A baby trail run!

Well, inspired by the book, (Some days, just thinking...) and spurred on by the chance to record my experience here, I headed back to the little nature reserve today and ran around it instead of walking. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was pretty quiet apart from dog walkers. I ran on the path, on the short grass and through the woods on ill-defined trails on packed earth.

It was a joy! Admittedly it was short and blissfully flat, but it seemed much more interesting than running on pavements between houses dodging cars.It was fun not knowing where any particular stretch would lead or where I would go next - which path to choose?

This distracted me from the feelings of how out of breath I was and helped me run a little bit harder than usual, I think. I was reminded though of Wainwright's advice, as valid for walkers as for runners, to watch where you put your feet - it's best not to take the surface for granted as I might on a pavement.

Still, there was plenty of opportunity to take in the surroundings too. After my brief run, I picked up the camera from the car and did a cool down lap taking photos. For the first time ever I spotted tree creepers (yes, they were creeping about in the trees, not too hard to identify!). Meanwhile a buzzard floated lazily overhead, too high to photograph but still clearly visible. May blossom is out and gorgeous too.

Thanks Boff (see yesterday's post), I'm not sure yet about hills but running wild today certainly made exercise more enjoyable.