Janathon Day 22 

Sunday, traditionally a runner’s long run day, and today was no exception. What with the St. Valentines 30k fast approaching I needed to start increasing the mileage. Sounds slightly odd considering that I’ve run everyday for the last 21 but I’ve only been running 3-4 miles a night. I needed a good gentle long run today…..

My first issue was where to go; I wanted to take the dog and I wanted to go somewhere different from Bourne Woods. I had a couple of possibilities: Twyford Woods or Rutland Water. Decided on Twyford Woods because the dog hates sheep – Rutland Water has loads of sheep. We have been to Twyford Woods once before, although on that occasion it was a very weird experience: strange men, creepy goings-on, enough said. But surely 9am on a fresh and cloudy Sunday morning would be different.

Twyford Woods is described as an “interesting ancient woodland site”, I would have to disagree, unless you find this interesting:

The website also told me some more ‘interesting’ facts: “it was a second world war airfield, RAF North  Witham, and still retains many military artifacts”, again I had trouble finding these ‘military artifacts’, unless this is one:

However there was one ‘interesting’ piece of information that I thought would be worth having a look at, “derelict control tower”. Having arrived at the wood and discovered that no maps or information was available I went in search of said “derelict control tower”. Now call me stupid, but I didn’t think I would have much trouble finding an old world war two control tower. How wrong was I. Firstly, I did a sort of run around the edge of the airfield in an attempt to spot it, it must be quite tall right? Wrong. Spotted this, but even in the 1940s surely Britain could do better:

So a different tactic was needed. This time I began criss-crossing the runways in search of some sort of man-made structure, and found this:

Although, a ramp 3ft off the ground hardly counts as a airfield control tower, even if it was ‘derelict’. By now I was 7 or so miles into the run and decided to give up looking for a control tower in favour of a much more childish idea. The runways were massive so I began weaving across them in an attempt to make it show up on the map of run from freerunning (it didn’t work – see below). By now I had 8 miles under my belt and began heading back to car park when, the clouds parted and sun rays lite up a distant control tower, as if a sign from God…..

As I got closer I realised it was very derelict and only two stories high, I thought it might be taller:

At that point my long gone teenage boy instincts reappeared – must go inside! So I spent 5mins exploring, it would make a great film setting (Blair Witch came to mind)….

………..and of course time was spent pretending I was ‘Wing Commander Lengthorn’ on the observation platform…………’You are clear for take-off’…….’Chocks Away!.

Overall, it was an interesting morning, but I would like to leave the last word to the local vandals:

…enough said.

Summary
******
Distance: 9.41mi
Time taken: 01:25:16
Average/Max Speed : 6.62/8.39 mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:09:04/00:07:09
Calories: 1088

Total janathon mileage after day 22 = 85.95 miles

…..jokeathon…in a RAF style…

Q: How do you know you are talking to an RAF pilot?

A: After 2 hours he will say, “Anyway that’s enough about me, tell me about yourself”.