Chasing Trails by George Mahood

Author:George Mahood [Mahood, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2021-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

‘Are you sure this is the right way?’ I asked Mark, half a mile further on.

‘No, but this is where the sign pointed,’ he said.

‘But it’s a river.’

‘Maybe it used to be a footpath at some point.’

A torrent of water gushed down the narrow bridleway we were supposed to run up. To begin with, we tried to run on the grass to one side, but the grass was sporadic and the patches that we could find were marsh-like anyway. The only option was to run through the water.

I had forgotten what colour my trainers were, and it was a welcome sight to see the bright green return as the flowing water washed away the mud that had caked them for the past four hours (I know it was four hours because I counted the extended fingers on my right hand). We had also been joined on this section by the 10k runners, who had started several hours after us. There was a lively atmosphere as runners of all shapes, sizes, ages and abilities navigated their way upstream.

I initially felt strangely sorry for some of the 10k and half-marathon runners. Many of them would have been taking part in their first ever running event. They had signed up for a nice, scenic, coastal 10k in a beautiful part of the country. For those just getting into running, it would have sounded like a fine prospect. I could certainly see the appeal. But because of the brutal conditions, they had not quite got what they imagined. I wanted to stop and hug a couple of them and tell them, ‘running events aren’t usually like this. There’s never usually this much rain, this much wind, or this much mud. Most races are on road and you don’t have to worry about staying upright, and most of them are not nearly as hilly as this. Please don’t be put off running events for life.’

But just as I was feeling sorry for them, I looked around and noticed that almost all the runners seemed to be having a brilliant time. There were constant squeals of glee and the sound of laughter. I mean, what was not to love? It brought out childlike qualities in all of us. Running on tarmac is so dull when you can run through a torrent of muddy water instead. So I then went to the other extreme and felt like I should be commiserating with these first-timers and telling them to enjoy this as much as possible, because this would probably be the most fun they would ever have while running. It was certainly the most fun I had ever had while running.

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