Running Up That Hill

.....was something I was hoping to avoid today. Not having had any meaningful exercise for three days, and with rain forecast for the next couple of days, I thought I’d go for a long run today.
The big problem with Kendal is that it’s very hard to find 10K worth of flat ground to run along. But I reckoned that if I started from home, then the first bit would all be downhill, until I reached the river. Then my route on the flat might just be long enough that I’d reach 10K before having to run back up the hill.
A brilliant plan with only one teensy flaw. When I got back to the bottom of the hill Strava told me I’d only covered 9.4K so still had 600 metres to go - all uphill! The first part of the climb isn’t that steep so I staggered up that as best I could. The one bit I wanted to avoid was the final road up. It doesn’t look that steep in the photo, but after having been running for an hour already, it might as well have been the north face of the Eiger. Thankfully, 10K clocked up after only a few paces up the hill so I was able to cover the remaining distance home at a very leisurely pace. Not that I was capable of going any faster by that point!
Surprisingly though, it registered as my fastest 10K (albeit only by a minute!) and I’d completed it without any major aches in my dodgy knees. I think I’ll call that a result.