Lost In Harpenden

Sunday long run, still dark when the roar of Dave's car confrimed the inevitable, seven am and time to get going on another "long" run. GPS finally locks on to enough satellites and it's off we go. Annoyed at first to find my Garmin had gone all metric on me courtesy of last week's Herts 10km, but as Dave's was counting in miles it felt like I went further than him as my Garmin beeped more than his. I could get used to this, 21km sounds much more than 13 miles.

Wee twist round Redbourn today to make the loop longer then back up the steep climb through Beesonend lane.

Comming back through the houses on the Deerings I spot a wee path and make the mistake of asking were that goes - Dave claims to have been up there once and it will get us to Rothampsted. So off we trudge through the muddy path. However at the end of the fenced section, just beyond the houses on Prospect Lane this path shoots off at a diagonal towards Redbourn. But there are tractor tracks we follow into the fields heading toward a tree line thinking it marks a path or the park boundary. By now we are knee deep in sodden grass and when we finally make it to the end of the field we realised that this is actually a golf course - Hammonds End on two sides, houses on the other and only the way we came to get back out. Thought about running over the golf course but decided they'd probably not be too pleased to see us and thought about jumping though some gardens to get to the road, but did not fancy being a guard dog's breakfast so off we go back the way we've just come getting even wetter on the way back.

We then squelched our way back to Harpenden, giving up all hope of a decent time and refecting on how we've discovered somewhere new........