At one stage there were about 10 of us, but come today and the inaugural run of Club NDW (North Downs Way) there were...3! OK not the greatest of starts but a brilliant run never the less.
The club has been informally formed by a bunch of us local Twitter friends who can all access some of the most stunning scenery and trails in the South. The North Downs Way runs through Surrey all the way to the Kent coast a whopping 156 miles long. Today we were on a stretch between Newlands Corner near Guildford and Ranmore Common near Dorking, covering 15.6 miles and a challenging ascent of 2474 ft in total.
So the 3 amigos, @bsmithy100 (Brian) @jedirider (Tim) and myself @runningokinuk set off in the brilliant summers sun rain. The recent down pours made for a lot of slipping and sliding along the muddy trails and at times when running on an incline streams of water cascaded down the sides of the trails. It was all worth it though because eventually you come to some quite spectacular and beautiful views over looking the Surrey hills that even the rain and grey skies could not spoil.
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| Drink and gel break and a chance to enjoy the stunning views |
The mud made for some energy and leg sapping miles but the deep puddles and sliding around added to what was a brilliant run with plenty of chatting and laughter along the way.
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| Mud and Water the theme of the day! |
It may all sound a little daunting with the terrain and ascent covered but this was a very relaxed and easy paced run. Hopefully the next time Club NDW meets up we will have a few more on board and the original gang of Tweeters who were going to be here today will be there next time, plus anyone else reading this who fancies it.
This is going to be a very informal get together when it fits in with everyone, and it matters none about ability, whether you're an ultra runner or a 5K runner who fancies running some trails. The distance and route today was what it was because its what the 3 of us were planning today, but the miles can be reduced to whatever, people can run on if they want, stop and wait and enjoy the views, it really doesn't matter. The whole reason for this is a relaxed run with like minded runners to enjoy some great trail running once in a while.
So if you want to come along next time find any of us on Twitter or the hash-tag #clubndw and enjoy some of the best trail runs the South has to offer.
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| At one stage the sun actually did shine!!! |
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| Muddy!! |
A couple of short movies from today's run
Looks like lots of fun! I'm definitely up for joining you one day! Are girls allowed? :-)
ReplyDeleteIts for everyone :-) There was meant to be a few girls this time but dwindled down to the 3 of us boys. The more the merrier, getting interest from other runners on Twitter so hopefully next run we'll have some new members.
DeleteWell done chaps, looks like you had fun! Really sorry we couldn't come, but hopefully next time we'll be there!
ReplyDelete...maybe towards end of August, We were thinking of going from Denbies next time :-)
ReplyDeletenice one! I'll hope to be along to one soon :)
ReplyDelete