The Hospital Run

I'm glad I enquired if anyone was planning to do the Hospital Run last night and had the positive response from Ed. The reason being, Ian told me this was a very popular outing and there would definitely be some slower runners. To my horror on arrival at the Leisure Centre I could see no-one that I would call even a moderate runner. Thankfully, Ed arrived and the two of us set off in advance of the rest. Barry Altman did arrive but only after Ed and I left.

I have to admit to being surprised when we left the Leisure Centre and Ed turned left, instead of right towards Victoria Rd, at which point he informed me that we had to run to the Crown Hotel before turning towards Bolton along Chorley New Rd. Although Ed wasn't for having it, I persuaded him that it would be an act of altruism for the two of us to take the Winter Hey Lane route, thus cutting off a bit, and saving our (much) faster colleagues the discomfort of a long wait at the site of the old Hospital. He finally saw the sense in this strategy and this is what we did. FSS, when told, thought this was OK because the Run 'proper' only commences at the old Hospital site, the former is just a gentle warm up! Yeh right! He did comment that he was surprised at how long it took to catch up with us!

Anyway, Ed tipped me the wink that he would be making a stop off on the way back to Horwich - not for a bevvy but for more personal comfort reasons! This being the case, he suggested I press on. I think there were only three other ladies out - all 'proper runners'. Gaynor set off earlier than all the rest, as her cycling partner was accompanying her, Suzanne was clearly ahead of the game, this left Geraldine who was really suffering with a longstanding injury of the piriformis. Despite my pleas for her to run on (and leave me in peace) she insisted on keeping me (very good) company until half way up the road from the roundabout on the ring road, to Bob's Smithy when I finally managed to convince her to 'attack' the rest of the climb. I did re-join Geraldine on the descent to the Leisure centre and we jogged in together at the end.

Ed cruised in with Barry Altman, singing the praises of Wm Morrisons splended hygiene facilities and commented that he was tempted to extend his visit longer than necessary due to the excess of comfort to be had. Apparently he and Barry put the world of bowels to right on the run in - Barry having faired much worse in resorting to a field between Bob's Smithy and the Blundell Arms. I hope this is not TOO MUCH INFORMATIO for you all at this festive time.

As I failed to switch on my GPS until well into the run, I promised to check the mileage on gmap which I have just done and Ed it is 9.93 miles - thank goodness we missed the Crown!

Below is the link for gmap pedometer if you click on, or type into your search engine, you can then map your run using the street maps and get a precise mileage. Just type in Horwich or Bolton or wherever to get the map on screen.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

See you all tomorrow at Black Dog - 8.30.

NLN

PS Calderdale Relay results are on Halifax Harrers website - It appears that Horwich Mixed (formerly ladies) were 80th overall 5th out of 18 mixed teams