Park Life

Woke up to a sunny day and without the slight feeling of sluggishness and nausea I felt yesterday (beer and curry with the lads - not too messy but more than I usually drink these days), so decided a change was in order.

K nipped out for a quick couple of miles early doors, then I put my fell shoes on and set off Halton East-wards for some summer off-road action.  I've said before that whilst I claim to do "a bit" of fell running, that's usually just the Auld Lang Syne on New Years Eve, and that only so I can go and get squiffy with some old mates in Haworth.

However, my excursion up the lane from Halton East to Halton Heights had got me thinking that maybe I'd indulge in some mud 'n' grass fun, so I decided that today was the day.

The great thing about running off road is that you can basically forget about pace - this is "time on your feet" running, where you might just as easily have an 11 minute mile as a 6 minute one (unless you're Holmesy, of course).

The lane up from Halton East was, as usually happens when you've run something before, easier than last time, then at the top I turned right and popped out by the cattle grid on the Barden road.  Straight across it, then onto the main track across to Rylstone Cross.

The moor looked just fantastic today - the heather is purple, and with the late summer sun on it every fold of the landscape was visible - and of course I had no camera with me...

The pull up to the top of the moor felt really hard, and much more uphill than I remembered it, but as I normally walk this path rather than run it, and I'm usually distracted by having to encourage small girls to keep going maybe that's not surprising.

At the top I turned left to follow what's on the map as a bridleway - but I can't imagine a horse has been along it for decades.  There's the occasional bike track, but generally this path's hardly used.  That's a shame, as it's a brilliant run - gently downhill for just over a mile, as long as you watch where you're going you can fly down here.  The view changes every ten yards as more and more of Embsay and the Aire valley is revealed, until you cut right and up onto Embsay Crag for the spectacular vista stretching across to Pendle and Sharp Haw.

Said "how do" to a few walkers on the top of the Crag, then buggered up the descent line and ended up floundering around in head high bracken, whilst trying to look like that was where I'd meant to go all along.  Nob.

Anyway - once I'd regained the path it was a fast grassy blast down to the Eastby road and then half a mile on the road to home.  8.5 miles, an hour and a quarter and a feeling of enormous well-being (as that bloke said in the Blur song).