moody britain, happiness, and the unexpected horror

moody britain

after a lovely warm week the weather up top yesterday reverted back to what i refer to as a 'lake district day' .. low cloud, poor visibility, rain, heavy at times. it was like this for most of our outing..a 6.5hr trip using the gritstone trail from rushton over to teggs nose, round the top of macc forest and back (a great and at times strenuous route).


(moles were having a field day too..pun intended)

not sure if its something odd about me but i actually enjoy the atmosphere and moodiness of days like these. they make the routes seem even more desolate and remote somehow.

happiness

i felt good most of the way round but at one point started to feel physically and emotionally low..why was i putting myself through this i would say. cue what britnick calls 'the elixir of the long distance runner'



a bottle of this and then !!!!!!!!!!!! twenty minutes later the low dissapeared and i felt sheer happiness mentally and physically (im a sucker for subliminal advertising messages)

the boy wonder had a happy run too, fuelled by flapjack, half of my pasty and crumble slice. he had no problems whatsoever, full of fire and probably covering twice my distance at twice my pace (not hard to achieve)


(look, not a bead of sweat on him afterwards)

the unexpected horror

before setting out i lubed up my feet as usual (they came back in on piece despite being wet from nearly the outset) and a little 'elsewhere'. without giving too much detail i started to feel a little uncomfortable in places about half way round but it wasn't until i got home and undressed that i discoverd the full extent of the damage from my underpants and my backpack :-0
i'll spare you the photographic eveidence. as you can imagine it wasn't pretty. and it stung , and still does like buggery (though im merely borrowing that phrase not having had first hand experience of what that might actually feel like).
if i had to run today it would be sore but i definitely couldn't use a backpack.
i think im going to need pots and pots of vaseline if im going to get across britain with a pack on my back..a bumbag wont be big enough for each unsupported leg.

maybe i could get charlie to carry my stuff...now there's a thought