and headed back out again.

On the way, I asked Andrew to check the map.  We'd been to the wrong plantation first time so it was a good job we turned around and took a different route out.  We snaffled the last one of two parking spaces and grabbed our stuff.  We were just in time.

Helen Elmore suggested I was being brave wearing shorter leggings and in retrospect she was right, I was about to make a mess of my shins.

We registered by Oxstones and were off quite shortly after.  I was tempted to go with Tom Saville but most were taking a different route so I went with the majority, knowing that I'd soon be dropped by Tom and his mates.

Sure enough, I was already bringing up the rear of the group through to the first checkpoint.  I quite happily stuck at the back, co-ordinating the acquisition of checkpoints (or otherwise) with other runners and enjoying myself running.

Just as the heather was really starting to hurt, TSK and I saw a mountain hare in full winter livery, obvious as a white thing on a brown hillside.  It was massive and sped across the hillside away from us.  Inevitably we followed it and found a path.

I took a few paths and navigation lines to get me off the heather which was gradually stripping away layers of skin and making my shins bleed.  I had a rather jolly stomp through a grassy stream (path?) to reach an icy spring then hit the perfect path, leaving the others to bog hop.

As I limped up the last stretch of hillside next to the wall, I mused that I really need to get more running done before the duathlons in March and April.

All in all I was very happy with my navigation... less so with my speed, being the last person on the hill although consistency is the new name of my game after all.

We had a little sit down after we finished then hobbled down to the car.  I am proud to say that my walking was fairly fluent and I could've done more... though not much more.

We went into town for coffee afterwards then headed home to eat dinner.  In the evening, looking out of the window to see inches of snow falling I felt like going running but decided to hold off until the morning for skiing instead.

Responsible? Me?