Day 51

Week 8 Tuesday 4th of September

 

Today's was the day that we, as in Potters Trotters, moved to new premises.  I had heard a lot of comments from members about the car park but I was still confident that it wouldn't be a problem.  Then I arrived at the club and just about managed to get in the last space available and wondered how the others were going to go on.  I was told that apparently there are more spaces available at the back, but I didn't find out how to get there.  It turned out that there was a function on which is why the car park was full and we wouldn't have any problems in future.

 

My run was supposed to be for 5 miles and although I had mapped a gentle route ready, I still didn't manage to persuade anyone to run with me and I took it very personally, thinking I will have to go home since nobody wanted to run with me.

 

Luckily, just as I was walking back to the car Liz came to my rescue and offered to run 4 miles with me on the canal.  It wasn't ideal but it was better than going home, so I jumped at the chance.  I always like talking to Liz anyway and it was an honour to run with her, especially since I don't get to see much of her.

 

We had agreed that we would run along the canal towards Milton and Baddeley Green until we get to the bridge for Leek New Road and then we would get on the road and run back.  When I was mapping the routes, I did a canal route to Leek New Road but because MMR doesn't recognise the canal path as a road, I had to do it manually, point for point.  Doing it this way made it to be 1.36 miles to Leek New Road. 

 

However, when Liz and I were running, we went under, what I thought was Millrise Road, and then the canal just seemed to go on and on and I was beginning to think something was wrong, that we had missed the bridge or something but Liz assured me that we hadn't as she had run along here many times before.

 

Eventually, we got off on to a gravelled track, after Endomondo had told us that we had done 3 miles.  Now, I know that of course Endomondo cannot be trusted but could she really double the distance? Well, it soon came to light that, the bridge that I thought was Millrise Road, was in fact, Leek New Road and we had done a massive loop on the other side of the road and now got back to it further up at Stockton Brook.  I hadn't expected that!

 

We ran back along the road, but instead of 4 miles it now turned out to be 5 miles anyway.  I felt dead guilty for making Liz run further than she wanted but she said she was OK with it, probably fitter than she thought.