Maxine's Walk

St Oswalds Way Finished!!

Back in November I finally finished walking the St Oswalds Way, this was a section I had to miss out earlier in the year so that I could join other members of the family on Hadrians Wall. To be honest it was quite a boring section taking me from Warkworth, on the East Coast, inland to Rothbury.

 

The start was nice enough, going through the grounds of Warkworth Castle, up past the cricket pitch and out of the village. But then the route went onto muddy tracks through arable farming country. The first track was reasonably firm underfoot...

 

the next bit was worse...

 

and then it got even worse...

 

To say that my boots and socks were soggy would be an understatement. I was glad to be doing this on my own because if anyone had been with me they might not have seen the funny side!! Actually I'm not sure there was one.

 

I eventually made it to Felton and past this church which looks like it doesn't have a roof, closer inspection showed it to have a low roof fitted that you can't see from the outside.

I then crossed some parkland and passed under the A1.

 

From there it was back to trudging along muddy footpaths until I reached Weldon where I was met by the rest of the family for lunch.

 

After lunch was the final 6 miles into Rothbury for which James joined me. The going underfoot was a little better, grass fields to start with and then the disused railway line into Rothbury.

I suppose that in doing this section in November I would be lucky not to have wet and muddy conditions underfoot, on reflection if I had done this bit of the walk in the summer I might have had more favourable memories.

Overall I have enjoyed completing the St Oswalds Way, it has taken me to new and different areas of my 'home county'. My favourite sections have been - all bits of the coast path and the Simonside hills out of Rothbury.

I can now wear my T-Shirt with pride.

 

 

BUPA Great Winter Run - Edinburgh

Today I ran in the 5K Great Winter Run in Edinburgh.  We woke up to roads covered in black ice and travel news that mentioned difficult driving conditions and that Edinburgh airport was closed until midday because of the freezing conditions. We decided to go by train. We went to Waverley station and then walked about 15 minutes to Holyrood park.

The park was beautiful, covered with fresh snow, but absolutely freeeezing!! Because of this the course had to be changed and what was going to be a circuit of the park - right around Arthur's Seat- became an out and back run along the tarmac road.

First run was the Junior Great Winter Run which James and Ben were both in - James came 15th and Ben 38th, both in really good times.

Then it was my turn, first a warm-up then we were off, first the fast club runners then the rest of us in three waves. I was in the second wave and found myself struggling to go fast enough. Because of the altered course we were running on only half the width of the road and so it was difficult to pass people.  I followed my walk/ run routine taking into account the hills on the course, so I ran for about 5 mins and then walked for 1 min. After the 3K marker the course was downhill and I ran on strongly without walk breaks to the finish.

I finished in 32:15 and was 45th in my age and gender category. I was really pleased with this, it was a good start to the New Year