Wet Redbourn Loop

As I cowered in my porch watching the rain batter off my car, at 7:13am the thought did cross my mind that if no-one turned up I might not go. At that moment a glint of luminous yellow meant at least Kenny had turned up. We were begining to think he'd taken the associate social membership of running fource. 7:15 saw Paul arrive and I could hear Dave's machine roar up Station Road so that was a full house, first time in ages all of us were up for it and what a morning! As Dave was at least 30seconds late we made a point of setting off before he was out of his car.

Clearly Brocket Hall was not going to happen today, being mainly riverside trails. So we went for the Redbourn loop out on the Nicky line but extended it for the A team through downtown Redbourn and across the common while the B team kept going along the nicky line and back to Beesonend Lane the direct route. The idea being to catch Kenny on the return.

Before the turn into Redbourn Paul had been keeping Kenny company and so had put in an effort to close the growing gap Dave and I had created. On the narrow trails I was trying to call the obstacles, puddles, trees etc, but gave up when Dave started on about cuddly toys and decanter and glasses.

We were beging to think about increasing the pace now and the banter died down as catching Ken became the focus. Two interesting things just over the B487 the bridge to the footpath has just been rebuilt and very nicely too. They've cleared the ditch too, so no flooding there anymore and much less manky now! Then coming crashing through the undergrowth I disturbed a massive grouse that shot into the air right in front of me and scared the living daylights out of me - I let out a scream and I'm sure I heard at least one of the other guys yelp!

Beesonend lane had become a river. As we got to the foot, Dave goes for a very badly timed comfort stop and Paul announces this is where the fun starts. We're pounding up the hill and I can only hear our footfalls splashing through the sheet of water flowing down. Around halfway Paul moves level with me and before he can creep past I just touch the accelerator and he laughs, "just checking Niall just checking". On the way out Paul had been suggesting my long runs were too slow, so I thought we should correct that today. At the top we congratulate each other on a good hill and then Dave comes charging through the rain chirping way about how great he feels. No recovery then....

No sign of Ken on the home strech. He'd managed to hold his 8:25 pace and was in the shower before we got to Crabtree lane. Splashed our way down over the common, Dave challenged again on Crabtree lane, but I dug deep and picked it up again and he did not seem too bothered about going with me and Paul had vanished, later found out he had blown up on the Crabtree lane hill.

Managed some seriously negative split running today. Felt good, only having done 3.5miles in the previous week meant I was very fresh and felt light and fast in spite of the horrific conditions.