One Way or Another

Taking advantage of today being relatively dry and warm, I thought I’d get the first run of the month under my belt. Decided I’d try a different route - more for a change of scenery than anything else. Not totally new as I’d walked most of it last Sunday, but I decided to fine tune it so as to stay clear of main roads.
It was alright as a run but, when I arrived back at the start, I found I’d only covered just over 4K so had to stick an extra loop in to bring up the required distance. Couldn’t really understand that as when we’d been on the walk, it had come out at 5.4K! Then I looked at the relative routes on Strava and all became clear. During the walk, we’d popped in to M&S for some shopping and then went to the other side of town for a takeaway coffee. Obviously, I’d not done that today but hadn’t realised how much of our walk last week comprised walking up and down the aisles in the shop!
I’d anticipated this route would be hillier than normal - in fact it was 4 times as hilly and I couldn’t take advantage of the downhill bits because I pulled a muscle in my calf halfway round so limped the last couple of kilometres!
As a new route, it was not really a success, and will definitely need reviewing before I try it again, not least to make it longer. But the scenery was different. One little alley I ran down, I’d not been down for about five years. Pleasantly surprised to find that it had been widened and resurfaced in that time! I also found a couple of viewing slits in the high wall that bounded one side. Only stopped very briefly so apologies for the poor picture. Hard to make out, but it does provide a glimpse of Kendal Castle, on the other side of the valley. In fact, it was the highlight of the run, so will definitely be included when I go that way again.