Six of us made up the running party today: running couple Suzy and Chris, elite girls Jo and Shelley, relative newcomer Tony and myself. Jamsheed was supposed to join us, but he's been feeling under the weather for the last few days, so decided he'd have a weekend of rest. There was some discussion as to the route we should take. It was blowing an absolute gale when we met at 8.45am. Tony wanted us to stick to residential streets on the grounds that it would be more sheltered from the wind. There was a lot of sense in his suggestion, but the majority wanted to get out of the city and into the countryside. The wind was a strong south-westerly. It would have made sense to head out of the city to the west so that we could have had the wind on our backs on the latter half of the run. Unfortunately, in all the years that we have been running in and around Cambridge, we haven't established any long running routes to the west of the City. Something I intend to rectify over the coming months. The girls were all in favour of sticking to a favourite circular route heading east of the City, even though we knew that whichever direction we did the run would mean running into a headwind towards the end.
So off we went, starting with a 2 mile loop to make our well known 20 mile circuit into a 22 miler. After the initial 2 miles, we headed almost directly due east for the next 5 miles, with the wind blowing us along, making the miles seem to fly by. We then turned to run north east through the villages of Bottisham, Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior. This was a 3 mile stretch with the wind directly behind us. Swaffham Prior is a nice little village that is unusual for it's two churches that stand side-by-side on top of a small hill. I always admire the churches for their odd proximity whenever I pass through the village. Chris and I commented on the fact that we should really look into their origins. So with the power of the Internet I unearthed a bit of history:
Swaffham Prior is famous amongst Cambridgeshire villages for having two churches: ...St Mary the Virgin and SS Cyriac and Julitta.
Why, one might ask, are there two churches here? The reason seems to be that, unusually, there were two manors in the village of Swaffham Prior. The first churches in a settlement were often built by the lord of the manor to provide for their vassals; for the most part, since villages tended to develop under the aegis of just one manor, one would end up with just one church in each settlement. There are exceptions, though.
The two churches served completely separate parishes, despite the fact that the population of Swaffham Prior was never more than a couple of hundred people. The parishes remained distinct until the beginning of the 19th century; but they ceased functioning as separate entities in 1667, when an Act of Parliament united the two vicarages. At that point, the two congregations combined, and adopted St Mary as their place of worship.
I'll have to run with a camera at some point to add some photos of my running routes.
We turned to run in a north-westerly direction just after passing the two churches. From here we got our first taste of the strength of the wind. It was hitting us side on as we headed on a dead straight road through flat Fenland countryside for almost 5 miles. These 5 miles felt tough, and the thought of reaching the River Cam and then having to turn south-westwards directly into the wind was daunting.
The footpath that follows the first 2 mile stretch along the river is on top of a flood defensive bank. So there we were, elevated above the surrounding countryside, with no cover whatsoever, running directly into a 26mph wind. Not surprisingly, our effort level increased and our pace dropped considerably. This was hard work. However, once we'd completed that 2 mile stretch we were onto a decent footpath directly alongside the river, with a belt of hedgerow and trees providing some shielding from the wind. We were still more or less running into the wind, but it certainly felt easier. This stretch of the river is also very familiar territory to us all, as we often run it as a longish mid-week run in the summer. We all felt like we were on very familiar territory and close to home, even though we still had 5 miles to go.
I got a nice surprise just as we reached the outskirts of Cambridge with 3 miles to go. Although Jamsheed wasn't feeling well enough to join us on our run, he'd made arrangements with Jo to meet us and provide us with any drinks that we might need for the last stretch of the run. I felt uplifted to see his smiling face, and was grateful for the squash he'd made, as I was almost out of drink. He also offered us some biscuits, which seemed like a rare treat on a long run. If there was an award for nicest person on the planet, Jamsheed would get my vote. What a top bloke.
With just 3 miles to go we pressed on for home. Every now and again we'd be hit hard by a gust of wind as we headed back towards town. With a mile to go we had another change of direction to head more-or-less due south back to the start point. Jo and I had built up quite a gap between us and the other four runners. I contemplated stopping and waiting for the rest of the gang, but Jo wanted to press on and complete the run. The other four were all together, so I decided to keep Jo company.
By the end of the run my legs felt more tired than they had done after Gloucester marathon two weeks ago. It had taken us a little over 3 hours to run the 22 miles, which is pretty good going considering the wind. Once everyone had finished, we quickly reflected on the run and congratulated each other on a job well done. Everyone is looking in good form and should perform well in our respective marathons that will soon be upon us.
Now that I have had a restful afternoon it's time to start preparing for tonight's night out. I'm due to go night clubbing with my non-running mates. Yes, I know, clubbing at my age! I'm not sure how my legs will cope with dancing into the early hours. We're off to a Guilty Pleasures night at The Junction, where the theme of the evening is Club Tropicana. Time to dig out my summery beach casuals.
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