Two sideways karting sessions in the rain and a Fast and the Furious marathon last Saturday meant that I felt I should at least do something on my way home the following morning.

The easy option was to stop at Peckforton and do a couple of laps, although my assumption that its inclusion as part of the Sandstone Trail meant it would be well-drained proved to be an error. The first lap was muddy and miserable, but delving back through half a lifetime of memories to school holidays spent roaming the hillside, I remembered a higher, drier alternative route for subsequent laps. Hooray! The only problem was that it involved 100 vertical metres straight up the old railway, which has three gradients: steep; steeper; ludicrous.

Nevertheless, I really rather enjoyed it and managed three laps / reps before my screaming legs gave in. So far I can run the bottom section, take the middle section at a fast walk, and crawl the top third with rests (it really is stupid steep). Combined with the technical trail running to descend to the foot of the railway again, it’s a useful little training run.