Danger Zone.

As I said the rain wasn't going to stop me venturing out for today's long run and with Rob Addyman for company we took on my idea of running the Osmotherly Phoneix Fell Race route which is approximately 18 miles. The first 4 miles in the rain was no problem as you would expect but once we started to climb upto the summit of Carlton Bank things changed severely. On looking out of your window from home you wouldn't of thought it could be that bad. But gail force winds drove the freezing cold rain hard into us, having to run most of the way through streams that had been caused due to the amount of rain fall, the wind was that strong we were having to run at a leaning angle to counter act the side wind. Onwards we went until it was time to switch direction which I convinced myself would make things better but in fact it was worse as we battled head on into the wind. Climbing towards the summit of Cock Howe I was absolutely freezing and after talking to Rob I started to question my own toughness as he seemed to be almost enjoying it. My main focus was getting off the top of the moor as fast as possible as my hands,body and face were absolutely freezing. The miles seemed never ending and finally we reached the road section which was slightly sheltered by the walls and hedge rows. Thank God for that was my first thought as we took the slightly shorter option of sticking to the road back to Square corner. With a good tail wind and being slightly sheltered everything now seemed a whole lot rosier and smiles once again came back to our faces. The final off road section back to Osmotherley was a breeze compared to what we had just endured as we finished in 2 hours 26 minutes. Seventeen point two miles so we only missed just under a mile but considering the weather I was more than happy with that. Seeing as Rob mainly does Triathlons he definitely impressed me today with his running. He will be tackling a few of the winter fell races it's just a shame he won't be wearing the Yellow and Blue vest of the Harriers.
All I need to do now is thaw out and watch the New York Marathon in comfort.