Rylstone Edge

I've decided that when I can't get my head into gear I might as well go outside for some air rather than struggle to try (and probably fail) to do the things at the computer that I should be doing.

I can see these crags from my sitting room window at home, some 12 miles away. I haven't been to this point in all the time I've been blipping. I'd forgotten just how photogenic it is up on the edge here, sitting above Rylstone and Cracoe, with amazing views in just about every direction. 

Today I got the bus to Bolton Abbey and ran from there to the Obelisk, just north of this point, before going on to Burnsall to pick up the return bus home. I cut it a bit fine. The photography delayed me enough to necessitate quite a fast return back down the fell, following the race route. I got back to the village with a couple of minutes to spare, leaving just enough time to grab a drink and get a portrait! It seemed appropriate that I should find another fell runner!

It's occurred to me tonight that it's just possible that I may not have been back to this point since an occasion over twenty years ago. It marked my last ever really long distance training run - before life (and commonsense) took over. That day I got the train into Leeds in the morning and ran along the canal all the way to Skipton, from where I hit the hills and followed a route that brought me here and then carried on to Burnsall, as I did today. No bus that day though. I remember meeting up with the family before running back over the moors all the way home to Ilkley. It was well over 50 miles in total. I was training for the South Downs Way Race, which I never finished because I picked up an injury at that same kind of distance. I never raced an ultra again after that. 

I'll never be able to run those distances again, and will never be able to descend hills at the speeds I once did ... but it still felt great today to have a little running adventure. Now both my head and my legs are wrecked!