hills... hills... hills... and then a mountain!

Misty, cold and frosty... pathetic fallacy? possibly! Meeting up with Pete, Paula and Lee, we went for a 10 mile 11 mile run which took us through the sights of Chadderton, Tandle Hills, Springhill, Crompton and Shaw, then back through to Chadderton again. Pete had kindly worked out a route for us that 'kindly' included 4 hills. This information, we knew before setting off. What he didn't reveal that one of these hills was actually a mountain in disguise!

The first hill was more than achievable and I managed to keep up with everyone on this. It's a friend of running club and therefore one I know I can acomplish without any problems. So with Chadderton Park Road done, we ran on to meet the second hill.

Still doing well, I didn't fall too far behind the others on our second climb; anyone who knows the area will be au fait with it as Haggate. A tough little hill... but you notice I am calling it little... gives you an idea of what was to come!

The third hill appeared in front of us after about 3 miles. The mist obscured it's full evilness (real word!) for a bit, but soon it loomed before us in its full glory. "When we get to the end of the run" said Pete, as we reached the foot of the hill, "I'll ask you if you think the hills got progressively harder!". Hmmmm... I've run with Pete long enough to know that the answer to this was going to be a resounding "YES!". So, bracing myself I followed the others up Tandle Hill. And yes, I was following by this point; equal effort, steady pace, looking slightly down and gritting my teeth, I accomplished the third hill.

The following couple of miles were now all down hill. However, as you can imagine this enjoyment was tainted by the thought of the fourth, and thankfully final hill! In my mind, all I could think of was that the further we ran down, the further we would have to run up.

And so we did!

At  just over 5 miles, we reached the fourth, and final hill. This hill was not a hill at all. It was a mountain. Or, at least, that's what it felt like! At 1.2 miles long, it kept going, and going, and going. Then, when you thought you'd reached the top, it carried on going! In fact it tricked me at least twice! The hill was so long, I was getting altitude sickness! In all honesty, it's a good job I was with other people (and falling rapidly behind them) as if I had been on my own, I would have definitely walked some of it! Of course, turns out I didn't need to and there was certainly a rush of euphoria that passed through me as I finally saw the other three runners stationery at the summit! Broad Lane, from Springhill to Crompton... Done!

Of course, after such an enormous hill, the only way was down, from that point on; and as our run turned from 10 miles to 11, I felt surprisingly good. So good as to do the run again? What's the saying... you fool me once...!

So, all in all, this was a very good training run for the Stockport 10 next week. Fingers crossed there will be less ice and slush around by that point... but whatever, at least I'll be prepared for those hills!

Distance: 11.1 miles
Feeling: really great!
Weather: slushy, icy and misty

Oooh... how clever... this is a picture of our hills... see, hard!!!