That’s cold, I’ll wear my grey fleece, north wind, hate it, wind’ll be behind me down the footpath, go to Les Mielles then over the dunes.
Here we go, legs feeling stiff must be the cold, hardly moving, so annoying, damn gone 200 meters and leg not right, have to stop and adjust it, not a good start. Been worse though, don’t let it worry you John, it’s just the start, plenty of time to go. That is really cold now, wind stronger and I’m sitting down,do this properly, get the ‘O’ ring in place, don’t want to have to stop again, right here we go, doesn’t feel too bad, give it a couple of hundred meters, see how it feels after that.
Moving faster now, warming up, can’t feel the wind, I ‘ll keep going and turn up the track opposite Secrets or maybe Kempt Tower. OK turn here and head straight for the escarpment and up the valley to Ville au Bas, it’s going to be sheltered there, nice and warm I’ll bet.
Haven’t seen a soul since the last car on the Five mile road, I like it like this, left here and up the footpath, hard work already but I’ll get into a rhythm, hard work now maybe should take the fleece off, no it’ll be cold when I get to the top, keep it on.
Really muddy, rocks lots of water, there the next step, hard enough this climb without all the water, keep going, easy to walk, go to the top, not stopping.
This is easier than I thought, like it like this, there’s the gate, couldn’t run through now I’m walking, never mind you did well John. At Ville au Bas now and it’s cold again, wind much stronger up here, glad I kept the fleece on, now down the track to Les Vaux Cuissin, I like this valley it’ll be out of the wind again and there’s a little wood and a wooden bridge over the stream, like to run through there alone.
In the trees now and wind gone again, really warm now, up the narrow path then back down to the footbridge, stream’s running well, stop and have a look.
Two ducks flying low over the trees, heading down the valley, there’s a Marsh Harrier, long way up, circling, probably looking at the ducks, no chance, they’ve gone already. OK let’s go, this is always tough, probably won’t run all the way, don’t think that dummy, right focus, breathing rhythm again, really steep, steps then slope then steps around a corner, impossible to breath properly irregular steps, keep going, damn that last set of steps, first one too high, missed my footing, lost speed, walk for a bit, recover. I can see the whole southern end of the bay, beautiful, sun’s getting low but I’ll be at Grantez for sunset, pretty sure of that.
I flew up the last set of steps, this is easy now, like this lane, Grantez not far now, pick up the pace, breathing well, moving fast, this feels good. Go over the wall and past the Dolmen, plenty of time and have a last look down at the bay. Loads of sheep over there, that’s good, sheep and Grantez, Grantez and sheep, like that too. There’s the dolmen, memories there, don’t think about that John, no keep going, yes I can see all the way to Corbiere now, loooks fine, love Grantez.
Down through the pines, not even they can last here, look when they get too tall they just give up and lie down, then they keep green and alive somehow, the ones that stay standing are brown and dead, it’s a tough place this and now that Northerly is blasting up the slope, cutting through my fleece, I’ll stop at the bottom of the slope, have a look at l’Etacq, the sun disappeared behind some cloud now, so no sunset really, never mind, too cold to stop anyway.
I’ll go down the sheep track to Rue Papillon, I like running though this sand, downhill make the most of it, wonder if the little dog will be there at the house on Rue de la Val de la Mare, no, too cold probably, getting dark quickly now anyway, good timing though, across the road and back on the dunes now, not tired, good run, there’s the car, wind behind again, good way to end the run, enjoyed that :)
