Bad, bad, bad, bad and bad!

  • Monday, September 01, 2014
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Time for a bit of a morality tale. It's a written finger wag under my own nose whilst looking over the top of my glasses at myself. There has been a little niggling thought, sort of worm like at the back of my mind since my epic trail run in West Sussex. Or perhaps it's more like those cartoons you see where a good angel sits on one shoulder and a devil the other and both whisper in your ear to gain influence. It's the good angel who has been admonishing me, saying that I broke some of the golden rules of trail running. Did I leave litter, chase wildlife, run with music or neglect to bury my poo? No, none of the above. What I did was go out for a run without informing anyone I was going or where I was going. I didn't say approximately how long I thought I might be and I went alone. I did this in a boggy area I was unfamiliar with. Bad, bad, bad, bad and bad! I love to take the trail less travelled when off road running so if I see a path that is unused I go down it to see how it resolves. So I went careening down a trail that was no more than an indent in the grass and almost inevitably I lost it. Anyone who has experience of rural running will know how easy it is to wander just a few metres off the trail and become lost and disorientated. It doesn't take much. That was me, off track and standing ankle deep in a green and slimy tidal bog down a spur that showed no sign of recent human activity. Ultimately it was OK, I used my common sense to work my way upwards to firmer ground and beyond that the path. I wasn't totally stupid, I had my mobile phone and I don't believe I was in major danger but it occurred to me that if I had broken a leg, suffered a head injury or become trapped it could have stopped being fun. I don't want to over sell this it was remote but I was not in some outback wilderness, it's just good to occasionally remind ourselves to run safely. The excitement of going out for a running exploration is no excuse for unprofessional non thinking.