“Barking!” they said as I left work on this cold, wet, windy evening, having informed them that I would travel to Rudyard Lake to run 6 miles in the dark... I didn’t argue.
Considering the weather it was a good turnout of seven, some of whom had endured similar conditions in the Tatton Yule Romp just the day before. Andre the dog with his flashing collar also came along. Chris had assured me that my road shoes would be fine as the run was just on a track around the edge of a lake.... he got that wrong!
It was a good route, almost entirely off road. Starting from the pub car park, we ran down a track for 3 miles. It was very dark, and Paul and I took a good 10 minutes to realise that the lake was on our right. Apparently, while I was busy looking at the ground, a few others saw an owl overhead. As the route progressed the track became wetter and muddier, and we soon gave up trying to avoid puddles as we were now ankle deep in mud.
Just before the 3 mile point we turned right over a bridge to cross the dam to the other side of the lake. We followed undulating lanes, paths and tracks as we headed back towards our start point. Descending a narrow lane we spotted a car stuck in the mud of a gateway. The young Chinese driver was delivering a take away and being somewhat lost had tried unsuccessfully to turn around. She must have been both surprised and relieved to see 7 runners in hi-vis jackets, and a dog. The boys managed to push her car out of the mud so she could turn it around to face the right direction. Unfortunately she didn’t do anything to help some people’s views about lady drivers. After about 6 attempts of doing exactly the same thing, and surprisingly getting the same result, Paul Nicholls hopped in the driver’s seat and took over. Car now pointing in the right direction and excitement over, we continued along the trail.
Five minutes later as we approached a large house with castellated roof and a slightly spooky air Chris suddenly called the dog to him and put on his lead. He had spotted a pair of eyes and a dark silhouette ahead which looked like a very large dog. It was a relief to us all when close enough to see it was a miniature pony. Paul volunteered to give Chris some lessons on farm yard animals.
We continued uneventfully through the mud back to the pub, where of course we enjoyed the obligatory pint by the fire.
Jill Young
It was a great race, Congratulations for a great job well done and looking forward always for more races to come. Nice pics !
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