A 'lite' weekend on the cake front, but an excellent Eggs Benedict, alfresco in the early morning Saturday sunshine. This was the reward for an impromptu ParkRun, 'reward' suggesting a definitive relationship between cause and effect, but breakfast was my primary objective that day. Coffee Fix in Gatley, should you find yourself passing. Breakfast of Champions! The big plan was a gentle run on Saturday, as on Sunday it was the Club Summer Handicap.
Not an insignificant effort, the route starts at Macc Forest visitors centre, up Shuttlingsloe, along to Standing Stones, up Charity Lane to Walker Barn and back Via Teggs Nose and the reservoirs. 9 miles and 1700 feet climb of superb scenery, though last year it rained. Today the sun was shining, so vest and sunnies it was, despite some threatening clouds. Due to my slow start to the season, my handicap was favourable, or unfair, depending on your view, but I thought I was in with a chance. Plan A.
With only 4 marshaling points, there are options for the route you take in between, though these are often limited by the inherent desire to follow the obvious and shortest path. Only a fool would chose a different route. Certainly not me, I just chose the wrong route...three times. First off was a detour round the back of Shuttlingsloe, I don't know why and third was a premature turn off the top of Teggs Nose down to Langley, both of which cost me good time.
But my second deviation cost me more. Not only lost time, but ultimately I lost hope, such was the catastrophe of my navigational error. I took a right turn too early, and it emptied me in the middle of a recently tree-felled woodland, that was impossible walk, never mind run. I was trying to traverse a long bank that was at a good 40 degrees and littered with lumber and bush. Every footstep my legs plummeted into the unknown. Then way below on the now obviously visible path, I spot my combatants passing. I'm trapped. It's over.
Plan B, once I'd salvaged any unbroken eggs from my basket and assessed my shins, delivers a leisurely run in sunshine and with good company once I catch up the back of the pack. A few others are missing and have taken different routes, I later discover. Next year, I've promised I'll not make the same mistake. I like the handicap format. A little like a time trial, but you're both chasing and being chased...by everyone, with the elusive promise of a carefully calculated mass finish. It never happened, of course. A good plan, though.
