Pages

Monday 16 July 2018

A lazy week......

Maybe the persistent heat was sapping my energy.. For much of last week I'd all on to walk up the stairs or stroll a few yards up the lane to sit in the garden with a can of refreshing beer.  Whatever, I only managed to get out running twice.
Relaxing and recuperating  (Click to enlarge pictures)
The first run was one I'd rather forget.  But I can't.  As readers of this blog will know, I prefer to run in the early morning before the heat of the day.  Unfortunately, a certain heavily built, tattooed character turns his dogs loose on Castle Hill before he goes to work and they are not very friendly.  
That dog
One of them resembling a black labrador has attacked me three times, once bouncing me off the path and last week snarling and frothing at the mouth until the owner grabbed its collar and held it away.  I took a photograph of it and on closer study came to the conclusion it may not be pure labrador but could have bull terrier blood in it.  Labradors will normally lick you to death.  This one frightens me to death.  I reported it to the local Police, enclosing a photograph, but a standard reply back  seemed to imply I'd sent it to the wrong department.  Hopefully they'll pass it across the desk to the right department?
Running up the long wall in glorious sunshine
I put the shock behind me for an enjoyable run over Grassington Moor on Saturday with my wonderful partner.  After the commute back to Hebden we were a little late setting off.  Temperatures were already well into the 70's so a plentiful layer of sun screen was applied before stepping out the door.
Approaching the cairn at 1,500ft
We took it easy for the first  4 miles which is all uphill to a cairn around the 1,500ft contour.  The top half of the cairn has either fallen down or been vandalised.  We suspect the latter.  My wonderful partner replaced one or two stones on Saturday but sometime we'll get around to completely rebuilding it.
Time for a wee rest to soak up the atmosphere.
It's a wild landscape where we rarely see anyone else.  Just a few sheep, the plaintive calls of golden plovers, a few skylarks and the wind sighing through the rough grass.   We absolutely love the atmosphere up there and spent a little time relaxing by our old marker cairn that guides us down from our runs over Bycliffe Hill.
Winding up for a fast mile
From the cairn it's downhill all the way back to Hebden and I couldn't resist a fast run for the next mile or so.  I wanted to know what Strava or TomTom would make of it but all they'd recorded was a best 400m effort! I didn't really expect getting anywhere near my 4.05 of 28 years ago but thought I'd at least get a mention.
Running down to Cupola Corner
My wonderful partner trundled down at a more leisurely pace, passing the derelict old lead mine buildings to join me at Cupola Corner for a steady jog down the ghyll together.
Back in Hebden Ghyll
We'd run an enjoyable 7½ miles and worked up quite a thirst I was anxious to assuage. After a shower and pork pie lunch I was soon reaching into the fridge for a cool can of lager to take up the garden and while away the afternoon among the flowers, wallowing in sunshine.
Sat still - for a few minutes
My wonderful partner is quite incapable of sitting still for more than a few minutes while out in the garden.  A weed has to be pulled, a plant watered, or take the shears to a few tufts of grass, or pick a few black currants, or raspberries, etc. etc.  "For goodness sake, sit still and relax" I'll say.  And on Sunday she actually did, long enough for me to take a picture of her.
Dunno whether it will ever happen again...

5 comments:

  1. I was in Hebden a couple of weeks ago and spotted a young lady strongly resembling your wonderful partner.....driving a red car?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Old Runningfox from what I can see from your stride in the pic , you deserved indeed a fast mile recorded near enough to your record 4.05 , your Tom Tom is out of order! Sadly you are not the only runner having bad encounters with hostile dogs and obnoxious dog owners , to be honest with you every single runner has problems with nasty dogs , myself too ,and strangely enough I had it with two black labrador ,always on the same footpath and field , every time was a carry on , with noisy barking and attacking me, and I had enough of it and I told the owner a young attractive woman that I would report her to the police , she just laughed it off . Now if I have to do that footpath again , I bring with me a robust walker stick and it made a difference , now the dogs are not so confident with me anymore , and I told the girl to put the leads on the dogs because if they attack me again I will not be shy to use the walker stick to defend myself . The post this week is superb , well done . Antonio .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there Antonio, it's getting very close to 'Burnsall' now, hope you're fit! As you'll see from my latest post, after several attacks I decided to 'Bite Back' and gave the offending dog a few squirts of something it didn't like. I haven't seen it since! Cheers!

      Delete