Sunny days and dark clouds

Back to business with a 30-mile run across Dartmoor in the sun

I broke out of my running stupor (rest period) in spectacular style on Saturday, with a 30-mile (50km) run across Dartmoor. It’s not that I suddenly got an irresistible surge of running energy, but rather that this was one of my The Way of the Runner events that had long been in the diary. I knew, when I scheduled it, that it would be four weeks after my six-day race, but that was plenty of time, right?

Well, in the end it was just enough time. Despite my legs still feeling a little ginger, for the first time since France they did have a little of the old bounce back, and I found myself at times leading the charge up a few of the steep-sided tors along the way. In fact, with all the stops to re-group, and eat, and chat, it was the perfect run at the perfect time. And as you’ll see from the pictures, we got pretty much perfect weather.

Colin, our guide, joked, as I often do on days like this, that it’s not the real Dartmoor experience if it’s sunny, since 90% of the year the moor is freezing and wet and covered in cloud. But you know what, warm sun - but not too hot - was just what the doctor ordered this weekend.

Along the way I mulled over with a few of the guests some loose thoughts about my next book project, since I’m no longer racing the Self-Transcendence 3100 in September. The ideas are still only slowly forming, but it may involve a long run, some pilgrim routes, and philosophical wonderings about the meaning of running, and what we consider holy in this secular age. More to come on all that …