I do a lot of running around the woods so trail running is not unusual for me. But, after reading Ian’s blog post about his experiences of trail running I thought a different plan was in order. So today I headed off, with the dog, into the Lincolnshire unknown (slight exaggeration – I knew roughly where I was going but had never run there before). This proven to be quite an adventure…

Firstly, whilst running across a wheat field (on the public footpath that split the field) I surprised a young couple that were canoodling on a blanket, apparently  ‘hidden’ from view. Let me just say, I’ve got nothing against romantic rendezvous, but next time move away further than ten feet from a ‘public’ footpath. I could divert my eyes, the dog on the other hand wanted a closer look. Enough said.

Secondly, as we got further into the ‘run’ and began to circumvent various fields, the trails began to disappear. We found ourselves battling through 4ft high crops/weeds. I was hoping the farmer wasn’t near because I’m sure if he spotted us we would have heard, “Get off my land!” before the shotgun pellets whizzed by. We had to clamber over various obstacles and at one stage we had to ‘jump’ a ditch because I couldn’t work out how to get to civilization. In fact, we had to ignore a ‘KEEP OUT – PRIVATE WOOD’ sign to finally reach somewhere I actually knew.

As you can imagine, the run lasted slightly longer and slower than planned and feet were far from clean and dry when we finally got home. But I actually really enjoyed it! Not quite sure about Billy Boy….he’ll be aching in the morning….

Summary
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Distance: 11.07mi
Time taken: 01:51:21
Average/Max Speed : 5.96/8.87 mph
Average/Min Pace : 00:10:04/00:06:45
Calories: 1271

Total Juneathon mileage after day 23 = 86.37