Descending Buckden Pike

I know myself well. Despite being dead on my feet yesterday, I trusted in myself to be up for a planned run with Forrest in the Dales this morning. We started at Starbotton and took a meandering route up to the ridge and along to Buckden Pike. We descended the 'tourist' route past Cray, which I honestly couldn't ever remember running before. It must be one of the loveliest and fastest descents in all the Dales. Forrest is in this shot but so far away that he's all but a blur of pixels, even when you zoom right in. He's becoming a very fast descender, like I was myself in the day. It's such a buzz.

It was then a matter of climbing up the other side of the valley for another ridge run. I dropped off to complete a 12.5 mile circuit, while I left Forrest to run on to Kettlewell and back up the valley for 15 miles. It means that I can keep him reined in early on and then when it's time for me to drop off the pace, he can pick up his own. It works out well. As he gets fitter and I get older, we'll just vary the parameters a bit!

While Forrest slumped on the couch all afternoon, I got a sudden uplift of energy. It so often works out like that.