Bulls n Blueberry Muffins

The weather forecast for the morning was crap.....a great excuse to stay in bed for ages! Afterwards we had a walk to the farm shop for provisions, I made soup and we had a quick lunch.

Running kit on, we set out for our afternoon run, with tea sloshing about in my tummy.....not a pleasant feeling. Pace was slow and Rosemary was slightly impatient..... She was 'half-trainering'..... a term I've just made up! In cycling there's a term called 'half-wheeling'; when riding two-abreast, one rider speeds up slightly us their partner's front wheel draws level with their own....the partner then has to speed up a little to draw level again and the process continues until the partner shouts "stop f***ing half-wheeling".

The tea stopped sloshing around Padfield and we got a nice little trot on along the Longdenden Trail.   Crossing the dam at the Rhodeswood Reservoir, we scouted for potential future swimming areas, with me commenting on the stupidity of 'Danger Deep Water' signs. Most water is safe if you treat it with respect. Being in the bottom of a valley can only mean one thing.....going up and we had a long climb in front of us up Arnfield to the Swineshaw reservoirs.  This is where we came across a hutch with a box of muffins and flapjacks in it. Fortunately Rosemary had a few quid to put in the honesty box for two blueberry muffins!

Passing the reservoirs we recalled one winter afternoon when we had gone out for one of Rosemary's 'little walks' up here and I became mildly hypothermic. Going out with one of the country's premier adventure racers makes me very proud....but also very nervous. A little walk usually means a substantial hike and a minor expedition would have Hannibal's elephants worried!

Rosemary dropped me big time on the next ascent but my ego is starting to cope with such happenings. The view at the top was great.....over Stalybridge and the whole of Manchester. My legs started to object on the rocky decent though and a brief interlude to eat the muffins was required. Yummy.....

The next section round Walkerwood Reservoir was quite fun and not too technical but I was starting to get tired (20km mark) and was really slow on the following climb. RB was sprightly as ever! Then it was down into Tintwhistle, passed the lovely garden there and one final ascent. I was close to breaking point, struggling to run on any incline by this stage......Rosemary had predicted such a happening based on my savage bike weekend the week before, a fast 18km hill run and a 3.8km swim race yesterday.

It was time for my first and last hissy fit. I really wanted to go straight home but RB wanted to run up to Mottram Church.....I was now a complete mess, albeit a happy one, agreed to go but got pissed off when she started running up hill, turning round to join me and then running up the hill at speed again..... "Just go on your own" I screamed!

We then reached a hill full of cows.......with me telling R to go round by the fence rather than through the middle of them. Suddenly a cow charged towards me but then turned on RB. The cow had a dick! "Don't move" I said.......the baby bull sniffed my beloved from a distance of no more than a cm....bucked a little and then lost interest. We retreated slowly back the way we came and headed up to the church on another path....having to pass through another field of slightly less scary cows!


I sat on the wall, exhausted and ate a seed bar! Only a few km to go and nearly all downhill and I managed to run it all. 27km and over 700m of climbing, mostly off road! I collapsed on the sofa, shut my eyes and let RB take my shoes off! I was genuinely a mess for the rest of the evening!