Day 7, Day 5 of the run, Lanes, Leg Aches and the Lion.

So off and at them again! Every morning was now harder to get started, I hobble ran out of Ellerton lake, taking a good 30 minutes to ease into running properly.

I now felt like I was running like an old man. When running on flat roads I found my pace was now dropping by approximately 1 minute a kilometre per day! I now had lots of small country lanes and footpaths over the Vale of Mowbray, flat which was a benefit for the legs, but made for some dull goingfor the mind. So over half a marathon later I came into Ingleby Arncliffe for an early lunch, not yet halfway.

From there it was a tough climb up through the woods up onto the North Yorkshire Moors, the Coast to Coast route joining the Cleveland Way. My hobble was slow by now. I was also starting to feel some new interesting feelings from my legs, one being feeling my achilles tendon rub on its sheath with every step, nice!

The run along the northern edge of the NorthYorkshire Moors meant a surprising number of climbs, descending to small wooded valleys or the dips between the northern peaks. By this stage my headphones had given up the ghost, so I was left alone with the sounds of my groans as I stumbled down every stony step, going down  was a lot more painful than going up by now.

Looking back at one section, unfortunately the cloud meant no long distance views.

Heading up to the Wainstones.

Looking back at where I'd come from:

I was soon nearing Clay Bank Top for another rendez-vous with Dad, also Dave 1 was going to join me for that day's final push across the moors. Heading down towards Clay Bank:

And coming in for pit stop No2.

Dad had been up the hill to take a few photos, on the way down  he overtook some C2C walkers, however he lost control and fell down the hill head first on his back! Luckily there was no major damage done to the support crew.

Dave 1 then joined me on his mountain bike for the run along to Blakey Rigg. After the climb up to Round Hill it was a good run along the old railway line from Bloworth Crossing, contouring round the different heads above Farndale. With the good mainly cinder surface I settled into a nice rhythm, upping my pace very slightly from slow hobble to medium hobble. Just before Bloworth we came across some more C2C walkers who seemed pretty useless at navigation, so Dave gave them a hand whilst I ran on. The run through to Blakey Rigg seemed to fly by in no time, it was good to have a bit of company. The last few hundred metres were up to the famous Lion Inn where Dad had set up in the car park.

A long day, a total of 57.2km, which is a fair old run! My legs were in less pain at the end than the previous day, perhaps helped by the lower temperature?

Supper was Yorkshire Pudding and gravy for starter, followed by Beef Stroganoff with rice and chips and the odd pint of Theakstons or three whilst it hammered down outside. Sleeping was hard though as the ankle pain intensified overnight.