I haven't had any new eye candy to blog for about two weeks, but I've been somewhere new to me, away from home working in Berkshire for the last few days. I've been out for a couple of easy going early morning short mixed terrain runs on the Berkshire Circular Routes with a handful of colleagues before breakfast. I have a little more free time this morning, and I'm out alone with the camera for a longer run to find some Roman remains near Mortimer.
The
wonderful company I'm fortunate to work for has been having a big get-together at
Wokefield Park, which sports a fine mansion house and golf course. Just a couple of hundred metres away and I'm onto the public footpath along the edge of a ploughed field. There must have been quite a bit of rain overnight, the ground here feels a lot softer this morning. The early morning sky is beautiful today.
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| Mansion House |
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| Golf Course |
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| Footpaths around the edges of the fields |
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| Beautiful early morning sky scenes |
This is gentle undulating terrain and I take a turn to the left and a short descent toward a stream. The ground is getting wetter, very muddy here. The network of footpaths here do not make for fast running today, as well as lots of mud, there are frequent stops to navigate gates, stiles and bridges, and of course for the camera. I soon reach a short section of road and though the little village of Mortimer find the next path running to the south-west. More mud, and a curious horse! Lovely lambs, and more mud.
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| Mud! |
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| Small bridges over the streams ... |
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| ... the paths across the fields always lead to gates and stiles. |
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| Side street in Mortimer |
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| Mud! |
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| Curious Horse |
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| Lovely lambs |
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| Glorious mud! |
It seems to take a while (and I've had to stop once and ask for help with directions) before I reach the remains of the Roman town
Calleva Atrebatum. In fact all I can find is a section of the town wall, perhaps I too a wrong turn .... I run around the wall and back onto road for a couple of hundred metres passing a quaint church, to the remains of the Roman amphitheatre.
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| Calleva Atrebatum? |
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| Town walls |
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| Quaint church |
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| Amphitheatre |
There's a good thatched roof visible from the amphitheatre, through the trees. Time to head back to base now and breakfast. I'll continue on the Berkshire Circular routes to loop around back to the paths I was using about an hour ago, and the lovely little lambs. Time for a boat load more schloop schloop through the mud ... oh and some cows this time, for reasons unknown to me these ones followed me along the other side of the fence. The mud continues relentlessly but a gorgeous view of Mortimer Hall and some daffodils before I rejoin and reverse the first couple of miles.
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| Thatched roof, viewed from amphitheatre |
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| More mud! |
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| Cows and calves |
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| Even more mud! |
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| Mortimer Hall, and daffodils |
It's been a real pleasure to run here these last three days despite the relentless muddiness today. I should sometime next week get hold of photos taken by one of my brilliant work colleagues (also happens to be a strong young, runner from Romania), which includes most of our little morning running group in action - perhaps I'll update with some bonus eye candy when I have some spare time. Today I did a happy (but hungover, party last night) 17.4km in poor conditions underfoot on undulating terrain with a total climb of about 210m. I've been out for 2:16:10, which is slow, but I'm happy with the effort under the conditions. Time for breakfast, then head for Heathrow, and back home. I've got one night at home, I'll be away again to Pune in India tomorrow ...
Enjoy!
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