An accidental 20 mile run: kissing gates and neigh neighs

So, after a week of zero running, I felt terrible.  There was no reason for no running, other than feeling tired all the time, which probably could have been fixed by going for a run.   It was a pretty busy week, and so, no runs happened, and then at the weekend I was exhausted.  I decided that rather than do a 10 mile section of the essex way, I would instead get up early on the bank holiday Monday to do stages 8, 9 and 10.  By my calculations, approximately 18 miles.  Although, now I look at the distances, perhaps it was 19.1.

The fiance dropped me off in Dedham where there was all hustle and bustle for the bank holiday, an antiques show.  I walked the first section, whilst I was waiting for the garmin to find satellites, which took forever!

I started the run and within 100 metres, a kissing gate.  Turns out, these were a feature of this section.  That and horses.  I had read in someone else's blog t'other day about a disease that some of the horses in this area had, and so I was a bit concerned about getting near them.  This meant that the run became a bit of a run, walk slow past horses, stop to open kissing gate and walk thru, scan the new field for livestock, continue running.  It was a rather frustrating run because of all the stop start, and despite the beauty of the countryside, I was happy when I got to Bradfield, as it seemed the instructions showed fewer kissing gates - I was closer to the coast now, so the land was flatter and therefore the farming tended to be arable, so no need for these gates - its not like the corn or the manglewurzls would escape.  Though, that would make a pretty good cartoon I suppose.   Once I eventually got out of the fields, there was a little run down to the river Stour, and on to Mistley Towers.  They were slightly underwhelming, as I was expecting some giant gothic structure, however on reading the information sheet, it was quite interesting- they were towers of a church that has ceased to exist, but the towers remain.  Just before the towers, I caught the attention of a chap, who wanted to tell me if I was running the essex way, I was going the wrong way.  Now, as a geographer, I'm pretty good at following written instructions, especially when they give clear instructions about the contours.  I convinced him I was going the right way, and we had a bit of a chat.  He said he had started the Colchester Harriers, and that now, he runs Ultras.  He had apparently completed the length of the Essex Way in 12 hours! Wow, that made me feel pretty bad.  By the time I got to the end of this 8 mile section, 2 hours had passed!

In Bradfield, I sat on a bench to have a gel, and I spent a rather long time trying to find which way to go at the start.  The instructions say to start at the community centre and then say to run along the path 150m with the church on your left.  Problem is, not knowing the village, I had no idea where the church was, and it wasn't in view from the start point, so this was a bit of a waste of time.  Eventually I got going again though.

This section was Bradfield to Ramsey.  After running along a busy road for a while, this was all about horses.  There were so many horses around, and horsey people moving their horses from one paddock to another.  I slowed down to a walk so I didn't startle them.  Eventually, started running through an RSPB protection area/woods, and then out across more fields.  It had been quite a long uphill slog, so I stopped to walk a while, to get my breath back.  Needed to stretch my quads as well as my knees were grumbling.  I heard a runner coming up behind me, and he asked, are you doing the essex way!  I explained that I'm just doing it for fun today, but not doing the race, and that I had started in Dedham.  He would be doing this section of the relay next week, which is only a 5.4 mile section, so seemed quite impressed, though I had to give him a kick up the butt to start running again - I was resting with another 6(i thought, but actually 8) miles to go.  He only had 1.  By the time I passed through another horsey field, and a windmill, I met him on his way back.  I suppose he was doing an out and back.

So Ramsey, and the Castle Pub was looking very enticing, and it was rather sunny.  I could so have had a pint, but was really concerned about the time I was making.  18 miles ought to have taken me 3 hours- perhaps 3:30 with the  more difficult terrain.  I was supposed to be arriving in Harwich for lunctime.  I looked at my phone, and had a message from my driver about how long I was taking! charming!  I figured I had about an hour left, now, so told him.

The last leg was quite a nice run.  through flat fields, although, unfortunately, some had not cleared the footpath properly, and there was one where I had to go around the edge rather than diagonally across, only to run up a bank onto the seawall and run back on myself.  However, now I was on the seawall, I knew I was on the home straight, or so I thought.  It was quite windy up on the sea wall, but the ground was solid, and I could actually get into a stride now.  There were several sheep eating grass up on the seawall, and I gave several quite a scare as I got close to them.  The last one I passed, however, had nerves of steel, and didn't budge as I ran past.

Eventually the grass turned to tarmac, and then a carpark next to beach-huts.  Yay! I must be in Harwich.  I was at 17.6 miles, so not long to go, however, I still had half a page of instructions.  The instructions should have just said run along the seafront for 2 miles, because that's basically what I did.  About a mile along the seafront, I was enjoying the sound of the sea, and the waves, and the view of a little bit of beach - the tide was very high, and I saw a chap come out of the sea in a wetsuit- he looked at me as if he had such recognition, I thought he must know me, possibly from Parkrun.  Anyhoo, he knew I was running the essex way, and encouraged me that there wasn't too far to go now.  I wished him luck for the race next week.

I went around the headland, and now, I could see the huge huge port.  Giant cranes and piles and piles of containers.  It must be a very important port for goods from Europe.  Eventually you pass a lighthouse, which has become a maritime museum, and then an old crane to the left.  This is where you turn away from the sea and run inland for only about 100 metres.  Here, my fiance ran alongside me and raced me to the finish, but I was only at 19.84 miles, so I continued running.  I ran a few circles around another lighthouse, and then into the town a bit, then back again, then bleep, 20 miles... Done!  Phew!  Time for fish and chips... however, didn't feel much like fish, so got battered sausage and chips.  I enjoyed the chips, they were really good, but 1 bite of the sausage, and it was dripping with grease, and I'm not sure there was any meat in the sausage, so left that.

All in all, really glad to have completed 20 miles, but not so happy with how long it took.  I know this was down to terrain, gates, and not really knowing where I was going, so Essex Way, its been fun, but you're not the only way, so I'm gonna take a break for a few weeks...