"Iceworld"

It's now been two weeks since my fall at Woodbank Park and although I have returned to running this week my ribs are still extremely sore. I took it easier through the week as the snow and ice still lay on the roads and pavements but by yesterday the rain has come and most of the snow diasappeared. Time I thought for a long run in the hills. Big Mistake!

After thirty years of running the trails around and above Macclesfield Forest you would think I would have known that up there during winter it is a very different world. Parking up in Langley (I couldn't get to Teggs Nose the usual start of the run as the road was still closed by snow. Clue there somewhere! ) within five minutes I realised that it wasn't going to be my usual run. The paths were a mixture of slush, ice and snow with no continuity at all in underfoot conditions. Still I ploughed on (!) up towards Shutlingsloe but the drifts started to reach five feet up the walls (see photo) and only half way round I decided to bail out and return back to lower ground. This wasn't as easy as I thought as a few times I ended up losing the trail and on one occasion looked back to see I had unwittingly run straight over a patch of ice and snow that usually has the words "Danger Deep water" on a stake next to a water pool!

All in all an hour's run that reminded me of the need to think ahead about where you are running however well you think you know an area. In an hour I saw no other person, walker or runner, and at one stage couldn't actually find the gate from the forest back onto the road because it was covered totally in snow. Remember, safety first!

The next week will be a mixture of steady runs and hopefully a return to the track which has been out of action for a couple of weeks, finally culminating next Saturday in the Northern XC Championships in Blackburn over a really tough course at Witton Park but hopefully without the white stuff!

Annual mileage 54 (week 2)