Day 70

Week 10, Sunday 23^rd September

 

A couple of months ago, Kath and I decided that we wanted to run the Potters’ Arf course before Congleton.  Today the scheduled run was for thirteen miles anyway, so it was perfect opportunity to go for it.

 

We met at Northwood and jogged to Hanley for the starting point; this was supposed to be our warm-up so we didn’t bother with any stretches or anything else.  The weather was cool but dry so conditions weren’t too bad and Kath remembered it was a vast difference to the last time she run it.  We won't be needing hose pipes today.

 

The run was fairly straight forward through Hanley, down Lichfield Street, Vicky Rd, City Rd, Longton and up Anchor Road to the church and then I had to stop for a walk.  We weren’t too bothered as we had done such a hilly run last week that we reckoned we didn’t need today.  This might have been a mistake because from there onwards it seemed like every hill was a problem. We just about managed Beverly Drive and Malthouse Road but Leek New Road proved to be too much again. 

 

I didn’t think that Milton Road was going to be a problem, as we had already planned from the start, not to bother run it since we did it on Thursday but OMG was I wrong.  I could barely, and I mean just about, walk it.  It seemed impossible to lift my feet up high enough to move forwards and I really don’t know how i got up there at all.   It must have been sheer desperation since I had no other alternative; I had no money for a bus or taxi and if I walked around the other way; I would still face other hills anyway.

 

Eventually we got back to the car in Northwood.  We stopped Endomondo at 12.77M but that didn’t include the jog down to Hanley, so we knew we had done enough.  Instead of a cool-down we decided to walk to Hanley anyway and have a baguette for lunch. 

 

I decided that I was never going to do this route again, which solved a problem for me since I had wanted to do the Mersey Tunnel run anyway but couldn’t make up which to do as it clashes with Potters’ Arf.  There is no comparison now anyway.